Author Archives: Santosh

About Santosh

Gamer, Audiophile, Avid Blogger and yes, a Student too. Pakka Bangalorean!

Vizag – Goa of The East Coast

Posted on by
Reply

For a resident of Bangalore, there could be no better holiday than a weekend at the beach. A lot of you would agree. Bangalore has the weather, the people, and places to hang out as well. But we seriously miss having a beach nearby.

Vizag, or Vishakapatnam, is the second largest city in Andhra Pradesh and is famous for its natural port, apart from the tourism of course. It’s about 1300kms from Bangalore and hence my initial thoughts were to take a flight. But after finding out the ridiculous cost of a flight ticket to Vizag, I decided a train was better. By train it takes about 18 to 20 hours depending on the train you’ve taken (as I found out when coming back, it could take a LOT more than that, so be prepared).

I was pleasantly taken aback by the weather when I arrived. It was very much like what I was used to, cool and calm. Surprising for a beach town. The Vizag railway station however lacks a lot of basic amenities, including a (working) air conditioned waiting room. This would turn out to be such a big damper on my return journey. More on that later.

View of the Haritha Beach Resort

View of the Haritha Beach Resort from the beach.

My room was booked at the government APTDC Haritha Beach Resort at Rishikonda. That was another 15kms from the railway station and travelling there would be only by auto. Be prepared to pay a couple of hundred bucks unless you can talk Telugu. One thing though, the auto drivers there don’t hassle you like in Bangalore. So you can let your guard down… a little.

vizag-rishikonda-beach-haritha-resort-viewComing to the resort, the staff were extremely helpful. Language was not a problem as I could (sorta) follow Telugu. They’re quite fluent in Hindi, just in case. The rooms were fantastic and we had a stunning view of the beach from our second floor deluxe room. One does not have to worry about food either. The room service was quick and the food was brilliant. There’s even a very nice restaurant called Offshores. A view of the beach and the sound of the water make a very scenic background for a quiet dinner. Don’t forget to order sea food. Cooked in traditional Andhra style, you can expect a spicy affair for your taste buds.

View of Rishikonda Beach from the resort

View of Rishikonda Beach from the resort

My only qualm about Rishikonda was that it wasn’t a private beach. However, the crowd was small and the people weren’t privy to what tourists were up to.

 

All I wanted to do on this vacation was to laze and enjoy the beach. There are a lot more things to see in Vizag though. The Borra Caves, Arakku Valley, more beaches, and lots of temples. If you love to drive, it would be well advised to rent a car because the city has some breath taking scenic roads that one will thoroughly enjoy driving.

drive to vizag rishikonda beach road

My experience with the return train journey was horrible. The train was initially delayed by 3 hours, and it only kept increasing. It finally arrived a whole 5 hours late! This did give me an opportunity to explore the city, and I managed to sit through a whole Telugu movie – for the first time. :)

All in all, Vizag is a truely beautiful beach town to visit, and for me, it really was the Goa of the East Coast.

Yes, It Actually Happened!

Posted on by
1

bic_logo
Millions watched it, but we were there!

That’s what a friend’s Facebook status said late Sunday evening. The first Formula 1 race in India had just ended. The air was still dusty, you could smell the burnt rubber, and we wanted more!

Barely two months ago, the Buddh International Circuit was still a huge pile of dirt. There was uncertainty in the air about whether the first Indian GP was ever going to take place. I took my chances, booked my flight tickets early. And then, the tickets went on sale the next day! Two days later, more than 15,000 tickets were sold and the South Natural Stand was already sold out! It was going to happen, F1 in India!

I left to Delhi on the 28th, by a very early morning flight. Delhi’s weather was surprisingly very much like what I love and am accustomed to in Bangalore. The only signs of being out of place was being in the center of what is an insanely huge terminal, Delhi’s IGI T3. Wow.

After a few phone calls, I was headed to Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, where accommodation for us had been arranged. I was already in a cab when I was told Ghaziabad was 40kms from IGI. Ouch! Oh well, the cab ride gave me a chance to enjoy the sights of New Delhi, at a price of course.

india gate

India Gate

We headed out to Greater Noida, where the Buddh International Circuit is located, another 40kms from our hotel. The roads around New Delhi are amazingly well kept; not a single speed breaker or ditch through the whole ride. I had already started liking New Delhi, and it was just the beginning.

The area around the circuit was hardly complete. I’m talking acres here, because it looked like the Jaypee group owns half of Greater Noida. It was Jaypee for as far as you could see. Amazing really. Then there was the circuit itself, damn. The first sight of it really gives you a sense of pride, making you not believe something like an F1 race was actually happening in India.

tweetAnd then came out Alguersuari in FP2… oh my gawd. The sound of an F1 car was just unbelievably loud. And for fans like us, it was the epitome of the trip thus far. Unbelievable. A thousand miles traveled, and the just the sound of an F1 car had made us feel it was worth it all.

Friday evening was spent in Delhi, visiting India Gate and the famous eatery Khan Chacha. My opinion about Khan Chacha – the owners are egoistic and the prices just don’t justify the taste. More on this later.

Saturday involved being late to Qualifying because of traffic, visiting the F1 Village, returning to India Gate, and heading out to Karim’s. Karim’s too, was over hyped. It was 9pm and the Biryani and Raan were already over. WTF?

Sunday. Race Day! And boy, was it worth the 2 hours in traffic. We made it just in time for the parade lap, and cheered as Vettel, Schumi, Massa, Alonso, and Karthikeyan went by on old classics; and uttered racist words as Hamilton passed by. We watched as Massa and Hamilton collided, Massa’s Ferrari grinding to a halt as it passed turns 10 and 11, Massa being scootered away (on a Honda Activa! :P ), and after the race, the damaged Ferrari being towed away just a few feet from us. Ahh, worth it all.

f1 collage

We were THERE!

And as an added bonus, we saw the God of Cricket, Sachin Tendulkar, stuck in traffic right besides us, happily acknowledging the crowd that had stopped their cars to take photos!

Sunday night’s dinner was at Kake-Da-Hotel, and WOW! The half an hour wait was a small price to pay for what was the best Butter Chicken and Mutton Keema I have ever had. Khan Chacha and Karim’s can learn a thing or two from Kake-Da, the food was superb and light on the wallets. A must for anybody visiting Delhi.

 

Sides: This post was to be written more than a day ago, but I ended up sleeping for 20-hours straight after coming home!

Must-Have Android Apps #1

Posted on by
Reply

I come across so many good Android apps now and then that I would love to share, so I thought I’d make random blog posts here every often to share them. Here’s the first one.

#1. Lookmobile

Lookmobile

If you’ve left your phone behind, and would like to access any new SMS, call logs, as well as contacts, this is the app that you absolutely must have! Remember Texty for Chrome? Think of this as an enhanced version that works across all browsers. Some would have privacy issues using this, but well, guess it isn’t for you then. (The website does store all your contacts and SMS for only the current session, and is then erased.)

 

[Market link]

#2. TripAdvisor

A fantastic app for travelers. Gives you information on hotels, restaurants, as well as photos and other details about almost any place you’d like.

goobe

TripAdvisor

[Market link]

 

My search for Navi Mumbai, India

Why I Want A Tablet

Posted on by
Reply

image

I’ve been using an Android phone from the past 4 months now. I like it for the most part. My main activities mostly revolve around texting, calls, and using the Internet. The 3.6″ screen is pretty nice for surfing, BUT, it doesn’t do a good enough job of reading articles and ebooks. That’s where I feel a tablet would be handy.

Sure, you’d argue that carrying a tablet and a phone would be quite troublesome. For most people that would be true. For me, nope. Six days a week I carry my backpack with me. I have an immense need for it. Adding an additional tablet to it would just about me perfect for me. I could catch up on a book or read the news while travelling, and I travel a lot.

What made me realise that a tablet is much better than a phone at reading books and news was the iPad. Actually, the Pulse newsreader application. It’s magnificent. Having the iPad in your hand and reading the Huffington Post makes you feel like you have the hard copy of the Post in your hands, and THAT is simply orgasmic.

I’ve been driven towards an iPad, but cost is obviously one thing that isn’t going to let me have it. I’ve come to terms with that. The iPad isn’t for me. But I’m not going to give up on reading the Huffington Post on a tablet idea. After all, Android tablets are just around the corner (forget the Tab. Samsung and I have a mutual allergy to each other). The supposed Motorola tablet should be a beauty. It probably won’t be very cheap, I get that. So even though a Tablet isn’t for me now, two years down the line, my prediction is that every book and news lover will have a Tablet in his hand, and the costs shall obviously be driven down, THAT’S when a Tablet will be mine. Why settle for a closed book reader (Nook anyone?) when you can have the openness of Android on your tablet.

P.S. – This happens to be my first post from the WordPress app for Android. Mobile blogging at last.

An Epic 1000km Trip Around Karnataka

Posted on by
1

Back in June, a bunch of us decided to vacation at Chikmagalur, a hill station quite close to Bangalore. We booked a couple of rooms with the Horticulture Department of Karnataka (they run lodges there), prepared ourselves by packing warm clothes, and left.

The check-in time was supposed to be around noon, so leaving at 6 in the morning, we were sure to reach there around noon. After a few hiccups that I’d rather not mention, we were at the bus stand at 7 am. We caught the first bus to Chikmagalur only to realise there weren’t any seats left. Getting down at the next stop, we spent some time snacking on biscuits while I spoke to a friend. In the heat of the moment, someone brought up the topic of going to Mangalore, and just as that came up, a bus to Mangalore was in sight. Without thinking, all of us boarded the bus and began our trip to Mangalore. “Screw the room bookings money”, we said.

Epic Bhatkal

We ended up staying in Bhatkal for a couple of days, visiting Idugunji and Murudeshwar in the process. Then headed over to Honnavar and Jog Falls. Jog was brilliant, even though it wasn’t the right season for it. We stayed here for a night and boy, was it fun!

All in all we clocked about close to a thousand kilometers and about 6 days out of the house in total. EPIC!

Here’s the map of the whole trip:


View The Bhatkal Trip in a larger map

Five Groups Of People On Facebook

Posted on by
11

facebook As I take a hiatus from Facebook, its overpowering grasp over my life, and of course, its tangled web of privacy issues, I felt I should pen down a conversation I had with a friend recently about the different groups of people there are on Facebook. What started off as a rant turned into quite a ROFL moment for us. This also happens to be my first attempt at a different writing style. I’m poking a lot of humour at everybody, including my friends and myself. Also the first time I’m using Windows Live Writer on this blog. Do excuse me. I heart you all.

So without further ado, here are the groups of people on FB:

1) Techies

Yes, lets start off with them first. These are the guys who sit for 10+ hours logged into Facebook from a small cubicle, in what is essentially an office filled with hundreds of overweight techies and the smell of fart from a day’s worth of McDonald’s. What do these guys do? Simple. Share carbon copies of everything that they share on Twitter.

2) From Orkut, with love…

“HiiiiiiiII!!!!… how r u?>”. No brainer here really. Ever seen the shit that’s on orkut these days? Guess what, it’s now migrating to Facebook. All those profiles with celebrity display pictures and special characters in their names are now here to bug you on Facebook. Deal with it. They’re your ‘friends’. Orkut friends to be precise. (Hint: Treating them as twelve year olds usually helps.)

3) Farmville Addicts

“Santosh has just grown paddy on his farm and wants you to cultivate it”. Yeah, right. Thanks to the app explosion that was Farmville, there are now a hundred friends, at the least, who send me requests to join them in cultivating their farms and what not. Virtual farming, really?! Bah! Oh wait, we should probably put the people who answer boring quizzes in this group too. And then, BLOCK ‘EM!

4) Relationship Abusers

This is a unique group of individuals who are on Facebook as an interim medium between texting in class, and staying cooped up at home. Yes, these are the very gay teen girls who list their best friends as siblings and relationship status as “married”. Personally, this is just down right a piss off.

And last, and probably the most annoying group of people –

5) Cool is my middle name

These are probably the people who piss off everybody the most. If they went out for lunch, a drink, or even a damn piss, you can expect pictures of them with people of the opposite sex. These aren’t any pictures though. These are ones that are meant to intimidate the “lesser social beings” (read: those with probably no party life at all) on Facebook. Yes, they’re cool to look at the first few times, but it can get painfully annoying and irritating when you realise that they mostly put these up to light a fire under your arse. But hey, isn’t that what Facebook is all about? Proving to your friends that you’re cooler and better than them in real life? Hah!

I know which group I fall under. Not proud of it, but I’m happy. No offence to my techie friends, you’re amazing people to hang out with, online at least. (LOL!) Peace out. \m/

Buy an “Apple iPod Shuffle” for just Rs.180

Posted on by
4

No, the title isn’t misleading or wrong. Thanks to the Chinese, it now takes only 180 bucks to be the proud owner of an “Apple” iPod Shuffle. But that isn’t the best part. Get this, you can add your own memory card to it!

Cheap iPod ShuffleWhen I visited Chennai recently (more on that later), @the100rabh and @daaku showed me an mp3 player that they said they bought for just Rs.180! This little Chinese bastard of an iPod Shuffle and Chinese preeminence comes with a pair of earphones and a microUSB cable (for charging purposes) too. Plug in your micro memory card and you’re good to go. You can even use your own 3.5mm headphones.

The sound quality really isn’t that bad if you’re only going to listen to Hindi music, Pop and Hip-Hop genres. Just don’t expect your Metal songs to sound good because this iPod can crank up the treble to insane levels.

Available at Saravana Selvarathnam Textiles, T.Nagar, Chennai. In Red, Black, Silver, and Purple(!!) colours.

College, Travels, BlackBeauty, And Being A Geek

Posted on by
Reply

dead_blogAfter a long period of inactivity on my blog, I am now back and have decided that I will regularly update here (or at least, try to). Before I begin, this *is* a personal blog, and I like to write about traveling, my college that I’m very proud of, and the occasional extensive tech reviews that I love to do.

One of the main reasons for me not updating my blog has been a hectic college life. An 8 to 6 time table isn’t exactly something that gives you time to do anything much apart from studies. Any how, there’s been a lot happening in my life right now. Let me update you.

I’ve been traveling a lot these days. The East Coast was where I started off. Chennai and Pondicherry to be precise. I’ve blogged about the recent trips to Gokarna and Mysore. Gokarna especially was an amazing experience for me for various reasons. I’ll be going to Chennai again for Cruisemaniac’s wedding this weekend and I’m eagerly looking forward to it. It’s also going to be a break for me from regular college life. Did I mention I have 8 hours of classes this Sunday?

Speaking of college life, I’ve started to realize that being away from home, Bangalore, and my friends, is something that is a herculean task. I remember a year from now, telling my mother that I wanted to be far away from home for studies, and that I would do just fine. Now, I end up taking the first bus home on every weekend. There’s something about Bangalore that makes me feel like home. That sense of insecurity I have in college vanishes just as I knock on the doors of home. I feel welcomed and cared for as soon as I meet my childhood friends. These guys have been the reason I’m able to endure college.

line follower botCollege hasn’t been as bad as I just pictured it to you however. I’ve joined the IEEE, an organization dedicated to empowering students and encouraging them to participate in co-curricular activities, something that becomes a rarity during Engineering. SIT’s IEEE student branch has been great so far. We’ve had a lot of fun building robots (and blowing them up), hunting for treasure, and spending a night dancing to DJs. I’ve also been given an opportunity to design the IEEE SIT website, something that’s a work in progress right now. Of course, I’m building it around WordPress, the opensource platform all us adore so much.

I also have a new laptop now. A very gorgeous mistress I’ve named as BlackBeauty. She’s a Dell Inspiron 14, and yes, she’s dressed in Obsidian Black. And, I’ve developed a deep liking for Windows 7 and Visual Studio lately. Cannot wait to try out the full release version of VS 2010. I’m lucky to be getting it licensed as an IEEE member and as a Microsoft DreamSpark candidate. It’s probably something Microsoft have done right, recently at least. Now for some Apple news; I’ve upgraded from an 8GB 2nd gen iPod Touch to a 32GB 3rd gen iPod Touch, aptly named SanPod. I still use both.

And I’m somewhat ashamed to mention this, but I’ve become sort of a Facebook addict! :(