बेटी बचाओ देश बचाओ

I am wondering about the thought which went into the small ad that is displayed at the back of this Maruti Omni!

Now the ad is about losing weight! with a money back guarantee! and there is a small "Public Message" which says "बेटी बचाओ देश बचाओ " meaning "Save the daughter, Save the Country!".

I am struggling to find a connection between the two! Something about this is not right, but I am not able to point out what is wrong!

And another Omni, this time full of people like luggage in it!

Enjoy your no frills experience !!!

I call that rude, maybe some people would call it a to the point, matter of fact experience when it comes to flying domestic in this country!!!

In both the flights AA and US Airways, I think the attitude of the staff was very indifferent... and honestly I am starting to love even the low cost airlines in India only for the sheer fact that they talk to you properly... One lady in my last flight from MSP to Phoenix was sweet, but the rest of them... well let me not comment about them at all...

Found it very strange that you have to buy a headset in case you want to listen to music ( actually I did not realise that I could use my own headset too) and that you have to buy food on the flight... even though I am paying some $270 bucks one way on that 3.5 hours flight... on second thoughts I should not be complaining as I had seen in the news a few days back that because of the high oil prices most of the flights are running in losses... they are not making a single dollar earning, on the contrary have a loss of anything between $500 - $1000 per flight... But I am a customer; I should get what I am paying for!!! In double minds about this complaint right now!!!



Also it might be just me who is feeling this, but I usually get a second look because I am an Asian... there are not many that I have seen in places I have been to in the last two weeks of my stay in the US... honestly, I am still to start liking this country except for the fact that my camera equipment is cheaper here...

So this weekend I am in Phoenix... the oven city ( that’s what I am calling it) the temperature is around 105 degs Fahrenheit which is only 40deg Celsius, but because its dry, it feels as if my body is sitting in a Tandoor... already having a bad headache today and I have another two days left here, and all this when I have survived the 45degs in Delhi... i am going to avoid this sudden change of temperature from my room to outside and then back into office tomorrow.. How!! Not yet sure of yet!!!

Ok enough of cribs... here are few good moments from my flight!!! I am going to try and enjoy the rest of my weekend, hope you do too!!!

Input - Output

The apples were a little too red to be real... I thought I should keep a record :)

Jelly always makes a nice object to click :) and eat of-course :)

And the Yummo Coldie Coldie Custard... Fulll of Stuff and Taste !!!!

Is it Saturday or Sunday !!! I think Sunday !!!

Its a fact that dealing with someone else's issues can be a burden for us individuals more often than not... Over a period of time, we gather more issues that we can ourselves handle, our work, our individual lives, our own social circle (however big or small that is) and ityadi ityadi... and to add to those if someone comes and starts talking about his/her own issues when you are least interested, it only irritates you more !!! Its advisable to be practical and deal with your own issues instead of expecting someone to listen, understand or for that matter even care about it!!!

Having said that, let me digress from the topic for my own selfish reasons...

It was kinda interesting driving for no reason yesterday night... I was under speed limits, driving in proper lanes, listening to my favorite (well for the benefit of not having the real favorites, lets call the current ones favorites) songs, and just being !!!

Finally reached Arobindo's place and stayed put there... Helped !!!

The second fridge at Aro's place, now being used as a repository for Music and Video.. The perfect energy savers !!!

Woke up on time, slept again... went out for another drive :) and this time on the new 6 gear, two wheel Hercules Bike we had recently bought for him !!! and Aro here won a contest of sorts !!! of having more gears with him !!!

Pretty hot outside, but the spirits were as high as the temperature to ride the bike...

My car has just 5 :( and his cycle has 6 !!! Darn !!! I lost !!! But never mind, for some reason he has decided to treat me to Dessert Course in a 5 Star next Saturday. Wonder what got into his mind, but I don't really mind till I get to eat !!! Suggestions please !!!

Later I added all my car + Bike + scooter Gears and tried to win the contest back, but I still lost as he said that we were now talking about maximum gears in one vehicle !!! Darn again ! Never mind !!!

Critical Balance...

I also have a dim-dimata hua thought around cycling which would take me from Delhi to Vrindavan or maybe beyond on Cycles some day !!! It needs to turn into reality soon.... It sure will...

This cycle was there at the shop where we got the tyre pressure fixed...

I left post afternoon as he was having his team lunch at his place, and I was in no mood to speak much !!! On my way back, I again was driving around randomly... enjoying the Delhi roads at my own pace... My car is running out of fuel and I should have taken a specific route to reach the pump, but I don't know why I went into the other direction and forgot all about the fuel !!! Cha !!! never mind... I took a pit stop at India Gate to make a few new friends... Let me introduce them to you before I finito the post !!!

A vendor at the India Gate...

I kinda liked that tree on the bike :) This is when Pankaj decided to jump in and added life to my picture :) very naughty guy !!!

With friends around, its difficult to make a portrait :)

But we can still manage something :)

And the whole gang here ... Pankaj, Kuldeep, Subhash and a few more :)... They sell variety of stuff at the India Gate... do say a hi when you see one of them sometime :)

Every wanted to be in the picture :) and Pankaj as usual at his naughty best !!!

And sincere thanks to Indian Ocean, Sukhvinder Singh, KK, and a few more to be with me throughout !!! :P


Oh... I am getting out of Delhi tonight !!! any suggestions? So far I have just thought of reaching the ISBT and taking a bus towards somewhere !!!

I am Printed :)

Absolutely nothing can take away the charm of Printed pictures... This was the second time I got a few prints ( 20+ actually) and I am really really happy with the results...


I recommend clicking on the picture above for a larger view... You might just like it better... Even if you don't, thanks for a visit :)

A To Do and Done list...

Things to do when you are not too well :

1. Go out and spend time doing something that takes your mind away from the sickness !!! like I did... went out with the DFC gang ( about 20 of them is what I counted :), there could be more)

The Camera Party...

Mon and Sonu at the Fort...

I am not very comfortable being clicked... but your logic just does not work at times...

So the sunday morning well spent @ Tuglaqabad fort... followed by a session of Hindi Scrabble at the Saket Barista !!!

Nandita, Arun and Japs...

Monika and Sonu again...

The ladies in the DFC... Concept : Sonu; clicked by Me...

I am not too fond of Chocolate, but for some reason I don't mind having it these days...

Thoughts going into the game of Hindi Scrabble @ Barista Saket...

Absolute fun... its only when I was back that I realized how low on energy I was...

2. A couple of short and long naps during the day

3. Buy a Cycle ! Yes... I bought a cycle, A Hercules MTB; 6 gears, and drove it to home through the small streets enjoying the zip, while Aro, the actual owner of the new cycle followed me in a car :D

4. Be; Do what you like, what makes you feel better, and try and not feel too bad about things around !!!

5. Buy pearl necklaces for Mom...

6. Meet someone who without any selfish interest says something about you that makes a lot of sense... and then says it about Aro, and leaves us speechless !

7. Fight with one of your best friends over smallest of things like why is it that he cannot sit properly while eating, and why he has to laugh when you are feeling so low

8. Discuss Hitler, Jews, Kite Runner, Red Bands (Read Ray Bans), and lots more !!!

9. Hope for a great day the next day !!

and did I mention that I got clicked too :) here is a picture clicked by a dear friend... Though I am not very happy with my expressions here, but I love the presentation and the details !!!
You might want to check some more of her work HERE.

The Jungle Kilometres and back to Jabalpur....

Me and Aro talk a li'il too much when there is no walking around to do... and that means that we sleep late... and we did... Even after more than 24 hours of non stop journey, we still had some time and energy left to argue, get into some last minute fights, plan for the next trip, the next day, and then slept away to glory around midnight....

We had filled in the forms the previous night to enter the park so did not have much to do in the morning except wake up on time, have a quick cup of tea, and rush to the gypsy which was ready to rock and roll... Manoj was our driver, and he looked like a pretty quiet fella, and he turned out to be one lost character too... too bad, but never mind...

Good Morning Kanha :)

So we were at the Kisli Gate around 0600 hrs, the main gate had already opened, and we were let in quickly... 3 kms later was the main gate of the park, which is where a route and an essential guide is assigned to the gypsy.... Our park guide for the day was Dinesh Kumar Soni... a young but enthusiastic fella... was ok with admitting that he was in the second layer of the guides, but this enthu and nature made up more than enough for some lack of knowledge... not that we were taking notes anyway...

The road leading inside the Kanha National Park through the Kisli Gate...

Kanha is full of Saal Trees... and here is a small point of view about Saal..

Sau Saal Khada
Sau Saal Pada
Sau Saal Sada

Saal Tree

Stands for 100 yrs, lies does for another 100 and takes 100 more to decay...

This is the same tree, wood from which was used to make a base for the railway lines sometime back, which is now replaced by concrete and iron...

Dinesh Kumar Soni, our guide on day 1

Manoj Kumar, our Driver...

So we moved around the park on the route number 10 looking at animals, trees, dust, listening to many birds stopping and moving and stopping and moving...

Barahsingha and the Spotted Deer...

Sambhar

A Spotted deer shooing a Peacock away... A chase of its own kind... was pretty interesting...

The Indian Gaur (Bison)

In the center of the park (The Kanha Side) we took a break, had breakfast and also registered for the Tiger Show... At a fee of 100 rs. per head you are taken to a spot where tiger is seen, and then you climb the elephant back and go into the bushes to have a face to face with the jungle CAT....

Shooting with straight steady hands...

And with Steady Legs too...

Gypsys parked inside the Park; This is where we registered for the Tiger Show... The wait at times can be a couple of hours long...

We did too... and when I saw the tiger, I was hoping that he does not look at me, because I could sense the attitude in his eyes and I was having mixed feelings of excitement, fear, nervousness etc etc... but it was really sad to see how the Elephants were made to chase the tiger to make sure people who have paid get to see the tiger... and this poor animal only kept running around to avoid the crowd.. but then how can we step back... we are known to bully when the other person is backing off... so all the gypsy drivers, the 4 mahauts were after this poor guys life... I only wonder what would happen if the TIGER decides to charge... on second thoughts, this tiger show is generating a lot of revenue for the park which I feel is essential, and is also helping the park give employment to loads of local people around.... I feel a balance is what needs to be made though, these wild cats needs their space and independence and should not be bothered like I saw... it hurts...

Does this one need a caption?

People waiting for the tiger to show up... This is near the tiger show spot...

Our Safari finished by 1200 hrs, and we were back in the resort by 1230 hrs... all covered in dust, the first thing I noticed when I entered the resort was the swimming pool... and I knew what I was going to do next... so a rushed walk to the room, and a even more rushed walk to the pool... and 45 minutes of fun... Even managed to have the hippo who walks like an elephant to take a bath in the pool... And Aro loved it too :D

Much needed Sprite after the Safari...

And Tea...

Had some real good lunch and slept but not before we planned to get up around 1600 hrs to take a hike into the jungle to a few nearby villages... but we managed to wake up only by 1530 hrs and obviously the plans to walk around were to be canceled...

Some wild flowers inside the Jungle

At tea, we met Mr. Pramod Singh who manages Foreign traffic to Kanha and is a active member of loads of wildlife clubs and has been an avid trekker himself... He also suggested that he could join us for the safari next morning, which did sound like a good idea...

We had tea and got talking to a few people around the resort, one of which was a driver called Dilip, the elder brother of Manoj... Dilip had been around for a while, and that small 30 minute conversation with him was full of many interesting stories about the tigers and other wild cats making rounds of places... it was a very very interesting half hour of the trip... and then he suddenly decided to give us a night safari, and we left the resort around 1900 hrs... and kept driving around till 2130 hrs in the dark... did not see many animals but the sky was obviously wonderful, and the dark interesting...

Were finally back and decided to eat quickly and call it a day, to wake up early and be the first in the queue. Told Mr. Singh that we would be ready by 0515 hrs...

So next morning we indeed were ready by 0515 hrs, and left only to realized that we were a li'il too early for the gates to open... We still were the 3rd gypsy in the queue, filled the forms and managed to reach the main Kisli gate around 0545 hrs... I think the route number today was 14... Manoj was at his lost best, and the guide even though knew a lot, was put off by a few remarks made by Mr. Pramod when we started the safari...

Mr. Pramod Singh... a very knowledgeable man and a avid trekker...

Highlights of the day were Bisons, some spotted deer, the barking deer, and some foreigners with loads of 1Ds and L Series lenses... I think that group of 4 had 2 EOS 1D each loaded with L series lenses of different focal lengths... phew !!!

Tall Saal Trees around the jungle...

Barking Dear oops... Deer :P

Langoors eating Soil... Don't ask me why... I did, and I was told they like it... Yes, it was Soil and not insects in it...

The second day, Aro and me agreed was more or less of a waste in the jungle... and I guess to compensate we ate like wild animals at lunch... whoever said that eat light when you are traveling may please go to HELL :D

The Mahauts in the Jungle... you can see a bag with a Walky Talky used to communicate the location of the Tiger for the Tiger Show

so a stomach full as full is, and a body not ready to move, we checked out of the Mogli Resorts and rushed to catch the 1330 hrs bus, but only to realize that it had already left... and the next bus was about an hour later...

This bus ride was also very interesting as expected...

A Baby Parrot called Mitthu by everyone who saw him in the bus...

Mitthu eating some Chana out of the hands of his caretaker in the bus... he would happily sleep when the bus was moving, and make loads of noise when it stopped... Cute Kiddie he was...

We changed the bus at Mandla again, which reach Jabalpur around 2000 hrs with one pitstop at Narainkunj...

A quick pitstop before Mandla... interesting air blown Angithi at a Tea Shop there...

Mandla : Local Cinema Poster Man...

Pitstop @ Narainkunj (About 40 kms from Mandla)

So here we were in Jabalpur, with an open plan... we could stay back in Jabalpur and go to Duandhar the next morning and then move to Piparia and to Pachmadi (where we planned to stay for the next two days) or we could go to Piparia straightaway and go to Pachmadi the next morning... we knew that Piparia was about 4 hours away by train and decided to take the Overnight express (Jabalpur to Bhopal; leaves Jabalpur @ 2300 hrs and reaches Bhopal at 0615 hrs)...

We check the availability and then moved to the booking clerk (with the train number this time) who suggested that we could take the ticket from the counter at the station itself in about an hours time... This is when Aro realized that he had dropped his mobile and we rushed to the bus stand only to search the bus without any success... not too good an incident, but we could not really do much about it... so we let it be...

Came back to the station, took the tickets for the overnight, and then asked one of the guys at the counter about a decent place to have dinner and he was kind enough to walk us to the restaurant... We had our food without much talking as we were pretty tired and were only waiting for the clock to strike 11...

We finally boarded the train, and found out that the train leaves Piparia at 0230 hrs which was definitely not a convenient time to reach any new station... but the thought of doing something of that sort was exciting enough for us to change our minds anyway... and so we slept... only to be woken up by the kind hearted TC at 0130 hrs ( so about an hour and half of sleep) because the train had already reached Piparia...

We quickly walked out of the coach thinking that the stoppage was quick there, but looks like the train reached there well before time and was only waiting to leave at its scheduled time... so we sat on the platform bench, thinking if we should sleep on the platform itself ( which honestly did NOT seem to be a bad idea) or walk around and find a hotel... after a lousy cup of tea, some odomos rubbing on the arms to avoid the killer mosquitoes, and some serious thinking later we decided to walk around the town to find a hotel for ourselves :)

Chai Ki Dukaan @ Piparia Station

It did turn out to be a very good idea because it did not take us much hardships to find a decent, rather more than decent Alka Hotel with an AC room for 400 bucks a night... its a different story that i twisted my ankle bad enough to almost scream in pain in the middle of a desert lane in a town which was sleeping silently at that hour :)

Piparia Station from the Overbridge; You can also see the Overnight Express in the left

So here we were... Piparia, Hotel Alka, Room number 203, AC on.. and a TV and we talking again.. God when would these conversations finish... I don't know when I slept and when Aro did, or who slept first... all I remember is waking up the next morning, all fresh and happy happy...

............................................................

Now some travel information

Safari Costs:
900 per gypsy (Morning Safari; 0600 hrs to 1200 hrs)
700 per gypsy( Evening Safari; 1600 hrs to Sunset about 2 hours usually)
Entry per gypsy : Rs. 650 (500 entry charges + 150 guide fees)
Gates open 0600 hrs in the morning
Approximate per night expenditure in Kanha : Rs. 1200 per head to 1800 per head depending on the place you are staying in...
Kanha to Mandla : Rs. 36
Mandle to Jabalpur : Rs. 50
Jabalpur to Piparia ( 3rd AC ) : Rs. 300 something...

To Do:
Carry water
Carry Dust Brush
Cover Your Camera to save it from the dust when you are not using it
Enjoy the jungle and the sounds ( They are more then enough to make you fall in love with the place)
Ask questions (thats what the guide is there for)

Do Nots
Avoid Changing lenses ( Carry two cameras instead)
Avoid throwing stuff on the road or walking on the road except the designated areas
And blah and blah and blah...

.....................................................

What happens the day we wake up in Piparia is pretty interesting... and I am happy it happened the way it happened... so watch this page for more...

Till then... ROAR !!!!