Bonjour

Of late I have been getting a lot of forwards about France: In particular why we should learn French. One of the most interesting video I watched goes like this

In Japan, very little fat is eaten and the heart attack rate is lower then in the USA.
In France a lot of fat is eaten and the heart attack rate is lower than in the USA.
In India very little red wine is drunk and the heart attack rate is lower then in the USA.
In Spain a lot of red wine is drunk and the heart attack rate is lower than in the USA.
In Brazil people have much more sex than in Algeria , the heart attack rate is both the countries is lower then USA.
In other words : Eat, Drink , Have as much sex as u like,
What kills you is speaking English.

The below board is an hilarious one

Turning point

Here is a beautiful turning point from Jag. He says there is a lot more you get to know & understand during u r travel, this is a great analysis.
Yesterday I was thinking how I miss the public transport system. This is a very easy, economical & a convenient mode of transport, but not like how is it in India. I used to get to spend a lot of time for just myself. This is the time I used for very many things like
@ Listen to u r favorite music
@ Read the book you always wanted to
@ Make friends, I got some good few friends while traveling in tram & bus
@ A time to do some creative thinking (some of my ideas I got them are during my travel only like the wine&coffee, project dirty dozen).

World tallest building

The other day I was talking to R and was fighting, She told me that she is staying in the world tallest building in Taipei. I got into an argument saying that only Petronas Towers (452meters, 88 stories) in Kuala Lumpur are the world tallest, little did I know in the year 2004 this Taipei 101 (509 meters, 101 stories) built in Taiwan is the world tallest. So this is an update for u people - just in case u don't know.

Latte art lovers

When was the last time u have been to a coffee shop... The last time I went to Barista it was on a very chill-windy day so could not enjoy much. Waiting for next time to go there

Those who love latte art check this site LatteArt

Blue hour

What else u can ask for more for a holiday weekend:
Staying in the country side with loads of people around you,
Someone to talk to you always,
Watch girls in pattu paavadais and later they change to jean's & tops reminding u of changing times
The house u stay is surrounded by garden on all sides,
Get some food which u haven’t tasted for long
Watching the blue hour as u travel on the roads with the coconut & palm tress set as a fore-ground and later watch the full moon accompanying you all through u r journey.
This reminded me of the line which I wrote earlier
Later in the night as u r lazy to eat, get an nila sorru kind of food served to u, just take the mixed rice in hand and eat … what else u can expect from life for a holiday

HAPPY PONGAL

Got this nice wishes from R. After a long time this time I'm gonna spend some time with family on this occation.

Klueless

Many of you would have heard about KlueLESS from IIM – I got this link from a friend of mine recently. WOW gr8 fun.
Struck at 13 level – pretty bad number eeeh ...got the logic but still fighting to decode

http://www.iimi-iris.com/iris/irising/klueLESS/

Update: Spent a whole night to solve this. Phew Fantastic it is. Worth a night sleep. It’s fun to solve it with a friend. There is something more to this, I'm done with this anyway.

Where to go

This is some thing which I encounter often only in Bangalore. In the recent 2 months of my stay here when ever I go to people asking for direction this is how the conversation turns out as

After u reach Mekari circle there is a right which leads to xxx.
Yes I know
Don’t take that road.
Do u know the road that takes u to Yeshwanthpur?
Yes I know the straight one
Don’t take that road.
Then I should take right one?
Yes but u should go to the extreme end of the road so that u can avoid subway.

Thanks angel

Many things untold leave an inerasable mark in heart. Bad for few, good for many. Thanks for R being there to help me on. God sent angel to me.

Bon appétit

Lets analyse what are the similarities between wine tasting in France and coffee tasting in India especially, if you are traveling by the great Indian railways. This source of inspiration for writing this article was due to my numerous travels made during the holidays by Indian Railways.

Many hands make good coffee or a wine, I hope everyone will agree with me. In spite of being a teetotaler I have learnt a lot about wine. People don’t accept that fact that I don’t drink wine when we get-together for some drinks, I talk so much about them. Wine tasting & coffee tasting by itself has a lot to learn.

Learn more these topics on Coffee & Wine can be learnt.


Red, Rose & White wine are there. For the coffee we have light, medium & strong, I mean the quantity of water not the milk thickness in India. A good cup of coffee is the legacy of the people who grow, pick, process, roast, and serve it.
But if u go for a coffee shop in India u get these option (Reminds me of the Kotak securities advertisement)
Cappuccino or Espresso
Coffee – Black or white
Sugar – with or without
With Sugar – White or brown
Beans – various varieties to chose from
Roasted – Mild, medium or strong (Just the beans, not the coffee on the stove)
All this for just a cup of coffee ….
Ok now let’s go back to the similarities between wine & coffee. The observation process that requires your eyes, nose and palate, for the coffee with milk and sugar.

Using your eyes:
Wine: Check the reflection of light on the wine n shining of the liquid. More it shines, younger it is.
Coffee: Check the reflection of light on the coffee, the more it’s transparent the lighter the coffee is or in other words the less the milk is there.
Some diamonds sparkle more than others, some wines shine more than others. If u observe the same phenomenon in the coffee straight go ahead and throw that in the bin.

Viscosity can be a geographical indicator or a measure of residual sugar. Watch the streams of wine that run down the sides of the glass after you swirl it.
Wine: An oily look indicates a high level of alcohol.
Coffee: The non-sticky look indicates a high level of water some time if the sugar content is also high u will get the sticky look.

On to clarity: Looking through the side of the glass, preferably against a dark background, try to see if any particles are suspended in it.
Wine: The better-the wine is very clear. A cloudy wine will lack finesse.
Coffee: The better-the coffee is opaque. Any sign of translucent indicates the lack of quality.

I’m not discussing about the color of the wine or coffee here. That will be an article by itself.

Smell: Now you have to smell it, first just smell it simply as it is. Then stir it little bit and smell it. Try this 3 - 4 times.
Wine: The smell is a strong indicator it tells us where the wine was stored, the kind of soil it was grown all these can be found with this property.
Coffee: The same can be applied. Be careful not to stir for long as it will get cold and go taste less. The smell is a very strong indicator for the coffee. Some people add brick powder so that u can get a color but the smell can come in hand to help you in this regard.

Taste: Now finally take it in mouth. But wait, wait, wait...just take it in mouth, don't swallow it.
Wine: Keep it there for a while, that will increase the temperature of wine upto the body temperature and also let a little amount of air go in the mouth and mix with the wine
Coffee: Keep it there for a while, a word of caution. Don’t blame me if it’s piping hot as you get in some parts of south India. But the initial taste itself will tell you if you consume the whole glass or just throw it down.

Gift from my friend

Bon Vacances

Happy new year to all.

Had a fantastic holidays. Went and stayed in my brothers house and visited lots of places. Invariably had been spending the nights only on traveling by which I ensure I get to spend the day time with family & friends. Went to Nellore from there to Vizag over to Chennai and then to Kumbakonam and then back to Bangalore finally. Thought it was a very tiring trip still managed to complete 90% of the plan I made for these trips.

The biggest event is meeting the guy who has given up his single and available status, since I was injured and was grounded he came and visited me. He even offered to buy a coffee for me. Thank dude for the same. Next time we meet kindly make sure u invite me for lunch or dinner ;-)

Resolution Revolution

We sailed through last year, avoiding storms and rough waters & just allowed it pass.

no matter who you are, no matter where your from,
no matter how you do,
Here is a wish, hoping that this beginning of a wonderful new year help u in all your resolution revolution.

Get Horizontal

Normandy & Brittany soldiers cemeteries

On the beaches of Normandy & Brittany lie many cemeteries that belong to the American & the German soldiers. This is the German one




The American one and
This is something which was appearing to be very funny for me. I couldn’t resist taking picture of this. This is a result of many words getting direct translation from one language to another

Nice one - Love Calculator

Thanks to Venkat - I really enjoyed this love calculator

Wanna try this super fun ...enjoy

Amazing Love Calculator !!!

Calculate my Crush !!!

Happy Calculating !!! :-)

Normandy beaches

Normandy beaches for D-day history is very famous one. During my visit there I visited a few beaches also German & American cemeteries. More on them in the next post I wanted to have my favorite picture captured – me with the wave rushing in and hitting the shore. I some how managed to get this one only, the funny thing was I wanted Alex to be with me when the wave hits the rocks, the moment he saw the wave he ran way, see below for the picture.

Now about the invasion, The liberatopn of northwest Europe began on June 6, 1944. The Normandy beaches were chosen by U.S., British & Canadian because they lay within range of air cover, and were less heavily defended.
Six divisions were to land on the first day, three more division were to follow up to assault and had cleared the way through the beach defences.
The famous D-day landing beaches are UTAH BEACH, OMAHA BEACH, GOLD BEACH, JUNO BEACH, SWORD BEACH in France.

Most recent updates

After a very long time I have found time to update on my Switzerland trip. Here are the details on the places I visited, Been there , Lauterbrunnen , Interlaken , St.Mortiz not to miss Glacier Express , Zurich, Lausanne , Vevey & Evian
During the weekend I should also update on the other trips of mine to Norway, Denmark and other countries.
Of the beautiful train journeys of the world which I wanted to do, Switzerland's Glacier Express, Norway's Flam railway & Russia's Trans Siberian railway with the official site for transib, of this I have covered 2, only one more left.
Back in India waiting for a day to travel on the Konkan railway as well.

Some pictures taken during my travel on Glacier Express.

Where do u drive in B'lore

Got this nice forward from one of my friend on the driving patterns in B'lore
In the whole of India we drive on the left of the road,
but in Bangalore we drive on what is left on the road.

Here is a picture taken in Grenoble when I went for the Coupe-icare came to my mind.
These people in open air were doing such aerobatics’ with the stunt that includes multiple tumbling, they should be allowed to drive in B'lore ... then we should what they are capable of :-)

Spotted this

Spotted this in one of the blog’s Ads by Google

All start with C

Cheese is missing

Good time pass

I have decided to convert my blog into a photo-blog for a few more days, reason being my immobility due to the accident. I need to catch up with lot of friends in this city but not able to due the above mentioned fact. How ever I happy that I’m back with my pranks. This gives me lots of time pass on the phone. The other day I came to know that my first boss with whom I worked was in the same town where I live now. So sent a nice mail to him and he promptly replied to me with all his contact details. That give me an idea. Immediately called him and I introduced myself as a sales man from a DSA and asked him if he would be interested in buying some credit cards. And the conversation went on for some time till he got feed-up and was about to hang up the phone. That’s when I introduced myself and said hello to him. U can imagine what kind of frustration he would have undergone talking to me for the last 10 minutes. Then he said “Nee innum thirunthevee illaya” (translation – You haven’t changed yet) & caught up with some old memories.

This picture was taken during last SKI season, enroute to a popular SKI resort in ALPS. I'm missing sob sob :-(

Formula1

I'm not going to talk about the F1 race here, my roommate has this F1 ringtone, This is an fantastic one. It never fails to bring the smile when-ever he receives a call.
This picture was taken in Barcelone during the Dakar race which was starting from Barcelone in 2005.

Kon-Tiki

When I visited Bhavik’s web-log about his cross Atlantic adventure the first thing that came to my mind was about Thor Heyerdahl and the Kon Tiki expedition & his museum in Norway. This is one of the best museums I have visited, it details about the adventurous of Thor Heyerdahl. The Kon-Tiki Expedition, The Ra I and Ra II Expeditions & Tigris are his major adventures. The one thing that moved me totally was - Since Heyerdahl had to abandon his expedition due to war, In protest against the wars, he eventually set fire to Tigris. This reminds me that I’m yet to write about my travel long on the Norway trip, this I would be doing it soon. One should learn a lot of lessons by visiting museums. The adventurous of Thor Heyerdahl and the purpose behind them really inspired me a lot. The picture is the shot when Thor Heyerdahl set fire to Tigris. The picute below miniature version of the ships used for expedition.

My wishes for Bhavik on his adventure.

Weekend bash

As I was caught up with loads of work and getting grounded due to my accident, there is not much activities that are happening in my life. Last weekend had 2 fun filled days.

• Chennai bloggers meet arranged by Kiruba,
• My best friend G’s birthday
• Close buddy Andy’s marriage
• Another close buddy’s Sriram’s engagement
• Catching up with Syam

@ Bloggers meet It’s was such a nice thing to meet so many fella bloggers and know about them. Many sites I used to visit and it was a gr8 to see them in person. Two persons I wanted to meet on the occasion, themottaiboss & theultimatereality . As usual one person ditched me, I don’t have to say who it was. It was a nice surprise to see Karthik and talk to him. I got to know the reason behind why he is called as Mottai Boss. Its again the repetition of the same, It seems he was expecting to see me as tall guy with a huge body build and it was a complete surprise to meet me as I do lot of adventure activites. No wonder why people say appearance are often deceptive. It was a pity that I could not stay there for long.
Met Sophia and a lot more fellas, will write in detail later.

A drive on the ECR road on the Saturday night with rain pouring down was the highlight of the trip to Chennai. We switched of the lights of the car and saw how it looks in the night. Have u tried it yet?

This picture was taken in Norway close to the Bergen region on the Flam railways.

The success of any system depends on the user community

Here I’m not talking of any IT systems. The other day I was traveling from Chennai to Bangalore by train. In the wee hours of the morning got down at the cantonment station to take the auto-rickshaw from there. I was always happy to reach B’lore as the Pre-paid system for the autos works very well there. It was the greatest pain to discover during this visit that the system has gone for a total toss when the Chennai train arrived. There were a lot of autos @ Stations, but not in the pre-paid counter, but a lot of them a little away from there. Inspite of a big queue standing in the line awaiting for their turn, these autowallahs refused to take passengers from the Pre-paid line. Instead there were lot of people who go to them and pay exorbitant amount to reach their home. What a pity, the police person who was on duty was completely help less as many people don’t bother to stay in the line and approach the autowallahs directly. This creates a problem for all, for the individuals who run the show, the public & the enforcement people. Why all this for a system which was a super hit? This made me think. I was wondering does this happen only for the Chennai trains or for all trains. I think when it comes to Chennai trains these sort of things happen, that’s what I was told. This made me travel back and think what people do @ Chennai central. Same thing inspite of having a prepaid system, still people prefer to go out of the way and get their own service. Why all this? What is the ownership of the individuals in such system. I suppose the people who come to from Chennai by that train are mostly the IT gang, if I’m not wrong.

Best of Alps

As some of my earlier team members are going to France and with the fact that its snowing, I suggested them to visit the French Alps – Chamonix- Mont.Blanc. I’m missing the ski season there. Ok now coming to the point I was googling for the information on the Alps cable cars I stumbled on this site Best of Alps. I was so happy to see that I have traveled quite a few places in that namely
Megeve (France)
Chamonix – Mont Blanc (France)
Zermatt (Switzerland)
St. Moritz (Switzerland)
Garmish- Partenkrichen(Germany)
Of all the places I visited my vote goes to the Franch Alps.

Here is the picutre taken from that site, here you can see the entire Alps range.

Rennes - Part of my last road trip in France

Rennes is a hugely attractive town which fuses architectural styles from Gallo Roman beginnings to a medieval cathedral quarter and elegant 16th-18th century bourgeois buildings.
When Brittany was united with the rest of France in 1532, Rennes was made regional capital and established itself as an important thoroughfare from Nantes and Le Mans to the northern and western ports. In 1720 much of the city's splendor was destroyed in a fire.
When you look at the present Rennes u won't get this feeling.

Rennes was live in action on the Halloween night with great costume parades. We had a gr8 time. The unforgettable night of the road trip. We could not get accommodation in the place we wanted to stay for the night, and as a last resort settled to spend the night in Rennes. Not a bad choice, Edu thanks for the fun. I will never forget the chase u gave me @ 4 in the morning in the streets. Also learnt a few Portuguese words that night. Not to forget the beautiful last dinner (hopefully not) with Alex, Edu, Ioana, Ciprian & Chris. A mix of Indian and French.

However Rennes has managed to retain much of its early stature boasting two universities, an upbeat ambiance, high tech industry and an established cultural life. The medieval streets, half timbered houses, designer boutiques and chic bars & restaurants. Have a closer look at the statue in the picture. You can easily agree the kind of celebration that would have happened the previous night ;-)

Who is PUCK-MAN?

Was going through Jag site and discovered … Celebrating it’s 25th birthday this year, and destined to be around for time to come I’m sure - this game is, of course, Pac Man. The inventor was inspired by a pizza at a dinner party, and originally designed to appeal to girls, it’s been played over 10 billion times.. read on about it @ Jag’s site

What do u call an adventure in B’lore

Remember the other article on Para-sailing @ B’lore I did over the weekend. Inspite of not so high safety standards in such activities, still they are considered to be a much safer then walking on a one-way in B’lore. The other day as I was crossing the Cunningham road looking on the oncoming traffic, Bang for the wrong side a cyclist comes and hits on my left leg. This leads to two hairline fracture on the left ankle. What a sad state? He doesn't even bother to apologies pick-up his cycle and runs. Sob sob. This doesn't stop me from going to Chennai for the weekend. Sriram drove me to chennai in his car as I had an urgent work there. Also my best friend G came to the bus stand when I was leaving. So sweet of her, still her daughter cries aloud. Next week is G's birthday, advance birthday wishes.

Parasailing in B'lore

Ready

Steady

Fly

Mont-St-Michel

@ Mont-St-Michel, It was the bishop of Avranches who first started work on the abbey on this beautiful island. I was told this is one of the France's most visited attraction.
The bay provides numerous opportunities for walking, riding and cycling. This pleace is clearly marked with high tide and low tide sessions. This is the day night picuture of this place.

Cancale

The second day we stayed in Cancale.

Cancale has made its reputation as a fishing port and is famous for its oysters.

This is Quai Gambetta, the main streat that runs along the seafront

Granville

Granville has a long-established tradition of seafaring and piracy and is often compared to Brittany's St-Malo.,I shall come to St-Malo later. This walled town was built by the English in 1439 in an attempt to capture Mont-St-Michel. If you climb to the top of the ramparts you'll be rewarded with stunning views for the near by towns.

The lower part of the town is a traditional seaside resort complete with casino, seafronts and gardens.

This port also acts as a departure point for the Channel Islands.

First stop - Caen

Caen is the capital and largest city of Basse Normandie. William the Conqueror and his wife Matilda built two fantastic abbeys and a castle in the mid 11th century on the bank of the river Orne.
Unfortunately Caen's historic centre is small due to extensive World War II bombing. This gave us a chance to visit the World War museum. A very nice one.
Picture taken infront of the war museum, with Edu & Alex

Been there and done that road trip in France

Been there and done that road trip in France. 2600 km in 4 days and visited the Normandie & Brittany region. Places visited Caen, Granville, Mont-St-Michel , Cancale, St Malo, Rennes and a drive around Tours region. Highlight of the trip are visits to the American cemetery, Castle trip, Halloween in Rennes and visit to Alex grandparents house in Normandie.

My absence from the blog is for two reasons one is the above road trip and the other one is on travel on B-2-B, back to Bangalore for good.

Got lost - Where do I go from here?

He sunk into the seat, straps on the seat belt,
and gazed out of the window,
looking at the vast expanse of mountains and valley,
and thinking about the emptiness around.
IT followed him all the way, not wanting to leave him alone,
Playing the game of hide and seek,
Many a times in the shadow of someone,
That filled the emptiness in him.
Wished could press the delete button and get rid of all,
powerless he had to give up as hands are burnt.