Exploring Mumbai

Hi blog...

Life is going great in Mumbai.. There is not much work to do in company... And vase vee, those are cool people so no tensions.. In the meantime, I'm exploring every bit of Mumbai... Last week was no different.. Went for a all Mumbai tour aka Mumbai Darshan and also visited Brabourne Cricket stadium for watching final of Twenty-20 match between Punjab and Tamilnadu with AP. Match was a close one (alas! Punjab Lost).. I really enjoyed it and ground looked spectacular under lights.. Also went to see Marine Drive from ground... Marine Drive looked amazing at night..Its U shape looks like a necklace...But this post of mine will be dedicated to Mumbai Darshan...

Hmmm.. Mumbai Darshan aka City tour is an attempt to cover major tourist attractions of the city in one day. But, to me, it looked more of a crash course of Mumbai. Although there was a guide in bus to explain the history of everything, But Bus stopped at 8-9 major points only and that time was restricted too. But one cant complain after all they have their limitations. And covering Mumbai in one day is not a joke.

Here Goes a brief description of Mumbai Darshan..

The first destination of the tour was Gateway of India (GWI). It looked as magnificent as ever and there were Taj hotels (both old and new) too... looked marvelous... Clicked some pics.. Then bus left for the next destination which was Chattarpati Shivajee Vastu Sangrahlya aka Prince Wales Museum. It is the second largest museum of India. It is not dedicated to one set of things but is more of a general museum. And it is huge. I was just able to see it in given time of 40 minutes.. mind you just see not observe. It surely requires 3-4 hours to completely observe it. Well, it deserves another trip of mine.. :)

Third stoppage of the tour was Taraporewala Aquarium on Marine Drive. But between the two stops were a lot of other important and beautiful buildings like Mumbai High court (aka "Sanjay dutt ka sasural" according to our guide -- SD has to go there in relation to 1993 blasts), Cloak tower of University of Mumbai, Assembly Hall, Mantralya, Offices of HP,LIC, air India and Bombay Stock exchange (BSE). Now coming to aquarium, well it was a very simple and a good tourist point, especially for kids. There were all sort of fishes, Crabs, Prawns and tortoises. We were given time for lunch at Canteen besides aquarium so we had lunch there.

After the aquarium, it was the turn of Kamla Nehru Park and Hanging Gardens. But once again the path was laden with some special spots. There was Jain Temple having 100 % gold sculptures and a police station near it. (our guide said "kalyug hai bhagwan kee raksha police kar rahi hai").Others were Governor's bungalow, Afghanistan Embassy, Chowpathy Beach and Veena apartment where Mr. Jackie Shroff ("Galli ke gunde" acc to guide) lived.

Now, Kamla Nehru Park (1st park of India after independence) and hanging gardens were not simple parks. There was a place in Kamla nehru park From where one can capture all the marine Drive in the Camera.. so we clicked some photos. Hanging Garden was made over a water reservoir (thats why it is called hanging Garden) which provided water to south Mumbai. Hanging garden also contained many hedges cut in shape of animals..

After Gardens, we left for Mahalaxmi temple. On the way were Sahayadri guest house for MP's ("jab hamare desh ke politician thak jaate hai to yahan aaram karte hai" -- Guide), Towers of silence (has a elaborate history behind it),American Embassy and Aanand Niwas (Home of Homi bhabha-- Nuclear Scientist). It took approximately 15-20 minutes to reach mahalaxmi temple. Yahan par bhagwan se appointment puri kee aur phir nikal liye aage.. :)

The next stop was Nehru Science Center. The path from Mahalaxmi Temple to science centre was having some more special points like Haaji ali, Bunglow of salman khan, Tata golf course, Lata mangeshkar's flats, Essar house and Mahalaxmi race course. Nehru science center was one of the most important point of tour. The science center was big. There were a lot of different sections like man and machine,aeronautics, sound etc etc... I checked my weight & height relationship and it was perfectly ok given the fact that i have shed some weight after coming to Mumbai... Actually we were not having much time to explore the science centre completely. But i surely will give it another visit.

After Nehru science center, It was the turn of Mumbai's biggest beach -- Juhu beach. It was a silent journey of 40-45 minutes from science center to Juhu which was enough for me to have a short sleep.. (i was completely exhausted). We reached Juhu at 4:30 and the view of the waves was good enough to take all the weariness away. There is a lot to write about Juhu so i'll dedicate it a separate post..

After Juhu came the last stop of the tour which was Hare Rama hare Krishna Temple. It was a beautiful temple mainly built of marble. Between the temple and beach, there were bunglows of Big B and Hema malini ("ungli mat karna, ander Dhamendra bhee rehta hai" -- Guide). After the last stop, the bus left for vashi.. It took abt 70-75 min and by 7:45 we were back in Vashi,completely tired but satisfied. It was an eventful day where we explored most parts of Mumbai from sounth to middle and It was worth a great experience.

PS:- Again Picasa and 6600 rockzz... And reader must note that i tried my best to keep the description brief.. But if it is long then please bear with me.

Cricket World Cup 2007

hey blog.. it is over.. Word cup 2007 and Australia has emerged as world cup champs once again.. Great team..

I'm following Cricket from world cup 1996.. it has been a game full of excitement,joy,sadness and some unexpected results. This world cup had some of the most unexpected games I've witnessed ever. Bangladesh had upset victories over India and South Africa.. where Ireland stunned Pakistan and Bangladesh.. I do admire Ireland because they played really well within their limitations... They gave tough fights to England, Newzealand.. Two mighty Asian teams India and Pakistan had an early exit from the tournament..

Apart from upsets, this world cup saw 4 wickets in four balls from Lasith Malinga of srilkanka (against south africa.. what a match that was !!) and six sixes in six balls from the bat of Hershelle Gibbs against the Minnows Ducth. We saw World cup's fastest century from Metthew Hayden of Australia and some fierce hitting from the likes of Yuvraj singh, Mark boucher, Hayden, Ponting, Styris, Kallis, Smith, Gibbs etc etc.. Also Some great bowling from man of the series Mcgrawth, Murli, Tait, Hogg and Malinga.

This world cup also witnessed the greats like Inzamam-ul-haq, Brian lara and Glen Mcgrawth for the last time on the grounds for one day internationals as they said good-bye to ODI Cricket..

This world cup, unlike its previous editions, saw lesser competition in super eights and also local crowds.. But, all in all, it was Cricket that at last emerge victorious once again from wonderful Tournament...

Hat-trick By the Aussies...

hi blog....
Well, this post is a bit off track as it has nothing to do with my experience with Mumbai but Aussies have earned it..

Ya, Aussies have completed their hat-trick of cricket world cup wins on Saturday, 28th of April,2007.. they were as ruthless as ever.. magnificent..marvelous.. Amazing.. great.. unbeatable.. mind blowing... bla bla bla. I will not be having adjectives to describe what truly this Australian team deserves because there is nothing in words which can describe their dedication and attitude towards the game. It does not matter to them who the opposition is ? they are just the same.. with the killer instinct.. True champions.. even the great carribian team of Clive loyd will have to admire them for there attitude and ruthless nature.

They have extremely talented players which can come more than handy when the true need is there, like Gilchrist provided what was needed in the Final..It was the way Gilchrist played.. he looked like an alien from some other planet who made cricket look so easy where others find hard it to start.....

The Australians take care of every department of the game whether it is fielding, batting, bowling, running between the wickets, it does not matter... And where the Aussies are far far ahead of the others is their mental strength.. They play to win and they know they can and they will..
Hats off to Australia...

Mixed Bag

Hi...
The collage contains pictures from my earlier visits to Gateway of india, Juhu Beach and mumbai in general..
More to come soon.
Bye.

Elephanta Caves

Hi Blog...
This post of mine will be dedicated to my voyage of the Elephanta Caves. I visited Elephanta caves on 13th of this month (Friday) along with my friend Amarpreet singh (AP).
It was an unexpected plan that led us to Elephanta caves. Our original plan was to visit Mumbai University Institute of Chemical technology (UICT) for the purpose of using library there. (Our Project co-coordinator insisted we must go there so we did to full fill his wish).

Prologue

We boarded the local train (horrible local) from Vashi station at 9. It was what I call the peak hours of journey via local. But I was happy to board the train comfortably, for a change, in peak hours. So I thought the train journey won’t be a big trouble. But I was soon proved wrong because as soon as the train halted at Mankhurd (1st stop after Vashi), a capacious crowd literally attacked the train without even allowing it halt properly. Soon the crowd was filling in and I knew the worse is about to come as I was standing near the entrance. And I was not wrong at all because as the space inside thinned, I started feeling the force. It was nothing like my previous experiences in local. Impact of the blows by crowd was unbearable and soon all the air was being knocked out of me. I was pinned against the compartment wall and journey after that went in hope that it would be over soon. At last, after a packed journey of 40 minutes Wadala station came, my destination. As I left the train I thought that I was lucky to sign off the train without a bone break. That was quite a journey. Easily the worst I ever had in local.
So from wadala we went to UICT by taxi. UICT looked like an empty building at start but soon we found some students and one of them led to the library and there we were told that the under graduate students are not allowed in the library. So much pain for nothing substantial….
It was at this moment that we decided to go to Elephanta caves…

Real Voyage Starts…

We went back to wadala station. Took a train to vikhroli station. Journey was comparatively better. At VT we had our breakfast and left for Gate way of India.
The gateway of India is a wonderful monument situated at the sea creek the cuts Mumbai. A fine breeze was blowing that countered the effect of heat. From gateway of India we took ferry for Elephata caves as caves are carved in a mountain situated on an island. The ride on ferry was of an hour or so. It was fun. We clicked some pics from my 6600. We reached the island at about 1:30. A toy train took us to the village from where the journey towards caves starts.

The shops on the way to hill top were loaded with amazing stuff of art. We went slowely towards the cave, exploring everything on the way. At last we reached the caves. Bought tickets. There were many caves carved out of stone. All of these were dedicated to lord Shiva. Different sculptures were there representing different shades and pictures of lord Shiva. One of them showing the three faces of lord Shiva was particularly amazing. We clicked a lot of pictures.
After the caves we left to explore the other attractions of the island. On the way we saw some monkeys accepting food from tourists. It was quite amazing the way they behaved. We clicked some more pics. Then we left for the Cannon hill. There were two cannons (old and filled with stones) situated at the top most point of the hill. The way to the top was a rough one but not rough enough to dampen our spirits. It was great to see those cannons having length of at least 25 feet. We clicked some more pics there.

After the cannon hill, we started our journey back to the shore where ferries were waiting to take the tourists back. On the way back we had our lunch. Journey back was great too especially the ferry ride…

At last we reached gateway of India and clicked a few more pics. Then we spent some time in park and left to explore the market near the area. The market was really good with a lot of hariyali. After that we took a bus for VT and then a train for Vashi. Journey via local was not fun again but still better. At long last we reached home around 9 after an eventful day.

PS:- For pictures thanks to my 6600 and for collage picasa rockzz again.

Life @ mumbai

Hi... Its gonna be my first post from mumbai.. & i thought none can be the better topic than this one.. I've been asked this one by many of my friends so here it goes...
Well, mumbai is just like an another city crowded with almost everything. Life consists of routine & then more routine..(Got it from my favorite movie)..
If there is something that sets this city apart from any another then it has to be the spirit & co-cooperative nature of people of mumbai.. for whenever i needed some help, whether in company or in travelling, everybody stood up to the occassion to help me..... Really they are better than people of my own lovely biotech department, excluding some exceptions...

Hmmm... My wierd experiences in mumbai....
1. Travelling in local trains:- Different people have different opinions about local trains over here.. some call them pathetic, other amazing & for some, like me, its the best option even if it gives you pain in almost every body part sometimes.. i can still remember the day when i was thrown out by the crowd against my will or many of those when train got more than it can afford or when i got fined due to a mistake.. But all in all its a necessity in a fast life over here.

2. Watching Guru:- well, i was all geared up to watch the movie but when i entered in so called cinema hall, i just realized that it was a cinema room sort of hall with 150 odd seats & a 10' * 14' screen.. that was quite shocking at start but later i realized that it was not as bad as it looked in start.. sound system was good so was AC... Movie was great & then i saw Black friday too in that same cinema room...

3. Masti in mumbai:- well.. if u r in mumbai u cant miss on masti.. so i visited a lot of places in mumbai like gate way of india, chowpathy, juhu, band stand etc... beachs had a lot of greenary there & band stand was different in all aspects because its not exactly a beach but lover point.. i need not explain the details...:)

Hmmm... lifes going on... Movies, music, masti, work... there is everything... In gist, life here is like roses in thorns because masti is there between all the chaos..

Majak majak vich kafi likhya gaya.. chalo hun enna bhot hai.. bye.

Some Memories

Hey blog....
I'm back.
It was another semester at TIET full of fun. Watched hell lot of movies... Had arguments with institute administration.. Learnt a lot of things.... Really some of them changed my thinking... Hmmm... Life goes on & now i'm going to Mumbai for Project semester... I hope i'll learn a lot from Mumbai... It will be fun.

Now coming to these images.. Well, i promised that i'll write more about Guwahati.. But i was just fed up of using net.. So now when i'm back, these 2 images will sum up Guwahati and my trip to Shilong & Chirapunjee.. The first one is showing some natural beauty.. and the second one is having some of the best photgraphs having me (2nd) with my friends Amarpreet (1st) & Kamaldeep (centre)... The two days of trip to shilong & chirapunjee were really amazing.. Undoubtly the most happening days of my life during Summer Training..

Thats all for this post.. Next update will be from Mumbai..
Bye..

PS: Thanks to Picasa (collage making)... and Daman at last you have something to see from Guwahati...

IIT GUWAHATI !!

Hi everybody,
Finally I’m writing about IITG. This post will be more of a general post about IITG. So this will not be a post presenting my life here or about my training (Of course I’ll write about that too). But this will be more of an insight to this lovely place & will be exploring it geographically. Chalo I’m starting it now.

IITG is located near to India’s widest river ‘Brahmaputra’ – a small sea in itself. It takes 45 minutes to reach at campus from city via readily available buses that work only for IIT purpose. But another exciting way to get there is via Ferry. Ferry gives you the chance to travel via ‘Brahmaputra’ & takes 13-15 min of wonderful journey to reach Ferri ghat & 10 min from there to IITG. The campus of IITG is a huge one, consiting of many buildings & roads connecting them. All the buildings here are fully AC through a centralized AC system… Tell u what it consumes hell lot of electricity…
The sight of whole IITG is beautiful because it has small hills & lots of greenery surrounding it, which has soothing effect on your whole mind. Daman don’t worry I have clicked some pics…Sufficient enough for you to see….

The hostels.
The most weird thing about the hostels, is their names e.g. ‘Kapili’, ’Manhas’, ’Siang’ etc etc… Here the rooms that are allotted to students are single sitter ones unlike the ones at Thapar. Every room is equipped with a chair, table, bed, cupboard etc etc… and how can I forget to mention the LAN & Internet connection in each & every room… the awesome thing…. Puri aish…Another special thing that need the attention is the number of creatures excluding human beings… cockroaches were the predominant ones along with other weird ones.
Now coming to the mess - food quality is ok with a good mess staff but still the repetition is too much. All time they have one permanent thing sambhar & rice… Breakfast stuff is ok. The hostels are also having common room, TV room, PCO & a canteen – That can save one from repeated food. These were main highlights of the hostels.

Computer center & library of IITG.
The computer center (CC) & library have been made in a separate huge building. There are more than 200 PC’s in CC. PCs are of a very good configuration too. Each one having a LCD screen, DVD combo, P4 processor & 512 mb RAM… Cool na… Yes after all it’s an IIT. The best thing about CC is that it is open till 1 o’clock at night.
Exactly opposite to CC is library. Library is also a huge one & is having large number of books on wide variety of topics including art books as well. Two PCs are there for search purposes… Rest I don’t know much because I seldom go to that portion of building.

Other buildings
One more special thing about IITG is the number of buildings in campus. Each department has a different building connected by corridors, which seems to be never ending. You see, here u have to walk a lot even with in academic building(s). Chalo good for some people… even for me because I have forgotten the long 2-3 km walking that I used to do in Himachal but now got used to it. There is a separate administration building as well that too a big one. So there are no space problems here. 2-3 buildings are under construction & one of them a 1000 sitter audi…. Aah remembering the one at Thapar. Cant compare the two actually because here Govt funding is there.
Another distinct building is the one situated on a hill. Like that of bhoot bangla..Joking. That is actually Director bungalow.
Another special feature here is a small military camp… The military post always has one soldier in position with machine gun… for security purposes…
There is a village called ‘Amin gaon’ near to IITG. There is a small market… Nothing big but still sufficient… One thing I can assure u that you’ll get very good pineapples & coconut water there….
Well that is all what I have seen up to now in this lovely place…there may be a possibility that still many things might have been left to explore… Hmmm… still 7-8 days are there may be then I’ll edit this post.

Actually there is a lot to write about people here, city & of course about life here. Hope to write that soon.

Bye.

My Tiring Voyage – End

Hello everybody, this will be my last post about journey. In this post I’ll tell you about last parts of my journey i.e. Delhi to Guwahati & then from railway station to IITG..

First of all I’m sorry for posting this late. Actually I was having some problems with the blogger & my posts. All the problems are now fixed courtesy my friend Preetinder. So without much delay here I will start with chapter 3.

Chapter 3 (From Delhi to Guwahati).

Every thing was going according to the plan. I reached railway station (with my friends) at 11:45 am approx. I asked enquiry about platform of train. It was 12 – nearest to us. The train came as it was scheduled & finally around 1:40 pm we were inside the train – Seats reserved not a single problem. The AC in the train was refreshing & was helping me in overcoming the tiredness that had crawled in to my body. The seat reserved were in one line i.e. Lower, middle & upper births – So no problem there as well.

Train left the Delhi station at 2:00 pm. I made a call back home & told that everything was fine.
You know one great thing with Rajdhani is that they never let u feel thirsty or hungry. Something will be on its way after one hour or so. LOL.

First of all, bottles of water were given followed by a lot of other stuff – Kambals & towels, bed sheets (it gets quite cold when constant AC is on & u r not much used to it) & other foodstuff.
I occupied the upper seat & started reading a fiction novel (Angels & demons). After all reading fiction novels is one of my favorites time pass along with relaxation. AP & KD started took a newspaper & started solving Soduko or a game like that- I don’t know much about that. The seat was a comfortable one & everything was much better than bus journey.

As the time progressed the train neared the destination. The dinner was served around 8 & after dinner soup was there & food quality was ok. After that I slept around 10.Really a sound sleep. Only regret was that waiter in train, to give tea, at 6 am waked me up. Yar main apni puri college life vich kade 6 vaje nahi udhiya- par chalo kee kar sakde see.

The day progressed like any normal day, I kept on reading novel but this time I was reading ‘Harry potter & the sorcerers stone’ & in between ‘Angels & demons’ (Both books r rocking). KD was reading ‘Godfather’ & AP ‘The inscrutable Americans’ (Cool book).
Like mentioned already they wont let u feel hungry & will keep on serving something after hour or so & finally lunch at 2. After lunch it was the time again for a bit of sleep. When I Woke up it was raining outside. The sight of nature was awesome. I clicked some pictures with my cell & also made a small video clip.

At last train reached Guwahati around 7:45 (late by more than one hour). At last most of the journey was over but still one question was left that how we’ll reach IITG. I made a call at number given to me by professor at IIT. The person on other end gave me the address from where the bus will leave for IIT & we started towards the given address.

Epilogue

We hired an auto to reach at the given address. It hardly took 2 minutes to reach there. But still we just missed the bus leaving for IIT (at 8:15). Thank god it was not the last bus. The last bus was at 8:45 and that took us to the IITG hostels.

Well that was all. All the main points concerning ‘My Tiring Voyage’.. Rest about life here & other things I’ll write soon….

Till then bye.

My Tiring Voyage contd...

Hello every body,

Here I’m, again, at Computer center of IITG writing chapter 2 of My tiring voyage…
Chapter no. 2 begins….

Chapter 2 – Delhi Metro (Kashmiri gate to Railway station)

I reached at Metro station with my friends. KD purchased the tickets for station of metro near to railway station. My God, metro station was a huge one, which was making things tough for me due to one of my bags. It was quite heavy than usual because there was a Book in it called Genes by Lewin weighing quite a lot. This book was supposed to be read by us & was issued on my library card so I was carrying it.

In scientific terms, the pressure exerted by bag on my hands was high due to decrease in area of cross section that was induced by weight of that book.

LOL.

Coming back to station, it was equipped with technology & was having cleanliness that made it look like a foreign station. But my illusion was short lived because the crowd emitting from metro completely revealed it’s true identity - Indian.

In that situation of hurry, we boarded the wrong metro that was taking me in completely opposite direction. Then we left that metro at a station where it was possible to leave. The security guard standing at that station was a polite one. By rules we have to buy another coupon from that station. But he understood our true story & allowed us to use same coupon. So in this way I, with my two friends, reached at our end station. It was an exciting experience to travel on metro- Fully AC with perfect safety.

From that end station we just went to railway station from where 3^rd & longest step of journey was to begin.

Hmmm… I think it’s enough for now. I’ll write about last chapters of my journey in next post.

Bye

My tiring voyage..

Hello everybody,
Here I’m in computer center if IITG posting my 2nd post on my 1st blog.

My project is sucking all the time I have, but still I’m writing this. I’ll write about my project too in upcoming posts and this post will be concerned with my tiring voyage from Patiala to IITG ( but 1^st chapter only).

Lights

Camera

Action.

Here I go….

Chapter 1 - Bus Journey (Patiala to Delhi).

The date was set, tickets reserved, everything ok & at 6:50 am. I started for Delhi in a PRTC bus. I was accompanied by two of my friends – Kamaldeep (KD) & Amarpreet (AP). I was carrying 2 two bags. Tell u what bus was no way near comfortable but there were no choices. Overtaking most of vehicles bus was going at fairly high speed. What else should I mention about bus journey. Most of us had that experience. Those uncomfortable jumps, unintentional & unavoidable, were making my back feel worse.

A night before journey I had slept only for four & half hours because KD had came and we were using PC till 12:30 am. I was regretting that. The first 15-20 minute stoppage was at some sort of small bus stand (Not remembering where & at what time). It was refreshing a bit. Then at 10:48 we reached main bus terminal of Delhi.

I was told (by an uncle in bus) that metro from that bus terminal would be the best way to get at railway station.
So I started towards metro station named Kashmiri gate with my friends.

Here ends the 1^st chapter.
More about journey in subsequent posts…

Bye.

Hello

This is my first post on my this blog..
In subsequent posts i'll mention about my journey & lifr during summer training at IITG..

Till then bye...