In The Closet – 48 Hour Film 2010 (Mumbai)

How does a techie like me get hooked into doing music for a 48 hour film madness competition? Friends, that’s how! The Menacherry clan, Miriam (Chandy) / Mathew and their cousins, friends, husbands et al got together for the second year in a row to do this crazy event and it was only a matter of time before everyone around them got sucked into the vortex. This is the story of the mad 48 hour dash to the finish line for Filament Pictures, “In The Closet”, the 2010 submission into the 48 Hour Film (Mumbai). Here is a link to the live tweets that I did through the experience! Live Tweeting 48 Hour Film 2010 Mumbai - In The Closet - Filament Pictures

Friday evening, the team gets its genre, Comedy and there is a bit of a collective gasp since a) comedy is hard b) it doesn’t fit neatly into any early concepts that the team has brainstormed. The brain trust goes into hibernation and after being plied with good whiskey and an endless supply of treats from the house kitchen comes up with a plot, sequencing and rough dialogues that makes us laugh repeatedly. Is it the booze or are we onto something? The night ends with Miriam, the only professional film-maker of the lot cracking the whip and getting the shot division and shoot schedule ready. An early morning beckons.

Saturday crack of dawn, the out-door shooting team heads out to get their shots in Hiranandani, a ton of time is lost navigating security obstacles and they return with their shots but we’re already behind schedule. In the meantime, the indoor shot location is setup and ready to go and the music has been set to the scenes. It’s lunch and nobody has a clue of whats ahead! We launch into the biggest shot sequence of the day and before we know it, the creative process has dragged us all the way through late evening when the directors, Mathew and Miriam finally OK the shot. Long shots and close shots are taken, lines are altered, chopped and actors tone it up and down as we wind down the first big segment.

Already, exhaustion is showing on the team that’s been chugging along since Friday evening on very little sleep. We were behind where we wanted to be based on our shot breakdown plan, the directors had also added a sequence that would ultimately help in establishing a timeline and continuity, but time was a currency we did not have! This was all going like a software project ironically! On the fly plan changes alter estimation in ways that are not productive for hard deadline projects!  Techie gyaan applied!

The stage set for a mad finish, we dived into the most crucial scene of the movie, the sequence between the two lovers, this would make or break the film! Our lead actors, Sam and Paul were flawless and even as we watched them chunk through that sequence, the on-lookers were in splits! We wondered what the light-men and the track-dudes were thinking they were shooting! As shots were being canned, tapes were being ferried up to the makeshift edit room right above where we were shooting. Our ace editor, Susan, methodical super-woman that she is, had already laid everything out into sequences as she got them. We were now in deep night territory, it was obvious we wouldn’t finish all the shots till very early morning. Last shot, 415 AM, the sun was coming up and just like that, D-Day was upon us!

As soon as the final shots were taken, the actors simply collapsed. Sam whose day job had already kept him up before he ever agreed to do the 48 hour marathon, could barely stand during the final shot! Editing began in earnest and the shoot team decided to take a break while Susan pieced the film together using her ninja editing moves on Avid! This was all looking too easy..

At about 6AM IST, I hear Miriam calling out through the haze of the light slumber I’d fallen into. Woke up to find that the edit machine had crashed and all our work was on it! Nice. Susan who had turned hardware pro from ninja editor had the machine opened up in a bid to cool it and make it work for that last mile, but to no avail. Standing there, I realized that all those years I’d spent lugging hard-disks in my college bags and tinkering with computer hardware were finally going to pay off. Susan was calmly telling us how the disks had crashed and was going over our options, just then I realized that I had through some stroke of dumb co-incidence the very cables that we could use to hot-wire the disks.

7.30 AM IST, all the content from the crashed disks was miraculously recovered, we managed to install Avid on a replacement computer and just like that, we were back to the editing table! No time for high-fives, the directors who couldn’t believe we were back from the brink set about chopping the film with Susan. Rough cut in hand, Susan and I laid down the music, for once, planning ahead helped! We laid down the music per the sequence I had decided earlier based on the shot breakdown and wouldn’t you know it, everything fell into place, each piece of music we had gotten seemed to gel perfectly with what the actors were doing! I couldn’t believe it, pure beginners luck! :D

Things seemed to be going smoothly and we thought we’d finish in time, everyone was happy with the final cut and DVD’s were burned, credits were added and finishing touches were put. Aruna, our production controller was going to come over by 4 and ferry the final deliverable to Dadar for submission. At around 3, over lunch the team had a group viewing of the final cut. Amidst the cheering, we realized that there was a major sound glitch in the climax scene which pretty much ruined the film! Somehow a last minute edit had picked up a stray sound-byte that wasn’t supposed to be there! Yikes!

Drop everything, rush to the edit studio! Frantically each frame was analyzed and the bug was caught! Just as we were setting the issue right, we got yelled at by Aruna for the work we’ve done on the credits! We’ve credited a lot of the gang that helped to shape the movie and that includes a lot of people who don’t have a direct title towards the film (Ideators etc). This doesn’t sit well with the rules that states everyone who gets a credit must sign release forms and tons of other formalities!!! We also realize we’ve forgotten to correct the URL of the website from where the music was obtained! Everything was coming down to the wire!!

Susan, our ninja editor, at this point had not slept since Friday night and was working on fumes! We had our ultimatum, no more changes! So, additional release forms were signed, since the URL was at the end of the credits, Susan was able to perform some trickery to get the right URL to overlay. Net result, she didn’t have to re-render the movie and we rushed to convert to MPG and finally DVD. Finally, at around 445 PM or so, the DVD finally left Powai heading towards Dadar for submission while the team nervously waited to hear if we had made it.

Finally, as we all made our way back to our homes and we concluded a crazy weekend, we knew we had a fun movie. It was a bit crazy going through the whole process, with a bit of drama thrown in for good measure with the disk crash and the ghost sound byte making it through, but ultimately it all worked out! Now as I’m writing this, I know that we’ve taken home , Best Picture (First Runner Up), Best Costume & Best Use Of Prop awards, so its that much more sweeter knowing the effort we all put into it!

A total team effort with everyone pitching in at one time or the other! Team Filament is already looking forward to next year’s entry! In the post-mortem, I wonder about many of the choices we made about the film and my film-maker sister points out some interesting stuff about the film, but heck, it was a fun ride and super experience!

In the Closet



Team Filament

Director: Mathew Menacherry (Author of "Arrack In The Afternoon", Harper-Collins)

Co-Director: Miriam Chandy Menacherry
Check out the trailer for her up-coming documentary, "The Rat Race", adjudged the best documentary amongst the six selected for the Cannes MIPDOC Co-Production Challenge, an international pitching competition for makers of documentary and factual programmes.



Cast:
Sam Varghese
Paul Menacherry
Pubali Sanyal
Maneesh Verma

Story
Mathew Menacherry / Paul V. Menacherry / Miriam Menacherry

Music
Akash Saxena / Annie Antony

Costumes
Annie Antony

CameraWoman
Malini Dassari

Editor
Susan Zachariah

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IPhone 2g/3g Unlock to 3.0 Firmware (India Airtel Vodafone)

This post has been a long time coming. It was surprisingly easy to jailbreak / unlock the iPhone 3g to the 2.2.x firmware and now amazingly simple to move to the 3.0 firmware. A big thanks Dev Team for making this available for free, simply phenomenal what these guys are doing.

The actual process though can get a little intimidating, but iClarified takes even that mystery out of the unlock. NOTE: These steps work, but please do them at your own risk. If something goes wrong, there is no support.

Firmware Files are here.
NOTE: When you save the files, they tend to save as zip files, rename them to .ipsw and it works just fine, seems like a browser thing.

1. Jailbreak your 3g iPhone. Works with any carrier in India / US. Verified in both locations.

2. Now, once the Jailbreak has occurred, follow the unlock steps by Dev Team here.

3. Enjoy!

If you own a 2g, then its even simpler, the jailbreak process wil do the unlock as well. Follow steps here.

The above steps I've exercised on a 2g and 3g phone and so far they work pretty well. This post is as-is and author takes no responsibility. I spent some time tracking down these steps online - thought it would help others to collate them in a single location.Good luck and enjoy the iPhone!

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SulaFest 2009

Heard about sula winery? The ones that make satori merlot and dindori as well I think. So yes, that sula winery has a yearly bash called sula fest. The premise is great, food music and lots of wine - how can you go wrong?

So we packed our bags and headed down to nasik for the event. We have aLways wanted to go to sula vineyards but coil never justify what we would do there. One 45 minute wine tour was not enough of a draw. So sulafest was just the thing.

Nasik is about 3 hours by road from mumbai. Take the eastern expressway and folllow the signs, even when in doubt just keep going straight and you will hit nasik. The roads are being done up and the portions that are done are gorgeous. Once it competed nasik won't be more than 2 hours away.

Getting to the vineyard itself was a bit of map and small board reading bimut with some local guidance we made it. It would help if the boards were not all yellow background be more legible.

So having reached the vineyard we got our tickets and since nothing starts on time we had some time to kill. The setup and ambience were amazing and we were hopeful for an unforgettable evening.

Since we had time to kill we took the wine tour. Not really worth the price and he a boring second half. The de-stemmer machines and the wine containers were cool. Wine ultimately was mediocre at best. Location is amazing. The ideal thing to do is to take their merlot and sip it on the balcony overlooking the vines. I am no oenophile but the wine was no fun. Also if you been to napa valley you will instantly recognize the décor.

So onwards to sulafest! Some food stalls were up which was good cause we were starving. Good food. Silly system if having everyone buy coupons from one location. I don't get that. Music was wafting through the air and the atmosphere was turning magical. Glasses in hand we headed to the amphitheater. Very much like shoreline in the San franciso bay area if you've been there. This is no doubt influence by the owners brief stint at oracle.

We noticed dark clouds gathering but figures it's march. The worst could be a quick angry shower and that would be that.however we were wrong. It rained and poured and thundered. Firnaime odd reason the organizers had not planned for this even though there was rain forecast.

Anyhow things went south pretty quick. People were oullednunto the little Italy restaurant ( great ambience!) and why else is there to do on a rainy evening except drink up the wine.

Ultimately it looked like nothing was going to happen. Quite disappointing. Then someone managed to salvage some equipment together and got jilebee cartel going and boy did they Rock out the party! Those guys are good!

However we hadncime to see a live show so wree totally bummed. The artists we talked to wantes to play as well but the equipmen was already carted down and ut wasnofficially a rave party with jalibee cartel taking it home.

So that was sulafest. Great potential but didn't come through due to the rain. I wish the organizers had thought about the rain especially since it was predicted no less! Once the rain happened it was just chaos and it wasn't clear who was in charge and what the procedure was to resume action.

The organizers had although thought about rain when they printed the tickets! Tickets had a clause thy no refunds to be given if rain happened- well good thinking whoever came up with the content for the tickets. Would have been good to share with the folks who were on the ground as well. It was almost like they took the collected money and bolted leavung some
Poor hassled collegekids to take the fall. Also VIP tickets were a sham so incase you're going next year just buy the general admision.

Will I go next year? I probably will, but not before checking the forecast! The space is amazing and no doubt that an open air concert will rock! In the meantime organizers please get your act together!

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Mumbai Votes

15 days left to vote.

This is the first time I'll be voting, so am very excited. I also have this sudden pressure that I've got to make the right choice or else everything will fall apart! Seriously though, I'm still debating if a single vote counts. Theoretically speaking, yes it does. But if you look at it realistically, if your single vote is not part of many same votes, it may not matter at all. I have started feeling that you have to be part of a vote bank to count.

But keeping the cynicism aside, I will vote this time.

But now comes the question whom to vote for! This is where it gets tough. How do you figure out everything about the candidates? Do any of the candidates have criminal records? How have they performed so far on issues most important to the constituency? What have they spent their annual budget on?

I mostly tend to turn online when I need to research anything. I'm so glad that all this information is easily available online. I wanted to share some of these sources with everyone.
MumbaiVotes is an excellent website with thoroughly researched information about candidates. Everything about them, right from their criminal records, parliamentary records, spending information. Any articles on them. MumbaiVotes has even interviewed the candidates about issues important to their constituency.
Agni is another website which has a comprehensive agenda put up that I would hope all candidates would address.

Any other sites you would recommend?

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Passport-itis

I am always surprised at the range of stuff you can do online in India. I recall being pleasantly surprised when I first came back to India and am still pleased to see the rapid pace with which stuff comes online. I have been paying my taxes online for some time now much to the discomfort of my CA who doesn't trust online payments so much. But it works and works well - touchwood.

However this blog isn't about that anyhow. Had to renew my passport and got wind that you could now do this online. Quickly googling it revealed that passport.gov.in allowed you to fill out your application online and after printing it you were notified of date on which you had to visit the passport office in worli to drop off the application and your papers.

Sounded pretty easy so filled the app got all the papers. Bunched all the originals together and copied them once as instructed and reached worli on the day notified by the website.


Online world meet offline world! First order of the day was to figure out which passport office? Old or new. Correct answer is new passport office, the Bengal Chemicals office.

Turns out that the appointment system was scrapped a few months back and now you just showed up at the passport office within 15 days of filling out that online form. Ok, so won't be a 15 minute cakewalk as I had imagined.

So back to sarkari world. Long line, guards and peons wielding power and feeding you nonsense. Long line, middle of the afternoon and I had also picked a day before a long weekend Holi and Id were happening. Found out grom my co-sufferers that the smart folks had turned up early in the morning and were only just getting out by 12.

Then the paranoia- dd you get all the documents ? Did you fill out the right forms? Did you get enough copies? Are you feeling lucky? So now you're bonded with the other folks around you in the line. Great, because you are getting ready to spend atleast 4 hours with some of them only I didnt know this then!

Ok so the verdict was - I had the right forms. Needed extra copies of everything so that means two copies of all originals. Also I had to copy my existing passport. Good news is that the line has in / out privileges. You have to join the line before 12 otherwise there is a cutoff and people are turned back.

Once you get inside it's a long wait. There are two types of lines inside - submission line and payment line. Submission is sloooooow and after that the payment line seems very brisk.

Overall the whole thing took 4 hours perhaps longer due to the holidays.Looks like the application is moving ahead. I had my police verification recently - about 2-3 weeks later. Haven't paid any bribes yet. Fingers crossed.

To summarize
1. Take all your originals
2. Four copies of everything. Two to give when you submit your application. Two for the cop who will abruptly demand copies when he shows up.
3. Letter from society confirming your residency and since when.
4. Keep atleast 6 photographs ready.
5. Three copies of existing passport if you have it.
6. Snacks to munch inside the waiting room
7. Patience!

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Oscar ka Saya!

Was thriling to watch Rahman take home an Oscar the other night, Gulzar was gravy! A lot has been written already about slumdog and whether you are pro or against it.

Me, I loved the movie and was left with a sense I euphoria post watching it. "it was written" captures so much of our attitude as Indians and how we approach our lives notwithstanding the metaphorical "shit" that we wade through to get to wherever we're going. Ah too philosophical even if superficially so!

This is not a review of slumdog though - I thought it was a really good film - this is why I watch films to be transported and be part of something different - am a sucker for underdog stories, what can I say!

However, Rahman the genius that he is hot his rightful due. I thought that slumdog was an average soundtrack - his Dilli 6 soundtrack is so much more satisfying. As he delivers more music he keeps evolving and melding more influences in his music - the recent infusion of mood and jazz influences ( jaane tu... And rehna tu from dilli 6) are sheer joy to listen to. His unfailing inclusion of a quawwali or sufi influenced songs are almost always gems a true religious experience agnostic of your literal denomination or allegiance.

I don't believe that an Oscar changes anything
About how I feel about Gulzar or Rahman - both genius in what they do. However, recognition is good and world over the Oscar is the gold standard, so to win at that stage is phenomenal and the worldnis richer for their "discovery" of Rahman.

Me, I say
A. He was lucky
B. He knew all the answers
C. It was written
D. All of the above

D, final choice.

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Wither Voter ID Card

General elections are fast approaching and being the "responsible" citizens that we are, the wife and I have been trying to get our voter ID cards. This entire process is turning out to be an impossible task! We have been trying to our cards made for the better part of one year and u have three separate countrefoils from the three times now that we have submitted our applications!

Why thrice? It's my lucky number!:) (and I love to clog the already loaded government data entry folks!) - seriously though - each time we have been told that the previous time did not stick - hence thrice! All this with the help of the local corporator who we feel can get the cards since he's part of the system and also because he has a vested interest in recruiting new voters - or so we think!

We had read somewhere that you could vote if you had a counterfoil of submission -turns out we were wrong, you got to be on the voter top for it to work which brings us back to why this post is happening.

About two weeks back a local group decided that they would do a voter ID card drive, very well meaning and atleast they were doing something! Anyhow, so we went thinking we could check our names in the list - place was very busy, was great to see so much turnout amongst the "corporate" crowd! Anyhow it was chaotic, even they had probably not anticipated the rush! Predictbly, our names were not in the list and the lady says - fill it out one more time cause the administration has screwed everything up! What?

So that was it for the wife and me. While discussing this we thought
A. Why is a pan card not enough to guarantee voting rights?
B. Instead of overloading the system even more by asking people like me to file AGAIN why not volunteer to do data entry? Those people are overloaded or just lazy and indifferent.
C. Are politicians in this country deliberately preventing the middle class from voting?

On a hunch we checked with all the househelp that visits our homes. ALL of them without exception had their voter cards! That's pretty damning evidence if any!

We will probably have to take atleast three days off work to go to the local EC office to try to get registered or perhaps moving to a slum might get me my card quicker?

For all our well meaning candle marches and pledges etc( which I don't subscribe to)- the plain truth is that a whole swathe of us are just being systematically prevented from voting and our schedules don't give us the luxury to take 3 days off to run after apathetic government officials who in cahoots with the politicians to deny you your basic right!

If PAN cards can be automated to where it's a dumbed down process - why is this so hard? Thee is no will hence so way. Meanwhile I am putting in my note for 3 days off.....

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iPhone to blog

My blog posts have gradually dwindled to zero and I've been wondering if in this world of twitter and facebook whether my creative juices needed to be canned in a short status message in facebook or a "tweet"!

Recently got an iPhone, no, call it the "Jesus" phone - it "saves" you from mundane phones! An experiment for me to see if I blog a little more with this device.

For those keeping score - it's an unlocked iPhone and works great so far with airtel in India. Will post the steps I took to unlock the iPhone for free. The idea is to jailbreak it and then unlock it. The dev-team folks have gotten as far as firmware 2.2 and I must say it works as advertised - very nice! Will post links to a blog that had a great step by step post on how to do this.

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Avial - Malayalam For Rock

I dont understand Malayalam, but I like good music (who doesn't?) and I must say I'm terrible impressed with Avial! Avial is a rock band out of India who decided to go ethnic as it were but stick to their rock roots - the results are standout!

Its was almost like listening to the Roja soundtrack all those years back - the discovery of Rahman - didn't understand what was being said (thank God - who could have survived P.K. Mishra!) - but Avial ROCKS the party. Definitely highly recommended if you want to pop something into your favourite player and rock for a solid 8 tracks through!


1. Nada Nada: Insert key into ignition and press Start. Nada,Nada,Nada,Nada,Nada,Nada,Nada,Nada... Wow. What an amazing kickstart of a song. Its been a while since I heard such a powerful opening track. Has you rocking your head and singing nada,nada! Crisp vocals and great balance on the music, otherwise Indian rock bands tend to overpower the vocalist. Powerhouse opening. Worth the price of the CD alone!

2. Chekele: After the rip roaring Nada Nada, Chekele is soothing. Its got a latent energy all of itself which builds it up and then tempers you on a plane. Good followup to Nada Nada. I want to hear more!

3. Njan Aara : Strong electric guitar riff to begin with but cools off - its going to be a ballad type of number. Standard hard rock fare. Intensity down.

4. Arikuruka : Intensity Increase. Got my head rocking again.

5. Aranda : More of the same. Good, but standard fare.

6. Karukara : Promising start, its got some nice string work up front and nicely segway's into a guitar solo pepperred with with vocals. This song is really an excuse for a guitar solo with token vocals - but I'm not complaining! The hook is infectious and hey - I'm rocking my head again!

7. Aadu Pambe: Starts off sounding like a track from the northwest frontier somewhere (its a very familiar riff) - is this another guitar solo track? Ah, order is restored, the base and vocals are back. Almost sounds like a System of A Down song. Chopsuey anybody with Avial? The guest vocalist is annoying - could do without it or a distorted background. It all ends in a blaze of guitars and drums - heaven.

8. Ettam Pattu : Final track, damn! Looks like they're going to set you down gently for a farewell. Native American chanting anybody - nah its the naah re through some amp or something! Its the return of the vocalist! Nice smooth number to top off the extrememly satisfying and delightful Avial!


The album art is amazing to boot! Also, was surprised to find Naresh Kamath (Bass) of Kailaasa fame on Avial. I am not a fan of the edible type of Avial - but I'm sold on the type I can rock to! Go out and get this CD while I make my way back to Nada,Nada,Nada,Nada,Nada,Nada...........!

PS: You can buy this album from MusicYogi / in stores or on iTunes.

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Avengi Ja Nahin - Rabbi

New outing by singer / song-writer Rabbi of Bulla Ki Jaana fame. His most recent outing as a composer on the otherwise terrible Delhii Heights was actually pretty decent. Anyhow - onwards with this release!

Overall, 3/5 - average album. It has its moments, but ultimately ends up sounding a lot like something I've already heard before. Unlike Kailash Kher, who I compare him to perhaps unfairly, Rabbi doesn't "dare" enough for me.



1. Chhalla : Screamer of a track, no literally. Must be a crowd favorite. Umm, OK. Warm-up track.

2. Karachi Waalie: Oddly enough for Rabbi, sounds like a cookie cutter rock ballad and I get a nagging feeling that I've head the same strains on some other album, almost takes me back to my Rock Machine ala Indus Creed Days. Perhaps its a check off on the album, Rock ballad,check. Ominous feeling, not going well!

3. Maen Bolia: This is more like the Rabbi I know / prefer. Lyrics are awesome, the album is ticking up.

4. Avengi Ja Nahin : Title track, aptly named, was wondering whether the real Rabbi Avenga Ja Nahin? Nicely laid out, relaxed lilting melody, some of the slide guitar work shown in Delhi Heights (Kitni Der Tak). I love the slide guitar inclusion - you dont hear it often on Indian compositions.

5. Ballo: First thought, "Its Probably Me - Sting" - got the same tchick/boom beat going for it. Umm, ok.

6. Tu Avin Bandra: Like the lyrics, but the song is a little too non-linear for me, hangs in the air and exceeds its welcome.

7. Pagrhi Sambhal Jatta: Starts off like a Red Hot Chilli Peppers number (Soul to Squeeze). The song gets into a comfortable rhythym but the lyrics are distracting , if thats possible. All I hear is Tughlaq, Ghazni. The lyrics are actually great, but doesnt translate well into song.Plus I've got the stellar Rahman song (from Legend of Bhagat Singh) playing in my head, although the two songs only share the same title - the sentiment is the same.

8. Bilquis (Jinhe Naaz Hain): Nice lock step beat. Social message pepperred with bharat bhagya vidhaata!

9. Return To Unity: Give me a little Freddy Mercury Rabbi. Well not really - but not a bad song, again I'm getting Indus Creed flashbacks! Time to pull out that old Rock Machine tape.

I bought the album using MusicYogi again - they should take a leaf out of FlipKart's book (ironic) and waive the shipping. If you want, you can Buy Rabbi CD from MusicYogi.com.

Am listening to the band Avial now, I don't understand a word of Malayalam, yes, the whole album is in Malayalam - but so much fun! Next post on Avial - am still getting my fill!

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IPL Mela, choosing a team.

Click to buy IPL jerseys, lassi glasses and more stuff on eBay!


The IPL circus has started. I'm not a big fan of cricket, the only way I can watch a match is if I put money on it and root a team. Since this is not a India VS others, I need to decide on a team to support in IPL. So this is how I decide to award my allegiance to a team.

Rather than recklessly pick any team, I think the following is a good set of reasons.
Points are based on team name, team jersey and colors (a girl's gotta look good wearing it, specially since it will be very costly, being Reebok), souvenirs , glam Q, da playah's (world cup T20 made me fan of a few cricketers), M.A.L , Mascot, Anthem, Logo(read 'maal') package.

If I go for a match, I should get complete entertainment.

Bangalore Royal Challengers : IPL is a complete brand and advertising game not so much a sport, so using Royal Challenge as the name should be alright, but the blatant brand whoring, left me annoyed. Thankfully Mallya doesn't own VIP Frenchie otherwise, the name would have been Bangalore Frenchie. The plus point is Vijay Mallya, he has a lot of cash to give fulltu entertainment to the crowd as was obvious from the first game.

Name: the big O. Jersey : 3. Souvenir: 0 (it'll probably be the RC music CD). Glam Q: 3. Da Playah's: 1 (Praveen kumar and Zaheer khan). M.A.L : ZEROH (walking advt for RC)

Score : 7/ 30

Chennai Super Kings : Oye Dhoni!! Need I say more. But whats with the name, what were they thinking? "Hey, lets add a Super to the Kings, to give it that extra punch!" Their website says "The addition of the word Super gives the name a young and contemporary feel, which is in keeping with the game format."

Name: 1. Jersey : 3. Souvenir: 0. Glam Q: 3. Da Playah's: 5 (Dhoni and 1 point for Joginder). M.A.L : 1

Score : 13/30

Deccan Chargers : Hmm.. the name is good. They do have the best (and functioning) IPL team website so far.

Name: 3. Jersey : 2. Souvenir: 0. Glam Q: 0. Da Playah's: 1 (RP Singh and Rohit Sharma). M.A.L : 4

Score : 10/30

Delhi Daredevils : Like the name! I guess its the devils which does it for me. And also that DD would be the double D's! hee.. Like the logo, only one with some cricket affiliation to it. Red and Black is good jersey color. Mascot is a horny ball! hee.. It's a ball with horns.

Name: 3. Jersey : 4. Souvenir: 0. Glam Q: 0. Da Playah's: 1 (Sehwag). M.A.L : 4

Score : 12/30

Kings XI Punjab : Nice name. You would think, what's the difference between Super Kings and Kings. Its the extra XI, "Kings Eleven" just has a better sound. The only team owned by a girl!! That adds major points for the team. Website takes forever to load but is not too bad. I love the punjabi spirit that is going for them. A shout out to my punjabi roots. And, they have lassi glasses as souvenir's! Haa.. haa..
Jersey colors are Red and White.. naa.. no good. Super Kings and Kings XI have the same logo, whats with that?

Name: 4. Jersey : 3. Souvenir: 5. Glam Q: 3. Da Playah's: 5 (Yuvi, Sreesanth, Irfan). M.A.L : 5

Score : 25/30

Kolkata Knight Riders : With a silly grin i've got to say yummy Shahrukh!! The jersey's are 'Oh So' cool. Black with the right bit of gold for the glitter. Looks perfect on a pair of jeans. And looove the golden helmets. Really disappointed with the mascot, very tame stuffed toy tigger like. Same for the name, it's too 80's with complete Hasselhoff flavor.

Name: 3. Jersey : 5. Souvenir: 0 (everthing on the web site is coming soon, so will be the points). Glam Q: 5(I would give them 10, just for Shahrukh, but am being fair here). Da Playah's: 4 (Ishant, Ponting). M.A.L : 3

Score : 20/30

Mumbai Indians : I'm sure they could have come up with a better name, a better logo even.. and better colors. I don't find anything attractive about the team. No, Sachin doesn't do it either. Somehow every match I see him play, he's out in the first ball. But a very big plus, its my home team. Imagine the fun supporting your home team in a stadium full of fellow mumbaikars. For this reason and this reason only, its under contention. It does have a good web site.

Name: 2. Jersey : 2. Souvenir: 0. Glam Q: 3. Da Playah's: 3 (Bhaji, Uthapa). M.A.L : 1

Score : 11/30

Rajasthan Royals : This is just a sad sad team. Their mascot is Moochu Singh.. hee.. imagine the cool moustachioed men being called Moochu. Anyways, plus point.. their logo, has a cool tattoo look. Colors are lame, blue and gold, none of the Rajasthani color to them.


Name: 3. Jersey : 2. Souvenir: 0. Glam Q: 2. Da Playah's: 0. M.A.L : 2

Score : 9/30

And this is how they eventually stand..

Bangalore Royal Challengers : 7
Rajasthan Royals : 9
Deccan Chargers : 10
Mumbai Indians : 11
Delhi Daredevils : 12
Chennai Super Kings : 13
Kolkata Knight Riders : 20
Kings XI Punjab : 25

Ergo, I will be rooting for Kings XI Punjab.. pass the lassi.

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Road Trip Deux - Shrivardhan (Konkan)

Ever since we got back from our Rajasthan trip we've been aching to hit the road again and we'd been thinking about heading to the Konkan area for a while now. This is not the season but there was a long weekend and we figured what the hell! However, being the lazy, last minute folks that we are - we waited till the last minute to get reservations and figured that ALL of Mumbai had taken up residence in the Konkan for the weekend.

Starting with Alibag, we worked our way down to Murud-Janjira and then down to Kashid and then finally we found a place in Shrivardhan - by chance - but hey we weren't complaining! Shrivardhan is about 6 hours away from Mumbai - the route to take is to head down towards Pune, take the Panvel exit, then take the Panvel by-pass and point towards Goa(Panaji) - there's a fork in the road for Alibag which you skip and head left towards Panaji - after which your next marker is a town called "Goregaon" - after which you travel over the hills to lovely Shrivardhan. The road is awful and it takes a long time to get there, even though the distance is just 50KM.

We discovered on our way back that we could have taken a fork from a town called "Mangaon" that had a MUCH better road to Shrivardhan, well at least a big part of it.

Shrivardhan is a sleep little town, even on a big weekend, there weren't THAT many tourists in sight - we visited during Holi, which sees a big local festival in town , so there was a buzz - we also found out that the local fisher folk take those days OFF - so NO FRESH FISH! :((( Big disappointment on the food front.



We stayed at a place called "Niwant Sagar", which literally translates to "Tranquil Sea" or "Peaceful Sea" - and really, this place we pulled out of a hat from an internet search was simply phenomenal - they have a minor online presence - here - and the photos don't even tell you half the tale.

Amazing place. The photographs don't show it, but they have separate rooms, amenities are basic - but clean. The location is amazing and its very very peaceful - a great place to go if you want to get away from it all. Reservations recommended - their policy is to give off the entire place to one group - they can house only 10 people in their rooms, although if more people went and didn't mind putting out in the ample covered courtyard - its a good option. Food was average. Beach was lovely, huge - and not super crowded. Highly recommended in Shrivardhan, where most of the other places are run of the mill hotels - this is something different. Definitely on the re-visit list.

Unfortunately, we were only able to get bookings for one night at Niwant Sagar, and had to move off to another place called Shiv Shanti Holiday Inn - newly done up and run of the mill hotel - rooms were clean - the management was all over the place - its been a while since I saw such inept management - but OK - we had a place to crash.

The Shrivardhan beach is loooooong, clean and yes, it has black sand. One can go a good distance into the water, and the beach is not at all rocky - very nice. Again, even on a long weekend, the beach did not appear super crowded. Shrivardhan is not very tourist friendly, the locals that we ended up interacting with behaved as if we were not welcome in their town - we had dinner at a place recommended in a guide book (Sagar Darshan), was very ordinary (perhaps due to the lack of Fish), it was run out of someone's home and we could hear the lady of the house essentially telling the servers to wrap us up soon - like I said - locals were not that warm.

The majority of the places to eat are of this form - run out of some locals home - food was pretty basic - we had some really nice fresh Kokam the next day when we were leaving - not made from syrup. We made a trip to Harihareshwar which is very close from Shrivardhan - avoid it if you are not into religious locales - really tourist central and quite boring.

On the way back we decided to take the route up the coast to get to Mumbai - we turned off the main highway and headed into the interiors, we had a strange experience where at a village called "Shimga" - there were about 50/60 local kids / teenagers and some adults who essentially blocked the road, we hadn't seen too many passenger cars - so I guess its not the road oft taken - but still - so they blocked our way and some guy was demanding 10/- per head to pass - we argued with him - but the crowd was turning hostile and clearly it was a "mugging" of sorts - beyond a point we decided it wasn't worth the Rs. 50/- to get into a fight in the middle of nowhere - knowing that the villagers would totally band behind the locals - terrible experience in our own country - so be aware if you are driving from Murud to join the highway or going to Murud from the Shrivardhan highway. Very disappointing really.

Anyhow - we managed to reach Murud, everyone was decidedly in low spirits due to the freak experience at the village and hungry! Murud was nice, small town - we had some good fish FINALLY - at "Patil Khanaval" - which is famous in the guide books - again, nice food - but I've had better in Mumbai. Murud has some nice resorts, we saw the "Golden Swan Resort" which seemed very nice.

Our way back threaded through some nice little towns, Kashid was lovely, I'm told "Prakruti Resort" in Kashid is a must-go resort - jotting that down for a follow up trip - Kashid has been completely bought up by private investors - so you cant even see the beach front till much later.

The landscape gets more urban near Alibag, at which point we joined the main highway up to Mumbai - road back was mostly uneventful - was a good quick break away from Mumbai - we would definitely like to return to Niwant Sagar and Murud for prolonged breaks - Murud is nicer - closer to Mumbai - quicker to the beach! :)

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Mumbai - Day 7 - Fin

Rajasthan Road Trip - Day 1.
Udaipur, Rajasthan : City of Lakes, Venice of the East - Day 2.
Jodhpur, Rajasthan : Blue City - Day 3.
Jaisalmer, Rajasthan : Sand Castles - Day 4.
Jaisalmer, Rajasthan : Sufferi - Day 5.
Kumbalgarh, Rajasthan : Much Ado - Day 6.

Rejuvenated after a well deserved full night's sleep and at the thought of finally heading home after a long trip - we left Kumbalgarh early at 7.30 AM - KM : 18342 and ready to crank it back to Mumbai.

We felt the same as we had when we were heading to Udaipur, we knew that we *should* stop somewhere to make the journey comfortable - but wanted to get to our end point really bad - on our way up we wanted to hit Udaipur in a hurry and now we wanted to be home really bad - so there.


We knew that we'd be able to make good time in the day and we were only dreading the section after Surat which had construction on it and ridiculous lines to boot. Here is what our line back looked like,this time we decided to track all that toll money!

Kumbalgarh: 7.30 AM
Udaipur: 9.30 AM
...Toll (Udaipur) : Rs. 35
...Toll (Ratanpur) : Rs. 20
Shamlaji: 11 AM
Himmatnagar : 11.30 AM
...Toll (HimmatNagar) : Rs. 25
...Lunch - 11.40 AM
...Resumed : 12.15 PM
...Toll: Rs. 30
...Toll: Rs. 10
...Toll: Rs. 10
Ahmedabad: 1.15 PM
...Toll Expressway: 64
Baroda: 2.10 PM
Bharuch: 4 PM
...Toll: Rs. 14
Surat: 5.30 PM
...Toll: Rs. 25

Traffic as expected was BACKED UP to hell and high water, we decided to stop being nice and totally break the rules - no option! :( All the passenger cars had started to use the oncoming lane to get past the major jam around Kadodara - where humans were manning stupid makeshift lights and had caused a huge backup - sure enough we shaved off an easy 2 hours atleast from our drive time - we went in the oncoming as much as possible and re-joined when the jam was almost clear.

...Toll: Rs. 30

This was the portion where we entered Dadra / Nagar Haveli, yes, the land of the unyielding driver - for whatever reason, it rained like hell - at one point we felt like there was a conspiracy to stop us from reaching home - but seriously heavy rains - zero to no visibility - most cars pulled off the road - but I decided to keep driving - I could hold my line and I could navigate at a slower speed - this really pulled our progress down - but I figured I was confident so why the hell not. Turned out that it was a hour long session of the end of the world and on the other side everything was completely dry!

...Toll: Rs. 25
...Toll: Rs. 30

We're now in the outskirts of Mumbai, we're almost home!

Mumbai: 10.30 PM
Mileage End: 19188

Summary
We were on the road for about 8 days, we realized that was our threshold for a road trip! :) We travelled (19188 - 16336) = 2852 KM and we spent about Rs. 30K for the trip. Road Trip Check. Rajasthan, almost checked! Roads were lovely, Rajasthan was well worth the effort. Road trip paused till the next appropriate destination!

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Kumbalgarh, Rajasthan - Day 6

Rajasthan Road Trip - Day 1.
Udaipur, Rajasthan : City of Lakes, Venice of the East - Day 2.
Jodhpur, Rajasthan : Blue City - Day 3.
Jaisalmer, Rajasthan : Sand Castles - Day 4.
Jaisalmer, Rajasthan : Sufferi - Day 5.

Jaisalmer had taken it's toll and we were happy to be heading home. What lay ahead was a major amount of driving. Jaisalmer's location is such that you have to re-trace your steps all the way back to Udaipur, same route. We couldn't have made it back to Mumbai in one day without it being immensely tiring, so we had planned to stop over at Kumbalgarh, which is between Udaipur and Jodhpur in that triangle.


Kumbalgarh is in the hills and has a bizarre story surrounding its naming - more on that in a bit. Heading back out of Jaisalmer early morning - Nov 1st 7.15 AM - KM : 17860 - point that baby home and hit the gas! We make our way back through the now familiar roads - our plan is to keep driving till we hit Kumbalgarh, since we know we can nail the times due to the good road conditions.

We bypass Jodhpur by 10.40 AM and head towards Udaipur - the turnoff to Kumbalgarh is via a small place called "Sayra" - which we hit around 2 PM - the approach to Kumbalgarh from this direction has some bad roads - it seems like most people visit it from the Udaipur side. We reach Kumbalgarh around 4 PM - hungry and tired as hell - this place has two decent places to stay, we're staying at the cheaper of the two - Kumbal Castle - the other is a heritage hotel - pricey and we didnt feel like shelling out that lil extra - called the Audhi.

Kumbalgarh is a solo fort out in the wilderness, nothing much to write about really - not much for the regular tourist, no guides in sight - just plain fort. We managed to find one bored government employee who was manning the gate to talk about the fort - mildly interesting trivia - named after a "rishi (saint)" Kumbal - who was approached by the then king to find a location such that would never be conquered - the rishi told the King that he should sacrifice a human to find such a place - obviously no volunteers were forthcoming and it turns out that the rishi in an amazing "walking the talk" agreed to sacrifice himself - according to legend the rishi says - slice my head off - my body will keep walking and will map out the fort - but he had to name the fort after the rishi. A lil nutty - but hey made for interesting listening in an otherwise mundane fort.

The fort is lighted at night to give a spectacle - but we skipped that - weren't very piqued by the thought of it. Day 6 ended with us holed up in our room - tired and watching the Haryana chief minister blabber about something on Doordarshan - the only channel available!

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Jaisalmer, Rajasthan : Sufferi - Day 5

Rajasthan Road Trip - Day 1.
Udaipur, Rajasthan : City of Lakes, Venice of the East - Day 2.
Jodhpur, Rajasthan : Blue City - Day 3.
Jaisalmer, Rajasthan : Sand Castles - Day 4.

Day 4 in Jaisalmer was like drinking from a hose, too much beauty pepperred with touristey cliches (bedsheet shopping?!, camel safari pushers, the pushy guide). Day 5 we decided, the pace had to be controlled and we'd try to look at Jaisalmer one more time at our own pace. Good intentions all around!

Morning dawns, we stroll out of Mandir Palace and head back to the fort, this time there is a sense of recognition or atleast we think so - we're steering clear of the tourist traps we've seen yesterday. We are armed with a map of the fort and begin our self-guided tour of the fort - its lovely to look at the lattice work one more time and really absorb the designs we see everywhere - but turns out that bus-loads of more tourists have arrived and we're also not having that much luck navigating the old fort bylanes by ourselves - we remember from our trek the previous day and manage to re-visit some areas that we wanted to check out again.

We had decided to take the camel safari, neither of us likes camels,nor were we thrilled at the prospect of a bumpy ride from our previous experiences with the camel - but after much deliberation we felt that since we had come out so far - it would be a shame to miss out on the camel safari's that are such a staple in Jaisalmer - so - we ended up with a compromise where we opted to take a camel cart - which we felt was not on the animal and might be slightly more comfortable. Safari booked.



Outside the fort there is a Govt. approved "Bhang" shop - found that very puzzling - a government approved shop that sold hallucinogens - very nice! :) We bought some for use later when we were back home - hey it was government approved after all! The rest of the afternoon was a little aimless, we went back to the old market and I guess we were looking to recapture the feel of Jodhpur, but Jaisalmer is waaay too touristey.

We made a beeline to "Sam National Sand Dunes Park", we had a liaison who drove with us in the car - which he then took onwards to the "camp" while we hopped onto our camel cart - much to the amusement of the ton of foreigners who were all hopped onto the camels. Now, the idea is - the camel drivers take you some distance into the park - to the sand dunes to see the sunset and then drive you to the "camps" for the evening entertainment under the stars - sounded good on paper!

Camel ride was super bumpy - add to that hordes of small kids / adults etc all trying to push you to buy cold drinks / snacks / water and what have you. You got to note that this area has no commerce other than tourism - so the locals are very pushy - our camel driver made it a point to let us know that he would *really* appreciate a tip - OK. Anyhow, we make our way to the supposed "serene" sand dunes and it starts with a low hum - then it grows louder and suddenly over the next sand dune are a zillion tourists and really, there were a zillion tourists - I felt like I was back at Juhu beach - we took pictures if you dont buy it! :)

We navigated to a dune which was mostly slightly away from the human beach - and decided to settle down for the sunset - to bide our time we tried to take atleast one picture without any human entering the frame - yes, it was very hard! It might sound kind of snobbish, but the intent is to sound amused that soooo many (we included) tourists had shown up. Oh well.

Sunset check. Hurried exit to entertainment camp - check. Tip to camel driver - check. So, the camel drive ordeal complete (yes, it was a bad idea and its overrated) - we make it to our camp - traditional greeting with drums and "tikka" - we head to our place around the campfire - and its a big one - for whatever reason we had managed to purchase the "VIP" tickets - it was about Rs. 200 / head, so we got to sit right up front.

In our session, we had a huge group of students from Goa I think so there was a buzz all around. It got dark and the campfire and the entertainment kicked off. There were the staple Rajasthani folk songs, followed by dances, in which the speciality dancer performed some gimmicky dance moves - picking blades with her eyelids etc. OK - was cool to see.

This thing went on for about 3 hours - about 1.5 hour too many - ultimately the session devoloved into Bhangra / popular Hindi movie songs - dinner was served and we were more than ready to get out of that place. On our way back we felt glad that we had taken in a more intimate folk experience in Udaipur which was timed just right and had the right blend of crowd and atmosphere.

Another long day - we were done with Jaisalmer and were ready to start our trek back home to Mumbai. Jaisalmer - check.

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Raghu Dixit - The Review

So, the album finally launched, here are my thoughts. I felt the album might have been tailored to be a bit more populist and I dont blame him for doing so - hey you've got to earn dough don't you! Good effort - hopefully his brand of music catches on and his next album is more booming vocals and more indo-folk-fusion - which is what Raghu's brand/genre to me is.

First, you can buy the music online at Music Yogi or its now widely available in most music stores, I've seen it my local Planet-M and at Crossword too.

Album starts off large with "Hey Bhagwan", reggae/guitar comes to mind, its also the first video Raghu has released - good start. If that song woke you up, the next "Mysore Se Ayi", ofcourse is a Raghu classic, the album version is good but its a kind of song that amazing live and its Raghu at his best blending folk / rock. You're just getting over the solo music piece at the end of when "Gudugudiya Sedi Nodo" kicks off, by far the best song for me on this album - its in Kannada, I had to read the lyrics to understand what it meant - its by a Kannada poet, first the song blows your mind and the lyrics are just phenomenal. Amazing song and amazing soundscapes.

After the high of "Gudugudiya..", comes "Ambar", which I felt was a needless love ballad that goes on and on, not for me and not what I would associate Raghu with, after this point the album seems to go into a "populist" mode (for me) - lets add a ballad, a "foot tappy" Hindi rock song "Khidki".

"No Man Will Ever Love You Like I Do" is soulful, perhaps he wrote it for his amour! "I'm in Mumbai Waiting For A Miracle" follows - which for people following Raghu is ironic because he's really beeen waiting quite long for a miracle! :) Lyrics are predictable and I've heard better songs about Mumbai - a throwback to Remo Fernandes (Bombay City) - ah the good ol days.

The album ends with "Soruthihudu Maniya Maligi ", another Kannada song - nice, but not even close to Gudgudiya, which for me was the gem of this album, I've heard "Mysore" too many times perhaps!

Good beginnings - Raghu's forte I think is his live performances and his crazy booming voice - I read someplace (facebook) - where someone referred to him as having "big pipes" referring to his vocal strengths - thats fits totally. Its a good start for Raghu, hopefully his next is more indo-folk. Just for support I'd say go buy the album - but objectively it was an average attempt for me. Good sound - but the only song that pulls me back is Gudgudiya.

BTW the album design is PHENOMENAL - I dont buy too many physical CD's nowadays - but probably the best designed CD I've seen ever. Kudos to his brother I think who designed it.

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Mysore Se Aayi?

Its almost Jan 9th - the big release date for Raghu Dixit CD - the man has gone quiet on his website and I also dont see any activity on the Orkut / MySpace communities. Perhaps he's busy with the last minute release prep - this is what Raghu wrote back to me about a month back
--------------------
Information: The CD is NOT yet out.

Best PART: It WILL DEFINITELY be out on January 9th, 2008.

Reason for Delay: What was to be a simple nation wide release is now got magnanimous and now the album will be launched world wide simultaneously! Its a first in the country for a non-film artist. Because of this new development, the delays have become necessary and unavoidable. The CDs are ready and waiting to be parcelled to the stores, just that we have to wait for legal clearences from various countries which should be wrapped up before the end of the month.
--------------------------

I havent seen any video buzz, but will dutifully trek to my local Planet M location to find the CD, if at all - big hopes for the CD and hopefully they will be sated!

BTW props to the man for his experience on the Jodhpur Music Festival - check out the blog here - we missed this event by one day during our Rajasthan trip and are definitely heading back next year.

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Jaisalmer, Rajasthan : Sand Castles - Day 4

Rajasthan Road Trip - Day 1.
Udaipur, Rajasthan : City of Lakes, Venice of the East - Day 2.
Jodhpur, Rajasthan : Blue City - Day 3.

Jodhpur was a great stop in the trip, staying in the old city gave a wonderful twist to our stay there that we would have missed out on if we had stayed in the resorts - its definitely on our "go-back" lists for the annual music festival. But the road beckons...

KM Marker: 17465 km, 7.10 AM Oct 30th 2007

Early morning just as Jodhpur rises, we fired up the old trusty Swift and crept out of the old city's narrow lanes hoping and praying that some other "tourist" hadn't had the same idea to come the other way - thankfully we wound our way out. It was the dawn of Day 4 and we were heading to Jaisalmer - we had heard so much about Jaisalmer so the excitement was mounting!

The road to Jaisalmer was very good as we're coming to expect from Rajasthan - good job Govt. - how often can you say that aloud?! This drive also had its share of people / livestock sauntering across the road oblivious to oncoming traffic - but we're now used to it. We're told in Jodhpur that the Indian army maintains the roads in these parts - Jaisalmer is about 150 km from the Pakistan border.

Jaisalmer : 11 AM - yes, we were driving crazy fast! Its about 280 KM. Do the math..

We had signed up to stay at Mandir Palace, again picked out of our LP lineup, incidentally, Jaisalmer was the only place where we had trouble finding a room at first go - everything was booked out - Jaisalmer is a smallish town that thrives ONLY on tourism - so if you're headed there it would be wise to confirm your bookings in advance.

Mandir Palace was the last car accessible point before the old city started - intelligently the local authorities had blocked 4 wheeler traffic into the old city. We were expecting a old palace / haveli kind of setup and entered from the secondary entrance of the hotel - going past horses / cattle - wondering what we'd picked. We round a corner and couldn't believe our eyes - the most beautiful lattice work confronted us - this became a recurring theme and we kept expecting the lattice work to become even more audacious and intricate - which it kept getting - yes, Jaisalmer is very pretty!

So, it turns out that Mandir Palace is actually a palace - the king of Jaisalmer lives in one wing and the other has been leased out to become a hotel - the palace does have a mandir on the premises - hence the name - all this time we cant believe our luck that we found this place - its too pretty to describe in words - our room is a bit cramped as LP had noted - but hey we're living in the King's palace without burning a major hole in the pocket - I'm alright with that! :)

I have to note a place we went for lunch - Nachana Haveli - seemed like a great place to stay (we couldn't get a reservation) - and great food as well - we also bumped into one of the "royals" which was kind of a funny story. Recommended though - we'd probably seek that place out the next time we head out to Jaisalmer.

The primary Jaisalmer attraction is its fort - which is a residential fort, meaning that this is the only fort in the world where real people live. The spiel is that people always lived in the fort since it was built - after independence when the kings couldn't maintain the forts anymore, they either converted them into hotels or gave it up to the government - the King of Jaisalmer had other ideas - he picked the third option which was to hand it over to the residents of the fort! The only condition was that they couldn't sell their homes.

I thought this was a cool thing for a King to do - but cut to 2007 and modern living has taken its toll on the fort - its supposedly on the list of endangered monuments of the world. Since Jaisalmer has no industry apart from tourism, residents have converted their homes into hotels, home stays and run sundry shops selling curios to tourists. LP advises tourists to stay away from hotels in the fort because its contributing to the problem (retrofitting such an old fort for modern amenities no doubt takes its toll) - but what will the people do? They can't just pickup and start off somewhere else - its a stalemate - go see the fort while its still around.

The fort construction itself is unique, no water / mortar was used in making this fort - the whole fort was built with stones that have an interlocking mechanism that doesn't require any mortar to keep it together - ingenious - and appropriate in a place where water is scarce.

So, we head to the fort, at the entrance we're met with a classic gem of mis-spelling by a alcohol shop selling "Child Beer"!!! We take on a guide and begin our trip of the fort - the fort has its set of defenses, winding road so that elephants cant mount battering ram attacks, progressive viewing vantage points for the defense, spiked doors - by now this is all too familiar, hell I could build a fort we've seen so many! :))

As we enter the fort we're just taken back by the amazing lattice work we start seeing, its everywhere like a plague, but in a good way! :) We take in the poor attempt at a museum by the local King - after Mehrangarh this is a joke! However the fort is so pretty with its lattice work, its just amazing. The fort itself is a maze, maps of the fort are readily available - but a guide is easier / convenient.

As we make our way through throngs of locals selling something or the other we come upon a series of Jain temples which abound in Rajasthan - the work is different from the rest of the fort - the temples were made inside the fort by Jains so that they would survive ransacking from invaders - its definitely pretty, the work is different from the rest of the fort - its done by artisans who worked on the Somnath temple.

So we're OD'ed on the lattice work, we reach a vantage point from where the entire city is visible, nice - we can see the other big attractions of Jaisalmer, the Haveli's (Patwa etc) - we're of course living in one attraction - Mandir Palace!





One fun thing we came across was the system of inviting people for marriages - so, what people do is - they paint a big Ganesh picture - write the name / date-time of the marriage and thats the invite - no distribution and everyone is welcome. The invite stays up till the NEXT wedding in the same house - so all over Jaisalmer, predominantly in the fort you see these invites - so cool.



All the guidebooks and advice we got on Jaisalmer talked about how painful it was to deal with the camel safari people. OK - so Camel Safari - Jaisalmer is in the desert (surprise!) - the locals have fashioned various levels of "Camel Safaris" - and there is cut-throat competition to get your business for these safari's - ofcourse there are some recommended vendors - but by and large its pretty crazy - needless to say our guide had "recommendations"! :) We were too tired to deal with the safari people and both of us are not particularly fond of camels - so we deferred that for the next day.

We had a sorta pushy kind of guide, he gave us a lot of information, but it was a little hard to get rid of him - anyhow - he ended up taking us through some internal roads to Patwa Ki Haveli, which is again a wonderful demonstration of lattice work - by now we had grown de-sensitized to the lattice work - how much beauty can you see / absorb!



Deciding that we had our fill for the day - we stalled the sight-seeing and set off in pursuit of bedsheets - Rajasthan is famous for its bedsheets etc - the rule of the game is of course bargaining - then its up to you how much patience you have - you can easily pay only 40% of the initially quoted values - lower if you are really good at it - the wife is semi-good at it, I suck - we got a big discount - but still left feeling "had" - oh well!

We headed back to the hotel for some much needed rest, the rest of the day we spent wandering a little bit in the streets of old Jaisalmer and wound up with a nice dinner on the roof of a hotel just behind Mandir Palace with local music playing in the background and a beautiful view of the sand castle fort in the foreground. This was as far as we had planned to drive - Jaisalmer was definitely worth extending all the way from Mumbai.

Jaisalmer. Half Full...

Rajasthan road trip pictures.

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Mumbai's Big Turn Off - Post Mortem

The day came and went and we all felt like we did *something* and got off our collective armchairs. We collected some stats for our building and found that during the period when the lights were off, we were able to save about 29 units on the average overall for the building (just one wing, since we were tracking only one, we have 4 wing in all) - this is roughly equal to the load of about two full households. Thats pretty good savings.

We had about a 70/80% participation, a lot of our residents showed up for a power-free hour and did what we used to do as kids when the power went out - people mingled, the older folks knew exactly what to do - the kids were somewhat at a loss - since in Bombay power cuts are rare! :) It was a good experiment and fun at the same time.

We got press coverage as well
Times Of India - Batti Bandh

and a flip side article
DNA Coverage for Batti Bandh - Why it was bad idea

in which an IIT professor points out how this well meaning exercise could well have tripped the main power grids! Yikes! The knee jerk is to say - cmon, say it ain't so - but it makes sense when you read it - primary power grids are most likely programmed to generate the average expected load - so they'll do it no matter what - unless we can gradually drive down the average by driving down consumption on a daily basis!

If nothing else - Batti Bandh served to raise awareness amongst people and importantly kids - atleast you end up hearing kids telling their parents to switch off - thats probably the biggest outcome of this exercise! The organisers estimate that there was a 10/20% savings in electricity during the period - in my opinion the event was not publicised enough and the major electricity providers (Tata / Reliance / BSES) were not roped into the exercise - thats too bad. Well - atleast *someone* did *something*, WE all did something and thats one better than talking global warming while sipping our whiskeys in our air conditioned rooms!

Thanks for the support.
I Read Ok : I am Guilty of Global Warming
5 foot 5 : Mumbai Unplug
Mind Fucked : Freedom at 7.30

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Mumbai's Big Turn Off

4 Days to GO. Mumbai Unplug is happening on Dec 15 2007 between 7.30 PM and 8.30 PM - its a simple idea and the sceptical argue that it wont make much of a difference - but as your mom would say - Its the thought that counts - perhaps it will make people stop and think and take the fight for Global Warming beyond the comfortable A/C cooled whiskey fueled arm-chair activism!

My stance - lets join and create a buzz online - hopefully more people will join. Its a small dent in global warming - and a big noise for awareness! If you're doing something for Batti Bandh or for conservation please share with us on this post.

Here's a badge if you want to decorate your blog to show support!

<a href='http://back2sender.blogspot.com/2007/12/lights-out.html' target='new'><img src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidJpdomd-IAsoo0xjsPnwNPgSKx0V0H47t_EVtan0W4gV2XZEFIH18sKrFU2brHk5-3svnAUt5uXdg-IRFTKeznrPIPJgIBZC2KD0KUAiREa9UO85zvFdDYWYJEh84pzwxMtUAiw/s200/unplug800.jpg'/></a>

We're coordinating lights out in our community where we live - worthwhile to try to do the same in yours - if not all the lights - atleast most of them. Next post on how our Batti Bandh went.

Turn it off! Turn it off!

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