Facebook celebrated it's fifth birthday celebrations last week. Google is about a decade old. Microsoft is a little more than a quarter of a century old. Infy, TCS, Wipro all of these haven't completed there Goldeb jubliee's yet. The transistor itslef is just about 70 years.
To see the creations of Man which are over 4000 years or more was humbling. I leave the post of my experiences for a later date, for now just bask in the stories of mankind that these architectural marvels tell us.
Follow me on Twitter: gantir
Liked this Post: Subscribe to the RSS feed to get the posts to you. You have the advantage of getting my deli.cio.us links on the feed.
Showing posts with label Travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Travel. Show all posts
Pyramids: The test of time...
What two days of blogging can do?
A cursory look at the landing page of this blog will tell you that I haven't been blogging for a long time. If you had come here in the past two days you might have noticed my first post after 194 (:)) days. In that post, I had mentioned that three things to be done over a week, fortnight and a month. After three days, where do I stand? In this post, I talk about that, and also about what changes blogging has brought in me over the past two days.
It took me an humongous amount of effort to write the last two posts. Even after that I would not rate them more than 1/10. You see the point, my writing and abiltiy to think has gone down to a very lowly extant. Not only the flow of thoughts, but also my typing speed went down.I averaged about 30 wpm and coupled with the interupted thought flow, it would have been near 20 wpm. This from a high of 60 wpm around an year back.
Over the last two days, my thought train is getting better and typing speed around 40wpm. Thanks to blogging. I also seem to be reading more, and most important of all my grey cells seem to be working, the proof of which you will get to know at the end of this post.
The other two experiments, one of reading every day is progressing well albeit not as what I had initially imagined.
I am reading, but I redefine the goal as reading a physical book every day for one hour. I miserably failed at the third stuff. Yesterday, for some reason I had to skip my dinner and the following breakfast. Co-incidentally their was nothing much on offer for lunch, so I had to buckle to my primal carvings.
Wow, I never imagined that short term focus can be so effective. Let me see how it works out in the coming days.Now the proof of my grey cells are the pictures on this blog. I shot them and edited them, and here they are .
Follow me on Twitter: gantir
Liked this Post: Subscribe to the RSS feed to get the posts to you. You have the advantage of getting my deli.cio.us links on the feed.
Coming Week: Proto.in, A Vacation, BCB4
The last one month was my prolific posting time. I had at least one post every day. (Weekends, are my blog off days!!). The title should should tell you of my activities starting tomorrow.
I will be at Proto.in over this weekend. For more about Proto.in check out this post of mine. I will miss out on the Bangalore Bloggers Meet tomorrow at Brewhaha. Those of you are attending or plan to attend get details here at Bangalore Bloggers wiki. If you plan to attend or interested in watching this meet, make your intention clear at upcoming (will help the organizers). For the location of the meet check this link which will take you to Brewhaha on Google Maps.
Now for some more juice, after the Proto.in, I will be on a vacation with my parents for a week. Keep tuned to my flickr for some amazing shots.
The last and my most awaited event for the month Bangalore Barcamp 4 is on 28th and 29th of this month. It's the place to be in, if you have even an iota of interest in ******. Check out the link for what the stars mean. For more about check out all the blogs which talk about BCB4 .
That's a happening week for me. However, there is one thing I regret, that is not being able to reach you all folks with more stuff. Yes, I may not blog for the next 10 days. (A sad proposition). I promise you, will make it up with some great stuff once I am back.
International Hotel Reservations Made Easy
Hotel Reservations is a big thing. If you travel anywhere in the world, the first thing one needs to worry about is where does one stay? And searching for hotels which come at affordable prices is not so easy task. We have a company in this space which is going to make the life simpler in this space, Hotel Reservations offer top notch Hotel Discounts in many countries. They offer there services in lot of countries in Americas, Europe, Australia.
They also have a rebate policy for depending on the number of days once books the hotel for. Another thing that I like about them is the great discounts that are offered. One can avail a discount of upto 70% as shown in the banner above. Isn’t it worth to get such huge discounts? There is also a destination guide feature; this can be used to plan a trip. The destinations are categorized into Beach, Bed and Breakfast, Gambling, Family Fun, Road Trips, Golf, Spa. One can check out the picks by hotel reservations and make a choice accordingly.
Design Review: Inasra
I wrote about Inasra the Search engine for hotels in India in this post. Here I will concentrate on the design and usability of the site. Fortunately for me, the site does not have huge number of links to go through. Unfortunately that leaves Inasra to face the music.
[dEsign]
As I have pointed in my earlier post they have got one of the most useful and simple homepage. It focuses on one thing Search!. One can search for hotels by city, between the dates of choice. One good thing about the site is that they set the back ground color for the site to white. Check out this post and the comments for more about what role back ground color plays.
The other thing which stands apart is the use of the technology to in a creative manner. The boxed highlighting is pleasant. Check out the results page for some cool Ajax implementation. Clicking in the check boxes filters the results almost instantly. Scroll down and click on view for more details about the hotels and the kinds of rooms available. Another cool feature is the ability to drag and drop the room into the booking panel to the right.
Have a look at the translucent confirm screen, isn't it cool. 
They accept pretty much all the credit cards and payment through many Indian Banks for Indians holding Accounts in those banks. I have one complaint as usual with resolution,they could have designed the results screen to fit in the full window at 1024*768, instead it overflows by a few pixels.
[uSability]
What it scores on design it fails over here. It is not that Inasra falls flat in this aspect, its only that there are lot of issues that they have to resolve before they become really useful.
i) First on usability count is inability to go back and correct the options I have given. If for some reason I want to book another room in the same hotel, extend the date etc, I need to go all over again, there is no back feature from the confirm screen or the payment screen.
ii) There is no option to save a booking mid way, quit , comeback and start midway.
iii) There is a navigation menu to hotels using the menu item in the navigation bar. However, the results of reaching a hotel through this menu and through the hotel search is not consistent. Though the site recommends using the search feature for the hotel, why do they provide this navigation? For example it is not possible to reach details of "Silver Sand Resorts Havelock" through Hotels->City route, but you can see the details if you go to the hotel using the search.
iv) The menu items are not consistent across. In the search results, I cannot see the "Hotels" in the menu, while after navigating to the "Hotels" page, the menu item reads "Hotel".
v) Even if I am logged, I can see a menu Item "Register" on navigating to the "Hotels" page.
[gLitches]
As with any site there are a few inconsistencies in the behavior of the site. 
On few pages hovering over the navigation bar items changes the back ground color, while at a few other pages it changes font!. Why is this?
The options available on booking panel of the hotel are not available on the booking panel from the main screen. Again the booking panel is not consistent for hotels depending on how one reaches the page.
Finally, however intuitive a site is, it always helps to have a useful list of FAQ's guiding the user on how to navigate the site, and answering the basic queries like how to cancel and booking, what happens to the rates during non peak seasons, how to go about if I want my hotel to be in the listing etc.
[tHe sUmmary]
The first time I saw Inasra, I was really impressed. However, after taking a deeper look at the design and usability, I would say it has a some way to go in fixing the usability issues. Once they do that I am sure they will be a force to reckon with both in the service they provide(which I have not tried) and also the usability of the site.
Inasra Hotel Search in India
I love traveling and travel quite a few times in an year. The most important thing for me, and I guess for folks of my ilk is, finding a decent shelter without straining our purse. To find a place to stay in a big city or a relatively remote place is difficult and with the two constraints mentioned earlier it becomes a nightmare. Inasra a search engine from India promises to just address this issue.
[tHe pRoduct]
Inasra is a search engine for hotels in India. They cover pretty much all the major cities in all the Indian states. With over 3000 hotels across 300 cities there are not many places you would miss out. The best part about the listing is it lets you search the hotels based on various criteria like price,the rating, amenities(Business center, travel desk etc ), cuisines(continental,Chinese etc). You can get details like amenities, cuisines served, tariff structure and other information about all the hotels listed.
[tHe sIte]
It has got one of the most simple and user friendly home page design I have seen in recent times. A simple, to the point home page which concentrates more on the search feature without all the clutter that we get to see with many travel sites(read makemytrip, yatra etc). The basic navigation to hotels in a city and booking a room is pretty straight forward stuff. Intelligent use of Ajax gives it a rich neat look. Unfortunately the good things end here, the site lacks in some of the usability aspects. I will do a detailed review of the site design in a later post.
[tHe vErdict]
Inasra is one of the few, in fact the only search engine, specific to hotel search, in India. It's decent database of hotels and wide reach of cities within India, coupled with cool user interface and excellent search capabilities makes it an automatic choice for me and probably to you. You can read more about Inasra in this post at pluggd.in.
I found this interesting piece on the About Us page.
"Funding : We are a privately held company where all the investment in terms of money, time and effort has been made by the founders themselves (infact this is being written by us). For us, business (inasra) is personal and not just a profit making machine for shareholders (profit is a pertinent factor, but not at the cost of ethics). So we will be a privately held company in the near future too."
Multiply
Recently I came across this wonderful site. Haven't explored much, but what really hooked me to it is the ease with which one can share photos. Just Simple.
For some reason its called multiply and the invite to the site looks some thing like this: "Multiply with Ramjee". Now was the pun intended?
Any way enjoy some moments at Multiply .
Blood Sucker
I was happily trekking, one more entity
Poor fellow did not realize that, his life depended on my realizing his existence. What happened to it after that, is as they say history.
Land of Gods
Days just flew by since by last post. A lot has happened since Time! Aha.
To give you some incentive to return to my page more often, I have finally got a Canon EOS Rebel XT. Now this blog is going to have some of the best photo shoots ever.
Leaving that there, I was on a vacation to Delhi, then to the Uttarnachal, the Land of Gods. It was an amazing trip, think of it, a completely unplanned vacation except for the base location.
Some of my friends from Delhi will sure be cross for me not seeing them, but then folks I just was looking for some break from a big city, so next time sure to have a gala time in Delhi.
A lot in the greatest extravaganza on the earth, ashamed to say that I missed the 2hrs of action for which I have waited for 4 years. More on that in the coming posts.
life's Like that, some ups and some downs.
Sojourn with Self
It was not a pleasant Saturday morning; the sun was high before 8. The place where I usually have my breakfast at this time was undergoing some cleaning activity.
The simple animals, some four dogs howling as if they were in a concert, three pigs squeaking in the road side drain, and two donkeys accompanying there canine neighbors, it was apparent they were not in a great mood. Probably they had a disturbed sleep last night, courtesy the early monsoon.
Some how I manage to get up and pick my self ready for my plan for today, Sojourn with myself.
I had no idea of where I was going or what I will do, but I was clear I want to spend time with myself away from prying eyes. So with this thought in mind I set off, with “Only Paranoids Survive”. It was 11 by the time I could zero in on to a spot. Ok!! “Lets make a move” and I set on one of the most interesting sojourns ever.
The road was fantastic, unlike the other Indian roads, not a blip or glitch all the way {of course barring a couple of railway crossings}. The lush green vine yards seemed to be exhilarated at the thought of my spending some time with them. The coconut palms could not contain there joy, seemed as if they were breezing me with there long leaves. The Sun who was dancing with all the anger pacified his gaze to let me help in my mission. As if the platter is set the rain god drizzles down the skyway, knowing very well how much I enjoy the drops flowing down my hair, over the forehead, along the nose into my mouth. The setting was perfect for any nature lover to be one with the nature. As I proceeded further the lush greenery gave way to pale grey. The sun came out of his slumber to shine on the granite quarries, the light played on my eyes fantastically. The rain has just disappeared as if it never existed and I was left stranded on the road with not enough words to appreciate the beauty of the hills that were in myriad shapes and sizes.
On some enquiry I got to know that I am headed to these same hills, little did I know that the beauty of this place would change the course of my life.
I got down at crossroads where there was nothing but a small kaka hotel. Hungry I am from the morning; I got into the place, and ordered for a plate puri. Slowly I was feeling better, I chatted with the fellow for some time, and he was excited to see someone talking to him on so friendly terms, that he narrated his life story to me in just a matter of quarter hour. I was so engrossed in his story, I barely noticed (nor did he) that I finished what was offered and it was raining heavily. Suddenly one of my co passengers informs me of a sumo that is going to this undisclosed location I started for. I pay back the hotel guy and bid farewell to him. Such beautiful soul was he and of course his wife who was cook par excellence.
The last leg of the journey was eventful with spiraling curves and the raindrops lashing at us as if they wanted us t stay away. But the human spirit and the desire to succeed along with the experience of the driver saw us through.
I fumbled, dumb stuck, awed, shocked, what should I say of the first reaction of the place. The Palatial entrance laden with freshly wet trees, with the drops falling down as if from heaven, the beautiful flowers in crimson violet and greenish yellow covered the path as if they were waiting for my arrival. I put one step inside this paradise that the orchestra of the nature sing a mellifluous song, accompanied by visual treat and the welcome shower of flowers and the pearl drops of water.
I started out into the unknown territories away from the crowd. It was as if I was on a trek in the jungle. It was breath taking, and if not for the material bonding I have with this world, I wished I had my last breath there. The dead leaves from the lush green trees helped the slippery path in improving its efficiency to let the best of the materials to slip over it. It had some fun with me, but was deterred by my determination and stopped troubling me after a few attempts.
Crossing the jungle I entered the edge of a cliff, famous for its suicide attempts, only the lack of a paraglide stopped me from venturing on what lied beneath. The temple on the cliff, the granite plateau next to the jungle, the wind through my hair, the clouds and the sun all were have the time of their life. I chose a location down the cliff, which was reasonably safe to sit, to begin my sojourn.
Time went by, or should I say flew by, when I was woken up by the sounds of a group of monkeys who were above me, shouting as if asking me to come back as it was getting dark. I make a move reluctantly as I also have to search for a place to stay by for the night. It’s 6 in the evening when I begin my hunt for a roof. Being as fickle as the English monsoons, I never had the time or inclination to plan my stay at this place until the time for that has come. Now I find that my best skills could not help me in securing 6 feet for a night.
Reluctantly, I leave for the bus stand. But wait the party is not over. I try my last attempt with the lone stall fellow. I some how convince him to let me stay at his place for the night. Then comes the bang, in my excitement I spoke so loudly that the guard nearby comes and outright reprimands the fellow and me for something like this. On further inquiry I find that there are strict orders not to allow any single individuals to give entry to the place (lest they should commit suicide!! he he). Any way by this time I lose all my energy to fight for a stay. I decide to board the bus back to my abode at 2000 hrs (the last bus).
The wind blowing in my face, the small child playing his key board, the young couple cuddling in the cold, the old man lighting his bidi, the close family sharing a joke, the hotel fellow and his assistant chatting with me; all near the bus circle under the big banyan tree. I would never forget this setting for some time to come. As soon as I boarded the bus it started raining and without my knowledge I slipped into a wonderful dream. When I wake up from the dream it is 2300hrs and I am in Bangalore.
If you thought this was the end, then again you are wrong, there was some more excitement. I had my dinner at a road side stall and was chatting with the owner. We found many common interests and if not for the last bus to my place I would have been with him for the night.
I come back home by 0100 hrs and start my day with “Maverick”.
TGIF
TGIF!
It's the day all the 5Day' SC's (Software coolies) eagerly await for. After loitering 60 hrs in office over the weekday, its time to catch some sleep and rest in office!! . True, most of us (me of course) relish going to office on Saturdays. To tell you frankly most of the work gets done only on this day.
Plans for this weekend were no different, wake up, cook a brunch, go to office and do what you do their every day. But this Friday eve plans were different for a change.Wanted to go some place with my college buddies and get nostalgic aka kgpistyle, instead of a stupid insipid movie in a bug(may also be a virus) infested cinema house.
So caught on with kk and mallu, on a hunt, the hunt that started out as "Hunt for The Red October" and ended as "The Mouse Hunt", taking us to all possible places. I leave for your imagination to think of them. For those who are not familiar with this I am sorry I have no intention of explaining it in more detail than this.
Our hunt finally ended where it started "TGIF" and all of you who are wondering what the hell is "TGIF", it stands for "TGI Friday's", don't ask me what is "TGIF" because I am not going to tell you, if you are so curious make a guess, and if your grey cells are not cooperating (of course how will they if you haven't any) then use the ubiquitous Google. Coming to back to TGIF, it's a good place (if you have your pockets full) and a great place (if you are on a treat). Unfortunately for me the first was true.
The evening started with the three of us ordering some moderate stuff to warm up with along with some exotic sounding/ looking (taste, no comments!!) dish. As the evening went by we slowly came into our elements, especially me who for the first time in over 2 quarters didn't even smell 1/2 a quarter. As my deep rooted belief goes that "You should pamper yourself once in a while", I decided to go ahead without any care, this day(or rather evening).
This decision on my part resulted in the "Maitre'D" making a couple of more trips to our table than what we originally planned for. It was fun to see myself in state of impending joy, kk calm and composed even after a big shot, and mallu who was a master in the game trying to come in terms with vows of celibacy from such acts(it's not difficult to guess why :) )
The evening ended on a unfortunate high note as we left TGIF, to KK's place, with the intention of continuing where we left.As usual Murphy had different ideas, as we discounted the ground rule that this was Bangalore and the time was near midnight(!!), when even ghosts don't roam around for the simple reason that they can't find a simple soul to trouble at this time of night. (Gosh.. they call 0000 hrs night!!).
Without my knowledge I dropped down silently(ask mallu), with the thoughts of going back to office.
Of course what happened when I woke up, was what I did not expect. I will tell you all about that some time later. But for now, I feel you had enough of my stuff to make you crazy till next Friday. You can be happy that:
Thank GOD It's five days later.
Disclaimer: The above piece is a work of Fiction, any resemblance to real persons or places is purely a Coincidental. The author doesn’t take any responsibility for such occurrences.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
