Honeybee and Monster

Once upon a time there was a dense forest near Ganga river in current Bihar. There was plenty of food to eat and a large clean pond in the center of forest where all the animals used to come to quench their thirst. Everyone was living happily there.

Then one day a very dangerous and powerful monster "Mahatrikal" came to that forest. He liked it some much and decided to live on a banyan tree near the pond. Mahatrikal started killing animals whenever someone came to drink water. Sometimes he ate them after killing. He was so powerful that everyone was afraid of him. But since there was no other source of water all were worried about what to do.

A group of animals decided to meet their lion king "Sher Singh". They told him their dilemma and asked him to help. Lion said not to worry and promised to look after this matter.
Then lion reached at the shore of lake and shouted at the top of his voice - "Where is this evil creature, who is destroying the peace of my forest? Come and fight with me."
Hearing this the monster came out and accepted his challenge. Monster was very powerful. He simply lifted lion up in the air by his tail and threw him away at a great distance. Then he roared - "Listen you all. My name is Mahatrikal. No one should dare to challenge me again, otherwise i will do the same or worse as i have done to this lion."

Now all the animals were afraid. Sher Singh made an announcement - " Who ever gets rid of this monster will become the new king of this forest." No animal was willing to take that risk. Finally a small honey bee named "Chhutku" decided to accept the challenge.
Chhutku came to lake and said - "Come out you dirty monster. I am here to teach you a lesson.". Upon hearing this monster came out and when he saw that a little honey bee was challenging him, he started laughing and said - "Have you lost your mind? Have you not heard what i did to the lion. Do you want to get squashed? Run away, before i do that."

On this Chhutku said - "Why are you talking so high and mighty? Why don't you come here and fight with me?" Now monster was mad with rage. He started running towards little bee. But he didn't see that there were thousands of other honey bees waiting for him in the nearby trees. All of them started biting and attacking him. Monster was in a very pitiable state. He had no where to run and save himself and thousands of honey bees were constantly stinging him. Finally he apologised and said - "Please forgive me. I have made a terribe mistake. If you let me go now, i will never disturb you again."

On hearing this Chhutku forgave him. As promised monster left the forest and never came back again. Chhutku was made the new king of that forest and everyone respected him for his bravery and smartness.

(c) 2013 Anup Mayank

Visit to FTII (Film and Television Institue of India) Pune

Last weekend my wife had asked me (forced me will be a more accurate statement) to go to the French film festival which was being held at FTII (Film and Television Institute of India). I was a little bit hesitant of the idea. The foremost reason being that i was not sure how we will enjoy french movies (at that time i had no idea that movie will have subtitles too) especially with our 4 year old son who will be bored easily. Second being the usual problem of finding a parking space in an unknown crowded place in Pune (FTII had its own parking space in one of the ground). However the fact that it was free and she was very excited about seeing movie in an open space was reason enough to go there.

FTII is situated on the Law College Road in Pune. It is one of the busy and narrow main road. With the help of GPS and general directions on the road we reached there without any problem. At the gate security person showed us the parking space and asked us to collect the movie pass. In the newspaper advertisements it was written that admission will be on first come basis, so i was thinking that this movie pass will be required to watch movie, but nobody asked for it. Since we were little early, we decided to explore the law college road.
After wandering around for around 15 minutes in which we saw the usual sweet shop, grocery shop, maruti showroom, cafe coffee day etc, we found  a local fast food corner near the institute. There we had tea (for adults) and chocolate milk (which proved little too hot for our son).

Then we headed back to FTII, movie was being shown in Shantaram auditorium. To reach there from the entrance you have to walk for about 10 minutes on a slightly sloped pathway.

Then we reached Shantaram Pond. It was a nice view with chairs and red carpet. But the most sought after seats were on the stairs and balcony like platforms. At 7 they started the adjustment of projector ( i wish the organizers had done it sooner, not when everyone is comfortably seated). Further people were coming with their own pillow and blankets which was very comfortable and handy when you are sitting on the floor.
It was a collection of short movies (each being 15-20 minutes in length). The first one was "Piano Tuner". A very suspenseful and thriller movie. Maybe the soundtrack of the movies was too good or maybe the dolby surround sound system was very good, the overall effect was simply amazing.
Several other good movies followed "She can be your grandmother", "Blue Shadow", "Mozart", "Edmund was a donkey".
Finally after 7 such movies my son's patience ran out and we decided to say goodbye to FTII and Shantaram Auditorium. Thank you for providing an entertaining and memorable evening.

Oracle : Finding tables with given column name

One of my colleague today come to me asking where  can i find this column (LANDING_PAGE) in DB of our application. Actually he was not even sure of the column name. It was a field in UI. Our application has more than 200 tables and my tables are heavy (having many columns). So human search was futile. Thankfully there is a query in oracle which came to rescue.

select * from user_tab_columns where column_name like '%PAGE%';

Movie Review: Special 26

This weekend we decided to watch movie "Special 26". The reviews were quite favorable and it had been some time since we had seen movie in theater.
We prefer going on an early morning show because the movie ticket rates are one third of the regular afternoon or evening show (Rs 90 only for Platinum seat at E-Square multiplex at University Road in morning).
The main actors of this movie are Akshay Kumar, Anupam Kher, Manoj Bajpai and Jimmy Shergil.
It is based on the life of con-men who duped several people and business person during the 1980s. They posed as fake CBI agents or Income Tax Officials.
The movie is decently paced and has good elements of comedy to make you laugh. I liked the scene where applicant answers - "Milke ukharenge Sir. Kuchh Hum. Kuchh Aap.".
Even though Akshay Kumar is the lead actor, i will say the movie revolves more around Anupam Kher and Manoj Bajpai. They have done superb acting.
There are some loose ends in the story (the story of Jimmy Shergil is not that convincing and the love interest of lead actor seems unnecessary.) However it is worth watching for a good relaxing time.

Mahavir Mandir Patna

It is for those who have either lived in Patna or had a chance to board train from Patna Junction. Mahavir Mandir is one of the very famous landmark. I was a frequent visitor during 1994-2002. The atmosphere there itself gives you inner calm. Recently i got a chance to revisit and relive peaceful moment. Here are some pics.

View From Ground Floor	View From Second Floor
View From Second Floor
Second Floor	View of Mosque from Second Floor

Movie Review : Nothing But The Truth

"Nothing But The Truth" is a very gritting story about a journalist and her conviction to not name the source no matter how hard is the choice.

Story begins with a conversation in school bus where our main character is sitting with her son. Later she prints a story about how government has ignored the right intelligence (hint of Iraq attack by US). Later the journalist is prosecuted by government and jailed for not obeying the court order of revealing her source. Now slowly her life disintegrates. Her marriage is falling apart and there is no end of her hardships. Despite this she stays true to her conviction.

In the end it is shown that she is going for a 2 year jail term and there she remembers the conversation in school bus and thus viewer are told about who is the first hand source.

It is a very well directed movie. Story moves at a reasonably well pace. End is the icing on cake.

Movie Review : War Horse (2011)

When i was watching this movie, i didn't know that Steven Spielberg has directed this movie. Thus there was no prejudgement.
This movie is the story of a horse and a boy during first world war time. It is a drama movie. Story revolves around the theme that "How horse has touched the lifes of many people around him." Overall a very decent film. I will not put it in the league of "Saving Private Ryan" and "Catch Me If You Can", but definitely worth watching with your family over a relaxed saturday evening.

There is one scene in which horse is scared of the tank and bombs and becomes deeply entangled himself in barbed wires. English army sees it and one soldier is brave enough to go out in no-man's land to free horse. English soldier is met by a German soldier and they together cut the wires and set horse free. The decision of who will take the horse is settled by tossing a coin instead of a gun battle.

This scene is very touching and teaches us that we should have common sense and human decency even in worst of the situations.

Nag - Nagin (Maithili Folk Tale)

Once upon a time there was a very famous king of Mithila. He was very powerful and just. Everyone in his kingdom was happy and prosperous. But King was sad that he didn't have any child from any of his seven queens. As he was getting older his sadness kept on increasing. He always used to worry about what will happen to the kingdom after him. So he consulted a very famous Rishi (Sage). Rishi told him to conduct a Puja (religious ceremony). Puja will last for a month and this whole month king was not supposed to eat or drink anything. Being a desperate man, King agreed to Puja.
When the queens heard of his decision, they were very upset. It was a very tough Puja and there was a chance that king will lose his life during this ceremony. All the seven queens tried to convince king to abandon this Puja, but without any success. Eventually the eldest queen formulated a plan. She went to King and told him - "My lord. Goddess Durga has blessed us. Last night when i went to sleep, goddess came into my dream. She told me that she is very happy of your good and just ruling in this kingdom. And she is aware of your sadness. So she has decided to grant you a baby son from the youngest queen. She has ordered you to abandon that Puja as it is not necessary now." King couldn't believe this good news. He asked to explain everything in detail. Queen was very convincing and she managed to satisfy any doubt of King.
When other queens heard what the eldest queen has done, they were very terrified. They asked her - "What have you done? King will surely find out about this and he will kill us and feed us to alligators." The eldest queen said - "You all are unnecessarily getting terrified. At least we have avoided the imminent danger to our beloved king's life. I am sure that in due time we will find out a solution to our problem."
In few months King was given the good news that youngest queen is expecting a child. Eldest queen had bribed the royal astrologer and asked him to tell King - "My lord. You are going to have a very brave son. He will raise your good name and fame. But there is a bad news. As per his stars, if you see him before he is sixteen years old and is married, your son will die immediately." King was upset on hearing this, but he consoled himself by saying - "What is sixteen years, when i have waited so long? The most important thing is that i will have a son."
After nine months the news was spread that youngest queen has given birth to a very beautiful baby boy. Queens have bribed the midwifes very heavily and all of them promised to keep their silence on this issue. And thus the lie continued. After few years private tutors were arranged for the young prince. These tutors were again given enough bribes and they all promised to keep the charade and keep King in darkness over this.
Eventually sixteen years had passed. King was getting restless to meet his son. So he arranged a marriage with a very beautiful princess of the neighboring kingdom. Now all the queens were very terrified. When they couldn't find a solution to their predicament, eldest queen again devised a plan. She made a human shape mannequin and adorned it with all royal dresses and ornaments. This mannequin was placed in the royal palaki (a carriage which is carried by two people and the rider sits comfortably in the covered portion).
When the wedding procession reached almost halfway to the destination, they stopped near a large banyan tree to take rest. A pair of ichhhadhari nag-nagin (Cobras who can change shape based on their will) were living in a hole near that banyan tree.
When the nagin (female cobra) heard the noise of wedding procession, she asked her husband nag (male cobra) about what is happening outside. To this nag replied - "I can see a great war on horizon and many men will die.", and then he explained her the whole story of queens and their lie. He said - "When the bride's father gets to know of this treachery, he will be furious and insult this king, which will undoubtedly lead to a war." Nagin had a very kind heart. She requested Nag to do something about it so that the tragedy can be avoided. On her insistent request Nag had to give in. He said -"OK. I will change myself into a very beautiful prince and will marry the princess. By doing so war will be avoided. And once the marriage is over, i will return back."
And thus Nag changed into a very handsome prince. When king saw his son for the first time, he was so happy. His happiness knew no bounds. And thus the marriage ceremony was happily concluded. As the tradition is, after marriage princess and prince along with king and other family members started their journey back to their own kingdom. Again they passed through the old banyan tree. When they reached there, the prince got out on some pretext and changed himself to Nag again and returned to the hole to meet his wife Nagin.
Nag told Nagin about all that had happened and explained her that now he has returned back. On hearing this Nagin being a kind hearted one said - "Oh my dear husband. We should not be so greedy. We should also think about the poor newly wed princes. What will she do when she finds out that her prince is gone. Her life will be a living hell. Oh No. You must return back and go to her till she has a baby." Nag said - "How can i do that. You are my wife. Further i have poison in my breath. She will die if i spend time with her." Nagin said - "Now you are the husband of that princess too. And don't worry about the poison. I know how to take your poison. I will come to your bedroom during the night and take your poison away."
On much convincing Nag had to agree to the demand of Nagin. During midnight Nagin came to their bedroom. She was successful in taking the poison away from Nag. When she was going away, she accidentally touched feet of princess. Nag-Nagin are very cold on touch. To this the princess woke up and when she saw Nagin, she raised an alarm. At this Nag woke up. Being in human form and further little sleepy, he had forgotten that it is his wife Nagin who has come here. Alas ! He hit with a heavy stick on the head of Nagin. Nagin cried out - " Oh my dear husband!" and she died. Nag now realized the grave error committed by him. He was very said and wept uncontrollably. When the young princess asked him about it, he explained the whole story. Based on the advice of several sages, Nagin was cremated with full respect.
People believe that if you see Nag-Nagin in the wedding room or on any auspicious occasion, it is considered very lucky.

(c)2012 Anup Mayank

Mithila Painting

Recently i had visited Madhubani (my native place). During this visit i got a chance to go to meet one of my cousin aunt. Her in-laws place is in Mangrauni village. There i had met her mother in law. She is a very wonderful person. I got a chance to look at her Mithila paintings. The paintings are so colorful and depict a wide variety of colors and traditions of Mithila region. Some samples are shown below.

These paintings are typically put in Kobar (Wedding room) of newly wed brides and grooms. The paintings have several images of birds, animals and insects showing the natural harmony of humans along with other inhabitants of this earth.

While looking at these posts she told me a very wonderful folktale of Nag-Nagin, which i will share in my next post.

राजकुमार वीरवर्धन की शादी

राजकुमार वीरवर्धन  की शादी की उम्र हो गयी थी। राजा और राज्य के सभी लोग चाहते थे की एक सुन्दर और सुशील से राजकुमार की शादी हो जाये। राजा ने अपने गुप्तचरों को बुलवाया और कहा - " तुम लोग चारो दिशाओं में पता लगाओ कि राजकुमार के उपयुक्त कौन सी राजकुमारी है।" गुप्तचरों ने कहा -"जो हुक्म महराज " और वे लोग अपने तेज घोड़ों पर सवार होकर निकल पड़े।
छः महीने के बाद गुप्तचरों की टोली वापस आई। उनके सरदार ने राजा से कहा - " महाराज हम लोग हजारों कोस उत्तर, दक्षिण, पूरब और पश्चिम की ओर गए। हमने सैकरों राज्य की यात्रा की। इस दौरान हमें अनेकों देशों की ख़ूबसूरत और बुद्धिमान राजकुमारियां देखी। सभी एक से बढ़कर एक थीं। लेकिन इन सभी में पहारगढ़ के राजा भानुगुप्त की सबसे छोटी राजकुमारी हेमलता सभी तरह से हमारे राजकुमार वीरवर्धन की रानी बनने लायक हैं। वे देखने में अद्वितीय हैं। आस पास के दस राज्यों में उनकी बुद्धिमता के चर्चे हैं। वह बहुत ही बहादुर भी हैं।"
गुप्तचरों की इस बात को सुनकर राज अत्यन्त प्रसन्न हुए। उन्होंने तुरंत राजकुमार वीरवर्धन को बुलवाया और कहा - " हे राजकुमार। अब आपका विवाह का समय आ गया है। हम चाहते हैं की आपकी शादी राजकुमारी हेमलता के साथ हो जाये।" इसके साथ ही राजा ने गुप्तचरों द्वारा बताई हुई सारी बात राजकुमार को बताई और कहा की - " आप कल ही अपने साथ घुरसवारों की एक टोली लेकर पहारगढ़ की तरफ निकल जायें और अपने साथ राजा भानुगुप्त और उनके दरबार के लिए उपहार भी ले जाएं। वहां जाकर राजा भानुगुप्त से राजकुमारी हेमलता के साथ अपने विवाह का प्रस्ताव रखें।"
राजकुमार ने राजा की बातों को सुनकर कहा - " हे महाराज। आपके आदेश का पालन होगा।"
अगले सुबह राजा के कहे के अनुसार राजकुमार और उनकी घुरसवारों की टोली पहारगढ़ जाने के लिए निकल पड़ी .

(शेष शीघ्र ही )

Flipkart's replacement policy

After being hooked to buying books and electronic items from Amazon in US, i am fascinated by the service provided by Flipkart. An year and half back i had purchased HTC Wildfire phone for myself. The delivery was quick and phone has been running smoothly till now.

So when my wife's old Samsung dual sim phone died, i was on a lookout for a new phone for her. Samsung Y duos fitted the bill and its quality and performance has been vouched by one of my colleagues. So i again decided to buy it from Flipkart. They provided me one additional advantage over local store is their EMI facility (helped me when i am little cash strapped). Again the delivery was quick. But there was a bummer. The back panel didn't fit properly. So i called their customer support and informed them of this problem. The support guy initially tried to convince me that it is nothing and it can be easily fixed.

But the only problem is that i am a customer who has little low patience and has seen several ads on TV where flipkart has claimed that they will replace the faulty piece. So i simply asked him to replace it. Support person told me that tech support will call me in next 48 hours. I was expecting a ticket number and email from flipkart confirming my complain, but didn't get any.

So i called again and was informed that tech guys will reach out to me soon. But it didn't happen. I got busy with work at office and this problem kind of slipped my mind. After few days i saw one feedback email from flipkart regarding my recent purchase. Now i thought, "Wait a minute. They must be having enquiry form in the account page." So i filled out the form explaining the problem and what i want.

Within 2 hours some one from flipkart called me, heard my problem and said that a replacement will be sent soon. And true to their words, the replacement arrived at my door in 2 business days. The delivery guy took the old phone back and gave me new one. This one has no issues. So once more i am a happy flipkart customer. But this experience has taught me to file written complains, because what you tell over phone maynot be that effective.

Movie Review : Carnage (2011)

Few days ago i got a chance to watch movie "Carnage". It is directed by Roman Polanski (of "The Pianist" fame). The actors in this movie are    Jodie Foster, John C. Reilly, Kate Winslet, Christoph Waltz.

It is based on the theme that two boys started fighting in a local park with the end result of which one boy hits other in mouth with a stick. So the parents (Kate Winslet, Christoph Waltz) of the boy (who hit with stick) goes to the parents Jodie Foster, John C. Reilly) of the other kid (who was stuck) to settle this issue in a friendly way.

Now follows a series of conversation which is very fascinating to watch and listen. The couples discuss the issue related to their sons which gets edgy at times. And it also brings out the problems they are facing in their marriage and psychology of all 4 individuals. How the story progresses and how the characters react to different conversation themes are very entertaining.

If you like this kind of movie and had liked movies "Before sunset", "Before sunrise" then this is a movie for you. Enjoy!!!

Girl in the train

As a Train Ticket Conductor, I have been to many places all over the India. I have completed 15 years in this job. I have encountered numerous kinds of people, soft speaking and ruffians alike. All these years i have  been through many kinds of experiences, but nothing beats the experience i had on a cold winter night of December 1999.
I had joined Indian Railways just a few months back. I was eager to prove myself, make a name of mine in this world and be rich and happy etc etc. My posting was in Bihar. I was in charge of the route from Balliya to Mujaffarpur. One day my duty was on Darbhanga express which starts from Pune and last stop is Darbhanga Junction. The total journey of this train is of approximately 40 hours.
On Balliya i boarded this train. By the time it reaches Balliya it is 1 o clock in the night. Being a cold and foggy night, i had put on my sweater and a thick coat on top of it. Even then i was feeling chilly. Since by now it is almost nearing the end of its journey, many passengers have reached their destination and the train was almost half empty. There were very few new passengers who had made a reservation from this station. At about 2 AM, i was done with my ticket checking duties and i had another 3 hours to spend by the time it will reach Mujaffarpur.
So i thought to take some rest in one of the AC coaches, as i had seen many empty seats during my prior visit. I found a nice empty compartment in 2nd AC coach. Got a blanket from one of the porters and sat comfortably on the seat. Blame it on the warm blanket in a cold weather and being late in the night, i soon felt drifted away and was happily sleeping. After some time i woke up with a jolt. The train was standing somewhere away from the station and it was 3 AM. I thought it must be somewhere near Hajipur. I was about to go out and check what was the matter, i suddenly saw a girl sitting on the seat in another compartment adjacent to where i was sitting. She was looking very intently at me. I was not sure if i had seen her when i entered this coach. So i went to her and asked - "What is your name?" She didn't reply. I asked her - "Whom are you traveling with?". She said - "With my Papa". I asked - "Where is he". She simply pointed towards the toilets near the end of coach.  Feeling satisfied with her answer, i decided to make another round in the coach and find out where we were. There was one family who was supposed to get down at Darbhanga and few people were supposed to get down at Samastipur and Mujaffarpur. Otherwise the coach was mostly empty. I asked one of the tea vendor - "Where are we?" He said - "Sahebji. Train has left Hajipur and is waiting for green signal".
Soon the train started moving, and now i decided to return back to my comfortable seat. When i passed by the girl, i saw that she was crying and sobbing. I asked her - " Why are you crying? What is the matter?" She said - "Papa hasn't come yet and the train will leave him." I tried to console her - "Don't worry. Your Papa will come soon. He is just in the toilet". But she started sobbing more loudly. Now i was feeling embarrassed and awkward. So i told her - "Let me go there and find your Papa". I checked both the toilets, but no one was there. I thought maybe he has gone to the one of the toilets on the other side of the coach. So i went there, but again both of them were vacant. Now i was starting to get worried. Where is her father. What kind of irresponsible person are there?
I again went back to my seat. She came to me and asked - "Did you find him?" I said - "No. But i am sure he will be back soon. Tell me what is your name ? where are you .." I wasn't able to complete my sentence. She started crying and shouting hysterically with a shrill - "What have you done to my Papa? Where is my Papa" I tried to calm her by patting my hand on her head, but she stopped my hand in the mid air with both her hands. I swear i can still feel those icy cold hands. She gave me a violent push. It was so surprising that how come such a little girl got so much power. My head banged with one of the iron plate of a seat and i lost my consciousness
When i opened my eyes i saw several people standing near me. One of the gentleman was sprinkling my face with water. Another person was fanning over my head with a newspaper. I sat upright and asked - "Where is the girl?" But it seems no one has seen that girl and no one has heard her cries. They were about to get down at Mujaffarpur when they saw me lying on the floor of coach.
Till this day i am thinking about that girl and who she was. Was she just my imagination or something really paranormal happened to me.

(c) Anup Mayank 2012

Android app for Java J2EE interview materials

A friend of mine has written this app and i find it quite useful. Please check the link below



JAVA/J2EE Interview Android App

A very nice song by Diljan on Surkshetra

A very emotional song, sung by Diljan in Sur Kshetra. I watched it with my father and thus a very memorable moment.

राजकुमार वीरवर्धन और तालाब का राक्षस

बहुत दिन पहले की एक कहानी है। इन ऊँचे पहारों के पीछे एक देश था। उस देश का राजा बहुत ही दयालु था। वहां की प्रजा अपने राजा का बहुत ही मान सम्मान करती थी और अपने राजकुमार वीरवर्धन  पर जान छिरकति थी। आखिर कार राजकुमार भी बहुत ही साहसी और निडर था। उसके वीरता और बुद्धिमता का उसके मित्र और दुश्मन दोनों ही लोहा मानते थे।
फिर उस राज्य के एक गाँव में एक विचित्र राक्षस आ गया। वह राक्षस उस गाँव के एकलौते तालाब के अन्दर छुप कर बैठ गया था। और जब भी उसे भूख लगती थी तो वो वहां पर मौजूद जानवर या मनुष्य को खा लेता था। उस गाँव के सभी लोग उस राक्षस से तंग आ गए थे। तालाब भी एक ही था। इसलिए पानी के लिए तालाब जाना ही पड़ता था। बहुत लोगों ने उस राक्षस से विनती की, लेकिन वह वहां से जाने के लिए तैयार नहीं हुआ। किसी में उससे लड़ने की हिम्मत नहीं थी। और वह पानी के अन्दर छुपा हुआ रहता था। फिर लोगों ने विचार किया की राजकुमार वीरवर्धन से ही विनती की जाए की उस राक्षस को भागाओ और हमारी जान बचाओ।
राजकुमार ने जब यह सुना तो तुरंत अपने घोड़े पर चढ़ कर निकल पड़ा। लेकिन वह चिंता में था की पानी में छिपे राक्षस से कैसे मुकाबला किया जाये। बीच रास्ते में उसे एक छोटी चिरिया दिखाई दी। बेचारी चिरिया सड़क पर गिरी हुई थी और उसके पंख भी टूटे हुए थे। राजकुमार को बहुत दया आइ। उसने अपने पीने का पानी चिरिया को पिला दिया। तभी चमत्कार हो गया। वो चिरिया एक परी बन गयी। परी बोली - "राजकुमार मैं तुम्हारी परीक्षा ले रही थी। तुमने अपने पीने का पानी एक चिरिया को पिला दिया। तुम बहुत ही दयालु हो। मेरी तरफ से एक चमत्कारी तलवार ले लो। इस तलवार से तुम अवश्य ही उस राक्षस से जीत जाओगे।" राजकुमार ने परी का बहुत ही आभार प्रकट किया।
वह अब दूने उत्साह के साथ राक्षस से मुकाबले के लिए निकल परा। जब राक्षस ने देखा की राजकुमार के पास जादुई तलवार है तो वह समझ गया की अब उसकी खैर नहीं है। उसने राजकुमार और गाँव वालों से माफ़ी मांगी और चुप चाप वहां से भाग गया। सभी गाँव वालों ने राजकुमार का जोर से जय जयकार किया।

(c) Anup Mayank
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A Trip to Matheran

It has been over two years since we came back to India. We have been trying to cover the places around Pune and Matheran was something in my mind for past one year.

Details about Matheran can be found from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matheran

It is about 120 KMs from Pune. We took the Mumbai Pune Expressway for this trip. This was the first time i was driving on this highway. The experience was truly amazing. I have been constantly complaining on the driving woes. But here is the road where i was able to reach upto 120 Km/hour (Just for the sake of readers, speed limit is 80 Km/hour). We reached Lonavala in about 45 minutes and from there we had to take NH4 (old mumbai pune highway). The road towards Karjat and Neral is not good. Road patches are very damaged and you cannot go over 25 K/hr. From Neral it is uphill drive. You will have to drive in 1st gear and there are about 6-7 hair pin bends. Although it is not very difficult to drive but one must be careful to avoid any accident.

It took us to the Dasturi gate. Here you have to park your car. Being it a weekend, it was crowded and finding a decent place to park turned out to be little difficult given that we were trying to find parking along mountain side. Beyond Dasturi, vehicles are not allowed. Most of the hotels are located in Market Peth which is about 2 KM from Dasturi. So either you have to walk or take horse or you can catch the toy train from there, but its frequency is not guaranteed. Since we have already made our mind to go for a horse ride, we bargained with a fellow and got 2 horses. I am glad that we did that as  it was almost 12 in the afternoon and was hot.

We had booked a room in Hotel Kumar Plaza. This hotel has 2 kinds of room. AC Deluxe (B) and Super AC Deluxe (A). Since we had booked little late and it was weekend so most of the good hotels (Verandah, Usha Ascot) were already booked. If you have to stay in Kumar Plaza then go for super AC Deluxe. Other room was not of good quality. In my next visit i will try to stay in Verandah or Gujrat Bhavan.

Matheran is all about walking and enjoying the beautiful scenic points. We visited Lake Charlotte, Echo Point, Honeymoon point that evening. It was so relaxing to sit at the canyon edge and watch valley below.

We were very tired after all this walk, had dinner and then explored the market area. Matheran has lots of shops for leather accessories. I had purchased a leather belt. It seemed of good quality and for Rs 450 seems a decent price if it survives more than a year.

Next morning, for some reason i was wide awake at 5 in the morning. I went out of the room. It was dark outside. But there were few people offering horse rides for the points. I too stepped out when it was clear morning. I again reached lake charlotte. In the morning it was so peaceful and different than the evening before. I was one of the only few. Stayed there for about an hour, soaked the fresh morning air.

In the end we decided to take a horse ride to Panorama point. I had read that the view is very beautiful from there. It is closer from Dasturi. But the path towards Panorama point is not very good. For a good portion of the journey i was guiding one horse  while my wife and kid were in other horse with the owner of horse. We had to abandon reaching the point as there were thick bushes on the way and its better to be safe than be sorry and be bitten by snake etc.

Thus overall it was a very memorable trip and can't wait to go there soon again. Here are some pictures from the trip.

Book Reading vs Writing

My son is about 4 years old now. So as a responsible parent we decided to increase his general knowledge by introducing him to famous people around the world and what they did. So we had compiled a ppt of famous people and started explaining their work to him.

WE: He is Mahatma Gandhi. The great freedom fighter of india.
This my son immediately recognizes as he has seen his pic in school so often.

WE: He is Abraham Lincoln. A famous president of USA.
He tries to repeat the name, but doesn't seem so interested.

He was very interested in the picture of Niel Armstrong, as he has recently read a book on moon and astronauts.

Next we went through some of the famous authors. William Shakespeare, Rabindra Nath Tagore, Munshi Premchand, Leo Tolstoy.
WE: They have written great books. You will get to read them when you grow old.
He listens to us for some time then simply corrects us by saying "We read books, we don't write them".

Now this is a very genuine question coming from him, as we have been explaining to him not to write on his books.

Phone, Facebook and a Kid

I have an Android phone. So obviously i have enabled data synch with all the popular applications like Gmail and Facebook. So all my contacts get automatically synched and linked from various sources (phone, google, facebook etc). It is a very great thing when the end user is me.

Now come into picture my 4 year old son. He of course understands that this phone is something interesting that's why dad is avoiding to give it to him. So he will always be in a lookout for a chance to grab my phone. And how many times you can deny a cute kid's plea. And further when he is just exploring his photography skills and occasionally takes few good pics of mine. So now he is getting my phone and spend some unsupervised time with my phone.

Here comes the inconvenient part. He likes the touch screen so will keep on moving from one screen to another. He will explore all the applications. He is adept at changing wallpapers (with all his recent photoshoot). So far its okay. But now he also goes to the phonebook and starts making call. And now of course he doesn't have decency to say hello, so he simply ends the call either some one answers or just after few rings. Well if its his grandma, grandpa, uncle, aunt etc its okay. But sometimes he makes call to some people whom i didn't know i had the phone number (thanks to the synch feature). Worst when they call back, i have to pick up the phone and then explain to them what happened. It can be very discomforting at times, because i haven't talked to that person for so long and suddenly i am talking to him/her, not knowing what to talk about. But at least it gives me an opportunity to talk to that person, whom i should have been in touch.

Well if you are one of those persons who have been troubled by that mysterious call from me, please accept my apologies in advance.

Quotes from Shantaram (Novel)

Author : Gregory David Roberts

These days i am reading the novel "Shantaram". Wonderfully written so far. I have found some interesting conversation pieces from the characters of this novel, which have given me immense pleasure as a reader. I am quoting them here. My commentary is in italics after each quote

1. Being listened to -- really listened to -- is the second best thing in the world. (Interpretations are open about the first best thing.)
2. The only force more ruthless and cynical than the business of big politics is the politics of big business. (Not any personal experience so far but i guess it is true)
3. Civilization, after all, is defined by what we forbid, more than what we permit. (In Egyptian civilization it was norm for brother to marry sister in royal family)
4. Friendship is something that gets harder to understand, every damn year of my life. Friendship is like a kind of algebra test that nobody passes. In my worst moods, I think the best you can say is that a friend is anyone you don't despise. (Ah there goes my friend list)
5. The facts of life are very simple. In the beginning we feared everything -- animals, the weather, the trees, the night sky -- everything except each other. Now we fear each other, and almost nothing else.
6. It's good to know what's wrong with the world. But it's just as important to know that sometimes, no matter how wrong it is, you can't change it. A lot of bad stuff in the world wasn't really that bad until someone tried to change it.
7. I think wisdom is very over-rated. Wisdom is just cleverness, with all the guts kicked out of it. I'd rather be clever than wise, any day.
8. Poverty and pride are devoted blood brothers until one, always and inevitably, kills the other.
9. 
   
10. The people showed thanks, rather than saying it, and I'd come to accept that.
11. I take everything personally -- that's what being a person is all about.
12. I can't stand politicians. A politician is someone who promises you a bridge, even when there is no river.