My D80 is finally here!

My D80 is finally here and here are some snaps clicked from my balcony.

April 2009

Let me know your comments.

Bhadrachalam - Sri Rama Temple

We've been planning to visit Bhadrachalam for some time now but haven't been able to execute it. This Rebublic day weekend we finally made the trip. The plan was as follows -

1. Friday - Start from Pune in the evening.

2. Saturday - Reach Hyderabad in the morning. Spend time with Baba in Hyderabad and then travel together to Bhadraclam.

3. Sunday - Visit temple and the ITC Bhadraclam factory. Start back for Hyderabad in the evening.

4. Monday (Republic day) - Reach Hyderabad in the morning and start for Pune in the evening.

5. Tuesday - Reach Pune in the morning and return to the grind!

The temple is amazing and considered one of the holiest shrines in South India. We performed the "Golden Flowers" pooja at the temple after visiting Parnashala in the morning. It is customary to visit Parnashala first and then the temple. You can find all the details about this sacred pilgrimage site and temple at http://www.bhadrachalarama.org/

We also visited the ITC Bhadrachalam paper boards and speciality paper factory. http://www.itcportal.com/paperboards_specialtypapers/paperboards.html

Corporate awards – a big farce?

Corporate awards have lost their credibility in my eyes after the Satyam fiasco. For instance, just before Mr. Raju from Satyam brought to light the fraud that he along with the company promoters were perpetrating for years, they were awarded the Golden Peacock Award for Corporate Governance for 2008! I wonder what scrutiny the jury on this panel indulged in, if at all, to arrive at the winners from the list of nominees. I am sure same is the case with the other such awards. Enron and the other corporate giants that were hit with similar scandals would probably have received plenty such awards before they were exposed.

In my opinion, we should award companies like Satyam with a "Make" award. They successfully made fools of investors, customers and employees for several years. They were able to construct, formulate, manufacture, cook and put together a false enterprise in the public domain, in spite of all the checks and balances put in to stop just this kind of fraud. How many more years could they have carried on had they not confessed to it? Who knows?! They definitely deserve an award for keeping the fraud going year on year. The "Make" award would recognize an organization which successfully makes (a fool of) the system and its stakeholders. Successive awards would carry more weightage because that would mean the organization is really maturing at "making" their stakeholders and the world at large!

Alas, someone has beaten me to it. The "Make" award already exists for the corporate world! The meaning of the award and the reason it is awarded though is different. Search for it on the web! Now I'll have to hunt for another name for my award! J

Nikon D80 Digital SLR camera

After a lot of analysis and deliberation, I finally made up my mind to invest on a digital SLR camera. I currently own a film SLR camera, the Nikon N65 which I have found to be great and on which I have learnt a lot. However, the instant feedback provided by digital cameras is proving to be too much of a convenience to keep ignoring. Add to that the costs of developing and printing film versus the freedom to click as many as you want on digital. No wonder the world is switching over to digital. I have used a few digital point and shoot cameras and for the most part they provide all that you might need for day to day photography at home but a SLR is a SLR. The photography options available on a SLR and that on most point and shoot cameras can't even be compared. Plus you get to learn how to click great shots on SLR, which we can't really appreciate on a point and shoot. I own the following equipment already and so was on the lookout for a digital SLR that I could use with all of this.

1. Nikon 28-80mm f/3.3-5.6G Autofocus Nikkor Zoom Lens
   
2. Nikon 70-300mm f/4-5.6G AF Nikkor SLR Camera Lens
   
3. Nikon SB-600 Speedlight Flash
   

When I bought the Nikon N65 film SLR camera, I had done a lot of research on whether to buy a Nikon or a Cannon. My analysis said Nikon and since then I have been a loyal Nikon consumer and it has never disappointed me.

So, when I decided to buy a digital SLR, it obviously had to be a Nikon but I also wanted to ensure that I can use (or reuse) the equipment that I have already invested in. After the customary due diligence I settled on the Nikon D80. The most critical reason behind settling for this camera is the ability to use all the features of my existing equipment with this camera. The D80 has the built-in focus drive motor which will auto focus with my lenses. With cameras like the D40 or D60 that don't have an built-in focus drive motor, it would mean that you can auto focus only with lenses which have their own drive motor (AF-S and AF-I lenses). I also like the impressive 2.5" 230,000 pixel LCD display on the camera and the 11-area AF system.

You can check all the features and analysis of this camera here. I think this site, www.dpreview.com, is one of the best sites dedicated to digital photography. There are lots of details available on all digital cameras and their analysis is amazing. I also referred to www.kenrockwell.com, which I think is also a good site that provides a wealth of information on photography.

I got a pretty good deal on Abe's of Maine, www.abesofmaine.com, and now await the camera to reach me. I am sure there will a lot more on photography on my blog once my D80 comes home!

1st Anniversary

It's been a year now since I started my blog. This was the first paragraph I wrote on January 1, 2008.

I have been thinking about maintaining a blog and thought to use the New year day as an opportunity to start it. I hope I will be able to "maintain" it and it wont end up being a one time thing. There really are a lot of topics to write about, from work related topics to writing about parenting (since I am a brand new father), to writing about my interests and other thoughts. The challenge I think is to keep it going since the interest and energy levels probably wane off once the initial excitement dies down.

Honestly, I think I have only been partially successful at keeping the blog going. What has been a challenge is blogging regularly. There were a total of 40 posts in the year. 31 of these came in the first half of the year! That may also have been due to the fact that I moved to a new location and unit in June last year and the work has been really hectic as one would expect in a new unit with really aggressive targets to achieve.

Anyway, enough excuses and let me get back to regular blogging this year.

Ahan's new blog

I've started a new photo and video blog to track Ahan growing up. Visit Ahan's blog here.

Cash for Votes - UPA Exposed

I am watching this live program on CNN IBN channel about the Cash for Votes issue and it is amazing how Amar Singh is still in office and the UPA government in power after such an expose! It is quite evident from the video footage that the three BJP MPs were offered money by Sanjeev Saxena on behalf of Amar Singh of SP.

More on Tapes of Cash for Votes here.

What a day!

Saina Nehwal beat the fourth seed, Chen Wang of Hong Kong to enter the Quarter finals of the Olympics. She played brilliantly to beat the higher ranked player, 21-19, 11-21, 21-11 in 52 minutes.

What a day it is turning out to be for India!

She now has a pretty good chance of making it to the Semi-finals as she plays an unranked player Maria Kristin Yulianti of Indonesia who upset the sixth seed Tine Rasmussen of Denmark. Saina, if she wins the next game will then probably have to face the second seed, Ning Zhang of China.

Tune in for more updates from the Olympics!

India’s First Individual Gold Medal in the Olympics!

Abhinav Bindra, that's a name that created history today at the Beijing Olympics. He becomes India's first sports person to win an individual Gold medal at the Olympics, EVER! What an achievement!!

Abhinav claimed the Gold medal in the Men's 10m Air Rifle. Bindra shot a total score of 700.5. He did it in style too, soaking up all the pressure and delivering when it mattered most. Going into the last shot, Bindra and Hakkinen (bronze medal winner) were tied for first place, but Bindra secured the gold medal with his best shot of the final, an outstanding 10.8. Way to go, Abhinav!

Here is a photo of the hero! Read more details here.

The Olympics start today!

The 2008 Olympic Games start today in Beijing. The games will last till August 24, 2008. It's going to be an exciting few weeks from now till the end of the games. There are going to be some amazing clashes…FedEx vs. Rafa, US basket ball team vs. Chinese BB team, Mark Phelps going for 8 gold medals (will be a record if that happens), Brazil vs. rest of the world in soccer, I could go on. From an India perspective games to lookout for would be shooting, tennis and badminton.

India has sent a 57-member contingent and its support staff of 42! Gone are the days however of the Indian hockey team dominating the Olympics. In fact, if you leave out the exploits of the Indian hockey team, India has done miserably at best in the Olympic Games. We have managed to win all of 1 silver and 3 bronze medal's since 1928! The Hockey team has won us 8 gold, 1 silver and 2 bronze medals since 1928.

There are 302 medals each (gold, silver and bronze) to be won at the 2008 Olympics. Let's hope we do better than our current strike rate!

Independence Day in Hyderabad

The car's (Santro) NOC will finally be done and available around the 14^th of August. All of us are going to be in Hyderabad this Independence Day to spend time with Baba. There are a few things to close from the movement perspective as well and the weekend will be spent in that.

Discussion right now is around how to get the car to Pune from Hyderabad? Do we drive it down here or get it moved through packers and movers in a truck. The distance is about 548 kms (good site to check distances between two cities in India, http://www.mapsofindia.com/distances/) so driving down is quite feasible.

Using MS Word to Blog

This is a test blog posted from within Microsoft word. One of the templates provided in Word 2007 is for Blogs. You can type up the blog in word and publish it from within word itself. You can configure the blog server that you use. Let's see how this works!

Other features include being able to edit previously published blogs. You can also have multiple accounts setup. Pretty cool I think. One feature that I am still trying to locate is tagging.

Lesson learnt from my son

Ahan is growing up fast and learning new things everyday. However, the other day I learnt a very important lesson from him - firmness of purpose.

Once he sets his mind on something, he does everything possible to get it. I've tried putting obstacles in his way, putting it way out of his reach, moving the target or him when he has almost reached his target. No matter what happens, no matter how many times he has to start over, he almost always puts in all his effort to get what he want.

I think there is a very important lesson to learn there. Perseverance and determination win over any and all obstacles.

My new mobile phone - HTC Touch

I lost my Motorola mobile and so was on the lookout for a new mobile phone. I was looking for a smart phone and the comparison was between the Apple iPhone and the HTC Touch. I checked out the comparison between the two phones on various sites and settled on the HTC Touch.

Official site for the phone is here.

Here is an excellent comparison of the HTC Touch and Apple iPhone.

Moved to Pune

We all moved to Pune around end of May. I had applied for an Internal Job Posting for a new unit in December and got the job. Release took some time due to commitments. Life has been really busy since, partly due to the moving and partly because of the work in the new unit, so I haven't been able to blog regularly.

Leg 2 – Praveen’s Wedding and the drive back to Mangalore

The morning was spent catching up. Rajini fixed us a breakfast of bread and omelet with hot tea. The plan was to start from Mangalore after lunch. Praveen’s parents also stay in Mangalore and the groom to be was in town so Randhir and I paid him a quick visit. Praveen looked his usual calm and composed self.
Rajini’s brother along with some of his friends were expected around lunch time. They were stopping en route from Mumbai. Their plan was to drive down to Cochin, a total distance of about 1,500 odd kilometers! It reminded me of my days in the states when we used to drive such fantastic distances. Anyway, lunch was finally had at around 3pm and anyone who has had Rajini’s food will agree that some sleep is in order afterwards. We just lazed around. Hours came and went by and yet we had not started for Honnavar. The distance of about 180km or so was to take about 4 hrs, as some part of the road was not good. We were going to do it in Randhir’s car. Meanwhile Praveen had already started for Honavar and kept calling and checking with us on whether we had started and we kept saying we would start in a bit. The hour finally arrived at 11pm! Don’t ask why and how, but we decided we would start that same day. The drive we peaceful or should I say the sleep was peaceful. I managed to stay up for only about an hour and then dozed off. You could hear snores from the back seats and Randhir was the only one awake (thank God for that). He woke us all up at 3am in the morning to announce that we were finally at the Hotel. Praveen had taken care of the bookings and we just had to check in and sleep, again. We all obliged.
We all got up hungry and headed down for a quick breakfast of Mude Idly’s, wada’s, and dosa’s. After a quick shower we all headed to the venue of the wedding.
The wedding hall was quite unique in that it was a cinema theater converted into a wedding hall. We were unable to secure any seats in the stalls but were only too happy to be seated in the Balcony! We were just in time for the ceremony and it was good to see the couple. They look very good together. After a sumptuous lunch served on banana leaf we headed back to the hotel to check out and start on our way back to Mangalore.
There were quite a few places to see on the way back and we had to choose what we wanted to see. We decided to stop at Murudeshwar. There is an amazing temple of Lord Shiva here. The idol of Shiva is huge and the temple entrance is magnificent. “Size matters” is put to the best use here. You are overwhelmed by the sheer size and beauty of the idol and the temple entrance. To make things more scenic its right next to the sea on the beach! Words cannot do justice to the location and the temple so I’ll just let you go through the photos instead. Check out all the photos here.
We reached Mangalore around 10pm and headed for the Royal Treat restaurant to have dinner. Their Biryani was certainly unique. I’ve never had white biryani (the color of the rice is white, not the usual yellow). It certainly was yummy. Meanwhile, Randhir was calling his contacts in Mangalore to arrange for a cab for us for our trip. We decided on having a car with us round the clock instead of taking a bus to Madikeri and depending on the local transport for sight seeing around the area. Fortunately a Chevy Tavera was available and we asked him to report at 9am the next morning to commence the next leg of our vacation. That brought an end to another wonderful day. And yet, our entire trip to Coorg still lay ahead of us.

Leg 1 - Trip to Mangalore

Geeta and Ahan were already in Bangalore and I took the 7pm Bangalore express from Hyderabad on the 25th. The train journey was pleasant and the train was on time. I reached Bangalore in the morning and we had our train to Mangalore to catch at around 8:30pm that evening. Packing was quick as most of the stuff had been packed and brought along from Hyderabad. We chose the train as Ahan wouldn’t sit in one place and so bus was not a viable option. We had booked through Tatkal as the plan was pretty last minute (also getting tickets through the regular quota is pretty difficult). Unfortunately though we couldn’t get any AC tickets and were left holding sleeper class tickets. As expected it was hot and humid as we neared the coast. Geeta and Ahan were sleeping on the upper berth and Ahan was not getting too much cool air I think. He got up in the middle of the night due to the heat but slept well when I put him to bed on the lower berth with the windows open. However, that meant I had to stay up to watch over him and it gave me an opportunity to test out the new Chess software I had loaded in Geeta’s mobile phone. Playing chess and listening to music simultaneously made 2 hrs pass by without any problem and when sleep finally got unavoidable I moved him to the upper berth with Geeta and slept.

We were greeted in the morning by these breathtaking views of the Western Ghats. I had heard a lot about the scenic routes all along Konkan Railway, but seeing is believing. Here is a shot of the train trudging along in the morning mist of the ghats. It got really uncomfortable as we approached Mangalore though. The heat is not so much a problem as is the humidity. The constant sweating is what makes you really uncomfortable. To add to it, the train was running late and we finally reached Managlore all of 2 hrs late at 10am in the morning. Randhir and the kids were at the station to receive us and it was wonderful to see them after all this time. The last time we had met was when they had visited us in Bangalore about 15 days after Ahan was born.

Vacation at Coorg

We just got back from a much needed break in the hills of the Western Ghats, at Coorg. Praveen was getting married on the 28th of April in Honnavar, Karnataka and it was Rushil’s 8th and Rushab’s 2nd birthday on the 2nd and 3rd of May. With the holiday on the 1st, taking off for the remaining 4 days in the week made a lot of sense. Also, Geeta has been wanting to go on a holiday for some time now and this seemed like the opportune moment. Well, it couldn’t have been time better spent, in the company of friends and nature. I had also promised some photographs from the new camera phone, so here goes, a day by day account of the entire trip with lots of photos.

Twinkle twinkle little star...

Game shows have taken over the TV prime time slots these days. From "Kon banega crorepati" (Hindi version of who wants to be a millionaire) to "Bol baby bol" to "Kya aap panchive pas se tez hein", everyone seems to be asking questions. Better than the soap operas I say. They at least make you think. Here is a question that probably everyone must have asked as a kid. I am not sure how many of us know the correct answer though.

"Why do stars twinkle?"

Now, be honest and try to answer it without asking someone or searching for the answer. You can use the comments link to drop in your answer. The correct answers can suggest a topic on which I will post a blog or send in their questions or comments which I can post on this blog.

Sony Ericsson K810i

Geeta's old mobile stopped working so we were on the lookout for a new phone. Requirements were -

1. Decent Camera & Flash - atleast 3 MP as she would need to click lots of snaps of Ahan. Also flash was a must as there would be a lot of situations where the snaps will be taken in insufficient light conditions.
2. FM Radio & MP3 player - must have again as both Geeta and Ahan love to listen to music and it provides a good means of TP.
3. Speaker Phone - required as for Ahan to listen to music it will have to be played on the speaker phone.
4. Video & audio recording - required to capture those amazing moments with Ahan.
5. Bluetooth - must these days
6. Stylish and new - Obviously, if a girl is going to use it!

After a lot of comparison we chose the Sony Ericsson K910i. Its a new model and we got it in a nice color, especially for the ladies! It has a 3.2 MP camera (cybershot) with Xenon flash and all the other features that we were looking for. We compared this phone against the Nokia N73 and Music Express phones and W910i by Sony Ericsson.

Here is a link to check out all the technical details of the phone.
http://www.gsmarena.com/sony_ericsson_k810-1839.php

We are very happy with the phone. The screen clarity is good, the phone is light and nice to hold and easy to operate. No issues what so ever with the software or anything other thing. The camera and flash are superb (one of our most important reasons to go for this phone, due to the cybershot brand name). It came with a 2GB card.

I will post some of the photographs taken with it and more updates in the days to come.