Traffic Maps for Bangalore !!

wow..something which I wished always in India is already there !!.. You always wanted to know how's the traffic movement within Bangalore ..like Traffic on Hosur Road is always slow ..but its good to know whether it is slow or delay or smooth at this moment :)

visit : http://traffic.mapunity.org/ It shows exactly what you were looking for :) Its with collaboration with Google Maps !!

Also if you need to know Driving Directions on Indian Road, this is one more website :

http://www.mapunity.org/maps/indiaroads/

Here is the example of what you will get for Bangalore to Pondicherry :

1. Visit URL :
http://www.mapunity.org/maps/indiaroads/
2. Give Bangalore as start
3. Pondicherry as end
4. Click on GO button to get the map from Bangalore to Pondicherry
5. Click on the "Steering Wheel" Button to get the driving directions & kms between each village

Wow this is just for travelers !!

Let your friends in USA/UK/Australia that now Google Helps Indians too for all that they were enjoying for so many years!!

Enjoy

My earlier Posts on the same subject :

Driving Directions in India Online !!
Lost on Indian Roads !! ..Internet Helps you :)

Janapada Loka : More details

I did a Photo Blogging sometime back on Janapada Loka.

Some more details about same location & other stuff :

Place

• Situated 53 kms. on the Bangalore-Mysore highway, Janapada Loka is a treasure-trove of Karnataka’s folk heritage. The 15-acre complex houses museums, an open-air theatre, a studio and other structures. The museum, drawn from the life and arts of a large number of tribal and rural folk across Karnataka, has an amazing collection of 5000 artefacts that represent the essence of Karnataka’s folk culture. The display includes an array of agricultural hunting and fishing implements, weapons, ingenious household gadgets, masks, dolls and shadow puppets.

Address

• Janapada Loka
  Bangalore-Mysore Road, Ramnagara, Bangalore
  Timings: 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 2:30 to 5:30 p.m. Closed on Tuesdays.

Route from Bangalore

• Banglore - Mysore Highway - 50 kms
• Link to a Route Map

Other Attractions

• Kamat Lokaruchi Veg Restuarent - Good North Karnataka Meals !!
• Channapatana : A Place to buy varity of Toys made out of Wood - Towards Mysore
  
• Manchanabele : Water Reserviour - towards Bangalore

Enjoy !!

Getting experience before Getting Job in IT / Software

I just noticed this Post : Getting experience before getting a job

I will just paste what I commented out there for now & will try to write more in detail about my experience on the same topic.

"Great Post for people who are entering in IT profession. People out of collage often crib about not getting jobs with out experience, it is true sometimes when you don't have the skills to get the jobs. But there are many ways today as you suggested well. 10 year back when I started my career I could not think of anything other taking some project work with some company for FREE !! :)

I would like to add about http://www.rentacoder.com ..excellent website which offers anyone for any skills(including tech. writting, movie making etc) to BID for projects listed & start working !! ..great way to build experience & get some money too."

This is a fact that jobs are plenty today & there are ways to get jobs/experience in IT than it was 10 years back. When people say that they are not getting job, there can be many reasons to that & that requires deep understanding starting from "Whether you really like to work in IT or you just came here because everybody is there".

I am writing a small article about my experience in IT area till date & also about some recommendations to people who are planning to enter this field & also for people are already there & probably trying to understand what more they can do here !!

So watch out for this blog soon.

Switched to Blogger Beta !!

I have just now switched to Blogger Beta !! ..The feeling is good ..it seems more faster & better interface to me than earlier version of blogspot.com !!

I am not sure why but I always have a eagerness to try the Beta Versions of softwares which are Applications & not going to harm too much to my OS. So its ok to try ..you always gain over the earlier versions & come to know about the new interfaces/features ahead of production releases. It keep you ahead of competition as well sometimes.

Pondicherry : Give Time a Break !! .. Travelouge

I went to pondicherry last weekend as I really wanted to "give time a break". Its been long time I have been thinking of going to Pondicherry !!

So now that I have some good data & photo's, I will write this blog on Pondicherry. Hopefully this will help others who wish to visit Pondicherry.

• Place
• It is a former French colony, consisting of four non-contiguous enclaves, or districts, and named for the largest, Puducherry.
• Tourist Advantage
• French Architecture to see around city
• Sri Aurobindo Ashram
• Auroville
• Pondicherry Beaches
• Museums
• Temples & Mosques
• Backwater & Garden
• Best time to Visit
• During October to January
• I have personally being there during November, the weather was good. Not very hot. You can expect some showers, but is good.
• Route from Bangalore
• I took the following route to reach Pondi from Bangalore

• I used http://www.mapmyindia.com Maps as reference & some tips from my friends from "Indianhiways" Group from Yahoo Groups.
• Overall the route is good, if you fill up enough Petrol/Diesal at Bangalore, you don't need to stop for Petrol en-route. But it seems the petrol is cheaper in Tamilnadu/Pondicherry :)
• Reliance A1 Plaza after Hosur on left side of Highway is best for having Breakfast. After this point there are not many good(hi-fi) places to east. So you might consider stopping at Tiruvannmalai for Lunch probably.(Hotel Arya & Hotel Arunashala)
• The Kms given above are approx. & depends where you start in Bangalore & where do End in Pondicherry.Most of the Beach resorts are on ECR(Pondi-Chennai Route)

• Accommodation
  
• Pondicherry has 2 kind of accommodation for tourists mainly.
  
• Beach Resorts
• City Hotels
• There are Guest Houses also in Auroville & at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram
• My Recommendation
• My Recommendation is to stay at
• Hotel Surguru, 104, SARDAR VALLABHAI PATEL ROAD. PONDICHERRY 605001. TEL: +91-413-2339022. +91-413-2227290
• Good Hotel with very good service
• Excellent South Indian Food
• Good Location, Near to all Attractions in Pondi.
• St James Court Beach Resort
• Good Resort on ECR Road(10 kms from Pondicherry)
• Food is ok
• Only if you need Beach Resort, this is good.
• But in Ponicherry beaches are not that clean(specially on ECR). Also you cannot venture much into sea as it is dangerous as the slope is steep.
• Travel Tips & Expectations
• Its very important to keep realistic expectations with Pondicherry.
• Can't expect the same service standards as of Bangalore at outskirts of pondicherry
• Small place, good for 2 days only
• Not much directions sometimes to roam yourself
• Keep a Map handy
• My advise is not to spend on Beach Resorts, instead stay at City Hotels, they are better equipped.
• Spending is relative term(every bodies own choice). But I would not recommend anyone spending more than Rs.1200/- Accommodation, Its really not value for money.
• Need to drive carefully on NH66 as you pass through villages, people/cattle cross or they put their grains on road(yes on NH) for sun bath :)
• Overall travel time from Bangalore to Pondicherry is around 5.30 to 6.00 hours depending on your stops in between.
• Very Comfortable Drive as most of the roads are in good condition
• Checkout pics on http://www.flickr.com by searching "pondicherry", "ECR", "Auroville", or "Aurobindo" ..This gives you an idea what you want there!!
• Search for more blogs related to Pondicherry for exp. & reviews !!
  
• Photos
• Flickr

Tags : Pondicherry , Pondicherry route , Best route to pondicherry , Accomodation at Pondicherry

Janapada Loka : Photo Blogging !!

To save time I am doing just Photo Blogging of Janapada Loka, Bangalore-Mysore Road, Ramnagara, Bangalore - 571 511,

Bangalore Infrastructure : In Rains !!

Comments blogs about Bangalore Infrastructure are everywhere !! ..But it is tough to see that happening in front of your eyes daily :(

Recently I was happy to see that BMP(http://www.bmponline.org/) is doing some good work around our apartment & its good to see some progress. But my happiness did not last for much time. As usual they started some work & it was abandoned with all in mess. They lay the road half-way & then stop the work to mess it up more than it was earlier.

See some photos !!

Lalbaug Botanical Garden, Bangalore, India - Revisited !!

Its been long time I visited Lalbaug Botanical Garden in Bangalore, India !! ...The reason for not visiting it for long time is probably traffic towards Lalbaug & not not finding time :) .. btw the universal excuse of not finding time is not good I feel so sometime.

I was surprised to see the changes to Lalbaug which are done recently. So there are more reasons to visit this beautiful place with family & kids !!

• Clean atmosphere
• Good fresh air
• Ample place for jogging or walking
• Hassle free parking(depending on what time of the day u go !!)
• New Zero B Water taps !!(Pure filtered water vending machines)
• Much better maintained that what I saw earlier !!
• Electric Golf Car ride for Rs. 100 !!

Specially the Zero B Water vending machines are great idea. So people need not carry their own water bottles.

Learning Car Driving in India !!

Learning car driving is great fun in India. Specially with Car Prices falling down or Income rising !! ..Many people buy car & its a need sometimes.

But when it comes to learning Car driving, its tough to find good instructors. Also they charge you too much compared to what they teach you.

Some of the disadvantes of learning Car driving with Alternate controls :

• You never get full control of the Car
• The Instructor sitting next to you alway keeps his foot on clutch/break, failing you get the feel of car
• He will press break even before you respond to a situation !!
• He will adjust the Steering for you sometimes
• Missing out important Instructions !!
• You feel you know driving, but actually you know just basics
  

I would suggest to anyone would like to learn a Car is to go to a Driving School where the Car on which you are going to learn do not have alternate control. The advantges are as below. BTW, this is from my own expereince. My wife recently learned Car Driving on our own Car without alternative controls(offcourse !!). And the results were amazing, she learned faster than I could learn with driving school car !!

• You get feel of Car Controls yourselves
• You get to know the Clutch/Break faster than with alternative controls Car
• You respond to situations yourselves that makes you more confident
• Learning curve is faster & close to REAL world !

Enjoy Driving !!

Driving Directions In India ..Online !!

Finally I have got the tool which provides me Driving Directions between 2 places in India :). This is still in beta, but looks impressive.

This feature was my wish list for long time, as I have seen this kind of system in place in US & Australia !! ..See my blog entry on 21st July about this :

My wish list in July-06

I can't believe that the wish will be fullfilled so soon :) ...

URL : http://beta.mapmyindia.com

I tested the website feature Driving Directions with some areas I know & it looks ok. Though it may not have all areas, but its still useful for the people who are new to city & could like to know the place. Also I checked the route map from "Pune to Bangalore" & its quite accurate.

Have a look at what you get here :

Its a great service. Also the regular Maps are good as they are Interactive.

GIS overall has a good potential in India in my opinion. There are many companies building applications around it.

Bank Service ..ICICI

Recently there was another incident I came across which reflects the service orientation of a bank. ICICI Bank !!

Let me say that overall till date I have liked the Online services of ICICI & they are much ahead of many banks in using the technology at its best !!

But recently when they wanted all of their Demat Account holders to show PAN Card proof, they did not manage it very well. Which in any case was very easy to manage otherwise :

• They sent an intimation via Email/Website to ask customers to show up their original PAN Card & PAN copy for some SEBI requirement
• No detailed process given
• Customer were supposed to fill up one Form with some Details, which was missing from the mailer they sent
• At the branch office there was no clue as to how do I proceed to go thru this entire process
• Many people were taking Token # at the machine & sitting that they will be called !!..No one called :(
• After some enquiries with few counters, there was one counter where the person was accecpting the Forms :)
• So it was acutally very easy process, but was made tough for customer without detailed knowlegde

What was expected :

• Provide detailed step-by-step instructions by mailer
• Provide the PAN Card Update Form in the mailer & at the bank branch entrance
• Create a Seperate counter at the entrance of the bank to accept the PAN Copy & verify Original Pan Card
• May be accept Notary attested PAN Card Copies by mail
• All Branches should have to facilitate, not just the one which provides Demat Services.

Citibank ..Excellent Service !!

We always crib about services offered to us by various agencies. Bank is one of them !!. The new banks & modernisation bringing lots of changes into our lives everyday, we think everything should be automated the way we want :)

I had a very good experience with Citibank yesterday. I ordered a Demand Draft from their Internet Banking website at 8:30 am morning & the DD was received by me at my residence at 12:00 noon :) ..It was great service.

Always I have found that the DD was delivered next day without fail. This is the power of Internet & also using the services effectively. As with Internet Banking, local branches can effectively work together to deliver the services to their clients locally.

I have seen in the past some banks telling me like " Sir it will take 4 working days, as our Head Office is in Mumbai " :) . I always feel like telling the person on phone(call center), that how does it matter to me where your HQ is ? !! ..But yes there are still some banks are old fashioned inspite of having good infrastructure in place.

There are other examples of Banks where the Call Center closes at 6:00 pm :) ..In this world of outsourcing its hard to imagine big companies still following old times !

I like Citibank at least for their Draft service !!

Internet Buying ..Still not matured in India

I had this good experience of buying something online, which you would have actually tempted me to buy more from the website. Also in due course I might have given more hits/business to the same vendor who is selling books online.

But unfortunetly the experience is not so good. Infact it was such that I did not wanted to buy anything from there & probably goto the book shop available locally & get that book.

I was looking for an Indian Edition of Book : Beyond Code: Learn to Distinguish Yourself in 9 Simple Steps! . Luckily I found the link to 2 book shops offering the same book online in india.

1. http://www.gobookshopping.com/BookDetails.asp?bookid=241440
2.http://www.itbytebooks.com/book_Details.asp?id=11833&catid=15

But when I tried buying I was shocked to see the way they are selling :) ..The book costs Rs. 150/- in India for paperback edition. Gobookshopping.com was charging Rs.110/- for shipping on a Rs.135/- book(after discount of Rs.15). Itbytebooks.com is offering the same book for Rs. 239/-(Shipping of Rs.10) = Rs. 249/-. So both the online book stores are just charging too much for either shipping or the book & making money.

I always wonder why people selling online try to do this kind of stuff. This does not help them in anyway, instead people will not come to their store for buying anymore !! ...

Look at Amazon, they have fixed pricing for Shipping as per the item you are buying.

Internet should make things simple for people & complicated.

For now I have to just find a local book shop & go get my copy of "Beyond Code" !!

Distinguish Yourself ..Good to read !!

I was reading some of the small articles on Topic "Distinguish Yourself", written by Rajesh Setty on his Lens.

This is first time I read about Lens. So what is Lens ?

A lens is one person's view on a topic that matters to her. It's an easy-to-build, single web page that can point to blogs, favorite links, RSS feeds, Flickr photos, Google maps, eBay auctions, CafePress designs, Amazon books or music, and thousands of products from hundreds of other trusted merchants. You can pick whatever content you want to put in your lens to bring context to your topic. Then, when someone is looking for recommended information, fast, your lens gets him started and sends him off in the right direction. It's a place to start, not finish.


The above is from the FAQ from : http://www.squidoo.com/pages/faq

I liked the idea. Its a great way to get your posts in a single page for reference on a particular topic. As in blogs the posts are scattered sometimes. If you go off-topic !!

Rajesh Setty has written, very well thought articles on this subjest "Distinguish Yourself".
Its a series of small articles which provocates your to think more about yourself. Whcih I guess one needs to do always.

The one which I liked in being in Support Profession for a long is : #6 Ask for help

This is something I use to tell everyone I meet who is starting career in Support or try to get something done. Always seek help if you know you can get right there instead of wasting your own time discovering !!. Off-course that do not mean that you should seek help for everything you would like to do. Do your home-work, try few things you know. If you still don't get seek clues & go from there.

Again I feel that Lens is like Blogging on a specific Topic !! ..

Life Beyond Code !!

When I first saw these words on Blogcamp. It was quite interesting to read more about it. When I was traversing through various posts, blogs about it. It takes me more deeper & its more interesting.

There is a blog on this subject by auther Rajesh Setty : http://blog.lifebeyondcode.com/

I feel its a nice subject to read. On my first thought it seems like a good idea to understand what is "Life Beyond Code". I am eagerly waiting to read this book. Its availale on Amazon.com. But need to find the Indian Edition somewhere. Will goto the near book shop soon !!

There is another compilation of blog entries by the same auther at :

http://www.squidoo.com/distinguishyourself

There is to much to read !!. But first I will read the Book & then will go further.

Indian Highways on Yahoo Groups !!

You want to share your information or would like too know experiences of others on Indian Highways, Join "indiahighways" group on http://groups.yahoo.com !!

I have been following-up on this group for more than a year now & the information is very helpful you are driving on Indian Highways.

Lot of people in this group are regular travellers on Highways.

If you would like to know the status of Golden Quardilateral Project(This is a Highway Project started few years back when BJP was in power). This project is to connect Indian Highways with 4 Laned roads to cover major cities in India.

There are regular updates from National Highways Authority of India (http://www.nhai.org) on progress of this project.

I generally track the (http://www.nhai.org/NH4_Mumbai_Chennai_english.htm) to check the progress between Mumbai & Chennai route ..It seems form the July-31st update that this route is 4-laned aolmost 94.88%. I don't think this is the real status though. As when I saw some trip sheets from "indianhighways" group. It looks like that the Chitradurga To Hubli streach is in bad shape. Need to confirm from few more people who have travelled on NH4 recently.

On the positive note, I see the highway project being good for all. Though it is taking double the time it should have taken to complete, still its a good initiative by Indian Govt. to boost the economy & providing faster alternative means of transportation to people in India.

Experiences with International Travel from India

I was travelling to Hong Kong from Bangalore recently, this is just after the UK Incident.

It was not so good experience while going from Bangalore International Airport, as they were not at all prepared for the new security arrangements & also for the large crowed which generally gathers at the airport for all night flights.

I was standing in a queue for almost 4 hours till I reached the gate of the place :(. The check-in counter(all) was taking too much time to check-in as they installed some new system to improve check-in times :). I was surprised to see that there are was no one their at supervisor level to understand the difficulties of travellers & to give them good answer to their questions !!. The questions were :

• Why so long time for check-in ? Ans : We implemented new system :)
  
• My flight is just in next 10 minutes, how I am going to catch that ? Ans : No Answer
  
• Is the flight schedule changes because of delay in check-in ? Ans : No Answer

As after the check-in we went to the Immigration Counters, there was similar scene there !!. No one was interested in letting the passengers know what's happening. Everybody was just trying to get themselves as fast as possible :)

There was only 1 x-ray machine as usual !!. Some Airline agents were trying to get passengers out of the security/immigration queue to speed-up, but in turn they were creating more chaos as it was not a co-ordinated effort at all.

It was disgusting to see the impressions of fellow passengers about India & specially Bangalore International Airport :(

I know this was a probably one-off incidence with so much of delay, but really not. As I have travelled many times from this airport & things are never smooth. There are always atleast 30 min. wait at each queue(Check-in, Immigration, Security).

When I reached HK Airport. The immigration was finished for 100 passengers in just 10 minutes with 8 officers only !!. It was good to see the speed at they were working.

On the other note, I got a surprise when I returned to Bangalore from Hong Kong, the total time I took from Plane exit gate to Airport exit was just 15 minutes(Passing thru Immigration, Baggage collection) !!

The reason was that I was first 5 in line while doing immigration. Also we had only our flight for some reason to arrive at that time :) ..Also luckily I got my baggage on the belt in 5 minutes.

Understanding Indian Stock Market !!

I feel that it is very tough to understand Indian Stock Market, on top of that the Indian Mutual Fund Markets !!

Today the Markets are close to 12000 mark on BSE, but you will see that the Mutual Funds NAVs are way below that what it was at 12000 mark 3 months back :)

Yes, I know that its not good to predict the markets & also there is no direct relation of Indices to MF NAVs. I feel the market was over valued in last 1 year & now it is coming to its real terms may be !!

I refer to my last post on this. The MFs I have given as TOP 5 in my opinion based on some research are still the same !!

Keep watching !!

Hong Kong : Ocean Park Review

Recently I had been to Ocean Park, Hong Kong . Its a huge amusement park with lot of activities planned for peopel visiting it. Its more like a adventure park with lot of rides & fun stuff.

My experience with Ocean Park was not so good that day as the weather was too hot & there was too much crowed on sunday there :(

Also its not a good idea to goto Ocean Park on Sunday. You should reach there by 10:00 am to get to see most of the theme parks with less crowed may be. We were standing in a queue for 45 min's to see Sea Jelly Fish Exhibit :) ...Jelly Fish are amazing ..I have been to another such Jelly Fish Aquarium which in California at Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Monterey Bay Aquarium is a great place to be at. Its little away from SFO,but its worth visiting. The drive towards Monterey is also good. Also while coming back you can visit the 17 miles drive & Pebble beach !!

So if you are planning to visit Ocean Park with kids specially infants ..beware of following :

• Expect Hot & sunny weather
• On weekends there are just too many people
  
• Lines to Exhibit have waiting period upto 1 hour sometimes :(
• You cannot go in any rides with infants ..very few ..
• There is too much to walk & see which is tough with Infants :)
• Food is a issue for Strict Vegeterians :(
• Carry plenty of Water with from Hong Kong City itself ..the water is 4 times expensive there compared to Welcome Store in the city :)
• Umbrella & sun lotion is MUST !!
• Check weather before you head out
  

Hong Kong : Infrastruture

I like the way Hong Kong govt has setup the infrastruture ..its good for people. Even a person just landed in HK can take a map & MTR Octopus pass & go around the city without asking any body. I could find Indian Restuarents with just their addresses on internet !!

For all the main areas like Causeway Bay, Central, Wan Chai..finding a address is not tough. HK is set of Islands ..I went took the ferry went to Kowloon Island in just 15 mins with $2.3 only !! ..

Govt. does lot of promotion itself for tourism as they earn lot of revenue coz that ..so its good money for them as well as for business.

One needs to be good at reading maps ..it helps a lot ..Keep a reference point which u know in case ouo lost ..that way atleast u can reach upto that point !!

One more observation is that indian restuarents are plenty here ..I went to 3(Jo Jo Indian, Khana Kahazana, Indian Palace(Near Tsim Sa Sui Ferry station) of them already in 3 days !