A weak travel

Week of travel, weaker me
Peek of faith, stronger me
Lack of hope, worried me
Nothing can be done, its all God's grace.

Read More...

A journey unreserved

If you are living in India and if you travel a lot through Indian Railways you know what I am going to write. The Railways created by the British while they were here continues till today with bare necessary changes which you may call modernisation.

New routes have been added, new coaches (with same kind of design) has been added, computerisation of ticketing has been added, computerisation of train management has been added etc.

But has the user experience changed? Has the commuters changed? I can't think otherwise.

Read More...

Micromax Funbook P300 - Photos

Micromax is a consumer electronics company based in Gurgaon, Haryana, India. It focuses on the manufacturing of mobile telephones, tablet PCs & LED Televisions. Micromax is the 12th largest handset manufacturer in the world and 3rd largest manufacturer in India. According to industry analysts, as of 2012, micromax leads the Indian tablet market with a share of 18.4%, ahead of Samsung and Apple, and is the third largest mobile phone vendor in terms of volume. The company's rapid market share growth since it entered the Indian mobile devices market in 2008 is primarily attributed to its strategy of aggressive low pricing in the entry-level segments of its products and its wide distribution setup. [Source Wikipedia]

The tablet I am going to write about in this post is Funbook P300 which was launched in early 2012.

Read More...

Opening mobi files in kindle app on android device

This is a FAQ which will help me a lot. I use the free Internet Archive to download books of my choice. I have an android device which is mostly offline as I don't have a wifi connection to boost up my device.

I was confused initially as to how to open .mobi files in android as if i tapped it will bring up a menu which clearly states that android is unable to understand the type of file.

After some googling, I was able to identify the procedure to do it.

This tip will work only if you have installed kindle app in your SD Card.

Step 1: Connect your android device to USB of your computer.
Step 2: Enable USB storage in the menu android brings up when you are connecting to your computer.
Step 3: In you SD Card navigate to a folder with kindle name on it.
Step 4: Just copy the .mobi files you want to read with kindle
Step 5: Eject SD Card and Turn off USB storage from android.

Now open kindle app in android and enjoy reading the files you have just downloaded.

Read More...

One more year and counting

I don't know why we humans are fascinated by numbers. Especially with dates, be it a birth date, wedding anniversary date, or any other. We usually have the habit of counting how many milestones we have crossed.

Be it good or bad, I am also counting some numbers. And today being our second wedding anniversary date. Happy wedding anniversary, my wife.

Read More...

A Simple Electric Power Audit of Your Home

The basic idea of an electrical energy audit is to analyze the amount of electrical energy used by every device. An electrical home energy audit can help you understand your usage, conserve and even fix some leaks.

It helps in two ways, one in a personal way and another in a national way. First you mint money by reducing your electrical bill, and as a byproduct your nation requires less power to be produced.

The first step to cutting our electricity bill and usage is to get out the previous bills. Keep a little notebook for this purpose and record the "kilowatt hours used" figure and the "billing period" This could be called adjusted kWh Used.

To Save Electrical Energy

• Plug off incandescent bulbs and replace them by either LED bulbs or CFL bulbs.
• Use washing machine dryer less often and use natural ways of hanging your clothes after a wash. Use cold/normal water for washing machines as it uses less power.
• Switch off your refrigerators if nothing is being kept in it.
• Switch off your television, CD/DVD player not just in stand by mode. It uses power which you are paying for.
• Do not keep plugged any unwanted devices all the time? Just remove them from plugs. Tools like mobile chargers, battery chargers remove it from plugs when not charging.
• Do not overcharge your devices. Your mobiles/battery charging requires maximum of 2-3 hours. Do not keep them charged for the whole night.
• Switch off computers and not in standby mode.

Read More...

Pondicherry - How it went on

Pondicherry is a very pleasant place to walk. But make sure that it is not in the months of March to May that you are visiting for the sun will kill you with its heat. You will get motorised two-wheelers or bicycles for hire to make your memories fast forward.

The normal tourists visit from Chennai through road taking the ECR road which itself is scenic. On the way there are some tourist spots such as Mamallapuram or Mahabalipuram.

If you are wishing for an offbeat travel take the train, but be advised that it takes too much time in travel. I planned for a train journey from Bangalore. There is a comfortable 3-tier AC train (Garib Rath 2255) from Yeshwantpur Junction to Pondicherry. It leaves Yeshwantpur at 11:15pm and reaches Pondicherry at 9:40am. Though the train takes lot of time to reach the short distance it allows you to sleep peacefully. Don't worry you can still cover Pondicherry in a day. :)

After that I was planning to take a bike for travelling, but did not work out well as I could not freshen up in time and did not get to know the directions. From the Govt. Guest house nearby the Railway station got the Pondicherry Tourist map with places marked in it.

With the help of that we first planned to goto Aurobindo Ashram. Walked till the beach and slowly walked and enjoyed the little bristling rain. Reached the Gandhi Statue and walked past Manakula Vinayagar Temple and finally reached Aurobindo Ashram and it was about time to close for lunch. But I was lucky enough to visit the tomb of Sri Aurobindo and Mother. It was such a peaceful atmosphere that I wanted to stay in the place for some more time. 

Our plans went on from there to visit the Beach once more where we visited the Freedom Memorial Stone sculptures. Briefly walked in the Beach. Also walked past French War Memorial. Then walked through Bharati Park and Aayi Mandapam to reach Botanical Garden. It was a mild disappointment as it was closed due to rains. I wonder why in the earth you close a Botanical Garden for rains.

From there I hired an auto(tuk-tuk) to Auroville where we where video-briefed about the Matri Mandir. Then we got free pass for visiting Matri Mandir from Viewing Point. The entry inside Matri Mandir was restricted as it was a peaceful and meditation only point. It is not a tourist spot.

Then returned from Auroville to again walk past some shops, and reached the beach. A long walk through the Promenage (now a hotel) and the beach made the end to my Pondicherry trip. I had the return ticket to Bangalore (Yeshwantpur) in the same (Garib Rath-2256) at 10pm. 

Though this was a very brief visit of Pondicherry I wish to come back some day and freely enjoy the French Architectural buildings and Auroville beach among some other spots.

Read More...