4 day amsterdam trip

Recently on an official trip I landed in Amsterdam. The official work was only for few hours on Monday morning and  I had plenty of spare time. So here is how it went :

Notes :
1. November weather is pretty chilly.
2. Got a Lebara SIM (prepaid) on arrival on airport. 10 euro top up for talk time and 10 euro for 1 GB 3G internet. Activates immediately.
3. Uber has pretty good taxi service here. You should create a new Uber account with your local number as the cab drivers would find it easy to call/sms you.
4. While booking taxi on Uber, try to enter exact address, as it will be easy for the cab driver to locate you and you won't have to spend time in guiding him over the phone.
5. Talking of Uber, the drivers of the cheaper variety (Uber Pop) are mostly blacks and immigrants ( I hired 3 Pops - 2 were driven by blacks and 1 by an Afghan immigrant). Whereas the expensive ones are driven by Whites and locals.
6. Stayed at Hotel Eden, Amstel.
7. If you are with a kid - take a stroller with you - will be very very useful.
8. Starbucks sells very good Chai in Amsterdam.
9. Walking around there - Google maps came in pretty handy.

Day 1 : (Saturday)

1. Very tired on arrival(Bangalore -> Mumbai -> Amsterdam). Rested for a while and headed to Rijksmuseum. Good intro to Dutch Arts & History. There are plenty of other museums in this city of museums if you are interested. I skipped them. But if time permits - go to Nemo science museum. From the museum headed to Bollywood Indian Restaurant on foot. Called them to make sure that they are open as many other restaurants were closed at that time ( around 4PM). Had food there (food was good) and went to hotel again to rest. Bought weed on the way from a Coffeeshop to be used in night. In the night headed to De Wallen - the top tourist attraction in Amsterdam. From there went to Moti Mahal (another indian restaurant) on foot. The food wasn't good here. Called an UberPop taxi which dropped us to hotel for 4 Euros.


Day 2 : (Sunday)
1. Booked the Zoo tickets online to avoid queues and spent quite some time there. Zoo is okay. You could visit Micropia nearby if you like. From there went to the Kohinoor Indian restaurant(UberPop 8 Euros) - food was good again. From there went to Amsterdam Centraal and took the 1 hour Canal Cruise. From there to home and strolled the night away. Ate some small stuff in Starbucks and nearby Mcdonalds.

Day 3 : (Monday)
1. Wrapped up the work in the morning and walked to Vondelpark on foot. Nothing great there. From there walked to a shopping mall - Magna Plaza. Paid 1 Euro there to take a leak. From there headed to Memories of India restaurant.

Day 4 : (Tuesday)
1. Headed to Efteling.  Booked online to get discount and avoid queues. Almost 100km journey. Train to Den Bosche and from there bus till Efteling. Plan your journey well and arrive there on time so that you don't miss anything in this very large amusement park. We missed some due to the height restrictions and also missed Pagoda/Aqua show. Here are the attractions we enjoyed the most with our 3 year old :

• Droomvlucht
• Raveleijn: an exciting live show
• Fata Morgana
• Bob
• Carnival Festival

In the night went to Shiva restaurant and finished the leftover weed.

Vishal Bhardwaj's comfort in Muslim milieu

There is a certain authenticity about Vishal Bhardwaj's works based in
Muslim milieu - Maqbool and Haider. These 2 are the works which stay honest from the beginning to the end. Whereas his other hyped works -
Omkara, Saat Khoon Maaf and Kaminey just fall apart due to incoherence
resulting from his discomfort with non-Muslim milieu.

I would hazard a guess here that growing up in UP he could observe the
Muslim society and its mannerisms a lot more closely and was enchanted
by it.

Events / Competitions for kids to participate in

Bangalore kids to participate in the Dance World Cup 2013

Meet Granth Thakkar: The fastest mental calculator in the world

4 day singapore trip

General Notes :

• I went from Bangalore to Chennai by train and took a flight from there. As the flights from Chennai were much cheaper. 
• I applied for Singapore VISA through Thomas Cook. They charged Rs. 2200/- and took 2 weeks to get it even though they had promised 3-4 days.
• I went by Malaysia Airlines, changing flights at Kua lalampur. Since both the flights were Malaysia Airlines, I didn't need a transit VISA for Malaysia, otherwise I would have had to apply for the Malaysia Transit Visa as well.
• Singapore has very good cab service. Though it's more expensive than MRT + Bus system, it's much faster. Especially if you have a kid, you don't want to walk to an MRT and stand in queues. If you insist on using public transport, you can create a card which you can recharge multiple times and refund the balance at the airport/MRT stations when you are exiting Singapore. By using that card you will not have to stand in MRT queues. And the bus drivers always ask for exact change or you have to get down from the bus. Using the card you can overcome that problem too. But for a small trip using cabs is the best.
• Before going there I checked with all the credit cards about their charges if I swipe the card there. SBI had an offer running on international card swipes. So I used that for all the swipes.
• You can get a Singapore SIM at the airport itself with internet access. So no need to buy a SIM from India for the same (for e.g. from Matrix).
• We stayed at Dickson road. There is an eatery by the name Dicksons there. Pretty good for Indian food.

Day 1 :

• zoo  + river safari + night safari (all are adjacent to each other) 
• for the best views of animals, note down the time of their feeding sessions and go there.
• go early if you want to rent a stroller else they might be finished 
• free wifi 
• food in the zoo premises is very expensive 
• cab from Little India to Zoo cost around 20 SGD
• zoo + river safari + night safari ticket combo was 83 SGD. Free for kids below 3 years. If you want to go to the bird park as well you can take the combo including bird park as well. The ticket will be valid for 30 days or so. But keep in mind that you can't cover all 4 of them in 1 day. 
• there is 5-20% discount if you buy the tickets online. you can buy the ticket online outside the zoo itself using their wifi and app. 
• took a cab back to kailash parbat in Little India. cost around 20 SGD.

Day 2 :

• Cab from Little India to Universal Studio cost around 14 SGD.
• If you want to cover all the rides and attractions in Universal Studio, you need to buy the express ticket. Else you are doomed. You will end up covering only 40-50% of rides. Even if you don't buy the express ticket before entering you can still buy it inside on all the souvenir shops.
• go early if you want to rent the stroller.
• There is no wifi inside Universal.
• From Universal take the free Sentosa Express train to the beach station, i.e. Sentosa island. There is small beach there. In the evening there was a very good laser show at 7:40 and 8:40 costing 18 SGD per head. There was a sky diving place as well. You can also check out The Bikini Bar. If you are ordering food there, order for the smaller portions as they give you good amount of food.
• From Sentosa we took the free shuttle bus to cable car station which cost 39 SGD for 1 pair of adults and dropped us at HarborFront MRT. From there took the MRT to Chinatown and shopped around. Chinatown has free wifi and cheap beer.
• Took the MRT to Farrer Park and went to Mustafa to shop some more. Mustafa center is open 24 hours for shopping.

Day 3 :

• Took a cab to Singapore Flyer. Cost us 33 SGD per head. Nothing great really. If you have taken the Cable Car you can skip this.
• From there took a 1km walk to Marina Bay Sands. There you can see the Infinity pool by paying some fees. Close by is Arts and Science museum.
• From there took a walk to Gardens by the Bay. Bought tickets for Cloud Forest and Flower Dome. Flower Dome can be skipped.
• From there took a cab to Merlion Park which has the famous lion statue.
• From there took a bus to Orchard Road. Pretty expensive shopping street. Took the MRT back to Little India.

Day 4 :

• Went by Bus + MRT to Jurong Bird Park.
• Free wifi.
• Go early for strollers.
• There is an amphitheater show at 11AM and 3PM. Don't miss that.

[Satire] English players urge Ishant to ignore Dhoni

Undeterred by the all round criticism of their performance, England Cricket team has decided to verbally attack the Indian team although in an indirect  manner. It’s a well known fact now that Dhoni asked Ishant Sharma to bowl bouncers which led to England’s downfall. So that’s what they are up against.

Getting mad at Dhoni

“Indian team has got a cultural problem. In their country they give too much respect to authority and seniority but that’s not right. Dhoni has no business telling Ishant how to bowl. He is a mature bowler and can very well decide which line and length to bowl. He needs to assert himself more and ignore Dhoni completely,” was the unsought advice offered by Alastair Cook – the captain.

“Today it’s Ishant, tomorrow it could be Bhuvi or Jadeja. Whatever happened to the ideal of individual liberty? You must remember that even though Ishant is 7 years younger than Dhoni, he is 8 inches taller than him. That is the proof that Ishant is inherently more capable than him. He just needs to find his inner voice and listen to it. If that voice asks him to bowl full – he should bowl full – no matter what the outer voices say,” blasted a livid Peter Moores – the
English Coach.

“If they keep talking like this during the match, I am afraid I might have to lodge a complaint against them. I mean what’s the point of so much chit chat during the match. It’s even worse than sledging. You decide a game plan before the match starts and you stick to it. You can’t change it midway. It’s a gentlemen’s game after all, ” was the last reaction we could get from a clearly distraught James Anderson.

(Published here as well.)

[Satire] Pay bribe online - NDA government launches new portal

In its efforts to bring Acche din to Indians, NDA government has launched a new portal where people can pay bribe online. 

"There were two options in front of us for taking India forward. Either we completely overhaul the existing system or we improve and streamline the existing processes. If we go for the first choice - we will sound like Aaptard anarchists and we may not even succeed. If we choose the latter - we can see immediate results and more transparency." , explained Prakash Javadekar - Information and broadcasting minster.

"See, no one minds paying bribe nowadays as the incomes are on a upswing. What bothers people is that they don't know whom and how to pay bribe? Sometimes they approach an honest officer and both the parties are frustrated. We want to avoid those situations." was how Smriti Irani - the HRD minister - justified the move.

"On this portal, both the government babus and the middlemen can provide services. Whoever is cheaper and more efficient - wins. Payments will be secured through Escrow and will be released only when the person verifies that the service has been completed to his satisfaction." signed off Nitin Gadkari, Transport minister.

(Published here as well)

[Satire] Author puts book on hold as his mother and wife fight for dedication

In a strange turn of events, a first time novelist has put his book on hold as he could not decide the person to whom he should dedicate it to.

The author – who happens to be an IITian and who did not want to be identified for obvious reasons – told us that he had taken a break from his well paying software job to write this book. And if the book didn’t get published and made the money he expected it to – he would have to return to his exceedingly boring job to pay his home loan EMIs.

His mother was furious too. “Why can’t I get an exclusive dedication for this book? I have sacrificed every little pleasure since he was born. I worked harder than him on his studies. I stayed with him in Kota for 2 years away from regular life to make him qualify for IIT. And I don’t even have the right to be named in his book?”.

His father refused to comment saying he didn’t know much about what his family was upto as he was mostly away on sales trips.

His wife agreed to speak to us after repeated calls and had this to add to the story, “His mother did a lot for him as every parent does. But with all due respect  - that’s the past. Since the day he took the break – I have been working like a dog (I can’t say bitch of course) to pay our bills apart from taking care of our kid as my husband wants no distraction whatsoever in his creative pursuits. And now that he is about to dedicate it to me – I don’t feel like sharing it with anyone.”

The publisher was unavailable for comments.

(Published here as well.)

[Satire] Man refuses to kiss newborn daughter to prove Sigmund Freud wrong

In a bizarre incident which came to light yesterday evening at a Bangalore hospital – a man reportedly refused to kiss his newborn daughter as he wanted to prove the freudian theory wrong.

“His hands were trembling with joy, tears trickling down the eyes but he stopped just millimeters short of kissing her,”  a nurse speaking on the condition of anonymity told us. His wife was confused as were his parents.

When they asked him as to what was wrong, the man started on a monologue using terms like id, ego, super ego, infantile sexuality etc. which confused his family even more.

Later, when our reporter interviewed him in a secluded spot he explained that as a college grad he was always confused about what Freud wanted to convey. That was the reason he could barely clear his exams in Psychology 101. All he could remember at the end of the course was that the love between a father and a daughter is primarily driven by sexual urges. He totally disagreed with it. He did a lot of research on the internet to find evidence against Freud’s theories but that ended up confusing him even more.

Situation became even more complex as his wife became pregnant. Unable to get clarity on Freudian theories he vowed to himself that in case a daughter were born to him – he would hold back his emotions until and unless he gets his mind cleared of all the confusions and misconceptions. Hence the strange reaction which flummoxed everyone in his family on the arrival of his daughter.

The man refused to divulge any more details.

(My first faking news story) Published here as well.

Bangalore to chikmagalur road trip

1. Right now is the right time to visit Chikamaglur. Weather is good - rains not yet started. As soon as the rains start - travelling to hilly areas in it will be next to impossible.
2. Started around 8 in the morning with Google Maps. It showed 3 routes. Checked with friends and they said the best route is going via Haasan. Road condition is great too. Even Navi Maps is good for navigation. But don't trust any of the maps blindly. I used Google maps mostly. But at 2-3 places it showed wrong turns. I checked with the people around and found them to be wrong.
3. When you reach Haasan - you can refill your LPG car if you have one. There are multiple LPG stations. There is one on the route itself right in front of the SDM Ayurveda Hospital.
4. Reached Chikamaglur around 1PM. Roughly 5 hours journey. Stayed at Giri's Inn on I.G. Road. It has covered car parking. Tariff is 1800/- per night. They had wifi but it didn't work in my room. They had complimentary breakfast too. There are some other hotels nearby as well on I.G. road and M.G. road. Pretty regular ones. There are many homestays also  - Jhari eco stay, Hill Crest etc. But they are around 6-7 kms from city center - which is okay. The Serai and Taj Gateway are the 2 big names out there for a great and expensive stay.
5. Took a tourist map from them and was also informed that Hebbe Falls was closed. 
6. We freshened up a bit and left for Mullayanagiri peak (Tallest peak of Karnataka). Both Google Maps and Navi Maps have the correct route information for it. Even without maps you can reach there if you follow the signboards on the road. The last 2 kms of Mullayanagiri route are way too dangerous. Drive very very carefully.
7. But the view at the peak point is marvellous. You are in the clouds - literally.
8. We didn't stay there for long as we were worried about driving in the dark. We came back - had some snacks at the hotel (Giri's Inn has good room service - but the food is not that great) - and went for shopping. But the market at M.G. road didn't seem very exciting - so we headed straight to The Serai's Blue Sky Lounge Bar. Had a few drinks and some light food there. The place rocks. Came back to hotel and slept.
9. Woke up in the morning, had the complimentary breakfast of Idly,vada and upamma (breakfast was very ordinary) - and started for Baba Budangiri shrine. Again the maps had good routes and signboards were also correct. Even though I lost data connection after a while. Didn't try Navi Maps here (I could have since it works without mobile data) - but there was no need - as the route was straightforward. 
10. Right now some portion of road is being built there - so we had to park our car and travel via a rented jeep. We shared the jeep with another group. For Rs. 600/- (75 per head) it took us to Gadikere(a lake) and Baba Budangiri. We spent quite some time at Gadikere as the views there are awesome.
11. On the way to Baba Budangiri there are 2 waterfalls as well - Honnamanna and Zari. For Zari waterfalls you have to trek down around 1.5 kms unless you are staying at Zari Eco Stay - in which case they will make car arrangements. Honnamanna is on the road itself. We skipped Zari.
12. While returning we were way too hungry. So, instead of searching for a restaurent - we headed straight to The Serai. And thankfully the buffet was on - so we could eat right away. It cost Rs. 1075/- per head.
13. Again came back to hotel, slept and in the evening went to M.G. park. Google maps took us to its back gate which is no use. Asked around and reached its front gate. Saw the musical fountain and had a ride in the toy train. The last ride of the train was at 8PM. But better to have a ride in the sunlight - else nothing much is visible.
14. From here we started for The Gateway for drinks and food. On the way a Mela(fair) was on. Kabir had few rides there too. At The Gateway they allow outsiders to have food and drinks by the pool side (unlike The Serai). The price being reasonable too. Again a great place.
15. Next morning we enquired about Muthodi forest. For information on Muthodi - you can call 99 0000 5858. They provide lodges there. But there were only 2 safaris through the forest  - once in the morning at 6 and then in the evening at 4. We skipped that too. Another option was coffee museum which is open Monday to Friday (10 to 1 and 2 to 5). But we went to Zari waterfalls instead. But the trek there proved to be a bit tiring as we were with my old MIL and young kid. So we clicked many photos and returned.
16. Had lunch at The Grand Krishna and headed back to Bangalore. On the way filled the LPG again at the same pump at Haasan - which has ladies toilet too.
17. Simple journey and back to Bangalore.
18. Summary : Though it's a great place - there is lack of tourist information. It was very difficult to get information on Muthodi forest and pretty much anything else. I saw a Tourist Information Center closed down and somewhere far from the city center. It should be close to bus/railway stand and much more helpful.

Chikamaglur tourist map

Google maps links :

1. Aegis LPG pump in front of SDM Ayurvedya College, Haasan
2. Coffee Museum
3. The Serai
4. The Gateway Hotel
5. Mullayanagiri Peak

Others :

1. NaviMaps
2. Bars and pubs in Chikamaglur

An Android app to track news and videos on given keyword(s)

From the blurb :

Track every single news story and every single video out there on the web about your chosen keywords.Just enter the keyword(s) and start tracking.You can enter google style advanced search operators in the keywords as well for e.g. Clinton AND (Hillary OR Bill).Track any number of keywords and never miss anything ever again on your chosen keywords!

Install from here.