Travels in the US

The last 2 months have been full of travel for me. My onsite trip to the US gave me an opportunity to explore a lot of the east coast. And also changed my attitude towards travel in my own country. Every weekend in my two months in the US was an opportunity to travel. And I planned aggressively for each weekend, talking to team mates, searching the net, making schedules etc. etc. The end result was a lot of travel in the last 2 months I was there. This also hopefully would see me start out on a string of bike-trips, fishing trips and photography trips. I plan to invest a lot of time in traveling in the near future. So hopefully there should be a lot of travelogues posted out here. Most probably, I will be starting with my NY travelogues next. So will be posting a lot of travel pics here too. Keep checking back.

New York

Central Park. Liberty Island. Times Square. Bronx Zoo. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. China Town. Little Italy. New york Stock Exchange. Brooklyn Bridge. Fifth Avenue. Wall Street. Subways & Metro.

I am coming.

Mario de Miranda - Book Review (7.5/10)

After quite some time, I walked into Crosswords Powai. It has been ages since I went there, considering that I used to visit every week. More than getting books, I wanted to see if there were any good DVDs to pick up. I am glad that I found "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button". Loved the movie. And walking out of crosswords without a book in hand is something very difficult to achieve. Something I dont think I ever will.

Since it had been quite some time since I had frequented the humour corner, I decided to do so. Amongst the volumes of Calvin & Hobbes & Garfield (almost all of which I already own), I saw 'Mario de Miranda'. It was not the first time I laid my eyes on it. I have seen it on multiple occasions before and drooled over it. In the past, I did not buy it just because of the price tag. Rs.2700 seemed a bit to steep. But the impulsive buyer that I am, I went for it on this occasion.

I have been an ardent fan of Mario Miranda right from Standard 1, unknowingly then. This is because he was the illustrator for the older version of the Balbharati English Text books then. I still very clearly have memories of my first lesson in my 1st standard textbook. It was about a boy called Nitin. Went something like "My name is Nititn. I am a boy. I stay in Pune." etc. etc. I dont remember the text so well. But what I can never forget is the image of Nitin, hanging on the branches of a tree casually, in his light blue shirt and black pants. I am not sure about how much memory aberration is in play, but if anyone reading this remembers a clearer and more distinct version of this lesson, please leave a comment.

Anyways deep down in my subconcious, these images have had a strong effect. As I grew up, I was fed the likes of Herge, Goscinny, Ram Waeerkar,Scarpelli, Schultz, VB Halbe, Miranda, etc. and later on Watterson, Davis,Laxman etc. For me, the illustrations are more important than the script when it comes to comics. And hence I would always look at names of the illustrators, and observe the nuances of their art with great dedication. Amongst all the greats, I consider Mario Miranda as right up there. He has acheived a very very distinct, original, special, apealing and arty style of cartooning. His cartoons would easily sell as a painting or a work of pure art. I dont think any other cartoonist paints murals like him, nor are drawings so widely used on commercial goods, postcards, souveniers, atleast amongst indian cartoonists. His one-box comics were half as funny as mnay others. But I never considered his humour as good as my other idols anyways. It was all about the drawings of Mario de Miranda.

The book has around 2000 of his drawings, sketches, diary pages, paintings, murals etc. A real treat for anyone who has love Marios drawings. There is an initial biography of Mario Miranda in the first few pages, that I loved reading through. And then are scans from his diary pages, where can be seen some pretty ordinary sketches, which kept on improving slowly over time, to evolve into the style that Mario has developed finally. Yes, you can clearly see the evolution of an artist, as you scan across the pages. And it shows how much practice mario had to put in before he could draw like what he does. This surely is an encouragement for budding cartoonists and artists. It is hardowork and passion that truly pays off in the end.

The book also has various paintings and drawings by Mario. If you are an art freak, I cant see why you wont love it. Many of the paintings depict the places that Mario has been and stayed in throughout his life. From Goa to Mumbai, from Paris to Libson, there are paintings and sketches that truly capture what he must have experienced when there. Rating this book is certainly a challenge, as it is more of a collection of drawings, cartoons, sketches and paintings and a bit of a biography. If you are a fan of Mario Miranda, this book will be a 10/10 for you. But for the general junta, I think it should be a 7.5/10.

Trek to Kanheri Caves

Yesterday, i.e. Sunday, 20th July 2009 I along with friends from Y.E.S. visited the Sanjay Gandhi National Park. It was more of an extempore trip, without much planning or ado. We decided to go, packed our bags and left. Yet, there were around 15 of us who made this trip. Personally I was looking forward to visiting the Kanheri caves the most, as I had read that there wasnt much to see in the National park in terms of Lions, tigers and other animals.

We all decided to assemble at Vikhroli Station at around 8:00 am. Most were on time, and some were late as usual. We decided to use the time to have our breakfast.

Bonny and me having our breakfast.

We then moved on to the bus stop. We thought of traveling by bus, but ended up taking ricks.

After we reached borivili, I decided to have a go at the wada paav stand. I knew we had a long journey ahead, and I was already hungry. Only Griffin and Gladvin joined me. The others decided to keep away.

The map outside Borivili national Park. We had planned to hike upto Kanheri Caves.

The beautiful sprawling national park awaits us...


Walking into the park, unaware of the long road ahead.


Moss covered walls seen from the train

Before that we decided to take a look at some of the animals. I wasnt so inclined, but all the
others were. Probably because I knew about the sorry state of the animals and had already visited the Nehru Zoological park in Hyderabad, and knew that this would never live upto those standards. Finally, considering the limited time, we settled for a train ride, and just got to see the deers.

Walking to

Leaving behind a tunnel

Off the ride, the girls dont seem to have enjoyed themselves much.

After the train ride, we hit back the long and beautiful road.


After walking for sometime, we reached a bridge over a small stream. The group didnt need an invitation to get into the water.


Bonny decided to catch some fish. The only fish available were small fry.


A little water bug that he caught.


Taking a dip in the cool stream.

After the dip, many were reluctant to leave the spot. Infact only myself and Joshua were the ones out of the water, waiting for everybody to get back on the trail. Then there was a little mutiny where some of the guys decided against going to the caves and wanted to just explore the jungles. It took some time to break the mutiny and convince everybody that the caves were worth visiting. And we could hit the road again...


Weary after the long walk.


The gang, now tired & famished, decides to squat on the road.


After some time of continuous walking, we finally made it to the foot of the hill, which had the caves. At the base of the caves, there was a map and a write up on the caves.

Exploring the first of the caves.

The biggest and the most beautiful of the viharas.

Massive moss covered rocks.


A Stupa inside the cave that had multiple viharas.


Posers forever. :)


Bonny checks out the sculptures behind the Stupa.


An inside out view... The Viharas were pretty dark, even in the bright afternoons.


Some wall sculptures


A carving of Buddha


A destroyed stupa next to an intact one. Not even sure if its a destroyed stupa. Raiders? Dacoits? Cant say.


The caves have an excellent water harvesting systems. There are tanks built all over the caves, and there are water channels along the hills that supply water to these tanks. Also the excess water in the past was drained out to the nearby Tulsi and Vihar lakes.

Next , exactly after the huge cave with viharas built in it, we came across a Chaitya which was the hugest. It had huge 20 feet statues of buddha and also a big stupa in the middle of the hall. Above is the entrance to this Chaitya.

A huge pillar that looked more decorative than supportive. This was outside a huge chaitya, probably the main prayer hall in the monastrey.

A 20 feet statue of Buddha. The most impressive in Kanheri Caves. The body was out of proportion, as can be expected sometimes in the carvings of those ages. This error in proportion was observed only in the big statue. But obviously, the bigger the work, more difficult to maintain proportions. Also, in many places, the smaller ones were replicas of this larger one. Opposite the one you see in the above picture stands an exactly carbon copy statue. To pass into the hall, you would have to pass throught these 2 bug statues that face each other.


Some more than voluptious carvings that lined the entrance.


The large Chaitya. Just being in here was a magnificient feeling. I can imagine what a peaceful atmosphere this might have been when the monks walked this placce around a couple of thousand years ago.

Some carvings on top of a pillar. Two elephants, with maybe mahouts, or maybe .. i dunno what. You figure.

The inside out view.


Me with a minature version of the 20 feet statue you saw a couple of pics up...


The main area of the caves from the other side, ie from outside the main Chaitya (prayer hall)


As we climbed higher, we got a fantabulous view of the National Park. The sun shone through the clouds, and illuminated streaks of the forest that I couldnt capture on this cellphone camera. You actually have to be in the place to experience it. This picture actually cheats the viewer of depth of feild. The forest is much farther than what it seems to be in the pic.


Between two hillocks on which the caves are built flows a little stream. There are multiple caves built in this valley too. What you see is a stream of people playing and venturing about in this little stream. The late monsoons may be the reason why it is just a trickle.

The team tired, after walking for more than 8 kms, soaking the view.

Rock cut steps led us further up the hill where there were many more Viharas.


High up in the Sky


Joshua and John look down on the passers by.


The Entrance to a Vihara (quarters where the monks reside). There were many such viharas carved into the rocky mountainside. There are 100 caves in all out here...


This looked like a rock cut Ezy chair. Maybe something that the monks used to relax in. Winson, Serena and John chill on probably one of the best places ezy chairs, as you can see the whole valley from here.

Enoch walks up rock cut steps to get higher up the hill.

Archimedes

I was reading about Archimedes today. Actually it was link after link after link that I clicked that lead me to the same. It started of with reading about fluidized bed filters. After which I started reading something on 'venturi valves', that had a mention on the page, and the the 'Archimedes screw' was mentioned which finally lead me to the page of Archimedes the great. I have read about and heard about this fellow from a very young age, like most. But I distinctly remember reading something about him in 'Tinkle'. But Most of my memories were directly linked to the 'Eureka' episode, and nothing more. But on going through the wiki page on this person, I surely must say that few surpass his acheivements.

Following are some things Archimedes discovered/invented/defined:
1) The Golden Crown.
2) The Archimedes Screw.
3) The Archimedes heat ray.
4) Rigouros explanation on the Lever principle.
5) Used infitesimals in a way similar to modern calculus.
6) Many more things in maths that is difficult to list here.

I wont write much about him, as providing this Wiki Link should suffice. Go on, read it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archimedes