A Long Weekend Getaway

When it comes to vacations, like everything else I must add, planning has never worked for me. The plethora of information on flights, hotels, packages and deals have always overwhelmed me whenever I tried to book a vacation. The date always got closer so I had to let my instinct take over, and that was how my wife and I started on the ride to Hyderabad Airport on 1^st of October 2015 for our 4 day long vacation to Ooty, Coorg and Mysore.

Jet Airways Web check-in

The flight to Bengaluru from Hyderabad is always a pleasant and easy ride clocking just under an hour. We reached at around 7 AM, to a nice clear weather and an eager looking man in a clean white shirt wearing a broad smile armed with a placard bearing our names. He told that it would take around 6 to 8 hours of ride to Ooty, which was just fine for both of us and we settled into our seats and caught up on some much needed sleep.

Spicejet Airlines

We had breakfast at a hotel of the driver’s choice in Mysore. He showed us the Mysore Palace from the vehicle, though I wanted to go in, he suggested that it will be better left to another day. We didn’t mind it a bit and resumed our sleep. When we woke up the wind was a bit chilly comparatively and we saw greenery all around. The car was traversing its way up on a hilly terrain and I don’t think I have ever seen such bends. The ride up the hill was quite thrilling and dangerous but the driver was obviously a skilled one and he maneuvered the terrain with skill and flair, while talking about the latest Kannada release Uppi 2. Incidentally he didn’t like the movie. I quipped that may be he didn’t get it. I certainly didn’t.

We reached Ooty around lunch time and checked into the hotel. The place was everything that I ever expected from a hill station, complete with chilly climate, unpredictable rains and a Coffee Day right below our hotel room. The places we visited were all standard issue check list stuff like the Botanical Garden, some waterfall whose name I can’t remember, an amusement park kind of place named Jurassic Park where they had imitation dinosaurs made of rubber and leather, but it was the small town ambience and the weather that we enjoyed the most. Unfortunately there was no Wi-Fi at our hotel so we had to retire early, not that I complained. In vacations the days start and end soon unlike my normal days in the cities.

The next day we woke up to more rain, but the driver was right at the entrance of the hotel so we checked out and rushed into the cab for more sightseeing around the Tea Gardens nearby Ooty. The best thing easily about the day was the raw mango slices we ate with a pinch of salt and chili powder, which were the best complements to the weather around. After lunch we told the driver to take the day off and walked along the roads of Ooty taking in the surroundings greedily, though the walk up the hills can sometimes catch you off breath.

Coorg beckoned the next day and the ride downhill from Ooty was another exciting way to spend the early morning from the cozy backseat of our cab driven expertly once again by our driver. His smile never wavered throughout the drive and he was always earnest and eager to suggest us places to eat and visit. We stopped at the Golden Temple at around 8 AM and what I saw was an astonishing sight that was etched in my mind till date. The 60 feet statues at the temple, the resounding conch shells, the exotic chanting were only to be savored and wondered at. I guess I was inside the temple for about an hour, sitting just by myself, marveling at the sight in front. It was a curious experience and unlike other famed Temples I visited, there wasn’t much crowd which made the visit even more peaceful.

Once we moved away from the hotel to the resort, we checked in and went in search of river rappelling which was on my mind for very long time. It didn’t take very long to reach the place but unfortunately rain decided to play spoilsport and the guy in charge of the task told us to wait till he gets another 5 members to start the rappelling. We waited again, first for the rain to abate and then for the other 5 members to join us. An hour passed and we were still at the river while none of the above 2 happened. Just when we were about to leave of exasperation, came another car driven by a group of guys from Mumbai for their bachelor party. Soon we were all dressed up and ready to go and none of us really cared about the rain.

The lifejacket that we were given made me feel somewhat invincible and when the driver stopped rowing and asked us to jump in the water, I was the first to take the plunge. It was a heavenly experience being suspended on water, allowing the tide to take me through. I didn’t know how to swim but the lifejacket took care of everything and ensured I had the time of my life. When we came back after 3 hours, the driver told us all the sightseeing spots would be closed by around 5 PM and we were left nothing to do for the rest of the evening, so we retreated to the resort to some French Fries, Onion Pakoras and Old Monk Rum, reminiscing on three days well spent.

The drive back from Coorg to Bengaluru Airport was a pleasant one, almost picturesque, and certainly quick. Our driver left us at the airport and after an hour of waiting, with content hearts we boarded the flight. Within minutes of landing in Hyderabad and sitting in a cab, we were surrounded by unruly traffic, loud horns, sweltering sweat, reality and life.  

 

Hop On and Shop On CondomBazaar.Com

Everyone has a condom story to tell. It is something they have heard, or they might have experienced themselves, or attributed it to happening it to a friend while narrating it with a playful glee. The stories are always interesting to listen to, though they may have been awkward or embarrassing for the person.

Buying a condom in India can be an amusing experience for the curious onlooker. The buyers come in all kinds, the ones who wait for the counter to be free so that the others don’t know what they are buying, the ones who murmur it in the ears of the vendor as if it was secret, and not to forget the guy who looks the other way when the vendor is packing it as if he doesn’t know what was going in the cover. Then there are that mischievous vendors who try to act all playful and wink at the buyer, who was busy trying to avoid that very act. Whatever be the case, everyone wants to get the whole ordeal done as fast as they can, so they will be able to move ahead to interesting times.

If there is one thing that every potential buyer of a condom wants to avoid, it is the process of buying the condom itself. As much an oxymoron as that sounds, there is enough research to support it, not that any discerning Indian would really want some random statistics thrown at him to prove something he already knows.

This is where the initiative to provide an online platform to buy the condoms to be delivered at your home, comes as a relief for every potential buyer. CondomBazaar.com provides the exact, easier and better alternative, and since it doesn’t even ask for the identity of the buyer and delivers directly to the doorstep, any prospective embarrassment, or awkwardness could be avoided.

The site is pretty easy to navigate and does provide you with condoms of every major brand and then some more. There is no dearth of options to choose from catering to the most private and personal needs that go into making an individual out of a person. The mode of operation itself, does not deviate very much from any of the usual e-retailers, and the packaging and transport are totally secure. The contents of the package are concealed and secured so that only the buyer is aware of what is in it.

Condombazaar.com is a great attempt to bring together the best of both worlds in utilizing the boom of e-retailing markets to address a curious problem that every one of us faces, creating an entity that is a product of imagination based on adequate market research. Being in business for more than 7 years, they know the in and out of the market, have the experience in delivering across all locations (which in itself is a major achievement in India given the geography of the country). To top everything, the site even features reviews by the users, some of which can quite be eye openers.

If reading so much about condoms had stirred the urge to try the site, do not resist it.

Happy Shopping from CondomBazaar.Com          

 

Airtel 4G - The Fastest Network Ever!

In the age of internet induced impatience, the thing which is on top of the priority list of almost every user is the speed with which he can browse. It presents a constant problem to the network providers and an opportunity for the best of them to take their services to the next level. As the advances in shooting, resolution and clarity of videos reinvent themselves every day in form of HD, Ultra HD, and 3D, the time an average user spends watching the video to load as it streams can be long and annoying if the speed isn’t up to the level. That is one of the reasons why ISPs tend to roll out newer generations of network to accommodate for the growing data usage of their users, and Airtel 4G seems to be another important step in that direction. 

The lingering image of a download for me is to click on the file and leave it for about 5-6 hours, and come back to check the progress. Not always it’s done which prompted me to curse within or leave the system for the day. While uploading any edited videos we were always conscious of the amount of time it took to upload high definition videos and in our eagerness to showcase our work, we always chose the upload in a lesser resolution so that the upload doesn’t take much time. Those days are going to be a thing of the past if Airtel 4G - The Fastest NetworkEver takes over. I hope so and I certainly expect this much from Airtel.

I was in US for an Onsite trip during 2012, and used the 4G services of one of the ISPs there and when Airtel brought out the 4G Network in India, I was more than happy and looking forward to it. Whether while travelling, or while watching a movie or a cricket match, I’d like to live tweet the event I’m in and Airtel 3G provided me the network to account for all my needs. So, there won’t be much hesitation for me in choosing their 4G services again, knowing they would suit my requirements all over again. 

Though, I wouldn’t mind paying for quality services it comes as a pleasant surprise that they are providing the 4G at 3G prices only. More icing on the cake, just the way I love it. Social Networks provide for the most advanced modes of advertisement and promotion and Airtel seems to use one of the most popular platforms, Twitter, to launch this campaign. We can get a 4Gs SIM card delivered to our home just by a tweet with hashtag #GetAirtel4G. How cool is that. It serves well for even lazy asses like me. The network is made available all over the nation across 296 cities, so your city most probably isn’t going to miss it, and so shouldn’t you.

My Favorite Phone

When I think of my favorite phone, among the ones I owned, used, saw, or heard about so far, the things which made it stand out amongst the others leave me with a satisfaction of having made the right choice in opting for that specific phone. With its state of the art, ultra slick design and make, it has been the cause of envy among my friends and colleagues, but what struck them the most was not just the look and feel of it. My phone also boasts of a silky touch screen, as sensitive and smooth as to provide me the exact amount of comfort in browsing web or shuffling across the apps.

Being the lazy soul that I am, I get irked when the battery of my phone drains out and I had to frantically search for a place to charge it. My favorite phone took good care of that and how. Now, I charge my phone only once in a day, and it runs along with me the whole day, even as I increased my data consumption. Having phone with a long lasting battery is like attending a meeting with all your presentations prepared a day in advance. You never have to worry about a thing.

The best thing however, according it me anyway, is its weight and its size. With all the features it provides me, I guessed it would weigh a kilo when I first learnt of it and was unable to believe the specification sheet when I saw its actual weight. I didn’t think there was a way to deliver everything it does with its negligible body weight, but after seeing, using and marveling at the phone, I had to concede, in amazement, to the veracity of the makers’ claims.

As a person who travels frequently and visits quite a lot of people, I would be invariably asked about suggestions for the phone, that’s smart, sleek, fun to use, efficient in the way it handles the data, without being too obtrusive a presence in the owner’s hands. I suggest them my favorite phone, which offers everything they always asked for, or waiting for, and then some more.

Surfing it All

In my school days I used to be an ardent follower of Cricket, even when we didn’t have a television at our home. On a Saturday, our Mathematics Teacher asked my friend and me to get some stencils for the school stationery, and we being the Cricket buffs that we are, sneaked for an hour to watch a match at a hotel. When we came back, our teacher asked us what the score was, and I blurted out it was 96 for 2, with as much enthusiasm as I could muster, assuming that he was actually interested in knowing the score. His expression turned serious and he gave us a solid thrashing after that incident, for absconding the school on a working day. 

With no mobiles, laptops or internet, the portable televisions mounted on 10 Ft. high tables in tiffin hotels were our only source of keeping track of Cricket matches, but the efforts never deterred us. As we grew up, life was easier at college where we faced no such problems knowing the score, heck we bunked even classes to watch Cricket. One particular incident I clearly recall was the Sydney Test of 2003, where I woke up early in the morning at 4 AM to catch Sachin scoring his century after a poor series he had thus far. I was never an early riser, but I surprised myself when I got up and promptly saw him scoring the hundred at a tea center near my room. He went on to score 241 that match, and needless to say that I bunked the college that day.

Graduating from college to corporate environment brought its own problems. We now had no scarcity of resources to track the score, but they had to be done in a discreet way, so as not to be found out by the superiors. So, it was mostly ESPNCricInfo that we kept open on another tab in our browser forever, so that whenever someone is approaching us, we used to Alt+Tab back to the application. Not that they didn’t know, but it was an unwritten code not to get caught watching cricket scores in office. 

However, during the 2011 World Cup, every such unwritten rule was broken when the entire nation was bathed in euphoria with every victory. The Quarter final between India and Australia was a ripper, and I was at the client location in New York at that time. Many of us asked for permission for that day off and were not given. When 5 wickets fell in our chase, people started having doubts. Some of us assembled near a desk far away from our managers, and started following the score on desktops and phones. With each run and boundary scored, some of us could not control ourselves and started screams of ecstasy. The word got out and soon everyone knew we wouldn’t be much productive that day anymore. 

On the big day of India vs Pakistan, our manager got a clue and talked to the client rep and got us all an off, to watch the matches at our home. We didn’t mind that he asked us to work on Saturday, and are only glad to nod our heads and yell our yays for the decision. With the advent of superior browsers on tablets, and smartphones the going is getting a bit easier these days, and thanks to the number of apps, whatsapp groups of Cricket Enthusiasts I joined, along with Facebook and Twitter timelines I’m aware of almost every single match being played around the world be it a County game between Essex and Warwickshire or a T20 game in Caribbean Premiere League played in the between T&T and Barbados Tridents.

***

This post is written for UC Browser http://www.ucweb.com/ which establishes a connection to UC Cricket.

Check out their video:

Ek Nayi League

The advent of the League Format in Sports, though not entirely original and has been a bit late in its arrival in India, has been a huge success, both with players and the audiences alike. It gave lot of opportunities to play the games the players loved, express themselves without any inhibitions and making a bit of money along their way to loud and vocal cheers and support from the audiences. The league format breathed fresh excitement into sports other than cricket like the Indian Badminton League, Pro Kabaddi to name a few. In short the League offers something for everyone. 

So, when Kapil Dev says he is planning a different league and invites celebrities and players as popular as Dhoni, Sania Mirza and Kapil Sharma to follow him on his twitter account and play in the “Ek nayi league” he was about to announce, it is natural to raise intrigue in people across the nation. So far Kapil has been holding his cards too close to his chest and not revealing anything. I followed his twitter account immediately after watching the videos, but still I’m left at guess work and my mind is going crazy with the possibilities around which the league can be centered in. 

Kapil Dev not only talks about the sport here, but also about the popularity and money it brings along with itself and how he never used to have so much money as the sport stars now a days command, which he says is a good thing and exactly how money should be spent on sports persons, coz they entertain on the ground, inciting each of us to cheer for them and feel for them in their ups and downs throughout the games they play and the careers they carve for themselves through their passion. 

Being a hugely popular, held in the highest esteem among many of Cricket lovers and general public in our country, the call to join the league coming from Kapil Dev would certainly entice all the people he tagged to follow him. Imagine if all of them join the league for a second and you can feel the excitement that Kapil has shown in his effortless demeanor befitting only a charming and skillful person of his stature. 

The league, for all the worth of my guess, should be a mix and match of all the sports and activities the chosen few were popular with. Something in the lines of Kapil Sharma(Bittu) facing an over of fast bowling from one of the bowlers, or Dhoni being asked to play Tennis along with Sania Mirza, or everybody playing the games they are not known for, and being competitive and having fun at it at the same time. The possibilities can be endless and the only thing for me to do, since my appetite is suitably and vigorously whetted, would only be to wait and follow Kapil Paaji’s twitter handle, which I already did. 

To know more about the league, keep checking the website of Ek Nayi League and follow Kapil Dev's Twitter Handle

5 Reasons Why ASUS Zenfone 2 is the Smartphone You Were Always Looking For

As smart as each one of the smartphones in the market, claim themselves to be, there are essentially some irksome time lags that creep into them over time, and the battery drains itself out more urgently as we keep on piling up the apps. The only way to counter these annoyances is to look out for that exact smartphone which gives you more than anything else, in terms of features. Something like ASUS Zenfone 2. So, here are the 5 reasons why I think this phone is the one I should buy next. 

·         Design: With the state of the art design, and an incredible metallic finish, the phone is pretty sleek and is all ready to please you before you can even explore it, but it has got more in store than just its cool design. For a fan of  movies and latest videos like me, the screen to body ratio of 72% is a great lure and when it is coupled with a 1920*1080 Full HD IPS Display, it almost seems unreal and fantastic. 

·         Weight: Most smartphones suffer under their own weight and one of the reasons why I won’t go for bulkier smartphones is that, I carry a huge bunch of keys and to add to that weight with another weighty gadget would be counterproductive. At 170g, this Zenfone 2 is like a godsend, and I can easily take off a lot from the weight I carry around me. 

·       RAM: It is unheard of, at least in smart phones, to have 4 GB RAM, probably coz there is no way a smart phone can use so much RAM, at least that’s what I always thought, but my own usage and the irritation I used to get when my phone hangs after being unable to cope up with all the apps that I use every day, I think the time has come for even smartphones to have more RAM. So, ASUS Zenfone 2 again has the solution, staring right at me.

·         Battery: Another annoying thing about smartphones is the backup of their batteries. Most phones claim to give backup close to 6 hours, promise to be charged up in around a couple of hours. The numbers that Zenfone 2 claims are really mouthwatering. It charges up to 60% in 39 minutes. That is as much time as I take to get ready before going to office, and I have a charged up smartphone in my hands to accompany in my ride. 

·         Camera: My smartphone has currently a 8 MP camera, and sometimes I need to use flash in the night to capture photographs. The flash can draw unusual and weird reactions from the subjects, making the photographs skewed. So when I saw that the Zenfone 2 has 13 MP camera, and also that I should not have to use Flash in the nights, and be promised of getting 400% better pictures in the night, do I really have to think too hard or too long, before going for it

So, what are your reasons not going for it?