Monday, September 16, 2013

Nothing Today

Unable to post a proper thing today. Net is not working at home. Still it counts as a post doesn't it?

Thursday, September 5, 2013

Trip of a Lifetime



This post won me a trip to Thailand as 2nd Prize in the contest, Yes I am a winner :)

This entry has been written for "Creating Happy Travellers!" contest organized by yatra.com and indiblogger.in


Travelling is one of the most popular hobbies all around the world, and when someone comes back from a wonderful place they feel lighthearted and happy. Yes great travels create happy travellers.

So if one has to create a travel plan for their family, what would it be? Where would we go? How can we enjoy to the fullest? these are only few questions which come to mind as soon as you think about going on a holiday.

Same is the scenario with me as I have to plan a wonderful holiday to anywhere on the planet. This present a very interesting problem as our planet is graced with such wonderful places that choosing just one is next to impossible, but in order to make sure that if we actually go there my family can enjoy themselves without much problems.

I would love to take my family on a great travel to Rome. The reason why I chose Rome is very simple it has been one of my first ever choice for an International holiday forever. Rome is full of History and my family loves historical places. My Dad always wanted to go to Rome too finally I would be able to fulfill his wish too. 

Credits - www.starhotels.com

For the most convenience I would prefer booking the entire holiday with an International touring company like yatra.com because they have a knack for 'Creating Happy Travellers'. After all who wouldn't be happy if all their worries about hotel booking and sight seeing etc. are handled well before their arrival on destination. This way we could focus solely on enjoying our holiday and taking full benefit of the tour to the faraway country.

First stop in our awesome tour of Rome would surely be Coliseum, after all its one of the most recognized sight in Rome.


Credits - www.wikipedia.com
After the amazing Coliseum we would love to visit the wonderful city of Rome after all the best way to know a place is to walk among its people and to use the public transport. Rome is famous for its statues and ancient buildings. Italy also has Vatican City, Venice nothing can be missed.


Credits - accunet.org
After thoroughly enjoying the local cuisine and local places no one could stay unhappy and on top of that if you are with yatra.com then there is no chance at all that you would have even a slightest chance of a complain. When you can have no chance of complain and you spend your time enjoying the sights and storing them forever as pictures. 


Credits - raileurope.com

Other travel companies may learn from yatra.com the way to proper arrangements and way for "Creating Happy Travellers!".




Note - This post would also be acting as my 5th post for the month of September on September 5 2013. I am working to post at least one entry on anyone of my blogs on each day of the month.




Thursday, August 8, 2013

25K done towards another milestone...

Awesome news my page ... 'Story Teller' http://vikaskhair.blogspot.in just had its 25000th visitor, isn't it amazing. Thanks to all the amazing people who checked my work. Mind it you guys are not a or another number you guys are my friends, who give me inspiration to write and to grow. Thanks to you guys now the number is more than the screenshot and I hope that it keeps on growing.



Keep visiting.
Vikas

Story Teller

Monday, August 5, 2013

Bulk Shopping After A Very Long Time

So after a very long time I have again got myself lot of clothes in one sweeping bulk shopping trip actually two and both times I walked to the Mall which is about 2 Kms away. last time was in May, 2010 Woah 3 years passed by without me buying some clothings and I got married in between hmm. better late than never. Last time I shopped at Reebok and Levi's Signature. This time bulk of the shopping was done at Reliance Trends, Ashima Mall, Bhopal and Wrangler, Ashima Mall, Bhopal.

After a very long time bulk clothes shopping heap of my new clothes


First up Proline T-Shirt and Short


Plain Polo T-Shirts


Plain Gray T-Shirt Proline


Ride Bike Sports inspired T-Shirt by DMX Jeans


Brooklyn T-Shirt


Two Semi-Formal shirt 1st F/S 2nd H/S Twills and Scapes


Another Semi Casual Shirt - Enryca Geneva


Semi-Formal shirts from Wrangler Jeans


Two Chinos by Oxemberg (slightly blurry pic)


Rounding off with two jeans by Line-in

I bought the Jeans and Chino/Trousers on Saturday 3rd Aug 2013 and bought the Shirts and T-Shirts on Sunday 4th August .. This time I am not providing the prices for the items as almost no one visits this blog but if you want to know the prices and discounts on the items then let me know and I will update them with the pictures .. 

Thank you very much for checking another day in my life.

Wednesday, July 31, 2013

The Amazing Waterwheel

This post has been written for 'The Idea Caravan' organized by Franklin Templeton Investments partnered the TEDxGateway Mumbai in December 2012 along with indiblogger.in





Watching Cynthiya Koenig speak about her idea to improve water transport in remote areas was really an eye opener. At one hand you can't stop but applaud her brilliant idea on the other hand you have to ask yourself, how can such a wonderful idea remain hidden for so long? I mean when you think about it, it's so obvious when you think about it. But it always happens with such brilliant ideas which are so effective that we can't help but think, why didn't I think of that?

On the surface Cynthiya's idea is very simple and very creative, rather than carrying water tank at your head like people are used to just roll it over to your destination. It became possible due to Cynthiya's innovative design where in she turned a simple drum into a rollable drum with handles for easy movement. It's called Wello waterwheel and ladies and Gentlemen it is going to revolutionize the life of people all around the world in the areas where there is water shortage. 



Image courtesy Wellowater.org


It is not uncommon for women in villages in Rajasthan to go and carry water from wells over long distances sometimes even 10 kms and as Cynthiya correctly said carrying such a heavy weight on their head over such long distances would definitely affect their spinal cord which results in serious health issues later in their life. Her solution is simply marvelous just look at the picture below from their site, I have no doubt that their product Wello waterwheel will bring a revolution to the lives of all these women and girls in the remote areas and villages with water shortage.



Image courtesy Wellowater.org


Waterwheel's design is ingenious and I do believe that by using this product people would at least be able to get some respite from the gruelling process of collecting water. Since its closed shut during transportation there is now no more chances of contamination to the water as it was always possible with the open Matki carried by women traditionally. Also Wello promises that waterwheel is made by sturdy material keeping Indian terrain in mind.

Its all good and fine but it will only truly benefit people when its adopted by them. And only by large size adoption will Wello be able to innovate further. But I honestly believe that for the many families for which the product is intended and suitable would not be able to afford the amount quoted. For us 1000 Rs is not such a big deal but it is still a big amount in 1000s of our villages. And the irony is that the poorer the village is the more they would need waterwheel.

And yet no one can dispute the price after all to make waterwheel with kind of plastic and iron do take money and I believe they would barely be making any profit to make sure that all those poor women are profited. I sincerely hope that either our government or the largest corporate houses must come together and sponsor this movement to improve lives on countless Indians. Afterall for few measly Crores they would be able to distribute waterwheels to thousands of households and help them get supply of cleaner water.

Remember water is our life force and its a natural resource and every Indian has a right to safe clean water for his daily needs. This directly relates to the living standards of the people and with small but effective steps like this we would be able to make sure that all the Indians grow. And when people grow the Country grows.

I would like to thank Franklin Templeton and TEDxGateway for giving us such a wonderful opportunity to listen these awesomely talented and innovative people sharing their life changing ideas. And most of all to http://www.indiblogger.in to enable us to share our view and contribute to such wonderful ideas.




Thursday, July 25, 2013

Here's to something new again

So, after a lot of delays my one more blog is full of entries now.

My Third Eye - http://cameramythirdeye.blogspot.com


This was one of the 6 blogs I created almost Three years ago but somehow couldn't find the time or will to post there. Very happy that finally I could post so many entries there and since its all about photos I have chosen a dynamic theme which does justice to so many pictures posted on the blog. I really hope that you would also visit the blog and like, comment and share the posts you like. After all what's the use of a blog if people don't come and visit and check the entries.

Keep Calm and Read on.

The Perfect Road Trip

This Blogpost entry has been written for 'The Perfect Road Trip' Contest by Ambi Pur and indiblogger.in



I don't even remember for how long I wanted to go to Ladakh with my friends, when we were students money was the constraint. When we started working then we rarely had the time, since our weekly offs never matched. And even when stars aligned and our offs matched it was end of the month meaning no money.

Like most of the desires of life, this desire of mine was also going to go unfulfilled, that’s what life is and you can't feel bad for this. There was no point feeling down about things which are not in your hand like rain or sunshine. To make the matters worse we all were in different cities. I in Chennai, Rohil in Bangalore, Purnendu in Mumbai, Nitin in Delhi and Hardeep in Chandigarh.

But like they say every dog has his day so did we. Last year after much deliberation all of us 5 friends decided that we would take a month off from the office and no matter what this time we would tick this item from our bucket list and visit Ladakh.

Since we had 1 month time to enjoy our road trip we extended our original plan to include all the cities where my friends were as part of our Road. Everyone decided to meet me in Chennai so that we could begin our journey together from Chennai.

We decided that we would give one day to each city and then follow the following route -

Chennai -> Bangalore -> Mumbai -> Delhi -> Chennai -> Ladakh and Back

Came July and we were ready to board our rented Land Cruiser all the way to Ladakh to experience the Heaven on earth. So there we were all decked up with our bags full of clothes and food for the longest journey of our life. But something was very much missing from our experience. The Car smelled a bit funny. But we were not going to let such a small thing put a stop on our happiness. I knew exactly the remedy for all unpleasant smells.

I made the car stop at a shop and bought all 5 versions of Ambi Pur car perfume and sure enough as soon as the perfume took its effect the entire car became as fresh as a garden in spring. There was nary a hint of funny smell anywhere in the entire car now and journey became super enjoyable.

We all visited the wonderful places in Chennai; we were together after a very long time. Although the weather was hot in Chennai but our Land Cruiser's AC along with Ambi Pur made sure that the entire Car was as comfortable as a 5-Star hotel room.

'Dil Chahta Hai' this song became our official song for the journey and we finally left Chennai on a journey which promised us an unforgettable experience. Enjoying the greenery around soon enough within 5 hours we were in Bangalore.  

Singing 'Ye Dosti Hum nahi todenge' we entered Bangalore, and moved to Rohil's room to stay the night there. After devoting the day to enjoy the pubs and awesome weather and pathetic traffic, we called in an early night and went to bed by 9 PM. Although people like to travel long distances during night but our car and Ambi Pur combination was so good that we had no problems traveling any time of the day. 

We left Bangalore at 6 AM and we were lucky not to experience any traffic jams like previous day and it was very good in deed. Entire time our car's stereo was belting our one timeless classic after other and due to super power of our car we reached Mumbai by 8 PM and we were so tired that we went directly to a hotel to have dinner and then went directly to Purnendu's place. next day was going to be Mumbai's.

Next day we all went to Siddhivinayak temple to gain Lord Ganesha's blessings for the journey ahead. After Mumbai began one of the longest legs of our journey. So we decided to break the journey to Delhi in two part one part from Mumbai to Udaipur which took us around 9 hours and then after a night's rest there another part Took us through Jaipur -> Gurgaon to Delhi in 10 hours.. We spent 2 hours in Gurgaon alone due to the traffic at the Shankar Chowk.

We had enjoyed the rainy season to the fullest till now and we in no mood to stop.. We were 6 days in our road trip and we had enjoyed each and every moment of this. More than anything the part that we all were together enjoying the trip of our life mattered. 

It was raining in Delhi as finally Monsoon had arrived in Delhi and we enjoyed each and every moment of it. Drive to Chandigarh was a comparatively small part and it took barely 3 hours. Till now our shortest leg. After logging in the hotel. we excitedly planned about our journey ahead. Even though we had spent last 7 days in the car eating and enjoying, our car still smelled fresh all because of Ambi Pur.  

After resting in Chandigarh we started for our final destination Leh - Ladakh. But since the path was treacherous now full of ghaats and mountain trails. We decided to take this slow our first part was to reach Srinagar which took around 12 hours. We rented a houseboat in Dal Lake and spent night in another Heaven on earth and India’s jewel Kashmir. 

We started for Leh early morning at around 8 AM when the weather cleared and we got a go ahead from Indian Army to move ahead. The path to Leh was just so beautiful and it kept on taking our breathes away. I kept on clicking photos throughout the journey. We had to stop many a times just to appreciate the magic of nature which was spread all around us and we were travelling on one of the highest roads in the world. We reached Leh at around 5 PM and gorged ourselves on the wonderful cuisine available there and soon afterwards we went to our hotel rooms to sleep.

Next day we were refreshed after a good night’s sleep and visited monasteries and lakes and enjoyed the crystal clear water of the lakes and enjoyed the views which were too good to be true. I went mad clicking pictures after pictures of our group and all the wonderful Scenery around. We immensely enjoyed our 5 day stay in Leh-Ladakh. After once our stay was over we left Leh to our normal life. Our plan this time was this that we would leave everyone in there city. So we did just that. Apart from Ambi Pur another exceptional part of the journey was our song… here goes


Dil Chahta Hai, Dil Chahta Hai

Dil Chahta Hai, Kabhi Na Beete Chamkeele Din

Dil Chahta Hai, Hum Na Rahein Kabhi Yaaron Ke Bin

Din Din Bhar Ho Pyaari Baatein

Jhoome Shaame, Gaaye Raatein

Masti Mein Rahe Dooba Dooba Hameshaa Samaa

Humko Raahon Mein Yoonhi Milti Rahein Khushiyaan

Dil Chahta Hai, Kabhi Na Beete Chamkile Din,

Dil Chahta Hai, Hum Na Rahe Kabhi Yaaron Ke Bin