Damdama lake, gurgaon, December 2011

A Sunday well spent!
We decided about a picnic to Damdama lake at 10.30am on Sunday morning. After a bit of hasty planning, we had bajre-ki-roti and baign-sabji packed in our lunch-boxes. There was an assortment of other snacks and fruits as well in the trunk of the car. Finally a camera, water-jug, a few winter clothes completed the preparations.

Route and timing
We started around 12:30 from home, filled the tank (over-kill for such a short drive) and were on the Sohna road quickly. The atmosphere was pleasant. There was some traffic at the Badshahpur market. But that's usual. We took left turn after the village Bhondsi. There are no clear signage. But once we take the turn, there is a yellow color board declaring water body or such stuff. There is around 7-8 Km road after leaving the highway. The road is not good but motor able anyway. In total it is <30 Km or 1Hr drive.

Place and amenities
There are two main campuses. 1. Saras complex - tourist complex operated by Harayana govt. 2. Botonix - a resort.

Saras has a restaurant, a bar, a garden and a few rooms for overnight stay. It is situated right on damdama lake. Overall it is decently maintained. There are camel rides, boating and couple of mari-go-rounds. It is good to spend 2-3 Hrs there. Or may be overnight for lake enthusiasts on a full-moon night.

Botonix comes around half Km before Saras complex. We could not explore all the facilities available. In fact we could not find the Reception / office. However, what we found was a beautiful vast garden - well maintained and divided into multiple areas. Sports area had golf (I guess). Adventure area had some 8-9 adventure activities (think of a commando training centre - without the trainer shouting at you). There was actually a small scale botanical garden as well. But I could not explore it. There was a bullock cart and a camel parked in the drive way. Overall, the natural air and beautiful surrounding made it a per fact place to spend the evening / afternoon.

On the way back, we saw many vegetable sellers. Since there were n-number of vegetable fields near by, we were tempted to stop by a couple of places to buy some just-out-of-the-field fresh vegetables. But they disappointed us. Apparently, it is better to buy veggies from a mall!
We were back to home by around 6.30p. Really good for the kids as they might have to wake up for school next morning.

Dilli ke Pakwaan - Good colors but no Pakwaan

Visited Dilli ke Pakwaan (sponsored by India tourism) near CP on Sunday. It is open till next Sunday (11Dec2011) 11am to 10pm.

Likes:
Great painintgs on the wall. I am not sure if this was specifically placed for the festival or it is there due to India Tourism office. Replica of the India gate and other gates provides great sense right at the entrance. The decoration was good and it built a celebrations like feeling. I saw many firangs (including Chinese) with happy faces.

Good folk music / programs: The Rajasthani handicraft was good. Small scale puppet and other shows were good. The Quawalli and dance show was good.


Crowd: Delhi crowd, welcoming the winter in stylish jackets and sweaters was looking very happy and pretty.

Dislike:
Food!: There were hardly any pakwans. Most food was the street foods of Delhi. A few stalls sold items like Halwa or jalebi. But on the scale of 1 to 5, I would rate it 2. Even street foods were limited variety and kind of tier-2 quality.
This was bit of a turn down because I went there with quite an expectation. And the name was "Dilli ke Pakwaan" festival.

Conclusion: Go for it - to spend a happy evening in winter fair like celebrations. But make an arrangement at home for mid night meals!

Why I need second child?

Probably, we will not have a second child. The cost of raising a child is too high : ) 'Serious jokes' apart, if someday my kid(s) read this page, they might be taken aghast! Nevertheless, I try to remain truthful and honest. As the saying goes - "In a family, there is always a child who does not understand her parents. And when she does, she already has a child of her own who does not understand her parents."

Why I need second child?
1. Insurance? Single child is a huge risk.
2. Variety! Boy-girl or even boy-boy!
3. Companion. For the first one and for the family.
4. Competition is good. Single child is a spoilt kid.

Let's dig a bit deeper -
1. Insurance? Single child is a huge risk. Many things might go wrong. And if it does, it would be helpful to have another child in the family. I had a close friend who died in his early twenties in a road accident. Fortunately he had an elder brother in the family. This is an unlikely worst case scenario but there are several other things which are neither 'unlikely' nor it is 'worst-case' but still need insurance. Examples include major illness, person going astray in life, etc. By this theory, more the merrier : )
2. Variety! The first is a boy and the second is girl then its a cool variety. But even two boys would provide some variety to the family and genetics.
3. Companion. Second kid would be a good companion not only for the first kid but for entire family. Family of just three is really small. Family of four is more preferred. However, we might have to take care of things mentioned in the article (A favorite child).
Another downside is from the budget perspecitve. If there are four members in the family, resources has to be shared between four.
4. Second child would provide (hopefully) a healthy competition to the first child. Parents with just single child are more likely to spoil the kid with over (hyper-) care. This is a case in the big nation with single-child policy. Second child will eliminate this monopoly.

Still, the case is not fully in favor of bringing second child. There are trade offs. And we need to make a decision.

Gene connection

Banging head against a wall
Eating so much that you have to puke
ROFL - literally
Morning person, early to bed
Dancing with funny moves but still need to dance
Killing ants almost as a habit
love for animals
love for water

Does any of the above passes as a hereditary trait? Maybe the last two points can be generalized for most kids. But what about the rest of the list?

I am sure my son has never observed me doing any of the above. As a child I used to have all of the above habits. And my son also has those. I am unable to see the connection. How does he know?

* Image source: http://www.zazzle.com/

India's poverty drops to zero. Nobody is poor

I was so happy to read news that while I was away from India, suddenly all the poor folks of India were alleviated the pains of starvation. This miracle was done not by providing education/training or creating jobs. Neither this feat was achieved by increasing the productivity of resources. And of course, charity is not a solution hence the poor were not provided with food or shelter. Not at all. In fact, doing any of the above would take too much of sincere effort and time.
In fact this magic was achieved by simply changing the definition of 'who is poor'.


Do you know any family who spends less than Rs 32/day/person or (32 x 30=) Rs 960/month/person? Only they can be considered poor as per this new definition. As per that, a family of four would be spending less than Rs 3840/month. I do not know any family who can stay healthy/educated/alive with Rs 3840/month in urban India.
The spend figure includes all types of spend (food, house rent, clothes, fuel, conveyance, others). Interesting analysis by the analysts of TOI around what would be approximate spend for each of the daily needs as per the definition -
Rs Daily needs
5.5 cereals per day
1.02 pulses per day
2.33 milk per day
1.55 edible oil per day
1.95 vegetables per day
0.44 fruits per day
0.70 sugar per day
0.78 salt and spices per day
1.51 other foods per day

3.75 fuel to run the kitchen per day

49.10 rent AND conveyance per month

39.70 Healthcare per month

29.60 Education per month
61.30 Clothing per month
9.6 Footwear per month
28.80 Other personal items per month

Brilliant idea to eradicate poverty :)

JJ in Jakarta

Actually, writing this a few months after the event occurred.

After a long time it was a mini vacation with family! Only this time, family meant three of us.
Place: Jakarta, Indonesia.
Days: two.5.
Purpose: Site seeing, shopping, eating, enjoying.
Planning committee: A group of colleagues from Jakarta office - very helpful.

Day-0.5: Some horrible events occurred :) As Gabe said on FB - "Sh1t happens!"
JJ did not have the mobile on roaming. Neither she had any Indonesian currency on her. I sent the driver with my cell phone and a few hundred thousands (<2000 INR for the uninitiated readers). For God-know-what-reasons, JJ could not find the driver and vice versa. What would you do in a country you are visiting for the first time without money, without communication, you don't even know local language and you are carrying a little child with you and you are of the fairer sex. Most probably, you would cry. And JJ did that for a while. She at least had the address where she was supposed to reach. hence she started searching for some taxi. The driver demanded 130. JJ was happy thinking that the guy would drive her to the hotel in just 130 INR. JJ was shocked when the driver clarified that its 130,000 IDR. JJ had not the foggiest idea how much it is in INR. 130,000 sounded like a huge sum. But does she have any option? Certainly no. She went to the nearest ATM, inserted the international debit card, praying to the God that it would spit 130,000 IDR. And the Gods din't let her down! Even the remaining balance in the account showed some astronomical sum in millions (IDR)! Wow, that's some magic. JJ could reach the hotel safe. We met only late in the night.

Day-1: Saturday.
Should have started with a visit to fun-park. Actually started with a visit to airport to retrieve the lost baggage. Wifey's bag was left at the transit airport somehow.
Second half of the day, we were planning to visit the Ancole area. Little did we know that it was fairly big area and require at least a full day attention. Finally, we just visited the sea-world there. Sea-world's main attraction is an under-water tunnel. You walk through the tunnel (or a conveyor belt) and see amazing variety of schools of fish around you. Big flying fishes (the one who killed the crock-man). We din't have a proper camera with us that was a major spoil sport. My belief is that without good pictures, even the best of tours tends to faze out in the memory. But with a few good clicks, you have a 'proof' that you had good time :) The next stop was the shopping arcade in the old town of Jakarta. We spent much time in figuring out a good place to shop anything. But finally decided to avoid any shopping at all. Dinner was back at the hotel. They amazed us with superb Paratha + veg curry + samosa.

Day-2: Sunday
We started early. Had excellent breakfast in four seasons. The best part I like about breakfast there is that it fills you thoroughly but still doesn't make your stomach heavy. Otherwise, heavy breakfast immediately puts heavy weights on my eyelids :)
There was a fun event for kids. Play area was decorated near the gym/pool. Excellent confectioneries were placed for free and overall it was a celebration atmosphere. We actually thought there is some birthday party planned and were hesitant to join the celebration initially thinking its a private party. Later the hotel staff clarified that every Sunday they have such events. Wow!
Just around lunch time, we started for the Taman Mini Indonesia. I was much hopeful that DJ would love the park. I knew that JJ would not like the ride in the cable car. We hired a scooter for a couple of hours and roamed around places. We were completely surprised that DJ din't show any fear of the big Macaw / Kakatoe. The birds were really huge - they actually looked bigger in size than DJ's size. But he was cool :)
Next stop - a small artifact shop outside the bird-park. We collected several items - significant to mention was a hook that provides accu pressure to your back. I should post a snap. Around early evening we decided not to finish the park and started moving towards the grand plaza. Wise decision in the humid heat. Grand plaza was excellent. The upscale brands reminded me of the Ambi mall Gurgaon. JJ liked some brand of cosmetics and my vollet shed a few kilo. Dj was happy with a toy train ride on the 4th floor. I was happy to see them happy. A family man that i am (notice the small i).
The day ended with dinner at Royal Kitchen - an Indian restaurant. The food was good. The service was strictly OK. The prices felt higher.I would recommend the Ganesha in WISMA GKBI anytime.

All is well that ends well - or something like that!

Listening passively

Apparently, I was always passive about which songs I listen to. Here goes some interesting evidence in chronological order -
1.
As a kid, I used to listen to old hindi movie songs. Not by my own choice but because my parents would tune in to the 'Vividh bharti' or 'Ceylon' or 'AIR=All India Radio'. I developed a taste for those songs at young age.
2.
When I moved to IIT, I started litening to songs from albums like Kandisa and Ghazals from various artists. Again, mainly because other people in the lab listened to those songs.
3.
During my first job, I used to share accomodation with a partner. Here I listened to some old English songs like 'Don McLean - American Pie' or 'Somewhere I belong'. Again passively.
4.
After that there was a gap. Because I stopped sharing accomodation and was staying alone. I think I kept listening to some of the songs from the above three lists. But hardly ever developed a new liking.
5.
Finally, I started listening to contemporary bollywood and some punjabi songs when I got married. However, I couldn't develop a taste for that.

Is this how it happens with most? Your taste in music is influenced mostly by people around you?

Btw, found a collection of excellent old Hindi songs here -
http://notestomyself.wordpress.com/category/lata-mangeshkar/
And ghazals here -
http://notestomyself.wordpress.com/tag/hindi-ghazal/

Idle Ideas

Probably 99% of my new ideas are lost because I don't have a scratch pad to scribble it down when it occours. Sometimes even if I have a scratch pad, I misplace it later and the idea vanishes with that. To avoid such a great loss to humankind, I think, I should wear a scratch pad on myself the way people wear glasses with strings attached.

Source of the image.


For once, I could jot down this idea about the scratch screen. After a couple of months of usage, my helmet gets scratches. That's fine because that's one of the function of the helmet. But even the visor gets scratches and that's not fine. Now, I look at my wife's mobile phone and I see a thin plastic film. She can remove that screen every once in a while and replace it with another one. All scratches of past few months vanishes in a few seconds :)
Why can't we have something like this for helmet?

Source of the image.


To make this innovation practical, there is one addition required. Let's say I buy some five or ten scratch screens for my helmet. I use one immediately and keep the rest for later. However, after two months or so, when I want to replace this scratch screen, I am unable to place where I kept those replacements. Its usual to misplace such items for me (and for many other users of helmet). So another suggestion is that let's keep these replacements within the helmet. Between the outer shell and the inner lining. What say?

Source of the image.

Batukajang adventures - photo blog

Long queue to board the ferry


The ferry - you can see buses and trucks in the lower deck and passengers in the upper deck


What is the purpose of this structure? Why can't this tower be on the shore?


Oil digging in progress


A small town on the Balikpapan side


Three vassels - so different in size and utility




A car on board my ferry

Batukajang adventures

De said that I should not be afraid because some of the elite tribesmen in the Dayak tribe can smell the other person and can tell if he belongs to the enemy tribe or not. Dayak tribesmen are mystic. I said, I can even show my passport if their sense of smell fail them. Dayak tribe in east Kalimantan area in Jakarta had declared war with another tribe. And people said that there will be bloodshed even on the highway connecting Batukajang and Balikpapan. They said we should leave Balikpapan immediately – even as soon as tonight.
We were in Batukajang just for two days and a half. The overall work was not finished yet. We could have used one more day there. I could not even visit the mine because of the security clearance issue. What’s the point of putting on safety jacket and helmet and the long & heavy safety shoes?
The guest house was small but very tidy. The staff was efficient and there were posters reminding everybody of the overall objectives of the year. The great thing was the pick-up truck. I think Mitsubishi. It looked like a hunk. The flag in the front was fifteen feet tall and the purpose was to make sure that the ‘hunk’ does not get crushed by one of the elephants - big excavators. The life in the mine is tough. The long road leading to the mine reminds me of the movie ‘The Jurassic Park’. Especially when the morning mist engulfs the surrounding jungle and the make-shift road becomes wet in moisture. You can hear explosions in the mine to break the rocky surface. I wonder how do they prevent the coal to catch fire after one such explosion?
The city Batukajang is described as agropoliton by p.Adi – Agriculture – Metropolitan. The wide range of fields that you see on the way to Batukajang confirms that name. Banana plantations, Palm trees, pineapple and some more strange tropical fruits. One of the strange fruit I saw was snake-fruit.

We had our lunch at a small restaurant on the way to Batukajang. It was quite filling and satisfying. The road from the ferry to the city is more or less smooth in the beginning. It’s a hybrid between a coastal town of Spain and coastal town of SE Asia. Many small buildings with red color tiled roofs looks like they are directly imported from old Spain. Whereas, the wooden houses erected on the top of wooden scaffolding are typicl of SE Asia. You can see fishing gears near almost all of the houses. Even the inland houses have fish ponds in the verandah. Fish ponds for food not so decorative. Another surprising thing about the area is that you see houses on both side of the road throughout the way from the Ferry to Batukajang city – its around 70Km. But hardly find any village or town.
I guess the most interesting part of this journey was the ferry ride. The boat can carry around twenty cars and a few truck with its load. The passengers can seat on the upper deck. The ferry sails through very interesting landscape, resulting in enjoyable journey. The water is muddy at places and blue aqua marine at some other place. You can clearly see ‘patches’ of colors in the water. I wonder how is that possible. The boat is never too far from the land and hence you can always observe some activity on the land on either side. There are oil drilling activities on one shore and coal loading on the other. The place has wonderful natural resources. And as it happens at many places in the world, there is constant friction between the tribals and the government. One of the tribe is Dayak tribe. ‘Semi-mystic’ people who can accurately throw their matchet very long distance to chop the head of their enemies. Something to fear. Also the black-magic. De said there are many testimonials of such black-magic. And hence he believes it. These are the primary reason why we started to flee from Batukajang late that night. Better safe to be sorry.