YELLOW STONE NATIONAL PARK

What to say about the trip to this National Park. We were planning to visit this place for almost 3 years and at last we made it now. Its kindo a triangle trip. Minneapolis to Yellowstone via Bozeman to Detroit (back to home). We avoided all the hurry burry stuffs and made it as a relaxed and enjoyable trip (lessons learned from previous mistakes). Yellow Stone... of course if you google it you can get lot of info about this national treasure. I say we were bit lucky, becoz seen all the climate changes during the 4 days trip.


To brief, this park is the first national park in United States located in an area which adjoining 3 states by its three entrance gates - North entrance 'Montana', south entrance 'Wyoming'and west entrance 'Idaho'. Why you access the south entrance again you need to cross a National park 'Grand Teton'. But what makes unique and most popular about this YELLOW STONE PARK from other parks. Of course it has specialty GEYSERS and HOT SPRINGS. Where ever you go in this park you could see the geysers in different sizes and different forms.

I never realized this till I touched the Grand Teton Park. If you google the map you could see that only the southern gate way stop separates both the parks. Once you crossed the gateway you will never see a single geyser or a hot spring in the Grand Teton Park. Yes, this park is also a classic destination for skiing, but can't find the uniqueness of the YS in any other parks. Do you believe, it spans an area of 3468 sq miles ie., 8980 km^2. I'm proud that we covered atleast 1/3 of the area and had a stop over in all the 4 entrances.

We almost went during the end of the season. We couldn't able to get food inside the park (I have no idea about summer). So need to pack food and water before entering the park.

DAY 1 - Fill the tank, grab a sandwich from subway and entered the Park through North Entrance. The First day they closed the North East connecting route. So we made a start from north towards west and by the end of the day we covered almost all the sightseeing in that route and had a halt in a small town in the west entrance. Whole day weather was kind of chill near by 32F.

DAY 2 - Same as Filling the tank and bought some wraps from McD and started from the west entrance moved towards south. And covered both south way sight seeing and Grand Teton Park. The day started with warm in the morning, drizzling in the noon and pouring heavily by the end of 4PM. So we reached the Jackson Hole and stayed there. Even we saw a movie 'RED' there. Small town, small theater and a great movie. This town is the famous stopt in the winter for the winter sport activities.

DAY 3 - Started with the rain. For more adventure we took a different jungly route to enter the park, luckily could able to see Grizzly Bears. We forgot to pack food for lunch, so couldn't locate a shop and we were in the middle of a jungle. Roaming...roaming...roaming.... finally we found a small gas station with attached restaurant. You believe it or not we ordered for a cheese pizzaaaaaa. OMG!. At last by the end of noon with reached the south gate. By the same time it started with snowflakes. The gate keeper warned us with the route to be more cautious. We started with lot of prayers... but the snowfall became a firn in path, we were climbing the mountain and the evolution was in the range of 7600, no mobile phone coverage even to dial 911. Our prayers got stronger... Even in that situation, we took some pics :-) Our prayers got answered, while coming down it stopped and the route was bit clear. As usual started the sight seeing and covered the South East and by evening we reached the North gate and stayed in the Grainer.

DAY 4 - As usual filled the tank and grabbed a sandwich from subway and started the day. The weather was bit clear and warm. The North East route is a kind of wild life safari. Can see Coyote, Gray Wolf, Elk, Bison, etc... I could remember these animals only becoz we saw only those animals. Covered the north east and returned back to Bozeman in the evening.

Finally reached Detroit on the 5th day afternoon 2.00pm

YELLOW STONE NATIONAL PARK IS A MUST SEE PLACE IN THE EARTH AT LEAST ONCE IN A LIFE TIME. There is a myth that each year the landscape is changing in that park becoz of its geothermal area. THE WHOLE PARK IS A NATIONAL TREASURE TO BE PRESERVED.

Famous Quotes on India (by non-Indians)

• Albert Einstein said: We owe a lot to the Indians, who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been made.

• Mark Twain said: India is, the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grand mother of tradition. Our most valuable and most instructive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India only.

• French scholar Romain Rolland said: If there is one place on the face of earth where all the dreams of living men have found a home from the very earliest days when man began the dream of existence, it is India.

• Hu Shih, former Ambassador of China to USA said: India conquered and dominated China culturally for 20 centuries without ever having to send a single soldier across her border.

Nathuram Godse's Speech

When I recently saw a movie "NINE HOURS TO RAMA" DIRECTED BY MARK ROBSON, had a feeling to know much about Godse. A great nation lover but whose sacrifice was fully disputed and suppressed from the history by the political hands. After reading an article about his speech I whole heartedly saluted him and want to share that provoken speech to all of you wh misunderstood his action of assassination.

Godse's defense speech in court (a must read)

This is the speech given by Nathuram Godse in the court when he was tried for the murder of Mahatma Gandhi

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Born in a devotional Brahmin family, I instinctively came to revere Hindu religion, Hindu history and Hindu culture. I had, therefore, been intensely proud of Hinduism as a whole. As I grew up I developed a tendency to free thinking unfettered by any superstitious allegiance to any isms, political or religious. That is why I worked actively for the eradication of untouchability and the caste system based on birth alone. I openly joined anti-caste movements and maintained that all Hindus were of equal status as to rights, social and religious and should be considered high or low on merit alone and not through the accident of birth in a particular caste or profession. I used publicly to take part in organized anti-caste dinners in which thousands of Hindus, Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas, Chamars and Bhangis participated. We broke the caste rules and dined in the company of each other.

I have read the speeches and writings of Dadabhai Nairoji, Vivekanand, Gokhale, Tilak, along with the books of ancient and modern history of India and some prominent countries like England, France, America and' Russia. Moreover I studied the tenets of Socialism and Marxism. But above all I studied very closely whatever Veer Savarkar and Gandhiji had written and spoken, as to my mind these two ideologies have contributed more to the moulding of the thought and action of the Indian people during the last thirty years or so, than any other single factor has done.

All this reading and thinking led me to believe it was my first duty to serve Hindudom and Hindus both as a patriot and as a world citizen. To secure the freedom and to safeguard the just interests of some thirty crores (300 million) of Hindus would automatically constitute the freedom and the well being of all India, one fifth of human race. This conviction led me naturally to devote myself to the Hindu Sanghtanist ideology and programme, which alone, I came to believe, could win and preserve the national independence of Hindustan, my Motherland, and enable her to render true service to humanity as well.

Since the year 1920, that is, after the demise of Lokamanya Tilak, Gandhiji's influence in the Congress first increased and then became supreme. His activities for public awakening were phenomenal in their intensity and were reinforced by the slogan of truth and non-violence, which he paraded ostentatiously before the country. No sensible or enlightened person could object to those slogans. In fact there is nothing new or original in them. They are implicit in every constitutional public movement. But it is nothing but a mere dream if you imagine that the bulk of mankind is, or can ever become, capable of scrupulous adherence to these lofty principles in its normal life from day to day. In fact, honour, duty and love of one's own kith and kin and country might often compel us to disregard non-violence and to use force. I could never conceive that an armed resistance to an aggression is unjust. I would consider it a religious and moral duty to resist and, if possible, to overpower such an enemy by use of force. [In the Ramayana] Rama killed Ravana in a tumultuous fight and relieved Sita. [In the Mahabharata], Krishna killed Kansa to end his wickedness; and Arjuna had to fight and slay quite a number of his friends and relations including the revered Bhishma because the latter was on the side of the aggressor. It is my firm belief that in dubbing Rama, Krishna and Arjuna as guilty of violence, the Mahatma betrayed a total ignorance of the springs of human action.

In more recent history, it was the heroic fight put up by Chhatrapati Shivaji that first checked and eventually destroyed the Muslim tyranny in India. It was absolutely essentially for Shivaji to overpower and kill an aggressive Afzal Khan, failing which he would have lost his own life. In condemning history's towering warriors like Shivaji, Rana Pratap and Guru Gobind Singh as misguided patriots, Gandhiji has merely exposed his self-conceit. He was, paradoxical, as it may appear, a violent pacifist who brought untold calamities on the country in the name of truth and non-violence, while Rana Pratap, Shivaji and the Guru will remain enshrined in the hearts of their countrymen forever for the freedom they brought to them.

The accumulating provocation of thirty-two years, culminating in his last pro-Muslim fast, at last goaded me to the conclusion that the existence of Gandhi should be brought to an end immediately. Gandhi had done very well in South Africa to uphold the rights and well being of the Indian community there. But when he finally returned to India he developed a subjective mentality under which he alone was to be the final judge of what was right or wrong. If the country wanted his leadership, it had to accept his infallibility; if it did not, he would stand aloof from the Congress and carry on his own way. Against such an attitude there can be no halfway house. Either Congress had to surrender its will to his and had to be content with playing second fiddle to all his eccentricity, whimsicality, metaphysics and primitive vision, or it had to carry on without him. He alone was the Judge of everyone and everything; he was the master brain guiding the civil disobedience movement; no other could know the technique of that movement. He alone knew when to begin and when to withdraw it. The movement might succeed or fail, it might bring untold disaster and political reverses but that could make no difference to the Mahatma's infallibility. 'A Satyagrahi can never fail' was his formula for declaring his own infallibility and nobody except himself knew what a Satyagrahi is.

Thus, the Mahatma became the judge and jury in his own cause. These childish insanities and obstinacies, coupled with a most severe austerity of life, ceaseless work and lofty character made Gandhi formidable and irresistible. Many people thought that his politics were irrational but they had either to withdraw from the Congress or place their intelligence at his feet to do with, as he liked. In a position of such absolute irresponsibility Gandhi was guilty of blunder after blunder, failure after failure, disaster after disaster.

Gandhi's pro-Muslim policy is blatantly in his perverse attitude on the question of the national language of India. It is quite obvious that Hindi has the most prior claim to be accepted as the premier language. In the beginning of his career in India, Gandhi gave a great impetus to Hindi but as he found that the Muslims did not like it, he became a champion of what is called Hindustani. Everybody in India knows that there is no language called Hindustani; it has no grammar; it has no vocabulary. It is a mere dialect; it is spoken, but not written. It is a bastard tongue and crossbreed between Hindi and Urdu, and not even the Mahatma's sophistry could make it popular. But in his desire to please the Muslims he insisted that Hindustani alone should be the national language of India. His blind followers, of course, supported him and the so-called hybrid language began to be used. The charm and purity of the Hindi language was to be prostituted to please the Muslims. All his experiments were at the expense of the Hindus.

From August 1946 onwards the private armies of the Muslim League began a massacre of the Hindus. The then Viceroy, Lord Wavell, though distressed at what was happening, would not use his powers under the Government of India Act of 1935 to prevent the rape, murder and arson. The Hindu blood began to flow from Bengal to Karachi with some retaliation by the Hindus. The Interim Government formed in September was sabotaged by its Muslim League members right from its inception, but the more they became disloyal and treasonable to the government of which they were a part, the greater was Gandhi's infatuation for them. Lord Wavell had to resign as he could not bring about a settlement and he was succeeded by Lord Mountbatten. King Log was followed by King Stork.

The Congress, which had boasted of its nationalism and socialism, secretly accepted Pakistan literally at the point of the bayonet and abjectly surrendered to Jinnah. India was vivisected and one-third of the Indian territory became foreign land to us from August 15, 1947. Lord Mountbatten came to be described in Congress circles as the greatest Viceroy and Governor-General this country ever had. The official date for handing over power was fixed for June 30, 1948, but Mountbatten with his ruthless surgery gave us a gift of vivisected India ten months in advance. This is what Gandhi had achieved after thirty years of undisputed dictatorship and this is what Congress party calls 'freedom' and 'peaceful transfer of power'. The Hindu-Muslim unity bubble was finally burst and a theocratic state was established with the consent of Nehru and his crowd and they have called 'freedom won by them with sacrifice' - whose sacrifice? When top leaders of Congress, with the consent of Gandhi, divided and tore the country - which we consider a deity of worship - my mind was filled with direful anger.

One of the conditions imposed by Gandhi for his breaking of the fast unto death related to the mosques in Delhi occupied by the Hindu refugees. But when Hindus in Pakistan were subjected to violent attacks he did not so much as utter a single word to protest and censure the Pakistan Government or the Muslims concerned. Gandhi was shrewd enough to know that while undertaking a fast unto death, had he imposed for its break some condition on the Muslims in Pakistan, there would have been found hardly any Muslims who could have shown some grief if the fast had ended in his death. It was for this reason that he purposely avoided imposing any condition on the Muslims. He was fully aware of from the experience that Jinnah was not at all perturbed or influenced by his fast and the Muslim League hardly attached any value to the inner voice of Gandhi.

Gandhi is being referred to as the Father of the Nation. But if that is so, he had failed his paternal duty inasmuch as he has acted very treacherously to the nation by his consenting to the partitioning of it. I stoutly maintain that Gandhi has failed in his duty. He has proved to be the Father of Pakistan. His inner-voice, his spiritual power and his doctrine of non-violence of which so much is made of, all crumbled before Jinnah's iron will and proved to be powerless.

Briefly speaking, I thought to myself and foresaw I shall be totally ruined, and the only thing I could expect from the people would be nothing but hatred and that I shall have lost all my honour, even more valuable than my life, if I were to kill Gandhiji. But at the same time I felt that the Indian politics in the absence of Gandhiji would surely be proved practical, able to retaliate, and would be powerful with armed forces. No doubt, my own future would be totally ruined, but the nation would be saved from the inroads of Pakistan. People may even call me and dub me as devoid of any sense or foolish, but the nation would be free to follow the course founded on the reason which I consider to be necessary for sound nation-building. After having fully considered the question, I took the final decision in the matter, but I did not speak about it to anyone whatsoever. I took courage in both my hands and I did fire the shots at Gandhiji on 30th January 1948, on the prayer-grounds of Birla House.

I do say that my shots were fired at the person whose policy and action had brought rack and ruin and destruction to millions of Hindus. There was no legal machinery by which such an offender could be brought to book and for this reason I fired those fatal shots.

I bear no ill will towards anyone individually but I do say that I had no respect for the present government owing to their policy, which was unfairly favourable towards the Muslims. But at the same time I could clearly see that the policy was entirely due to the presence of Gandhi. I have to say with great regret that Prime Minister Nehru quite forgets that his preachings and deeds are at times at variances with each other when he talks about India as a secular state in season and out of season, because it is significant to note that Nehru has played a leading role in the establishment of the theocratic state of Pakistan, and his job was made easier by Gandhi's persistent policy of appeasement towards the Muslims.

I now stand before the court to accept the full share of my responsibility for what I have done and the judge would, of course, pass against me such orders of sentence as may be considered proper. But I would like to add that I do not desire any mercy to be shown to me, nor do I wish that anyone else should beg for mercy on my behalf. My confidence about the moral side of my action has not been shaken even by the criticism levelled against it on all sides. I have no doubt that honest writers of history will weigh my act and find the true value thereof some day in future.

-NATHURAM GODSE

RUPEE - New Symbol

The Ministry of India had organised a symbol design competition with a prize money of Rs 2.5 lakh with the condition that it should be applicable to the standard keyboard, be in the national language script or a visual representation and should represent the historical and cultural ethos of the country.


IIT post-graduate D.Udaya Kumar’s design has been chosen from among five shortlisted symbols and recommended it for Cabinet approval. The jury has given its verdict that the rupee will retain its Indian character with an international flavour. The basic aim of the new symbol is to provide Indian Rupee an international recognition to isolate the currency from the current abbreviation "Rs", which also used by neighboring countries like Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

Kumar’s symbol is an amalgam of the Devanagari ‘Ra’ and the Roman capital ‘R’ without the stem, very much in line with what Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had envisioned. “We intend to formalise a symbol for the Indian rupee which reflects and captures Indian ethos and culture,” Mukherjee said in his Budget speech this year.

Kumar's concept is based on the Tricolor and arithmetic equivalence and now he is going to join IIT Guwahati as a faculty member in the Department of Design.

SUNGLASSES - Designer Shades worth buying???

Summer is hot as usual. Started looking for a new shades this year. Was bit confused in a brand, whether to go with Ray-Ban or Bulgari. So I keep on comparing both of the brands. But asked myself whether expensive brands worth it to the cost? And how much better are they, really, than the 20$-30$ sunglasses which we could find in local shops....

When I read an article written by "Brett Arends", I was shocked... Because most of the sunglasses are made by the same company called: Luxottica Italian manufacturer – one of the biggest consumer companies that consumers have never heard of. Luxottica also makes sunglasses branded Burberry, Chanel, Polo Ralph Lauren, Paul Smith, Stella McCartney, Tiffany, Versace, Vogue, Persol, Miu Miu, Tory Burch and Donna Karan.

Luxottica also owns LensCrafters, Pearle Vision and Sunglass Hut. This is extreme vertical integration. The sales people helping you choose them and the people who design and make the glasses all work for the same company. Make of it what you will.

If you make your shades last for many years, that would be one thing. But who does that? The people who want designer items want the latest fashion each year. And then there are the pairs that get lost. Scratched as mostly as I do . And sat on. Personally, I have come to consider sunglasses a disposable item, and I suspect I am not alone. But who care dollars when its in the pocket till the next payment of credit card bill.

IPhone 4G Maniac

Source from The Wall Street Journal:

Consumer Reports said its tests show a hardware defect causes the iPhone 4 to lose reception when held a certain way, challenging Apple Inc.'s claims that the problem is rooted in software that can be easily fixed.

The product-quality watchdog said Monday it can't recommend the newest iPhone despite otherwise high marks, dinging a company that for many shoppers can do no wrong. It was the first time Consumer Reports has failed to give the thumbs up for an Apple phone.

Consumer Reports says it can not recommend the iPhone 4 based on its lab tests of the device in which the magazine found a reception problem with the smartphone. Niraj Sheeth & Eric Savitz discuss. Plus, 4G Phone Shortages and Google's App Inventor.

Apple redesigned the iPhone for this release, putting the antenna on the outside in a metal band running around the frame. But the unusual design puts the antenna in closer contact with hands and fingers, which antenna experts said makes it susceptible to signal problems.

Consumer Reports said it had tested other smartphones in its labs, including the previous iPhone 3GS model as well as the Palm Pre, and found none showed the same loss of signal as the iPhone 4.

"Our findings call into question the recent claim by Apple that the iPhone 4's signal-strength issues were largely an optical illusion caused by faulty software," Consumer Reports wrote in a blog post.

Apple didn't respond to requests for comment.

When early iPhone 4 buyers complained of signal issues, the company said reception will suffer when almost any cellphone is gripped in certain ways.

In an open letter to customers July 2, Apple said after an investigation into the reception issue, it had discovered a software problem that inflated readings of signal strength and promised to deliver a software fix.

"We have gone back to our labs and retested everything, and the results are the same— the iPhone 4's wireless performance is the best we have ever shipped," Apple said at the time.

Consumer Reports took some of the heat away from AT&T Inc.'s network, which has been criticized for dropped calls and not being able to adequately handle the load of data-guzzling iPhones.

"The tests also indicate that AT&T's network might not be the primary suspect in the iPhone 4's much-reported signal woes," the publication said.

AT&T declined to comment.

Negative reviews from Consumer Reports have forced companies to alter their products, but analysts said the signal problem hasn't thus far slowed demand for the iPhone 4.

The device has been in short supply since it went on sale June 24.

TIME - a dressmaker specializing in alterations

Coming back to blogging after a long time. Never say I was busy but never allotted much time to write. Last long weekend went for a long trip and one stop over was Pittsburg. Obviously to SV Temple. Here Im not going to write about the temple. I came across a situation, when sometimes I feel like a jerk. And this was one kind of that. Before entering temple I took my MIL for refreshment. But what we did was left our shoes out in the shoe stand and entered in. I was in total discomfort because of that. As one among many who concentrated much in hygiene stuffs.

Today when I was reading an article I read a saying by James Michener "If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay home". And I recalled an incident which make me realize how far I have changed these days... I was wondering whether time would change the thinking too???


During my under graduation went to Malmaruvathur temple by following all the temple customs and one among that was not wearing slippers for 10 days. With bare foot only roamed all around and never felt bad that time. When the day started from Madurai, Tamilnadu to Malmaruvathur and visa versa had lot of extrems and never hesitated a bit. Need to use public restrooms, walk on roads, market places. "Hygiene" would that word sparked in my mind that time - NEVER.

Time is a brisk wind, for each hour it brings something new... but who can understand and measure its sharp breath, its mystery and its design? Just travel in it.