Tech Wars: Mobiles vs. Cams/iPod

Mobile Phones Versus iPods/Canon

It is finally happening. After a long wait, iPod will soon see some serious competition, not from the side of Microsoft, but from the likes of Nokia and Sony Ericsson. Actually not iPod but iPod mini (has smaller hard disk capacity). Sony Ericsson has come out full force with what they call as Walk-man Phone - W800. Nokia has recently launched its N series mobile phones which it dubs as iPod killers. These phones have a whopping 4GB of memory built into them. While the Sony Ericsson mobile phones are based on their own OS and are Java enabled, the Nokia's N Series run on Symbian series 60 platform. The strenght of SE W800 is whopping 30hrs battery life, while Nokia fails on this front. Similarly iPods also have a good battery life. Sony Ericssons good MP3 performance was seen in their earlier phone SE K700i (my phone, but lacked in external memory card support - the only drawback). From Nokia stable the best phone in N Series offering is N91. This is probably the only N series phone hving ability to compete with iPod and SE W-800. Also with SE W-800 the benefit is that with phone off one can still listen to MP3s, is this present in Nokia N Series is not known yet. Also, Nokia N Series is priced at a very high end. One big decision one has to take is whether he uses phone as a phone or a walkman. The prices of both phones is higher than iPod mini. The war has just begun. Its a three way war Apple vs. Nokia vs. Sony Ericsson. No one can say for sure, where will the customer head to. This is where we marketing guys have a role to play. If you are actually looking for a walkman phone, look ahead, go in for SE P-910 smart phone. If you wanna spend money - spend it wisely. Its a smart phone, really capable of playing MP-3 and has Symbian OS running it. And as of now its the best smart phone available in the market.

Now Canon versus Nokia versus Sony Ericsson. Well as can be seen on my PhotoBlog Sony Ericsson's mobile Camera (K-700i at mere 0.3MP) clicks good snaps if proper light is there. One thing which should be clear about mobile cams is that they need good light to click good snaps, this is because they lack a flash light (can you imagine a flash light sucking your mobiles battery everytime you click a snap). Now again here pitted are earlier mentioned phones from both the companies - SE W800 and Nokia's N Series (with N91 being best. Both these phones feature 2MP camera and Nokia N91 has 20X Digital zoom (keep in mind DIGITAL ZOOM and NOT OPTICAL ZOOM). Also Nokias phones are almost the double the cost of decent digicams having around 5MP and a good OPTICAL ZOOM and over it Digital Zoom. While Sony Ericsson's offering will be slightly higher than these digicams. Here also, priority needs to be seen. And before setting priority one needs to also check out an offering by Samsung - SCH S-250, its the world's first 5MP camera phone. But till the time camera phones are not integrating Optical Zoom also as a part of the phone, till then for digital photography one should prefer stand alone cameras, else any mobile phone having a lower resolution cam around 0.3MP to 1 MP should be preferred. It will help you save money for a good Digicam. Camera Phones are meant to click photos as and when they happen. This is because there are occasions when you don't have your camera, but mobile is always with you. So the higher pixel range camera is not required in a mobile phone. Even a 1MP camera phone will be useful, since the snaps clicked by these mobiles will be of print quality. Till some more innovationin the field of incorporating Optical Zoom in camera phones does not happen, the clear winner in this battle is stand alone Digital Camera with a low resolution camera phone.

BUT technology is growing at an unimaginable speed, thus this topic will keep on cropping up year after year.

Paris Hilton Advertisement for Burger

Well Well Well......here is the link for the spicy hot car washing advertisement featuring the one and only Paris Hilton. The full version - uneditted one can be seen here: The ADVERT. But important thing is that the advt is not for car wash, but for a Spicy BBQ Burger. But this whole advt will not be featured over the television. The censor board has made the company cut it into a 30 sec advt.

Car washing just cannot get better than this, the only car washing scene which can be compared to this is probably featuring Denise Richards in movie Wild Things.

Lately Liril's advt also had to be cut short, just to please the censor board. Why can't we just do away with censor board and let the creativity flow. If the common crowd doesn't like it it will clearly reflect in the sales of the particular product. Even in Pepsi's "Oye Bubbly" advertisement the starting part featuring the belly buttons as lips calling out for Pepsi has also been cut.

Let the advertisements come on screen as they are made. Pepsi's advt was tooo good to be censored and cut. Liril had come out with some serious creativity - moving away from all the waterfall advertisements which was their backdrop in past, with only models changing.

Let the creativity and the market forces prevail to determine the success or failure of advt and also let the audience only determine how the advt is. Its as simple as "If we can have Mallika Sherawat on screen, these advertisements are anyday much decent than her acting or whatever she does."

My Photoblog Kickstarted

Well, finally my photoblog is up and running.
You can access it at: Snapshots from heaven

Go ahead and have some fun.

Thinking about a Photo Blog.....

Well thinking that this is probably the best time I can go ahead and set my own photoblog where I can post some selected pics taken from mobile cam or from other digicams....

Since am free for next few days, don't wanna waste it. Already planning to get a digital SLR - choice between Canon EOS 350D or Nikon D70s. Most probably Canon is going to win this fight if Nikon does not come out with a good competing camera at 8MP. Also, since more into nature photography have to look for a good wide angle lens which can take panorama pics at a go.

Just waitin' to Lay my hands on one of these two beasts of Digital SLRs.

So will put up the link after creating a photoblog soon.

My fave photo shoots have always been snow capped peaks (should have had an SLR cam before going to Sikkim in March). I aim to shoot a great sunrise someday (for that getting up around 5am is absolutely necessary). Though have got good sunsets at Andaman and a couple at Railway station. For clicking a great pic, one needs some real patience.

Next my fave shots I like taking are in a move train, standing or sitting on the door of the coach and clicking some country shots....trust me.....train is the best thing Britishers gave to India ever. India is extremely beautiful, and it can only be experienced during a train journey.

Also, now maybe in future I will be moving around a bit, but following lines will always always hold true: (The lines were given to this world by GnR - Paradise City)

Take me down to the paradise city
Where the grass is green
And the girls are pretty
Take me home (Oh, won't you please take me home)

[Home here is Delhi New Delhi, having the prettiest girls in the country and one of the very few metropolitans blessed with loads of greenery - truly a PARADISE CITY]

Lets see what the future has in store for me now...........

MBA - Ponder over it.........

Henry Mintzberg of McGill University, Canada, advocates "You don't get trained in the capacity for managing in an MBA programme. You think you do, but . . . a lot of people end up grabbing for techniques. Where it goes wrong is in the case-study method: give me 20 pages and an evening to think about it and I'll give you the decision tomorrow morning. It trains people to provide the most superficial response to problems... getting the data in a nice, neat, packaged form and then making decisions on that basis. It encourages managers to be disconnected from the people they are managing".

Well, Mintzberg is 150% right. What we are taught are just mere techniques. Most of the students in any B School have no work experience. Most of us take MBA as a natural extension to our bachelors degree and in top B Schools the percentage of engineers is clearly above distinction (75% of the batch).

Well as a person who has been there done that, I would like to admit that though case studies is a method followed by all the B Schools as a primary teaching aid, but then as Mintzberg says what students do is just put the whole case neatly down on slides and in recommendations are made by just "thinking out of the box". With pressure of too many projects or assignments to be submitted, the case studies are the once which suffer the most as everyone feels they can do it anytime after finishing of the projects. Also, another place where we - in India - lack is - we do not have a huge collection of local (India Specific) case studies. We are always referring to Harvard BS case studies. In only some top B Schools do some professors convert their Industry experience into case studies, and these are the best case studies which they can use since they were personally involved in them.

But what I feel should be the future trend for B School education is having more of professionals coming to teach for a semester. Also as projects the Industry projects will provide the maximum learning to the students.

If B Schools and corporates want to have a continuous supply of good managers in future then they should work together to change the teaching methodologies in B Schools.

Also reading of "What they don't teach at Harvard Business School" should be made compulsory at all B Schools. One excellent book on people interaction - another area where B Schools lack.

THE INDIAN "IDLE"

Well we have seen competitions like "Indian Idol", "American Idol", "Channel V's - Get Gorgeous" and all such competitions......
BUT WHERE IS INNOVATION.....
Imagine competitions like:
- The Indian IDLE
- The Sleeping IDOL
- Channel [T]ea's Get Bored

If anyone has any practical ideas on these lines....can help in making this list for future television serials longer.....and these are the concepts which will provide the best possible laughing material.....

You can see how bored I have been lately......my blogging rate is on a sharp rise.....

MICROSOFT TROUBLED BY GOOGLE

Well the following link "Microsoft versus Google" makes for one hell of an interesting reading, especially for those who are open source software lovers.

The story goes like.........
Once upon a time Sergey Brin and Larry Page started of a company which claimed to provide the fastest and the best search possible. That was just a start. Companies like Microsoft and Yahoo did not consider them a challenge and outsourced their search tool to other companies, instead of having a search machine of their own. No one would have at that time guessed what Google's plan could have been. The magic which Google's search machine did was create a brand Google. Well the brand was such that instead of saying a sentence like "Search for xyz" people started using "Google for xyz". The word "search" was replaced by word "Google". Their were competitions like "Who is the best Googler?". Even in our campus we used to have student conducted Quizzes over LAN where the use of Google or any search machine was allowed.......but it was just to find the best Googler.

Also another thing which Google achieved was - cracking the mystery of how to make profits from online advertisements.

The Google of the search fame was ignored by the Microsoft as being just a simple online search tool. It was then, when Google had decided to go for its IPO, that they also decided to launch of their e-mail service - and what a marketing strategy to follow - "Membership by invitation".........this is a do or die strategy. But then to make it work they had a 1GB capacity for their mailboxes (which is now increasing towards 2GB). This was like a major earthquake for other big email providers like Yahoo, Microsoft and Rediff. While Yahoo and rediff reacted pretty fast MS was slow and it provided higher 250MB storage only on new accounts not on existing......what a miser Bill Gates is. For Google, this venture into email was a big success and from here the company has not looked back.

They are enjoying a real good run at Wall Street, and they have entered into many areas either through their own softwares or through acquisition - major being Orkut (social networking), Picasa (Photo management and editting software), Hello, and a real big one being Desktop Search (developed in-house).

It is the desktop search which is now giving sleepless nights to Microsoft - what will Google come up with next.

Also there are many cases as can be seen in the link given where Microsoft employees have left MS for Google.

Lets see where this war goes.......and there is no way Microsoft can buy Google.........just because of one simple reason........it was developed on Linux and MS buying a company which has its roots in Linux doesn't sound a good publicity for its current products.

Imagine the following scenario - Google releasing their own version of Linux with real easy to use desktop, an office software based on Open Office and also a browser!!!!!!! This all together can be a real Microsoft Killer.......

Till the results of this war are out.....Google away to glory.........

FIVE POINT SOMEONE

This post coming after a real long time.....actually the reason is that I have been upto ABSOLUTELY NOTHING......other than my photography classes. They are real fun and this field is real interesting and worth a hobby.

As for my travels had been to Jabalpur between 20th and 25th April.

Well last night I had started a book called "Five Point Someone - What not to do at IIT" by Chetan Bhagat and just could not keep the book down till I read through all its pages. Its about three guys Hari, Alok and Ryan....all three close buddies and all of them good at acads before entering IIT-D and then about their struggle with the IITs relative grading system. How they tried to beat the system. It covers their actual life from the moment they entered IIT, to Hari's love interest (imagine sleeping with the HODs daughter in HOD's house in broad daylight and that too in real life), to their Pink Floyd, Vodka and Grass sessions on the 9th floor of the building [that is a must try ;-) ], to their struggle with the academic committee (for an attempt to steal exam paper from HOD's office - on the day Hari had slept with his daughter), to all of them struggling for jobs and then their parting away. It is an amazing description of the hostel life of the three IITians and is a true story as written by Hari (name taken up by Chetan Bhagat in the book).

Well the book is addictive and anyone who has lived in hostel will be able to relate to it in one way or the other...though hostel life everywhere is different....

Well its a book which you just cannot keep down.....hoping the movie version of the book does justice to it.

At some points you will be reminded of the movie "DIL CHAHTA HAI" - it also had three friends - Akash, Sameer and Siddharth (Sid) and talked about their college life, love life how they go seperate ways and still come back together....well to get the feel of the movie just see it if you haven't.

Well it reminded myself also of the fun we used to have in the hostel days at XIMB......as Bryan Adams would have said "Those were the best days of my life". Well personally I do miss the bakar sessions we used to have either in mess or outside on the stairs or while walking or in someones room.........those early morning tennis games or late night walks (actually early morning walks), also the thing which is being missed is the Birthday celebrations the XIMB way.......those block fights (also with water) at midnights.......

Still life has to move on......just over one more month to spend here in Delhi before I leave for Chennai......eagerly waiting for that moment, but the time doesn't seem to fly....infact seems to be moving too slowly.......

Well in this period also read "The Inscrutable Americans" by Anurag Mathur. The start for this book is with a letter written by Gopal (the main character) to his brother living in Jajau from USA. Well basically the story is about Gopal being from Jajau and small city (which Gopal termed as Paris of Madhya Pradesh) and has gone to study in USA (to a small college there though). The basic highlight of the book lies in the comical usage of English and how Gopal understands the American English, how he makes friends there, how he from a strict vegetarian and strict no-alcohol lifestyle changes towards having non-vegetarian food and making beer a part of his stay in USA. Also how he falls in love and is left heart broken. It basically tries to portray some of the difficulties which the people/students from smallers towns of India might face when they go to states. In the book also described was how Gopal had prepared for his stay at US and what he had thought was US all about. Well this is another book which is a must read. Really good. I read this book on my train journey to Jabalpur.

Killin' Time

Well Killin' Time never got easier before....
Finally have joined a photography course.......this is for professional photography....and thus can be seen as my first step towards getting my very own NIKON D70 ...... Digital SLR (Single lens reflex) camera......

Well the classes seem to be good and interesting......and most important of all am getting a chance to play around with various SLR Cameras and also variety of lenses......which is not that easy.......

Will update on more later.......eagerly waiting to lay hands on my very own Nikon D70.......though its some months away.......

OOPS THE MEN IN BLUE DID IT AGAIN

"What has to go wrong has to go wrong........"
But firstly did any thing go right at all.......

Firstly match on the Kotla grounds....the pitch which it was known will in no way hold good for a full day.......

Over this we lost the crucial toss....and allowed Pakistanis to score 303.....and now that score was almost impossible to chase on this wicket......BUT still...atleast we could have given the fight.....

On such occassions.....we are forced to think is the Tendulkar's era over.......just see him scoring and see Brian Lara scoring......Lara is going strong and consistent even today.........

We did not take wickets regularly...we let partnerships build up...but when our batting came.....we gave our wickets at regular intervals without letting any partnerships build......this feat was achieved by giving catching practice to slips, bringing the ball back onto the wicket (Tendulkar has expertise in this), and ravid giving his wicket the only way he can be dismissed - by running himself out........

So Pakistan Team has won straight four matches and they did it by bouncing back from being behind by 2-0 (India having 2 wins).......It was a difficult task of losing from that stage for India....but if any feat is not achievable....India can achieve it.......

This is not the way John Wright should have been given a farewell gift.......he has done a lot for Indian team and the team seems to have lost it all.........

Hoping Indians regain their form in the next series........if some decisions regarding leaving a senior player out of team due to lack of form has to be taken it should be taken....they should not take their place in team for granted......

All The Best to Men in Blue for future challenges........

KILLIN' TIME.........

Long time since I last posted ne thing.....
So now...what is the scene here.....
Well I can at this stage very well imagine what a post retirement life can be.....

Now have around 45 days left to spend at home....

Over the past few days that I have been home....spent time with relatives....and met a couple of friends....also saw three movies and read two thrillers.......

SO i have been to Mumbai....the stay there was good...met some more friends and relatives out there and also saw "Miss Congeniality - 2" there.....The movie is a great time pass.....OK it is a one time watch but paisa vasool.....and nice comedy also....so those who haven't seen the movie yet....go and watch it....

Before that had seen "Pacifier" - imagine Vin Diesel as a BABYSITTER.......he did a great job....a MUST SEE movie from my side.......you are gonna have a great time laughing yourselves out in this movie.....really great......

Also saw "Million Dollar Baby"........this is an excellent movie.....the best among any recent english movies which have been around.......really good go ahead and see it......

Among the books.....had read Dan Brown's - The Da Vinci Code in XIM-B itself....so after coming home read two other books by him - "Digital Fortress" and "Deception Point". Among these two books Digital Fortress is a must read.

Now whats ahead.......on 20th April going to Jabalpur and will be back on 25th April. Planning to watch "Hitch" - I think it has released today. Have to decide on which book to pick up next.

So thats all thats been happening this side......missing the action filled campus life...where something or other kept happening.......

SOME MORE TRAVELLING........

Its that time YET again......
I am gonna go travelling again.......
This time going to experience the cities of Pune and Mumbai....
Lets see what do they have on offer.....
Plus this is involving meeting relatives and old frnds......

So this year has been quite hectic....full of travelling....
In October to Andamans, in Feb-March to Darjeeling and Gangtok and in March to Kolkota and now Mumbai and Pune calling......

Have plans to visit Bangalore also.....that needs to be planned and plans need to be implemented......

So from today 2nd April afternoon till 11th April night...I will be out.... so another blogging break......

MORE PICS UPLOADED

More pics have been uploaded and here go the links:
Convocation - More pics
Darjeeling Gangtok Trip - More Pics
Campus Pics

Well thats how I am spending my hols......
And now this work is also finished....WHAT NEXT.....
Do leave tips......how to pass two months.......

The Photo Albums

Well I remember I had in earlier posts told that I would be uploading the photos of Farewell, the Trip and the Convocation......
After scanning have created yahoo albums out of them.....so here are the links......

The Farewell

The Darjeeling-Gangtok trip

The Convocation

Well these are the pics.....if the links do not work...leave a message.....
Enjoy the pics.....

Missin' Campus.....

Its tooo early to come back after my last post but what to do.....second day at home...and missing XIMB and campus life already..... :(
Lets see what happens over next few days.....

The Convocation.........

Finally I have made it back home.....after 2 years (to be precise 18 months) of MBA studies (better put in as hardcore fun - masti all the time - no matter how much the pressure was).

On 14th March 2005, came the day, for which I had waited so long......for the first time in my life I attended convocation ceremony (first time because here I am refering it as MY CONVOCATION CEREMONY - last year had attended seniors convo).

Mr. Jamshed Godrej, Chairman and MD, Godrej and Boyce Manufacturing Company Limited was the Chief Guest for the ceremony.

The feeling of being the black gown and receiving the diploma cannot be described, it is one thing which everyone waits for. It marked the end of one phase of life and beginning of another new untravelled journey. I hope the journey on which I will set my foot on will be an exciting one.

Till that day many of us friends had stayed in hostel together and many of us by 14th March joined us back in campus. It was also the day on which we started bidding goodbye to all our friends hoping to meet them regularly in the course of our careers. The bonds established on campus will be long remembered and cherished. It was actually the first time when the feeling of leaving the campus actually set in.

"The most beautiful discovery true friends make is that they can grow separately without growing apart."

Now as for the snaps the link will be put up in few days as and when i get good pics.

Journey into Darjeeling and Sikkim......

Stop worrying about the potholes in the road and enjoy the journey.
--Babs Hoffman

The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.
--Augustine (354-430)

From 25th February to 5th March, 2005.......I was on a blogging holiday and enjoying myself out in the mighty Himalayas with my gang.......Lately it has been my longest stay away from Internet and I actually liked it......

People knowing me know how much I actually love to travel........its more like a passion and Himalayas have always given me a high........Most of my best trips have been into Himalayas........be it Kullu-Manali, Shimla, Mussouri or Darjeeling and Sikkim. This was my second trip into both places - Darjeeling and Gangtok (Sikkim). First time I went there I was a kid (as if I have grown up now - I am still a kid - this my friends tell me).

We were a gang of 11 people (my classmates at XIMB) who set out to experience the beauty of Darjeeling and Sikkim......The date of the journey was early morning hours of 25th February, 2005 when we set on the journey to Howrah on a train from where we had a connecting train to New Jalpaiguri. On 26th Feb, 2005 morning we reached New Jalpaiguri and after taking adequate rest and freshening up.....set on the road journey to Darjeeling. Also Narayan and Supriya joined us a bit late, courtesy their Japanese exam and the biggest hurdle they faced in joining us was catching the connecting train from Sialdah railway station after getting down at Howrah railway station. So biggest problem they faced was reaching Sialdah station on time for catching the train to New jalpaiguri, which they managed to and all that ends well makes the next part start well. It was around 3 hours drive to Darjeeling. The road and the toy train tracks run parallel all thoughout the journey. And we had chances to sing "Mere sapnon ki Rani kab aayegi tu" whenever we spotted a toy train. The scenic beauty is really amazing. One could easily see how the vegetation and flowers were changing as we were reaching higher altitudes. When we reached Darjeeling it was covered completely with mist (clouds) and was really cold. In Darjeeling we stayed at Sterling Resorts which is located in Ghoom, just next to the majestic Ghoom Monastery. Ghoom is around 8 kms away from Darjeeling (at 7000 feet).

On 26th February we reached Ghoom late than we had scheduled for and getting fresh over there took a bit too long. So there was no way we could do any sight-seeing over there that day. We were left with one option - roam around on Mall Road and do some shopping. So we spent the evening there having snacks and window shopping. Around 7 PM we tried to visit Nightingale Park, but we got delayed for it. The day finished off with dinner at Sterling Resort.

Now for some sightseeing, we were left with only one day, which according to actual plan we had reserved for Kalimpong, so the Kalimpong plan was chucked off (heard that its a real beautiful place, but its beauty is best experienced post April when it is filled with flowers).

So, on 27th February we started of for Ganga Maya and Rock Garden as the destinations to cover for that day and along with it other destinations to cover were Himalayan Mountaineering Institute (HMI) and the highest Zoo in the world located in Darjeeling. The day started of pretty early around 4 am when we decided to go to Tiger Hill (at 8482 feet) to see the Sun rise and also the amazing peaks of Mt. Everest and Mt. Kanchenjunga, but mist/clouds did not give us the chance to have that experience. The temperature at Tiger Hill was really low at 2 to 3 degree centigrade. After coming back Sathya treated us to tasty omellettes cooked by him. Then, we started of for Ganga Maya and while on route stopped at a Tea Garden (Orange Tea Estate). The complete slope covered with Tea Gardens look so beautiful.......only eyes can experience. After a short break at the tea estate we continued with our journey to Ganga Maya. Ganga Maya, is basically is a park set around a mountain river flowing, passing through rocks and small waterfalls. It looks really beautiful. A massive photo clicking exercise was carried out over there. We spent around one hour over there. We did not want to leave the place so early, but then time constraints. The next stop was at Rock Garden, which was again set around a mountain river on a slope, and it too had many small waterfalls. This garden is completely built on a slope of a mountain, thus implying a lot of climbing up. This place provided an excellent view of the valley around the place. After enjoying the time over there we moved back to Darjeeling to visit HMI and the Zoo. The Zoo had various mountain animals like - Red Panda, Black Bear, Siberian Tiger and many others. After the zoo we entered HMI, which had on display various mountaineering equipments, news paper articles about conquest of Mt. Everest, and a real good 3-D model of the Himalayan Mountain peaks and Himalayas in Sikkim. It also had articles on Yeti. After these places, we had our lunch in truly Tibetan format. For some it tasted bland, but still some of us liked it. At the end some of us ordered, Lemon Ginger Tea with extra Honey and it was really good. Then the rest of the evening was spent shopping around on the Mall Road. On Mall Road there is an eating joint - The Glenary's below which there is a bar - The Buzz and there at The Buzz we enjoyed a local band playing some real great music. So, this day can be said to be a good start to the journey.

On 28th Feb we were scheduled to leave for Gangtok, so just before starting of for the journey we visited the Ghoom Monastery - which was setup in 1850 AD. (its actual name being - Yiga Chholing Monastery). After visiting the monastery we started of for Gangtok and had breakfast on the way. The road from Darjeeling to Gangtok is full of beautiful scenery all around. My phone camera kept clicking all around at will. Our friend for the whole Sikkim trip - river Teesta, caught up with us in a majestic manner. Its first glimpse was its merger with another major river of Sikkim - Rangit. The waters of both the rivers are so different - The color of Teesta is Light Green while that of Rangit is in the darker shades of blue. From there Teesta never left us. It was our friend, it was our guide, it was our "guiding river". Wherever in Sikkim we went, we had it with us all along. We also saw the area from where rafting on Teesta starts and also saw how wild Teesta can get. We missed our chance to experience river rafting over Teesta.

After a magnificent journey of around 4 hours we reached Gangtok and reached our Hotel - Hotel Norphill, located on MG Road and just next to Glenary's and Buzz and also an wine, beer and other alcohol drinks shop. So the location was kind of a boon for some. That day after freshening up and some rest we went for lunch at "The Oriental" - the food there was really yummy. Then all of us went to have a try on getting a ride on ropeway but we were late for it and so came back to MG Road and went to the footpath market for some shopping and bought some real beautiful paintings and some chimes. That was all for 28th February. The weather at Gangtok as we had earlier been told was much more comfortable than that of Darjeeling (Darjeeling is at around 1500 feet height more than that of Gangtok). After a nice dinner at The Buzz we had a nice sleep for the night as for next day we were scheduled for a nice long trip to Changu (Tsomgo) Lake.

Now 1st March 2005, after getting up and having nice warm water bath and breakfast at the hotel itself we started of for Changu Lake located at 12400 Feet while Gangtok is at around 5480 feet. This would be our first tryst with snow on this journey. It is around 40 kms from Gangtok and lies on the route to Nathu La pass - the Old Silk Route Path which is again in the process of being revived back. Nathu La pass has been closed down for a month due to heavy snowfall, thus, no Nathu La for me yet again on my second trip here, still I was able to manage to reach Changu Lake, which I had missed the first time. In middle we stopped for tea. The place where we stopped, it was dicovered that a peg of rum or vodka costed a mere Rs. 20/-, it was more like a daily drink than a slightly expensive drink in the plains. So yet again, some enjoyed the warm drink. Also, it has to be mentioned that the tea was really tasty, among the best we had on the trip. Then back on the road, we again stopped after some time for taking some pics in the excellent backdrop of snow and mountains partially covered by it. The scenery all around the place was too beautiful. The scene directly from movies. Luckily Sikkim is now opening its doors for movie shooting though slowly. After reaching Changu lake, we had to hire boots, so as too play on the snow and also to reach the other side of the lake we had to travel on Yaks. The lake looks so peaceful and was completely frozen. There at Changu we spent our time sliding on snow, playing around there. Many amongst us lost their snow virginity to Changu lake (I had lost it to Manali). on route to Changu lake we passed through - Tashi View Point, Hanuman Tok and Ganesh Tok, but there was no point stopping there because of the mist which had been with us throughout the trip destroying all our chances to have a glimpse of Mighty Mt. Kanchenjunga. On our return from Changu lake we again stopped at the spot where we had tea while going up. This time we had Momos and again lots of tea and by evening reached the hotel. Then we spent our time in the evening visiting the ropeway and getting a beautiful view of the Gangtok City and then roamed around on the MG Road. That night we had dinner at Parivar- a veg restaurant out there. The food was again good, loved the butter naans there.

The next day - 2nd of March 2005, we had plans to go to Yumthang Valley (North Sikkim) at a height of 12000 feet and at a distance of 145 kms from Gangtok and involves an overnight stay at Lachung (at 8800 feet and 116 kms from Gangtok). So the journey started around 11:00 am. Till La Chung it was supposed to be a long journey of around 6 and a half hours with breaks. There are too many waterfalls on the route and many even cross the road, directly in front of you. The area is also a landslide zone. Enroute you have a stop at "Seven Sisters Waterfall" which is a vertical cliff (excellent for attempting suicide) through which a stream is flowing (actually falling straight down). It is called Seven Sisters because there are supposed to be seven falls for one stream on this cliff, while onlyfour are clearly visible. Again Teesta was our friend and guiding river. We were non stop going upstream to the point where the mighty river of Sikkim the Teesta is born. Teesta is born in a small village of Chungthang. Here the two mountain rivers - Lachung and Lachen (named after the main villages they flow through) merge to form Teesta. The river flows with extreme force and speed. As one army personnel told us, one just has to fall into the river and there is a very rare chance that he will survive. Chungthang is also an important point because it is one place which is gateway to two main destinations of North Sikkim - Yumthang Valley and Gurudongmar lake (Largest and highest lake in Sikkim and is also considered sacred). Both places are on seperate routes and the road divides for these places at this small village of Chungthang. The villages in Sikkim have been the most picturesque. The scenic beauty surrounding them cannot be described using photos or videos, only eyes can truly appreciate them. We had a Tea break at Chungthang and then moved forward to Lachung for overnight stay before moving onto Yumthang Valley the next morning. Here in Lachung we stayed at Sela Inn. A really comfortable place to stay at. Nice beautiful rooms with wooden flooring. The dinner was also tasty, similar to house made food. After dinner most of us had a taste of "Changu" pronounced as "Chhang". Its a local drink made of millet and tastes quite similar to Port Wine. It is served in a wooden bowl covered with Changu upto the brim in hard form (millet) on which warm water is poured. This mixture has to be sucked using a straw made of bamboo after two minutes of pouring water. The drink was really amazing. At night we went for a walk up to the point from where we could see river Lachung in full glory at night time. The roar of the river had filled up the place.

The next morning on 3rd March 2005 at 6 am we were woken up with a bed tea and warm water to freshen up. BUT, I decided to go out and what I see was truly amazing, and since I did not want the other gangsters to miss out on the first sunrise viewing on this trip. So woke others up and along with Shikha, video taped the whole sunrise - those beautiful golden peaks all around us with the river Lachung flowing through the place. After getting ready we all left for Yumthang around 8 am. It was one hour journey along the river Lachung. It was a steep climb straight into the heights, and halfway we met snow on both sides of the road. At many points we had thick and huge walls of snow on both sides of the road. There were turns where the road had been washed out and it was extremely rough. At such points we had to reverse the car and rush it forward full speed. There were many beautiful spots all along the way. At Yumthang valley, we had snow covered mountains all around us, river Lachung flowing through the valley. The valley during this time is covered with thick snow and in summer months will be covered with flowers, and in both cases looks truly beautiful. For the first time on the trip we were experiencing clear weather. The white peaks meeting the blue sky with river flowing in between looked like an artists imagination and work on the canvas. It seemed as if god had used earth as his canvas. We even made XIMB on snow using ourselves as well as pebbles. I have visited many places in Himalayas but none as beautiful as Yumthang Valley. Around 11 am we had to leave the place and after reaching Lachung we had our lunch there. Sheila aunty made amazing momos for lunch. They were tooo tasty. By night we reached back to Gangtok and had our dinner at The Oriental and then saw Sania Mirza's match in Dubai Open on TV where she had lost and then went off to sleep.

On 4th March 2005, in the morning we did some local shopping and then around 11:30 am we left to see Ranka Monastery and Rumtek monastery (24 Kms from Gangtok). While Ranka monastery is a new monastery, and has been beautifully built on a completely different architecture from Rumtek Monastery. Rumtek monastery will give u a straight feel of history when one enters its walls. Its really a huge monastery. Rumtek monastery is important because it is the World Dharma Chakra Centre and also because it is the seat of his holiness - The Gyalwa Karmapa who is head of Kagyupa order of Tibetan Budhism. The monastery was built in 1730. The campus also includes - The Golden Stupa and Shri Nalanda Institute for Higher Budhist Studies.

After coming back to Gangtok we had lunch at The Parivar and then went on to get ready to leave for New Jalpaiguri to catch the train back to Bhubaneswar. We left Gangtok around 6 pm. The complete journey in Tata Sumo (all front facing seats) was great. Their was occassional rains in the path, it was completely dark and the whole route was full of sharp curves and the driver was taking the curves at speeds of 50 to 60 kmph. Some of the gangsters had started praying for safe journey. The driver had not slept since 4 am so that was another cause of worry for those praying. He drove extremely well, even though there was steep fall on one side and trucks coming from front. The journey till New Jalpaiguri was of 4 hours and after reaching there we found out our train was delayed by an hour. Finally on 5th night (actually 6th morning) we reached XIMB. We entered the campus at 3 am on 6th March 2005. Thus, ending our trip to Darjeeling and Gangtok.

Though we could not see Kanchenjunga on this trip, but am sure the next time the gangsters go for their respective honeymoon to Sikkim they will surely get a glimpse of mighty Mt. Kanchenjunga, some things after all should be kept for first time. Yeah we all decided that our honeymoon is going to be in Sikkim, lets see what happens.

Ok now you would be wondering who the gangsters were. They are:
Shikha, Sonal, Hima, Supriya, Sanket, Kartik, Venky, Narayan, Sathya, Sachin and myself (Gaurav).

The person who was the most happy after finding out that he could get pegs at Rs. 20/- in Sikkim was Narayan.

As we gained in heights PQ levels of Sonal also gained heights.

Sathya papa revealed his true form in dumbcharades on the return journey in train.

Shikha was a typical Shikha falling here falling there.

About me.....he he.......only others can tell......

so u can very well imagine how good the trip was.

About the pics......
Some of them have been uploaded so CLICK HERE

Back from Trip

Well returned from the trip to Darjeeling and Gangtok just about an hour back and here I am posting my arrival back.........
So my blog here I am........
I will do a detailed posting on the trip sometime later.......
abhi need to take rest......

ON A BLOGGING HOLIDAY

Well currently going on a blogging holiday for around 10 days......

It was indeed an eventful week......
I can finally say that on 22nd February I gave my last ever exam in XIMB......and now no more projects or assignments or quizzes.....

Unofficially......my MBA is complete.....it will be complete only when I get the diploma on 14th March, 2005.......

So decided to take a break with my gang out here......so we going to Darjeeling and Gangtok.....
We are about to leave in 1 hour 15 mins (4:30 am) from now to the station - the train is at 5:20 am.....

So since I will be out this while I will not be blogginf till I return on late night 5th March.....

These indeed have been best two years of my life.......not just because I did MBA.....but because I think I might have changed a lot while residing here........this is for others to find out......

Now is the time to enjoy the best time with closest friends out here.....

Will be back with a post about the trip and more.......

Till then cya,
have fun.......
Gaurav.....

------- Blog: I'll Be Back......

AMAZIN' JUNIORS..........

WE CAME, WE SAW, WE CONQUERED AND NOW WE HAVE TO SAY ADIEU

How does the time fly by.......one will never ever realize........seemed like it was yesterday.....dat we entered the land.....which we wud soon in a months time call our home......and now the time has come that we have to leave the place.....the place which we call our home.......the place where we have spent two of the most wonderful years in our lives till date.......this is the place where I have made friends for life......

Yesterday, on 19th February, 2005........we were given farewell by our juniors.....

It started of with presentation of lovely gifts for all of us........
And these gifts consisted of and address book consisting of contact info of our seniors, our batchmates and our juniors, then there was also a beautiful piece of local art speciality and then a diary aptly named "FOOTPRINTS". FOOTPRINTS consisted of messages from some faculty members and then along with the names of all my batchmates it had their pic and half page writeup on them........

Then there were short speeches by faculty members and some of my classmates.........

There were also Titles given - there were various titles selected for which voting was carried out and PGP-2s voted for their classmates.......
I too got one of these and the title which is received is "KIDDO OF 2003-05"
The other titles which were given were like: Winning Smile, Official 'vella', 'faff' king/queen, Ultimate Ruler of AOE, Jim Carrey of the Batch and many more........

All this was followed by dinner and then dance party......

I will have to admit that juniors really put up an amazing show.....they really outdid us compared to what we had done last year........I am lucky to have juniors like these......I hope that they do really well in their future and set standards for their juniors the way we had......and then hope that the standards be broken........it feels great......

Will always miss XIMB and XIMB will always remain close to my heart.......its the best thing which has happened to me till date and maybe for a long time coming........

Some snapshots from the evening.......
(Thumbnails can be clicked for a full size view)

Jumpin' of the Audi stage after presentation of Momentoes......

Group snap in full flow......people we will miss.....

Yet another group snap......looks so gud....

Lookin' upwards.......

Aimin' higher n higher.......

The gangsters......

Yet another failed attempt on killing me...... ;-)