Showing posts with label Prem Keswani. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Prem Keswani. Show all posts
Friday, August 10, 2012
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Friday, September 23, 2011
A great farming success story in Rajasthan, India
By referring to this research NGO,
thousands of lives can be saved in Maharashtra, Andra Pradesh, Punjab.
http://www.morarkango.com/
The story almost looks unbelievable, but this NGO
is making everyone so independent.
Have a look at this amazing success story...a brand called "Down to Earth"
thousands of lives can be saved in Maharashtra, Andra Pradesh, Punjab.
http://www.morarkango.com/
The story almost looks unbelievable, but this NGO
is making everyone so independent.
Have a look at this amazing success story...a brand called "Down to Earth"
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Hamara Bachpan - Came across a lovely article
Came across a lovely article for those of Us Born between 1930 - 1979 in India.
First, we survived being born to mothers who worked and worked while they were pregnant.
They took aspirin, ate Ghee, and didn't get tested and tested 100 times in 9 months.
Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in cradles covered with brightly colored lead-based paints.
We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, locks on doors or cabinets and when we rode our bicycles, we had
no helmets on our heads.
As infants & children, we would rarely ride in cars and if we did we had no seat belts, no air bags.
Only bald tires and sometimes no brakes.
Riding in a double-decker bus on the top floor was always a special treat.
We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle ( Forget Mineral water ).
We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and no one actually died from this.
We ate cake made with Fat, real butter. We sipped on gola and pepsi ice candy.
And, we weren't overweight. WHY?
Because we were always outside playing....that's why!
We would leave home in the morning and play all day & we were back only when the streetlights came on..
No one was able to reach us all day. And, we were OKAY.
We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scrap and then ride them down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After crashing into the bushes a few times, we learnt to solve the problems.
We did not have Play stations, Nintendo's and X-boxes.
There were no video games, no 150 channels on cable,
no video movies or DVD's, no surround-sound or CD's,
no cell phones, no personal computers,
no Internet and no chat rooms.
WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and
found them! Never required a networking site.
We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth
We would get spankings with belts, canes, or just a
bare hand and no one would call child services to
report abuse.
We ate imli, karbanda, kala namak made from dirt, and
the worms did not live in us forever.
We were given Bata shoes and 1 full pant for our 10th birthdays,
We made games with sticks, scrap and pebbles .
We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them.
Imagine that!!
These generations have produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever.
The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.
We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all.
If YOU are one of them, CONGRATULATIONS!
While you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave and lucky their parents were.
And dont forget to tell them that we had a subject called letter writing, they might grow up without writing a single letter in their life.
First, we survived being born to mothers who worked and worked while they were pregnant.
They took aspirin, ate Ghee, and didn't get tested and tested 100 times in 9 months.
Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in cradles covered with brightly colored lead-based paints.
We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, locks on doors or cabinets and when we rode our bicycles, we had
no helmets on our heads.
As infants & children, we would rarely ride in cars and if we did we had no seat belts, no air bags.
Only bald tires and sometimes no brakes.
Riding in a double-decker bus on the top floor was always a special treat.
We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle ( Forget Mineral water ).
We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and no one actually died from this.
We ate cake made with Fat, real butter. We sipped on gola and pepsi ice candy.
And, we weren't overweight. WHY?
Because we were always outside playing....that's why!
We would leave home in the morning and play all day & we were back only when the streetlights came on..
No one was able to reach us all day. And, we were OKAY.
We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scrap and then ride them down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After crashing into the bushes a few times, we learnt to solve the problems.
We did not have Play stations, Nintendo's and X-boxes.
There were no video games, no 150 channels on cable,
no video movies or DVD's, no surround-sound or CD's,
no cell phones, no personal computers,
no Internet and no chat rooms.
WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and
found them! Never required a networking site.
We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth
We would get spankings with belts, canes, or just a
bare hand and no one would call child services to
report abuse.
We ate imli, karbanda, kala namak made from dirt, and
the worms did not live in us forever.
We were given Bata shoes and 1 full pant for our 10th birthdays,
We made games with sticks, scrap and pebbles .
We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them.
Imagine that!!
These generations have produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever.
The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.
We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all.
If YOU are one of them, CONGRATULATIONS!
While you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave and lucky their parents were.
And dont forget to tell them that we had a subject called letter writing, they might grow up without writing a single letter in their life.
World of Hair Dye !
One more persistent thought goes away from my head.
Till now I thought Hair dye is for my Dad/Uncles and elders, but today i get away from this notion since I have also tried this for the first time in my life :) I never thought that one day I will also use and suddenly anything around me related to hair color/dye is not an alien thing.
Date : 9th May, Sunday evening, at age 32, I take this step in my full conscious leave the world of natural all black hairs :)
Thanks to my heredity, the hairs will first start turning grey starting with few, will then take over the complete head and then leave the ground for sun to shine bright on our heads :) when that happens will write again :)
Till now I thought Hair dye is for my Dad/Uncles and elders, but today i get away from this notion since I have also tried this for the first time in my life :) I never thought that one day I will also use and suddenly anything around me related to hair color/dye is not an alien thing.
Date : 9th May, Sunday evening, at age 32, I take this step in my full conscious leave the world of natural all black hairs :)
Thanks to my heredity, the hairs will first start turning grey starting with few, will then take over the complete head and then leave the ground for sun to shine bright on our heads :) when that happens will write again :)
Monday, January 11, 2010
Friday, December 18, 2009
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Vibrant Bali trip !
So this time i was lucky to get break during weekdays. So our journey to Bali started from monday morning. Our flight was at 11:30 am from Narita airport on Monday morning. Our destination was Denpasar Airport in the south of Bali.
We started from 6:30 am in the morning so that we get some time in the airport. Its very strange but I really love airports :) Did our light breakfast at McDonalds and did some currency change from Yens to Rupiah(Bali/Indonesia Currency). Got a rate of 1 Yen = 80 Rupiah which I thought was good before I discovered in Bali that they were giving a rate of 1 yen = 105 Rupiahs. And I advice you to do the currency change in Bali since they give better rate and they Money changers are everywhere. After that we moved to our gate after security check and did our immigration formalities.
Then we boarded the Garuda Indonesia flight at 11:25 (5 min early ;)).
Our flight was direct to Denpasar and it took 7 hours and 30 mins to reach there. We reached there almost at the time of dusk. We came out of the flight and the first thing we had to do was to get VISA on arrival. This was something I was witnessing for the first time.
When I came to Japan or went to Sweden I had to prepare lot of docs for Visa. And this was something new as an Indian. I always felt how comfortable it is for Europeans/Americans/Japanese to move easily in each others countries without a prior VISA. But this time I was also able to witness this phenomenon for myself. Not a big thing but since it was happening for the first time i was worried till i saw the board "VISA ON ARRIVAL" in spite that we confirmed with Indonesian Embassy in Japan for that. So the first step was to get the VISA which costed around 2, 500 Yens/head. I had taken Rupiah but paid there in yens since it was easy to calculate.
Then our holidays start as soon as we came out of the airport. As soon as we got out of the airport, our JTB guide was waiting for us with the name plate and he took out luggage and put that into a small truck along with few others who had booked with JTB. He then asked us to get into a bus and soon he started introducing Bali, guess in what language. Yes Japanese. The Bali guide could speak Japanese but he was reading from a written script he might have received from JTB. He was doing a good job though.
We reached hotel and checked in into our rooms and it was a wonderful delight.
From the next morning we tried to stuff out schedule as follows.
Day 1: Start from Narita,JPN at 11 am and reach Denpasar, Bali in evening. Settled down in the hotel, had our dinner, went to the beach. It was full moon period so the view was also amazing during our stay.
Day 2: Around Hotel, Kecak Dance. Day 2 we dedicated to the place around hotel, beach, hotel facilities, spa and in the evening a lovely sun set with Kecak Dance. Coming back we also found an Indian Restaurant which had really good food.
Day 3: Bali Countryside, art and local culture. Day3 we started early in the morning in a hired car with a person to guide us. We went to see Batik (cloth painting), Wooden carving, Ornaments, visited a traditional village in Bali, went to a Farm where they were growing all sorts of spices, went to visit lake Batur and volcanic mountain and coming back visited a Temple and Rice Terrace. Also had Nariyal Paani after a long long time:)
Day 4: Marine Sports. Day 4 we dedicated our day to Marine sports starting with Dolphin watching in the open sea. They say its like gambling to spot Dolphins in open sea. We were lucky to get glimpses of dolphin in groups. They also had a option of Swimming with Dolphin, but in a pool. You need to select what you want to do. After that we did Ski-Jet. It was kind of fun too. After that the we did our most exciting thing in the trip, the Sea-Trek. I highly recommend this. After that we ended our marine sport with paragliding with one end tied to boat in the sea :)
Day 5: Lazy Morning, Quad Bike and Catch flight home from 12:30 pm and reach early morning in JPN.
Save 1500 Yens/head as airport tax. They accept Rupiah here hence make sure you have sufficient currency while coming back.
Temples and the culture
We learnt lot of new things about Bali. Even though its an Island in Indonesia where majority of population is Muslim, in Bali you will find 95% Hindus who worship Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesha (TriMurti - ThreeFigures) . Even though their Temples have idols of Trimurti, their offerings style differ from that in India. The astonishing thing was that they offer non-veg and other things to GOD like chicken, Cakes or anything they find it to be offered to GOD. The thought process is even the chicken is God's gift and we are just returning it back. And also since they also believe in life and birth cycles and realize that you have to die a lot of times before you get a human form and you are animal before it. Hence by doing so they are enabling that animal to take human form at an earliest.
Their temples look like more of Chinese or Japanese styles but the offering methods are like Indians. Every Balinese visit temple each morning and they really celebrate things like Full Moon or Purnima and visit temple for special offerings. Looking at that I realized that they are more religious that people back at home. The conspicuous thing you will notice is the way Balinese people dress and wear a flower (both men and women) on their ear or on their special cap like wrap around their head. History says that it were Chinese and Indians came almost during the same times in Indonesia hence the influence is mixed.
Tourists
When reached Bali it was half-way in route between Japan and Australia. The greatest number of tourist who go to Bali are Japanese, Australia and surprisingly Russians. Then small number of other south asian countries including India. I was informed there is not direct flight from India.If coming form India you might have to change flight from Indonesia or Singapore. Balinese do not speak Hindi though :)Their native language is Balinese which is different from Indonesian language.You will be able to survice if you speak Eng or Japanese or Indonesian or Russian at some places.
Tourism Industry at its best
The tourism industry was very conspicuous in Bali. The awareness in the guides or people related to the tourism industry was could be easily realized. I remember when we were going from our hotel to Quad biking in a car which was driven by a coordinator of the quad bike and we were already running late because of traffic, we liked a statue on a intersection of a road and i war trying to take its picture without asking to stop the car. The person stopped the car and asked us to take snaps in a very relaxed manner. I said no problem you can drive and i can take snap in a running car. He said no problem he can wait for that, since you want t take the snap means you liked that statue and you want to make memories out of that. You will go back to your country and share this snaps with them and they would also like to visit Bali which will be goof for us as a tourism industry. That was something amazing to hear that how a single person who is driving a car for a adventure sport agency is taking efforts to glorify the image of the island and helping to increase tourism in his own way. All the other guides/person related to tourism were friendly, polite and honest.
Also when we went for marine sports they had a option of having a photographer service at a price of 30 USD. The service meant that photographer will accompany you in each sport and will take video and snaps of the important moments of the activity. For example we were doing parasailing, the photographer will take our videos/smaps while take off and landing. They just don't stop here. In the sports like "Sea Trekking" which happens below water surface much like scuba diving, they take pain to have a underwater photography gear, the photographer also dives with you and takes the snaps and videos of you playing with dishes and corals along with your company. And then when we are done with the sports, since we have limited time, they copy all the snaps and videos in a CD and also print a label on a CD with one of the snap you like and hand it over to you there itself in 30 min. Isn't that a perfect professionalism ? If that was not enough, almost every sport operator conducts its own survey in the end where they ask some good questions which are directly related tot he improvement of the their quality of service. They had questions like "WAs the activity worth your money ?", "WAs the staff accompanied you in the sport was friendly and polite ?", "Will you recommend this to your friends ", "if not why ?" , "Suggest improvement points if any", which really makes us think that how serious they are about their own industry and how committed they are to improve it.
They knew if I am taking their services, that meant someone has recommended it and I found it suitable but at the same time they see this as opportunity that I might suggest this to others and they are taking efforts to achieve this.
We also visited places where they were making some artistic things and selling them. We visited the places where they were making BATIK (a cloth work in which they use a manual method for creating colorful cloth), Goldsmith shops and wood carving shops. The things common to all those places was that before you enter the shop they had a section where they first show how that thing is made which arouses our interest in that thing and also as soon as we enter the shop we understand what we want and why one thing is costlier or cheaper that other. So to conclude selling of things is of course the focus but also at the same time to involve the person into that art work, how to educate the person so that he/she can value and reason about the art work, along with the selling of the product. And the preservesess of the art is the positive byproduct of the whole process. It was a good way to to retain an old art, educate people about it, create awareness in a common tourist like us and of course creating more employment for the country. I call it they were the best marketing folks for their art.
Restaurant type
There are lot of Russian restaurants who served Russian food and dedicated live music performances in Russian too.Of course there were lot Japanese restaurants too with the complete Japanese food Menus. We were lucky to find an Indian Restaurant too which had amazing food. This was the best Indian food (Indian Dhaba) we could have between Japan and India. Near the place where we stayed were lot of good bars and restaurants with lively live music. I remember a lady who after enjoying lot of drinks in a open restaurant with live Russian music left her chair and started dancing almost on the street with the rhythm of music. Even though she was a big lady here enjoyment with the dance and music looked elegant. Her boyfriend/Partner also supported her full heartedly.It had amazing night life too.
Batik
Sunset
Kechak Dance
Chill !
We started from 6:30 am in the morning so that we get some time in the airport. Its very strange but I really love airports :) Did our light breakfast at McDonalds and did some currency change from Yens to Rupiah(Bali/Indonesia Currency). Got a rate of 1 Yen = 80 Rupiah which I thought was good before I discovered in Bali that they were giving a rate of 1 yen = 105 Rupiahs. And I advice you to do the currency change in Bali since they give better rate and they Money changers are everywhere. After that we moved to our gate after security check and did our immigration formalities.
Then we boarded the Garuda Indonesia flight at 11:25 (5 min early ;)).
Our flight was direct to Denpasar and it took 7 hours and 30 mins to reach there. We reached there almost at the time of dusk. We came out of the flight and the first thing we had to do was to get VISA on arrival. This was something I was witnessing for the first time.
When I came to Japan or went to Sweden I had to prepare lot of docs for Visa. And this was something new as an Indian. I always felt how comfortable it is for Europeans/Americans/Japanese to move easily in each others countries without a prior VISA. But this time I was also able to witness this phenomenon for myself. Not a big thing but since it was happening for the first time i was worried till i saw the board "VISA ON ARRIVAL" in spite that we confirmed with Indonesian Embassy in Japan for that. So the first step was to get the VISA which costed around 2, 500 Yens/head. I had taken Rupiah but paid there in yens since it was easy to calculate.
Then our holidays start as soon as we came out of the airport. As soon as we got out of the airport, our JTB guide was waiting for us with the name plate and he took out luggage and put that into a small truck along with few others who had booked with JTB. He then asked us to get into a bus and soon he started introducing Bali, guess in what language. Yes Japanese. The Bali guide could speak Japanese but he was reading from a written script he might have received from JTB. He was doing a good job though.
We reached hotel and checked in into our rooms and it was a wonderful delight.
From the next morning we tried to stuff out schedule as follows.
Day 1: Start from Narita,JPN at 11 am and reach Denpasar, Bali in evening. Settled down in the hotel, had our dinner, went to the beach. It was full moon period so the view was also amazing during our stay.
Day 2: Around Hotel, Kecak Dance. Day 2 we dedicated to the place around hotel, beach, hotel facilities, spa and in the evening a lovely sun set with Kecak Dance. Coming back we also found an Indian Restaurant which had really good food.
Day 3: Bali Countryside, art and local culture. Day3 we started early in the morning in a hired car with a person to guide us. We went to see Batik (cloth painting), Wooden carving, Ornaments, visited a traditional village in Bali, went to a Farm where they were growing all sorts of spices, went to visit lake Batur and volcanic mountain and coming back visited a Temple and Rice Terrace. Also had Nariyal Paani after a long long time:)
Day 4: Marine Sports. Day 4 we dedicated our day to Marine sports starting with Dolphin watching in the open sea. They say its like gambling to spot Dolphins in open sea. We were lucky to get glimpses of dolphin in groups. They also had a option of Swimming with Dolphin, but in a pool. You need to select what you want to do. After that we did Ski-Jet. It was kind of fun too. After that the we did our most exciting thing in the trip, the Sea-Trek. I highly recommend this. After that we ended our marine sport with paragliding with one end tied to boat in the sea :)
Day 5: Lazy Morning, Quad Bike and Catch flight home from 12:30 pm and reach early morning in JPN.
Save 1500 Yens/head as airport tax. They accept Rupiah here hence make sure you have sufficient currency while coming back.
Temples and the culture
We learnt lot of new things about Bali. Even though its an Island in Indonesia where majority of population is Muslim, in Bali you will find 95% Hindus who worship Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesha (TriMurti - ThreeFigures) . Even though their Temples have idols of Trimurti, their offerings style differ from that in India. The astonishing thing was that they offer non-veg and other things to GOD like chicken, Cakes or anything they find it to be offered to GOD. The thought process is even the chicken is God's gift and we are just returning it back. And also since they also believe in life and birth cycles and realize that you have to die a lot of times before you get a human form and you are animal before it. Hence by doing so they are enabling that animal to take human form at an earliest.
Their temples look like more of Chinese or Japanese styles but the offering methods are like Indians. Every Balinese visit temple each morning and they really celebrate things like Full Moon or Purnima and visit temple for special offerings. Looking at that I realized that they are more religious that people back at home. The conspicuous thing you will notice is the way Balinese people dress and wear a flower (both men and women) on their ear or on their special cap like wrap around their head. History says that it were Chinese and Indians came almost during the same times in Indonesia hence the influence is mixed.
Tourists
When reached Bali it was half-way in route between Japan and Australia. The greatest number of tourist who go to Bali are Japanese, Australia and surprisingly Russians. Then small number of other south asian countries including India. I was informed there is not direct flight from India.If coming form India you might have to change flight from Indonesia or Singapore. Balinese do not speak Hindi though :)Their native language is Balinese which is different from Indonesian language.You will be able to survice if you speak Eng or Japanese or Indonesian or Russian at some places.
Tourism Industry at its best
The tourism industry was very conspicuous in Bali. The awareness in the guides or people related to the tourism industry was could be easily realized. I remember when we were going from our hotel to Quad biking in a car which was driven by a coordinator of the quad bike and we were already running late because of traffic, we liked a statue on a intersection of a road and i war trying to take its picture without asking to stop the car. The person stopped the car and asked us to take snaps in a very relaxed manner. I said no problem you can drive and i can take snap in a running car. He said no problem he can wait for that, since you want t take the snap means you liked that statue and you want to make memories out of that. You will go back to your country and share this snaps with them and they would also like to visit Bali which will be goof for us as a tourism industry. That was something amazing to hear that how a single person who is driving a car for a adventure sport agency is taking efforts to glorify the image of the island and helping to increase tourism in his own way. All the other guides/person related to tourism were friendly, polite and honest.
Also when we went for marine sports they had a option of having a photographer service at a price of 30 USD. The service meant that photographer will accompany you in each sport and will take video and snaps of the important moments of the activity. For example we were doing parasailing, the photographer will take our videos/smaps while take off and landing. They just don't stop here. In the sports like "Sea Trekking" which happens below water surface much like scuba diving, they take pain to have a underwater photography gear, the photographer also dives with you and takes the snaps and videos of you playing with dishes and corals along with your company. And then when we are done with the sports, since we have limited time, they copy all the snaps and videos in a CD and also print a label on a CD with one of the snap you like and hand it over to you there itself in 30 min. Isn't that a perfect professionalism ? If that was not enough, almost every sport operator conducts its own survey in the end where they ask some good questions which are directly related tot he improvement of the their quality of service. They had questions like "WAs the activity worth your money ?", "WAs the staff accompanied you in the sport was friendly and polite ?", "Will you recommend this to your friends ", "if not why ?" , "Suggest improvement points if any", which really makes us think that how serious they are about their own industry and how committed they are to improve it.
They knew if I am taking their services, that meant someone has recommended it and I found it suitable but at the same time they see this as opportunity that I might suggest this to others and they are taking efforts to achieve this.
We also visited places where they were making some artistic things and selling them. We visited the places where they were making BATIK (a cloth work in which they use a manual method for creating colorful cloth), Goldsmith shops and wood carving shops. The things common to all those places was that before you enter the shop they had a section where they first show how that thing is made which arouses our interest in that thing and also as soon as we enter the shop we understand what we want and why one thing is costlier or cheaper that other. So to conclude selling of things is of course the focus but also at the same time to involve the person into that art work, how to educate the person so that he/she can value and reason about the art work, along with the selling of the product. And the preservesess of the art is the positive byproduct of the whole process. It was a good way to to retain an old art, educate people about it, create awareness in a common tourist like us and of course creating more employment for the country. I call it they were the best marketing folks for their art.
Restaurant type
There are lot of Russian restaurants who served Russian food and dedicated live music performances in Russian too.Of course there were lot Japanese restaurants too with the complete Japanese food Menus. We were lucky to find an Indian Restaurant too which had amazing food. This was the best Indian food (Indian Dhaba) we could have between Japan and India. Near the place where we stayed were lot of good bars and restaurants with lively live music. I remember a lady who after enjoying lot of drinks in a open restaurant with live Russian music left her chair and started dancing almost on the street with the rhythm of music. Even though she was a big lady here enjoyment with the dance and music looked elegant. Her boyfriend/Partner also supported her full heartedly.It had amazing night life too.
Batik
Sunset
Kechak Dance
Chill !
Friday, May 8, 2009
Other thinkers like Epicurus(on happiness), Senaca (on Anger), Montaigne (on self-esteem), Schopenhauer (on Love), ) and Nietzche(on hardship)
Epicurus
Senaca
Montaigne
Schopenhauer(18+)
Nietzche
Senaca
Montaigne
Schopenhauer(18+)
Nietzche
Socrates - A great thinker
Socrates was a mentor of Plato, teacher of Aristotle who in turn was a teacher of Alexander The Great !
Amongst his great works, he was famous for his "Socrates Method".
Amongst his great works, he was famous for his "Socrates Method".
Friday, January 9, 2009
Monday, October 13, 2008
River Rafting at Nogami, north of Tokyo
Nogami is a small town in Saitama Prefecture, north of Tokyo. It takes around 1 hour 40 minutes from Omiya Station to reach this place via Kumagaya.
Came to know about this place via this link and some of my colleagues also told me about this place in Nagatoro region. This link has got all details about pricing, how to reach there and similar.
They asked us to bring with us:
1. Swim suits to wear inside the Wet Suit.
2. Towel
3. Flip Flops (rubber sleepers) to be used while Rafting.
They offer rafting session in morning half and afternoon halves. We opted for a afternoon one to avoid the hush-rush in the morning. So we woke up and started with filling Parathas and Cups of Tea which will keep us going for the day till dinner. We reached Nogami at 1:00 pm where we found our way to the Mont Bell Outdoor Challenge Club were we confirmed our reservations which we were lucky to get one day before the event. We were asked to wait for few minutes. After some time our main event trainer and guide instructed about how to get ready for the rafting. We didn't buy Flip Flops from where we started hence had to buy a pair of them for each one of us. It took 10 min to get ready and then we boarded the bus which would take us to the starting point of rafting.
We were greeted by our guide once again in the bus and he started giving us info about the place, event and river (Arakawa) we were going to start our rafting from which was pretty good i must say. He also shared that he went to India for their "HoneyMoon" and visited Darjelling, Delhi, Kolkota and Nepal during that visit. It took around 10 min to reach at the starting point.
We quickly reached at the banks of the river and seeing the boat and oars we were bit excited. Then our trainer gave us some very good information about this sport where he instructed us about simple tips and tricks about rafting, about the river flow, about rescuing each other among other things. At the end of the instructions we understood how to take our raft ahead, backwards, what to do when the waters are rough or when we are about to collide to a big stone, how to pull your companions in the boat if they fall in the water, how to swim in such shallow waters etc. We didn't take our cameras but our trainer took a quick group snaps before we begun (which we had to buy latter with 300 Yens each :) but was worth). Next time need to have some waterproof camera which is allowed in rafting.
So we started with taking the boat into the waters. When we started we started pretty slow but gradually our excitement got increased with intermittent "Boat Water Fights" with another group on a different boat with the help of our oars/paddles. The flow was not that strong but there were 3-4 places where we got to feel the excitement. We were also allowed to swim in between which we really enjoyed. Then there was something where we stood on the corners of the boat, hold our hands together with back facing the waters. We (all four of us) stood and were said to bloom like a flower leaning our back towards the water and ultimately leaving the hands and a big splash with our backs on the water surface and water gushing into ears and nose. Then we got back in the boats helping each other out and again start paddling the raft. Then the last excitement was that where trainer told to all of that get your legs touching the water sitting on the sides of the boat and relax. When we were relaxing he took us to our surprise and pushed us in the water again adding to the "water masti". Then as promised he took our water splashing group snap taking us at the end of our rafting event of the day.
Some of the pics:
The Route we took was as follows :
After the water sport we got very hungry. After a quick change, buying our snaps from Mont Bell store and quick photographs here and there we started searching a good restaurant.
We were suggested to take our dinner at a restaurant 2 stations away from Nogami which we thought might be a Japanese restaurant. But when we reached that station we found a restaurant inside a very old Warehouse named "Kintaro".
It turned out to be a pretty good Italian food place. A must go for all travelers. The best was the soft Pizza whose base was also prepared after the order. There was one more thing which was a bowl of cheese fried with all purpose flour around it and served attached with a longer toothpick kind of thing. It was yummy too. The restaurant had a Halloween theme. Overall it was a complete fun in that one day trip.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Can we eat Technology ?
Its really amazing to be in an era where technology is innovating like never before but at the same time this world is witnessing a unprecedented shortage of food around the world and sky rocketing prices of basic consumables like wheat and rice. They say that the developing countries like China and India are consuming more than in past hence this is causing a great imbalance in Demand and Supply for the basis food across the world.
The world on one side is chasing a dream of making the world a global village by "WIRELESSing" everything around itself, on the same time, is constantly reminded of not to loose focus on the the very very basic thing to live. So even if we achieve everything we still need air to breathe, food to eat and home to live and thats why we need to wonder sometimes "Can we eat technology ?".
There can be lot of reasons behind this food shortage which can be anybody`s guess like
1. Increase in consumption of food in Developing nations.
2. Since there is a big migration of people from small towns who were farming in developing nations in search of other employment due to uncertain changing patterns of climate.
3. Use of BioFuels is growing in the developed nations.
Have a look at the following two Videos.
Wheat shortage around the world
ABC world news coverage on the Global Food Crisis in China, India, Indonesia, Egypt
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=4628750
In a single breath we talk about "3G iPhone is arriving" and at the same time we listen/see "People are fighting for a loaf of bread". Unbelievable !
The world on one side is chasing a dream of making the world a global village by "WIRELESSing" everything around itself, on the same time, is constantly reminded of not to loose focus on the the very very basic thing to live. So even if we achieve everything we still need air to breathe, food to eat and home to live and thats why we need to wonder sometimes "Can we eat technology ?".
There can be lot of reasons behind this food shortage which can be anybody`s guess like
1. Increase in consumption of food in Developing nations.
2. Since there is a big migration of people from small towns who were farming in developing nations in search of other employment due to uncertain changing patterns of climate.
3. Use of BioFuels is growing in the developed nations.
Have a look at the following two Videos.
Wheat shortage around the world
ABC world news coverage on the Global Food Crisis in China, India, Indonesia, Egypt
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=4628750
In a single breath we talk about "3G iPhone is arriving" and at the same time we listen/see "People are fighting for a loaf of bread". Unbelievable !
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Sakura Blooms Again !
Date : 5th April 2008
Occasion : Sakura (Cherry Blossom)
Place : Ueno Garden, T.G.I Friday
_________________________
During the week or two (3rd week to 4th week of march) for which the Sakura (National Flower) blooms to its best in Japan, japanese people flock to the gardens and hold places under the Sakura trees, bring up lot of stuff to eat and drink and party all day long. During these weeks, even on the working days too, lot of companies organize there "Ohanami" (Japanese for "to see flower") parties where the newest and the youngest in the office are given a task of securing the place and arranging the party. Just chill and enjoy the garden we went to which is called "Ueno Koen" with friends namely Sukhdev, Darren, Rajan, shraddha along with me n swapna.It had a long street with Sakura Trees on both the sides, a fountain, a shrine, some interesting food stalls, museum and very very crowded shopping street of "AmeyaYokocho" among other things.
So sit back and enjoy the photo tour.
Occasion : Sakura (Cherry Blossom)
Place : Ueno Garden, T.G.I Friday
_________________________
During the week or two (3rd week to 4th week of march) for which the Sakura (National Flower) blooms to its best in Japan, japanese people flock to the gardens and hold places under the Sakura trees, bring up lot of stuff to eat and drink and party all day long. During these weeks, even on the working days too, lot of companies organize there "Ohanami" (Japanese for "to see flower") parties where the newest and the youngest in the office are given a task of securing the place and arranging the party. Just chill and enjoy the garden we went to which is called "Ueno Koen" with friends namely Sukhdev, Darren, Rajan, shraddha along with me n swapna.It had a long street with Sakura Trees on both the sides, a fountain, a shrine, some interesting food stalls, museum and very very crowded shopping street of "AmeyaYokocho" among other things.
So sit back and enjoy the photo tour.
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Glimpse of Sweden
Was in Sweden last week regarding some work. Got some glimpse of the lifestyle there. I along with my 3 colleagues went there and took out some time in the evening after work. So mostly got a very few time. Thanks to Peter who took honest efforts to show us the place around. We went to a place called Gothernberg in the west southern part of sweden. It took us around 12-13 hours to reach there from Japan.
If I draw a vertical line in the center of India, then both Sweden and Japan are equidistant from that line. Want to write more but will get back to this article when time permits.
Following are the snaps.
If I draw a vertical line in the center of India, then both Sweden and Japan are equidistant from that line. Want to write more but will get back to this article when time permits.
Following are the snaps.
An island called ShikineJima
Will post the details of this place afterwards.
Till now enjoy the snaps.
The place is so lovely that I have dedicated a blog ot this place where you can find more snaps and videos too. Click here.
Till now enjoy the snaps.
The place is so lovely that I have dedicated a blog ot this place where you can find more snaps and videos too. Click here.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Google adds "Presentation" in its arsenal against Microsoft
Google finally added "Presentation" against "PowerPoint" of Microsoft to complete its suite of Online Office in Google Docs and Spreadsheets. May be the name can change in near future.
I guess this tool can come really handy to all the presenters around the world since nobody it is such a thing that you want to share with someone else and hence on need to carry it to the place of presentation (of course, provided the place has Internet connection). With the addition of Presentation functionality, Google is now ready with weapons against MS`s Word, Spreadsheets and Powerpoint. Now these three application are ready for normal usage , but Google has to toil hard to make it professionally useful to make it look appealing to business world.
I tested with it by creating a slide as follows.
The competition between Google and Microsoft will be interesting to see from now onwards.
I guess this tool can come really handy to all the presenters around the world since nobody it is such a thing that you want to share with someone else and hence on need to carry it to the place of presentation (of course, provided the place has Internet connection). With the addition of Presentation functionality, Google is now ready with weapons against MS`s Word, Spreadsheets and Powerpoint. Now these three application are ready for normal usage , but Google has to toil hard to make it professionally useful to make it look appealing to business world.
I tested with it by creating a slide as follows.
The competition between Google and Microsoft will be interesting to see from now onwards.
Thursday, September 6, 2007
Steve Jobs - The lord of Innovation !
In the world of technology innovation, one name will always remain in the hearts of millions - Steve Jobs.
His legs are always on the accelerator of innovation and he drive his competitors nuts with the launch of "WOW" products one after the other.Steve Jobs becomes very restless if he doesn`t ship out some fantastic product at least every year.Call his insecurity to be at the top of his product line, call his brilliance and passion towards designing such products, each and every product Apple comes out which shows a kind of taste of excellence and design wizardry.
After steve stongly covered the PMP market right from 1GB to 160GB , with such an elegant technology, every competitor must be doing something as follows !
iPhone is still just 2 months before story when the world went "Ga-Ga" over its beautiful touch screen technology. People started waiting for the same kind of technology update in iPods too. Jobs acknowledge that demand and released today the best PMP experience in the world ! iPods competitors hardly reached to a situation where they were able to replicate some of the functions of iPod in their products, with the launch of iPod Touch, they will be again left behind in dirt to figure out how to do that in their products again. Steve Jobs is such a person who stretches its company`s limits internally to that maximum for innovation and in turn compels the competitors to accelerate thier process of developing new products. With iPod Touch Apple again goes miles ahead of the other products of same category.
See it in motion to believe this marvel once again
People apart from USA were not able to use the iPhone since it was locked with providers and they had to wait till it comes through thier local providers. There were people in such countries who wished "Forget the phone, I want to use the rest of the iPhone". I was among them too :) And guess what, it really turned true.Now iPhone minus mobile phone function = iPod Touch is available to rest of the world for holiday season. The timing is so right. the people who really want the functionality apart from mobile phone functionality , they will buy it certainly.
It comes with spectacular specs as below:
• Thinner than the iPhone - only 8mm
• Same multitouch pinch & spread zooming controls for photos as the iPhone
• Same coverflow as the iPhone
• 3.5" diagonal screen
• Wi-Fi 802.11b & 802.11g - it can save your home network setup
• Home button
• Slide to unlock - same as the iPhone
• Sensor for auto-landscape viewing
• Safari - connect to the internet via WiFi
• YouTube via WiFi
• 22 hours audio, 5 hours video playback
• Shipping worldwide this month - already localized into many languages
• 8GB - $299
• 16GB - $399
Apart from iPod touch - iPod Shuffle (red) and fatty nano with video and iPod Classic (Video) were also refreshed from the ground up all set for the holiday season.
One more thing..the iTunes Wi-Fi Music store and the partnership with starbucks is again a trend setting ventures in the digital age where people will buy songs on the go!
"Man thinketh, Jobs Giveth"
His legs are always on the accelerator of innovation and he drive his competitors nuts with the launch of "WOW" products one after the other.Steve Jobs becomes very restless if he doesn`t ship out some fantastic product at least every year.Call his insecurity to be at the top of his product line, call his brilliance and passion towards designing such products, each and every product Apple comes out which shows a kind of taste of excellence and design wizardry.
After steve stongly covered the PMP market right from 1GB to 160GB , with such an elegant technology, every competitor must be doing something as follows !
iPhone is still just 2 months before story when the world went "Ga-Ga" over its beautiful touch screen technology. People started waiting for the same kind of technology update in iPods too. Jobs acknowledge that demand and released today the best PMP experience in the world ! iPods competitors hardly reached to a situation where they were able to replicate some of the functions of iPod in their products, with the launch of iPod Touch, they will be again left behind in dirt to figure out how to do that in their products again. Steve Jobs is such a person who stretches its company`s limits internally to that maximum for innovation and in turn compels the competitors to accelerate thier process of developing new products. With iPod Touch Apple again goes miles ahead of the other products of same category.
See it in motion to believe this marvel once again
People apart from USA were not able to use the iPhone since it was locked with providers and they had to wait till it comes through thier local providers. There were people in such countries who wished "Forget the phone, I want to use the rest of the iPhone". I was among them too :) And guess what, it really turned true.Now iPhone minus mobile phone function = iPod Touch is available to rest of the world for holiday season. The timing is so right. the people who really want the functionality apart from mobile phone functionality , they will buy it certainly.
It comes with spectacular specs as below:
• Thinner than the iPhone - only 8mm
• Same multitouch pinch & spread zooming controls for photos as the iPhone
• Same coverflow as the iPhone
• 3.5" diagonal screen
• Wi-Fi 802.11b & 802.11g - it can save your home network setup
• Home button
• Slide to unlock - same as the iPhone
• Sensor for auto-landscape viewing
• Safari - connect to the internet via WiFi
• YouTube via WiFi
• 22 hours audio, 5 hours video playback
• Shipping worldwide this month - already localized into many languages
• 8GB - $299
• 16GB - $399
Apart from iPod touch - iPod Shuffle (red) and fatty nano with video and iPod Classic (Video) were also refreshed from the ground up all set for the holiday season.
One more thing..the iTunes Wi-Fi Music store and the partnership with starbucks is again a trend setting ventures in the digital age where people will buy songs on the go!
"Man thinketh, Jobs Giveth"
Saturday, September 1, 2007
Have some fun with your snaps !
If you have Internet Connection, Browser and a webcam then you can generate following results and can use these snaps in any of your "Web presence Sites" or can take the hard copy of it from your nearest photo developer store or you can just take it for fun to share with your family/friends.
You can have following fun with your snaps.
Clear :
Filter:
(You can select any one of it by clicking on one option amongst them.)
Distorted:
(You can select any one of it by clicking on one option amongst them.)
Scenes:
(You can select any one of it by clicking on one option amongst them.)
Frames:
(You can select any one of it by clicking on one option amongst them.)
So how do you do this ? The answer is pretty simple and straightforward ! MAC users must be quite aware of a built-in software called Photo Booth. This is its brother on internet which works both on MAC and Windows. So the process is as follows.
1. Fire Up your Browser
2. Go to this link.
3. It may ask you "Can I use Camera" Allow or Deny...? Choose `Allow`(at least it asked on MAC,)
4. Then you will see your snap on your screen. Then experiment with the right vertical strip on the right side.Try Different
options and select your options like Clear, Filter, Distort, Scenes and Frames. Select your fav among it and then press "Camera" mark to take snaps.
When you are through taking the snap, you have three options to do,
1. You can save it to pulic Gallery
2. You want to download the taken snap
3. Print it to full page
4. Delete it
We will most of the time like to download, so download it and see the result. Use the snap then where ever you want, print it and have fun.So take some snap and share with me too if you like.
Technology like this one can really bring some fun in our lives.
You can have following fun with your snaps.
Clear :
Filter:
(You can select any one of it by clicking on one option amongst them.)
Distorted:
(You can select any one of it by clicking on one option amongst them.)
Scenes:
(You can select any one of it by clicking on one option amongst them.)
Frames:
(You can select any one of it by clicking on one option amongst them.)
So how do you do this ? The answer is pretty simple and straightforward ! MAC users must be quite aware of a built-in software called Photo Booth. This is its brother on internet which works both on MAC and Windows. So the process is as follows.
1. Fire Up your Browser
2. Go to this link.
3. It may ask you "Can I use Camera" Allow or Deny...? Choose `Allow`(at least it asked on MAC,)
4. Then you will see your snap on your screen. Then experiment with the right vertical strip on the right side.Try Different
options and select your options like Clear, Filter, Distort, Scenes and Frames. Select your fav among it and then press "Camera" mark to take snaps.
When you are through taking the snap, you have three options to do,
1. You can save it to pulic Gallery
2. You want to download the taken snap
3. Print it to full page
4. Delete it
We will most of the time like to download, so download it and see the result. Use the snap then where ever you want, print it and have fun.So take some snap and share with me too if you like.
Technology like this one can really bring some fun in our lives.
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Japanese KBC or Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? [The TV Series]
This TV series was first aired in the United Kingdom, where it was hosted by Chris Tarrant.The first time it was aired was on Sept 4th 1998. So not so much old. The peculiar thing about this show is that, the emphasis is not on speed but its on the suspence the question create. Apart from that the concept of "Lifelines" and using real "cheques"is also unique.It was such a hit that after UK, many other countries like US, Australia, finland, France, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Japan and ofcourse our India and more countries also followed the same suit.
Yesterday i was seeing the Japan version of it.
Everybody has seen KBC, but just thought about how Japan plays that game and discovered this following video which is a episode with legendary sumo wrestler "Konishiki".The sets are almost same but because of his size, the show had a special seat made for him. Also note the Japanese Version of "Phone a friend" which is actually in this version have people related to contestant (Friends, Associates and Teacher) called "Study" to help the contestents. That was kind of intrestign to me. Also see how they use 50-50 and the use of "Final Answer" in the end. Also see how everybody prays when the contests is waiting for the host(Minorikawa Norio also known as Mino Monta) to answer. That also reveals the emotions of this part of the world. A word about the host. "Minorikawa Norio" also known as "Mino Monta" is the host of this series in Japan.On November 28, 2006, he set the Guinness World Record for the television host who had appeared live for the most time (21 hours, 42 minutes) during a week.Also note how they introduce theie celebrity guest and see how the answer is explained in the end.
The clip below is a cam recording of TV itself, hence the poor quality but I guess above description whould help us to understand the clip.
KBC, is really a "food for thought" kind of game and really our TV Technlogy is helping us to improve on this aspect of our lives in each county in its own unique way.
Do tell me what thoughts came to your minds when you were seeing it.
Yesterday i was seeing the Japan version of it.
Everybody has seen KBC, but just thought about how Japan plays that game and discovered this following video which is a episode with legendary sumo wrestler "Konishiki".The sets are almost same but because of his size, the show had a special seat made for him. Also note the Japanese Version of "Phone a friend" which is actually in this version have people related to contestant (Friends, Associates and Teacher) called "Study" to help the contestents. That was kind of intrestign to me. Also see how they use 50-50 and the use of "Final Answer" in the end. Also see how everybody prays when the contests is waiting for the host(Minorikawa Norio also known as Mino Monta) to answer. That also reveals the emotions of this part of the world. A word about the host. "Minorikawa Norio" also known as "Mino Monta" is the host of this series in Japan.On November 28, 2006, he set the Guinness World Record for the television host who had appeared live for the most time (21 hours, 42 minutes) during a week.Also note how they introduce theie celebrity guest and see how the answer is explained in the end.
The clip below is a cam recording of TV itself, hence the poor quality but I guess above description whould help us to understand the clip.
KBC, is really a "food for thought" kind of game and really our TV Technlogy is helping us to improve on this aspect of our lives in each county in its own unique way.
Do tell me what thoughts came to your minds when you were seeing it.
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