Peru's Blog

Drive through Sichuan roads...

2011-12-23T21:08:00.004+08:00

Drive through Sichuan roads... a small video compilation of roads in Sichuan province from my previous China trips...

Total Lunar Eclipse

2011-12-17T12:25:00.004+08:00

The total lunar eclipse that occurred in Dec 2011. The last such astronomy marvel until the next one in 2014.

Tea House

2011-08-16T22:20:00.005+08:00

iPhone display message

2011-06-23T14:07:00.003+08:00

Intelligent Explorer - IE

2011-05-04T22:15:00.004+08:00

How? Let's take an example with Google site (try with any other or even complex URL as well). While the full address is 'http://www.google.com', omit the first letter 'h' and input 'ttp://www.google.com' in the address bar.

Result? While all other major browsers including Chrome, Firefox and Safari throw "Unable to recognize the address or 'ttp:' protocol" message, only IE opens up the Google page.

Ofcourse, it's as simple as to automatically prefix the missing 'h' in the URL that begin with 'ttp:'. But isn't it nice to see that IE can handle even such simple things?

Cool!!

Ken & Esther to climb Everest...

2011-04-03T12:28:00.009+08:00

As most of you know that I keep track of the happenings on the great Mt.Everest every peak season out of my huge passion for the mountain, I've got a special reason to do so this year. My good friends and Mt.Chola expedition mates Kenneth Koh and Esther Tan are all set to begin their two months long expedition to Everest this spring season. Both of them are climbing from North side (Tibet) and when they finish that successfully they would become the first Singaporeans to do so from North side.

To say a few words about them, Kenneth is an adventurer, freelance writer, photographer and an ex-pilot from a reputed airlines in Singapore while Esther, who works in Singapore Navy, is also an adventurer, athlete and one of the top finishers of her grade in the recently held Aviva Iron Man 70.3. Looking at their hard works, trainings and determination, I'm sure they deserve all the good wishes on their attempt.

Good luck both Ken & Esther.

Super 8 - Trailer

2011-03-29T00:50:00.002+08:00

Eagerly waiting for it's release in June 2011!!

Earth Hour 2011

2011-03-25T20:08:00.009+08:00

Earth Hour 2011 - 8:30 PM, Saturday 26 March, 2011

It may look crazy to switch off lights just for an hour in a year. In today's fast moving life, we are surrounded by electrical and electronic stuffs every here and there. Mobiles, TVs, PCs, ACs, music systems, fridge, washing machine and the list goes on. We have been contributing everyday much towards the carbon emission in one way or the other. Result? Heat is getting trapped in the atmosphere, warmness is increasing, climate is changing and the Earth is heading towards disasters.

This Earth Hour is an opportunity for us to realize the importance of nature and the environment. Each one of us has to understand our responsibilities towards the Earth and contribute something constructive from our part. Remember that Earth Hour is only an event to create awareness among people. Switching off the lights for this one hour alone will not help. We can and MUST do even beyond that. Many of us have already been doing that even before the very concept of Earth Hour was initiated. So continue your good work and spread to others.

Btw, there is a page called BEYOND THE HOUR where you can post your action in few words or see what others have posted about saving environment.

This action is one of the few contributions towards the environment from my side. Just go and take a look on what people have posted and what you can do.

indian skies

2010-12-30T00:05:00.000+08:00

Mount Chola or Que'er Shan basecamp

2010-11-25T22:36:00.002+08:00

Drawing - Singapore Skyline

2010-09-27T22:07:00.002+08:00

UNSTOPPABLE - trailer

2010-09-24T00:42:00.003+08:00

Wow! Another wonderful fast paced movie releasing in Nov. That's Cool!!

Rupee Font

2010-07-21T22:25:00.008+08:00

While it may take months for the new Rupee symbol to appear on the keyboards due to involved technical procedures like Unicode Consortium approval, etc., the Rupee font is already out now in the market which is created by Foradian.

You can visit its website directly (click here) and follow the instructions given.

The steps are pretty simple.
1) Download the Font from the above site
2) Install it in your PC
3) Open the word document and type grave accent symbol i.e "`" (without double quotes). The font is mapped to grave accent symbol
4) Block the symbol ` and change the font to 'Rupee Foradian' from the drop down. And there you see the new symbol! Cool!!

Good work by Foradian!

Indian Rupee Symbol

2010-07-18T12:06:00.004+08:00

Finally the world's fourth largest economy got a new symbol designed for its currency, Rupee. The new symbol of Indian Rupee, designed by IITian Udayakumar, was selected from over 3000 entries. The symbol will see its presence all over India in next six months and globally in next two years.

Jai Ho!!

beautiful Crow

2010-07-12T22:14:00.002+08:00

Raavanan

2010-07-07T21:34:00.004+08:00

The story is simple and based on Ramayan which is clearly evident in the movie. However it's shown in a difference angle and that's director Mani Ratnam's style. The screenplay is not great. Vikram in a lead role proves again that he is an amazing actor. The getup and costume suit him good. Ash is 'shown' beautifully. Privthiraj shows good performance. I guess he'll appear in next couple of Mani's movies. Other actors like Prabhu, Karthik and Priyamani have performed good. But am disappointed that Karthik's and Prabhu's roles are wasted or not used fully. It's good to see Karthik after a long time.

The film is shot in various lush green forests like Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Maharashatra ghats. Some parts were also shot in Rajasthan and West Bengal. The movie is a real visual treat to the audience and huge junk of credits go to the technicians like Santosh Sivan & Manikandan for cinematography and Samir Chanda for art work. Ancient temple like settings amidst thick forest is beautiful. Climax fight's picturisation is extraordinary. Needless to say about A.R.Rehman for his background score. It's fantastic.

Enter the cinema hall without any expectations and you'll feel it's worth your money. However the movie did not impress me the way Mani Ratnam's other movies like Agni Nakshatram, Thalapathy, Roja or Bombay did.

MY OPINION - WORTH YOUR MONEY

Orchard Road included in marathon

2010-06-27T18:20:00.003+08:00

Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore (SCMS) 2010 has included new landmarks in their routes for this year's marathon event in December. It is first time ever that these routes are included in any marathon in Singapore. Full marathoners get to run through the famous Orchard Road admiring the beautiful Christmas lights decorations on the street while half marathoners get privilege of running through recently opened Universal Studio theme park via Sentosa Bridge. The 10kms runners too have a reason to cheer as they'll be running through the newly opened beautiful Helix Bridge.

SCMS 2010. Way to go!!

Mt.Everest 2010 - statistics

2010-06-24T23:43:00.007+08:00

The latest statisics on Mt.Everest is out now. Alan Arnette, a speaker and mountaineer, has posted in his site statistics details based on report from Ang Tshering Sherpa, a famous expedition organizer from Nepal. The report is extracted from the database maintained by the famous Himalayan journalist Ms.Elizabeth Hawley.

The total number of summits on Mt.Everest has crossed the 5000 mark this year to stand at 5070. However the actual number of persons who climbed are only 3431, which means the remaining 1639 are repeat climbers.

The number of summits this year, 2010, alone so far is 513, of which 268 are first time summiteers while the rest are repeat summiteers. Of the total 513, 347 climbed from South side or Nepal (of which 190 are sherpas & rest are foreigners) and around 165 climbed from North side or Tibet.

A final note. Although there is no official list or figure or whatsoever of Mt.Everest summits with anyone, the database maintained by Ms.Elizabeth Hawley is considered by many to be more than 90% accurate.

from the sky...

2010-06-22T23:24:00.002+08:00

dome...

2010-06-12T13:14:00.006+08:00

drying, ain't dying

2010-06-05T13:25:00.006+08:00

Rava Kesari

2010-06-01T21:30:00.005+08:00

Favourite sweet

Mt.Swettenham

2010-05-26T23:06:00.008+08:00

Gunung Swettenham

Few picks from my trip to Mt.Swettenham in the last week of April. Mt.Swettenham is at an height of 1,961 mts ASL in Cameroon Highlands, Malaysia. There is no clear view at the summit as it's densely covered by trees. Also enroute, the forest is thick and at most places even sunlight finds it difficult to enter through the trees. I understand that this mountain is not very popular among the trekkers.

Gunung Nuang

2010-04-20T00:37:00.008+08:00

Finally a mountain after a long time and this one, I believe, would make way to many more in the coming days. This happened by chance and was an eleventh hour decision and also a last minute inclusion into an already formed group. No trainings, no preparation. Just packed my bag and set out for the climb.

Gunung Nuang, at an height of 1493 mts (4898 ft) ASL, is one of the popular mountains for hiking in the state of Selangor in Malaysia. They say it is the second toughest mountain in Peninsula Malaysia after Gunung Tahan. Many climb Gunung Nuang as a prior training to climb Mt.Kinabalu or Gunung Tahan. The total distance of the route from Range Office (starting point) to summit is around 10kms with first 3+ kms involving trekking while the remaining involves hiking with 2-3 ankle/knee deep streams crossing in the beginning. The mountain is covered by thick forest and about 1/4th - 1/3rd of the hiking distance is steep at nearly 70+ degrees slope. There is also a fake summit in the route at 1220mts ASL. One has to descend from there further down for about 30 mins before doing a final assault of the real summit.

Enroute some of us saw a foot length millipede and a really huge frog. Wow! Never seen like them before. Unfortunately I didn't take much photographs this time and I really don't know why. However managed to take atleast a few just for the memories in the long run.

corolla

2010-04-11T14:27:00.005+08:00

In Google Images, try searching for "flowers". The resulting first page will be full of pictures of flowers . Search for "petals", you'll get only petals (atleast first few pages). Now search for "corolla". The resulting first page will have only pics of Toyota Corolla and not even a single pic of any flower's corolla. Strange!!

nature's frame...

2010-04-08T21:01:00.008+08:00

racing??

2010-04-01T23:00:00.002+08:00

lamps...

2010-03-30T21:00:00.003+08:00

Sandhosh Kumar

2010-03-23T23:52:00.007+08:00

Everest season has almost begun and lots of adventurers are on their final preparation for set off. And one of them is Sandhosh Kumar, an Indian from Singapore. Like many, in the past, he too seems to have quit his job just for Everest. Apart from his personal thirst for Everest, he claims to climb Everest to create awareness on child sexual abuse in India. To raise funds for the same, he is carrying a banner containing comman individuals' photos to the top of world. Those who wish to have their photos included, may check out his website given below.

He is leaving Singapore next week for Everest journey. Once he's on top of the world, he becomes the first Indian Singaporean to summit Mt.Everest. Wish him good luck for summit and safe return home.

You may wish to follow him more on his website - http://climbeverestwithme.com/

Joao Garcia

2010-03-16T23:31:00.005+08:00

Joao Garcia, who has been climbing mountains for about 25 years, is the first Portuguese to climb Mt.Everest in 1999. What I most liked in him is the quality of perseverance towards success. Some of the peaks he summited only after 2nd or 3rd attempts. For example, he summitted Mt.Everest only during the 3rd attempt. And Shishapangma, 14th 8000er (mountains above 8000 mts), also during 3rd attempt only. Which means he never gave up to the failures. So far he has 13 of the 14 8000ers and 6 of the 7 summits to his credit. Now he has all set to climb last in the 8000ers list, Annapurna, to become the 19th person in the world to climb all 8000ers and 11th person to climb them all without any supplement oxygen (as per wiki).

Wish him good luck to complete his 8000ers mission successfully and return home safely. Here is a small film about his missions.

Angkor Wat

2010-03-08T20:29:00.005+08:00

Place - Angkor Wat, Cambodia . Year - 2007.

This picture is actually composed with two pics taken in my earlier Kodak Z650, a bridge camera. The camera's lens was not wide enough to cover the whole area and hence I had to take 2 pics and stitch them. One of the reasons why the image is blurred at some spots.

Ang Mo Kio - Part 2

2010-03-04T23:36:00.005+08:00

cars recalled

2010-02-24T22:55:00.004+08:00

A man travels in a Hyundai car at certain speed on an expressway and suddenly the door opens due to the door latch issue. When he is about to fall out, he finds Volkswagen to his right and manages to jump into it only to learn that the rear wheels got locked preventing him to take any turn. He is already in the middle lane highway. He dares to jump now to a Toyota on the right. OMG. The car is already out of control due to brake pedal damage and is going at very high speed. Now he manages to jump into Maruti on the left and learns that the fuel tank is almost empty due to fuel tank leakage. Oh no! But luckily he finds Honda on his left now and jumps to it. By the time he settles, a truck comes from the opposite direction in the same lane and hits the car. Unfortunately the car's airbag system fails and it doesn't inflate. What does he do now??

Earth Hour 2010

2010-02-21T20:42:00.002+08:00

Earth Hour 2010 - 8:30PM, Saturday 27 March, 2010

blueees

2010-02-16T18:06:00.004+08:00

Anagram of Singapore MRT

2010-02-10T23:46:00.006+08:00

I was thinking of creating anagrams for the MRT stations here in Singapore and just when I came across this anagram of Singapore MRT stations from one of the websites, guess it's Black Coffee (Deprecated). Seems like the blog is not updated for quite a long time now. Although I want to create my own version of anagram, thought will share this one over here as it looks very funny and interesting. It's not fully appropriate though. For example, the anagrams for Khatib and Boon Lay are irrelevant. Anyways just enjoy with rest.

Below is the original map of Singapore MRT stations for your ready reference (if you happen to struggle with correct spellings ;))

Saturday Night

2010-02-07T18:56:00.007+08:00

Relax at ECP beach along with friends, Danny & Prakash, late in the night lying down on the sand watching the night sky and counting those stars with soothing sound of the waves in the background. Enjoy the dinner at Turkish restaurant, Kebab Station, with soft hot Pita breads and delicious dips like Salsa, Humus and Cacik followed by Vegetaria rice all along with sips of Milo Dinosaur. Back to seas sitting on the rocks near the shore with Carlsberg in a hand and chatting on the various subjects from science to spiritual to future plans and finally ending up the whole session at midnight with a lovely game of Bowling at Marine Bowl. One of the lovely ways to spend a Saturday night. Cool!!

Avatar - World Record

2010-02-02T23:32:00.006+08:00

James Cameron's Avatar has made a history in the world cinema with highest collection ever amounting to US$2 billions surpassing the record collection of US$1.8 billions made by Titanic. In the US alone, the movie has collected nearly US$595 millions while the rest of the collections come from foreign countries. France (including its integral parts like Algeria, Monaco & Tunisia) is the highest foreign contributor of about US$134 millions while China comes behind with total collection of US$127 millions. The other highest fetching countries are Germany, UK, Ireland, Russia, Japan, S.Korea, Australia, Spain and Italy among others contributing more than US$700 millions combined. To add further, Avatar is the highest grossing film ever in many countries like China, Singapore, Australia, UAE, Hong Kong, Russia among others.

On seeing the film's mega success, director James Cameron stated that he would come up with its sequel. Dont know when but one thing is sure that I will become old when sequal is finally released.

Edge of Darkness

2010-01-31T13:34:00.007+08:00

It's an action thriller movie with a good number of twists and suspense till the end. A cop's 24 year old daughter, who comes back home after a long time, is shot to death by some unknown in the doorstep of his house. The initial investigation reports that he was the intended target by his enemies. But as the story moves on, lots of secrets unravel the mystery that his daughter had a secret life and herself was the actual target. The cop also discovers that there is corporate-government connection with his daughter's murder. Why and how are the rest of the story.

Mel Gibson's comeback movie in a leading role after nearly 8 years. He plays a cop-father who wants to take revenge on his daughter's death and has done his part very well. The director of the movie is Martin Campbell, one who directed Bond movie - Casino Royale. But action sequences are comparatively less. The movie goes in its own pace. If you like a movie with more mysteries and few fast paced action sequences, then it is for you.

MY OPINION: WORTH YOUR MONEY

Yanni's World Dance

2010-01-27T23:07:00.006+08:00

Watch this 4 mins music video fully, I bet you'll love it once you've heard . It's one of those amazing and funfilling music pieces ever. Each one of the artistes plays with full of enthusiasm and joy creating a mood of happiness around. The song titled 'World Dance' was performed at famous composer Yanni's live concert at Las Vegas, USA, in 2004. The interesting aspect of the concert was that all the leading artistes were from 10 different countries. The leading artistes are Dan Landrum (dulcimer), Pedro Eustache (flute), Samvel Yervinyan (violin), Sayaka Katsuki (violin), Victor Espinola (harp), Armen Movsessian (violin), Zachary Carrettin (violin) and Walter Rodriguez (percussion) among others. Even the title 'World Music' would be apt for this music. Enjoy!!

google features - tips & tricks

2010-01-21T23:17:00.006+08:00

I was just wondering at the various search options available in Google. I'm not talking about "Advanced Search" option where you can provide some additional information to filter your search requirements nor about "I'm Feeling Lucky" which will directly take you to the best related website.

I'm talking about the keywords or modifiers that can be used in the search criteria. Somehow came across one such keyword and I started exploring for more such modifiers. Here are some for you.

filetype:
If you're looking for a specific file format in the internet, you can specify the same using the keyword 'filetype:'. For example, if you're looking for a pdf file on Apache tutorials, you can give your search query as "filetype:pdf Apache tutorials". If it is a PowerPoint file, then it should be "filetype:ppt Apache tutorials".

site:
If your search is in a particular site, use the keyword 'site:' and specify the website where you are looking for. For example, "site:mailerum.blogspot.com Kinabalu" would display all the pages from my blog that are related to Kinabalu.

inurl:
Let's say you are looking for the sites which addresses carry a specific word. You can use the keyword 'inurl:'. For example, "inurl:africa". This will give the results of all the urls that contain 'africa'.

intitle:
Forget about URL. You want to filter on the titles. Simply use 'intitle:' keyword like "intitle:avatar". Try to use the exact cases and within double quotes 'intitle:"Avatar" and your search results will be more closer to your expectations.

inblogtitle:
This one is similar to 'intitle:' except that the results are fetched from blog sites.

There are other keywords like time, temperature, capital among others used for queries related to any city or country. Note there is no colon (:). The result is also highlighted on on top of the page. If you want to know the current time of London, for example, just give "time London" and there you get the current time in London. Similarly works other keywords like temperature & capital.

Not just these. You may use the textbox (search box) just like your calculator. Simply type in the calculations and yout get the results right away. For example, input "1234+4321" and press enter and you have the result. You can try almost all operators like +, -, *, /, % (mod) and even ^ (exponent).

Aren't these amazing? It should be evident by now that why google still tops in the most popular search engines. Great.

Hope this article was useful atleast a bit. I think this is my first post on techy related stuff in spite of being in line for years. See you again soon.

kids...

2010-01-17T18:56:00.003+08:00

nature's mirror

2010-01-12T23:18:00.004+08:00

moon city

2010-01-11T23:23:00.002+08:00

relaxing rain

2010-01-08T23:42:00.004+08:00

birds; stained glass art

2010-01-06T23:00:00.005+08:00

Happy New Year 2010

2010-01-02T12:15:00.010+08:00

Happy New Year 2010 to one and all!!

This year's new year celebration was spent at Marina Bay fireworks show near Esplande. It was an abrupt decision as my initial plan was to go to Krishna Mandir and greet new year there with bhajans, chants, etc. There was even another last minute thought of going to Sentosa Siloso beach party. Finally ended up seeing the fireworks. I know Lord Krishna will still bless me. We were already late to the spot and could not get the perfect location for those perfect shots. However the pics are still good for eyes :)

learning MALAY on the go...

2009-12-28T23:16:00.006+08:00

I had been to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, few weeks ago and caught these message boards written in Malay. Whenever I travel to Malaysia, I learn some Malay words through various sources but somehow forget some of them the moment I reach Singapore :( So this time decided to capture them permanently in my camera and then slowly transfer to my brain :))

Note: The translation is on as is method. So may be wrong grammatically ;) If any word is wrong or not apt, please correct me.

Remember, all these are just for fun :))

- reminder -
- saturday week - 17 cents/30 seconds -
- place gathering during emergency -
- danger -
- limit height -
- caution branch danger - reduce speed -
- entry -
- caution - people blind passage -
- area voltage high -
- except emergency -
- caution - area accident reduce speed -
- caution - lamp signal is ahead
- reduce speed - area palace -
- caution reduce speed -

AVATAR - 3D

2009-12-26T15:22:00.005+08:00

Yet another awe-inspiring movie from the director James Cameron, who in the past has given wonderful movies like Aliens, Rambo 2, True Lies, Terminator (1 & 2) & Titanic among others. Initially while watching the trailors I was bit averse to poeples' opinions that the movie is a box office success. However after watching the movie in 3D version, I change my opinion. I feel it is one of the amazing movies ever in hollywood.

The movie has been made with the use of advanced motion capture animation technology which is much diferent from the traditional motion capture animation technology used in the past. In the traditional method, the digital animation work takes place after the shooting is completed. In the current technology used, the animation work takes place live along with the shooting. In addition, to make it perfect, they have used something called skull cap for each actor which would capture the facial expressions & eye movements perfectly. And above all these, the movie is filmed in 3D as well as traditional 2D.

Coming to other aspects of the movie; the story is pretty decent unlike some science fiction or animated movies. It has 'masala' ingredients like romance, humor, emotion, action & so on. The screenplay and the sequences of the events are stupendous. The visual effects are truly mindblowing. Background music is too good.

Final comment: MUST SEE MOVIE (if watching in 3D).

PS: I was trying to book the movie online in Cathay - AMK Hub (as it is very close to my house) and seemed like there was unusually a huge traffic in its server's bandwidth. My 5 minutes session was getting timed out everytime while selecting the seats. Once it even happened while my credit card payment was getting processed. Uuuff! In all I had spend nearly 2 hours to finally complete the bookings. Too much of patience I have :) Btw, know what showtime I booked for? 00:45 hrs. Yes, midnight ;) But believe me no signs of midnight or sleep. Such was the movie. I believe the same with the huge crowd that was present in the movie hall.

art of clouds...

2009-12-25T00:07:00.002+08:00

sea of clouds...

2009-12-22T20:58:00.002+08:00

sunset...

2009-12-21T21:48:00.002+08:00

land, light & water

2009-12-19T12:57:00.001+08:00

buddhist scripture

2009-12-18T23:05:00.007+08:00

My Half Marathon...

2009-12-15T23:33:00.011+08:00

Finally, the wait is over. And the event too.

Ten days ago, I ran in Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon 2009 and completed my half marathon of 21.1 kms in 2:39 hrs chip timing. The finish time as per gun timimg however is 2:46 hrs.

I am kind of busy these days with lots of things and hence cannot write much now :( I'll soon come up with my experiences. Meanwhile just view these photos :)

- above: road closure for my run -

- above: my stuffs -

- above: just before the gun shot -
- above: my second medal ;) -
- above: my parents -
- above: with mom, Prakash and Tanmaya -
- above: one part of the event & people -
- above: another part of the event & people -

- above: entertainers -

Google's Image Swirl

2009-11-27T13:57:00.007+08:00

Image Swirl is an extension to Google's existing Image search page. The new site organises the search results into similar groups and sub-groups and produces them in a neat visual manner. For example, if you search for 'Sony', the resultset will be organised into groups of similar products like Camera, Notebook, Handycam, Playstation, etc.. It's cool visually and fun to play around with the design structure. However I feel the resultset of the images are very less compared to the existing tool. At the sametime the images look repetitive. Understand it is still in development.

Also, URL link is different from Google's standard link and there is no link to it from the main page like how it's there for the existing features of Image, Web, Maps, etc.. Have a look and play around!!

http://image-swirl.googlelabs.com/

some random pics

2009-11-23T17:37:00.006+08:00

houses/blocks...

2009-11-05T22:47:00.002+08:00

15 miles of long walk

2009-10-25T11:02:00.002+08:00

Yet another long walk yesterday. This time we walked about 22-23 kms of distance starting from Ang Mo Kio covering through Senkang, Buangkok, Hougang, Punggol and back through same neighbourhoods but via a different route during return. The whole walk took us about 5hrs 50mins (8:25pm to 2:15am) that includes 10mins break at Punggol.

This is my third continuous weekend long walk with Daniel in all three while second one with Magesh. The distance covered in the previous weekends walk are about 12kms and 15kms.

Good going! Hope to touch 30, 50 and 100kms soon ;)

out (side of) door..

2009-10-24T18:17:00.001+08:00

Drawing - Rock Climber

2009-10-18T14:07:00.003+08:00

buddham sharanam...

2009-10-15T21:08:00.002+08:00

monuments: angkor

2009-10-12T23:28:00.002+08:00

varying sky space

2009-10-10T16:18:00.002+08:00

sky... lines...

2009-10-06T22:10:00.001+08:00

monkeys kingdom

2009-09-30T21:14:00.006+08:00

Nostalgia

2009-09-27T10:03:00.005+08:00

Sports event going on at Teck Ghee Primary School at Ang Mo Kio today.

windshield reflects..

2009-09-25T22:14:00.002+08:00

bhavathi biksham dehi

2009-09-22T23:32:00.003+08:00

shades...

2009-09-19T17:15:00.004+08:00

vintage - signal posts

2009-09-18T21:43:00.002+08:00

root or tree?

2009-09-16T22:38:00.008+08:00

not a rose, yet beautiful

2009-08-20T23:43:00.001+08:00

train 'n rain

2009-08-19T00:04:00.002+08:00

Happy Independence Day!

2009-08-15T11:43:00.007+08:00

Last week Singapore saw its 44th National Day. Now it's India's turn. Today India celebrates its 63rd Independence Day. The day every Indian has to recall the history. The day every Indian has to understand the true meaning of independence. The day every Indian has to realise its current state.

Going back six decades to the past, I imagine how our ancestors faced the days in the clutches of britishers' hands. Innumerable sacrifices, countless martyr deaths, endless struggles. Some chose violence. Some chose non-violence. But their aims were same. Their goal was one. Freedom. The first thing that we have to mention is their vision. They dreamt of freedom. They foresaw their children's future. The next thing that cannot be spoken without appreciation is their courage. The courage to fight against the strong force in those days. The other thing was the unity. A bunch of religions, hundreds of languages and thousands of castes. Nevertheless they were united for one purpose. Freedom.

After so many struggles we finally got independence. But are we really maintaining that freedom? Aren't we misusing what we got? Making public nuisance through various crap banners on the roadsides, spitting on the roads, throwing rubbish wherever one feels like, illegal encroachment of lands, creating groupism reservation in the name of equal rights, fight for separate land, cutting down the trees for artificial development, excess usage of electricity & wastage of water all in the name of freedom and fundamental rights. Some of these activities are in fact now lead to global warming.

Let's keep aside these concerns. What about the strengths that our ancestors had? Do we have the vision about our future India? Do we have that courage to fight against the political corruption? Are we united to fight against the breeding terrorism? How strong are we to face the challenges thrown by the other world countries? These questions are not just to others but even to myself. I dont totally deny that we dont have these qualities. We definitely do have. Our country has very obviously seen a remarkable development in the last 62 years. It is not easy to achieve this development by any country that is vast in geographical area and home for rich and diversified cultures. That is India. In spite of various religions and innumerous races we are united always as one nation. Such is our achievement. Indians are shining not just in the other countries. But India itself is shining in the outer space of our planet Earth. While we have crossed various milestones in the past years we also have started laying foundations in different significant areas.

We are strong compared to hundreds of other countries in the world. In fact we are playing major role as advisories to many countries on the critical issues. But the strength that we have today is far less powerful than what our freedom fighters had at those times. Let's develop that courage and vision. Let's have strong unity in diversity. Let's be responsible Indians. Let's contribute our best to save the planet earth where we belong.

Vande Mataram! Jai Hind!!

Happy Birthday

2009-08-13T11:58:00.009+08:00

Lord Sri Krishna!

hare krishna hare krishna
krishna krishna hare hare
hare rama hare rama
rama rama hare hare

go green!

2009-08-11T23:11:00.001+08:00

Singapore's 44th National Day

2009-08-09T12:57:00.002+08:00

Happy National Day

dry tree...

2009-08-08T12:24:00.003+08:00

buddham sharanam...

2009-08-06T22:38:00.002+08:00

field...

2009-08-05T23:33:00.003+08:00

Oxygen levels...

2009-08-01T18:16:00.008+08:00

I tried to google for a ready reckoner chart of the oxygen levels available to breathe at various altitudes. Unfortunately I found none among hundreds of the relevant sites. So I went through few of those relevant sites, gained some knowledge and drafted the below chart myself. The chart is although approximate, it's 99% accurate :-)

reserved...

2009-07-30T22:52:00.003+08:00

angkor temple...

2009-07-28T23:33:00.002+08:00

Lonely post...

2009-07-25T23:55:00.002+08:00

block or blocks?!

2009-07-23T01:00:00.002+08:00

concrete art...

2009-07-20T23:36:00.004+08:00

Charmaine

2009-06-30T16:48:00.003+08:00

I received a mail from one of my friends about a little girl named Charmaine. She is just 4 years old but suffering from stage 4 Neuroblastoma, a debilitating cancer that occurs in children. Doctors here have told that the chance of survival is only 10-20% but suggested the drugs that can give her a chance of survival to 40-50% are available in New York, US. However the treatment cost seems to be so high that the upfront deposit at one of the hospitals in New York even before the treatment begins is US$350,000 (SG$500,000).

I dont know who this little girl is.
I dont know who her parents are.
I dont even know any of her friends or relatives.
But I know the value of a life.

I know to an extent what a little girl is like.

I know to an extent how her parents undergo the pain.

What I'm doing or going to do is secondary. But what I request the readers is to do something that is possible at their level. A small effort from hundreds will contribute to a huge help.

Below is the link that is created by her friends and well wishers.

http://ourfeistyprincess.com/

TRANSFORMERS 2

2009-06-29T00:21:00.013+08:00

finally booked the tickets. my god. never was it this difficult to book movie tickets online. this one was a quite different one. i was amazed to know that there are 15 shows on 3 screens between 6pm and 12am but no 2 seats together in a row (except one or two in the front). this is the first time i'm facing such a situation. there were other movies also before with so many shows but we used to get seats easily. but this one? shucks. but my expectations increased many folds. i started recalling the trailors. wow! it's gonna be a good one. went to the cinema, sat in our seats, watched the movie and came out of the hall.

so how was the movie? a sequel to 2007 TRANSFORMERS. directed by michael bay and jointly produced by michael bay and steven spielberg. the story is a common one. war between the good and the bad i.e autobots lead by optimus prime and decepticons lead by megatron. the usage of graphics were aplenty as expected. the action sequences between the machines are amazing. there are comic scenes also alongside the story. among interesting ones are from bumblebee, sam's mother, wheelie, leo, etc.. movie is not bad. i'm reminded of TERMINATOR 4 which i saw very recently. bit of dragging too. could have cut short the length.

MY OPINION - WORTH YOUR MONEY

Michael Jackson

2009-06-26T23:18:00.004+08:00

Michael Jackson, the king of pop, is no more now. He died of cardiac arrest yesterday. Like 100s of 1000s of fans, he was a favourite to me too. The first ever western pop singer that I heard in my life is him. (Boney-M was the only music band that I knew before Michael Jackson). It's in the early 90s that I first came across his album "Bad". I should say that only after that my liking towards western pop increased.

Mention the word dance, one will imagine Michael Jackson. Such was his talent. The famous moonwalk style was started from him. He popularised the break dance. He was no.1 in Billboard chart for nearly 14 times. His 80's "Thriller" album sold more than 100 million copies, highest of any albums ever. Seems he was the most successful music artiste only after Elvis, the Beatles and Mariah Carey.

He started dancing career at the young age with his 4 other brothers later to become a successful solo artist. It is said that his childhood life was very pathetic that he faced lots of abuses. He even cried in some interviews when spoke about his early age. Later as he grew to teenage, he got attracted to plastic surgery. He underwent lots of surgeries to his face, changing the colour of skin, shape of nose, lips, etc. There were some allegation against him in the child molestation case. Although the court acquitted him, criticisms & rumours were always there against him. He also had financial problems at the last age. In spite of all these, he was preparing hard to make a come back next month, July, with a grand world tour. His unfortune that he died before that.

Whatever may be, to me he was a legend of pop dance, a wonderful dancer, a very good musician and a fantastic entertainer. There's absolutely no doubt that the music world will miss him. May god rest him in peace.

Jai Ho Jackson!

Gunung Ledang (Mt.Ophir)

2009-05-28T23:26:00.011+08:00

Last week I did a short trek with a group of 4 other friends to Gunung Ledang (Mt.Ophir) in Johor state of Malaysia. Despite having highest fatalities in the region, it is the most climbed mountain in the whole of Malaysia.

Gunung Ledang is at an height of 1276 mts (4187 ft) ASL and is one of the toughest trek mountains. The one way trek up from approx 100+ mts to 1200+ mts altitude alone took us about 6hrs including variuos photo stops and rest breaks.

As usual the trek was full of fun and adventure. Since I'm very busy at the moment, I'll let my pictures speak more :)

kodi maram...

2009-05-12T22:36:00.002+08:00

flag post...

last quarter...

2009-05-11T21:54:00.003+08:00

Kinabalu, through my viewfinder - II

2009-04-12T14:40:00.010+08:00

Kinabalu, through my viewfinder - I

2009-04-10T12:28:00.011+08:00

Mount Kinabalu - Album

2009-04-07T22:17:00.011+08:00

Finally spared some time to go through the photos, sort them off, pick a few and upload them to the album. The good part is that the photos are not from my camera. Most of them belong to the other friends in the group while mine are still sleeping inside the camera's memory card ;-) Thanks to all the friends for these photos :)

Here is the link of the album.

Mt.Kinabalu - Via Ferrata

2009-03-31T22:03:00.014+08:00

Many of them asked me why I was doing the same mountain again. The reason was Via Ferrata. Via Ferrata is the toughest of the various routes on Mt.Kinabalu. It needs no fear of heights but guts and confidence. Of course, good physical fitness is mandatory.

Via Ferrata is derived from the Italian words Via Attrezzata which mean route supported by hand rails, ladders, cables and lifelines. Via Ferrata at Mt.Kinabalu is known as Mountain Torque and scales the height from 3200mts to 3800 mts ASL. This is the only one in Asia and incidentally happens to be the highest in the world.

Our eight members group had a fantastic time together with lots of fun & adventure. Yet another unforgettable trek in my life.

Back to mountain

2009-03-18T00:11:00.008+08:00

Even though I've climbed Mt.Kinabalu already in last June, this time I'm trying out the Via Ferrata route (Iron Road). It seems Via Ferrata in Kinabalu is the first in Asia and the highest in the world. Wow!!

Will be back by Sunday with lots of adventurous experience and hopefully with nice pictures too :)

Remembering Environment

2009-03-07T13:40:00.004+08:00

World Water Day - 22 March 2009
Earth Hour - 28 March 2009

clouds or recession?

2009-03-02T22:52:00.005+08:00