Smiling Death

We witnessed strange phenomenon at Kapu beach . The dead fishes were spread all along the shoreline. Ubiquitous presence of dead Marines and seashells surprised us. Not sure what was the cause but we saw this for first time. May be something that always happen at this time of year. This fish was apparently smiling even after death. Hence the caption. Looked like holocaust though!

Washed away life

We also saw seashells strewed all along the shoreline. My nephew was engrossed in collecting those

It's not only the fish which demised. There were turtles too. Is it turtle?

And not everyone was smiling.

The Mysore Cafe - Chitradurga

One of the eminent Veg restaurants in Chitradurga. On our way to Kundapura, we halted here for short breakfast break. The taste of food is impeccable :-) and also tea/coffee. The ambiance is fantastic. They serve mainly south Indian breakfast. I am not sure if they serve lunch or North Indian in anytime of the day since our visit was around 8AM. The restaurant situated right beside the National Highway connecting Pune towards Davanagere side. Rest rooms are located outside the restaurant and hence there is no need to enter the hotel for those activities. Here are pictures for memory.

Exterior View

Interior View

My opinions are purely personal and honestly I am not ambassador of restaurant :-)

Fireworks over sky

08 Nov 2018,

It's Deepawali celebration in India. The crackers are bursting everywhere. The rockets are creating colorful sparkles during night sky. Even nature is aware of the festival of lights. The cirrus clouds which were glued to the sky throughout the day creating a uncanny weather concluded with colorful display over the troposphere. I was in Rachenahalli lake to behold this familiar pattern today and it was worth spending the time. Hope you enjoy these stages of color burst!

Let's begin the chronicle!

It all started with gradual illumination.

It's almost towards peak

Yes the maximum enthusiasm is here. Probably those fishermen returned expecting a storm.

And the colors are magnificent and formidable. There were quite number of people snapping this colorful moment. The entire region was engulfed by intense red hue

And it's time to conclude. The skies finally cooled off thus ending enchanting fireworks without any concussion.

Cumulonimbus clouds over Chikka-Madhure

03 Nov 2018,

I was off to Chikka-Madhure for a revisit. On the auspicious day of Saturday, I sought blessings of Lord Shani and Lord Hanuman. It has been long time since the visit and this Saturday time was ripe to move the wheel. At around 12:30 PM, I started my journey and rode towards Chikka-Madhure. Barring the traffic hurdle at Yelahanka, it was smooth ride till Chikka-Madhure.

The North East monsoon has commenced in mainland of TamilNadu and the consequently, the clouds are showing up again over the skies of Bangalore and its vicinity. It rained briefly too at Rajanukunte. The weather is turning capricious every week with burning heat during mid-day and chilly weather at night. That was how I felt today as well. It was hot during my departure and chilly on return.

As I rode past Rajanakunte, the memories mirrored. I ruminated my summer ride along this beautiful bucolic stretch and it was equally beautiful even now. However, the water bodies have considerably dried owing to the lack of monsoon vigor as compared to previous year. I could see the ground in Chikka Madhure lake which substantiates the paucity of rains. Despite the weaker monsoon, there was no dearth of greenery throughout the stretch.

After having darshan of Lord Saturn, I had sumptuous meal comprising of Sooji payasam, puliyogare, rice-sambar and buttermilk. The temple authorities serve free meals to devotees from 9AM to 4PM everyday. I guess the variety is because of Saturday. Not sure, if same pattern of items repeated on other days. Nevertheless, the ravenous rider was beaming after scrumptious meal. The log gap from 9:30AM to 3:00PM had crossed the tummy threshold and the meals were blessings. The lunch home incorporates buffet system and the individuals have to clean the plate on their own. That was not problem for me anyways.

Post the exit from lunch home, the wide cumulonimbus clouds caught my attention. For a while, I thought it would precipitate into brief thunderstorm. That did not happen though, rather the clouds broke apart. Before the clouds disintegrated, I took few snaps to quench my photography thirst.

Cumulonimbus clouds which triggered hope of rain

Close-up of the clouds

Nearly after a break of 90 mins, I began return journey towards home. I captured few rainbow shots nearby hanuman temple. The rainbow was faint but noticeable to camera as well.

That faint rainbow

Looks as if aeroplane is piercing the rainbow

Hanuman temple

How can I forget those delectable Laddus :-). Last time I bought only one Laddu but this time I bought two of them. That aroma & taste is existent even now. Not to mention, the price has not changed either.

I reached home comfortably at 6:30PM. I had a sachet of instant coffee which was given by a shopkeeper in exchange for Rs.2/- change. This is dirty business tactic prevalent all over Bangalore. The reason is can't provide change for all and businesses are not ready to accept cards to evade taxes. Anyways, I brewed coffee to kill the chill for a while.

Instant coffee, not as delicious as filter coffee.

On closing note, my obeisance to Lord Shani and Lord Hanuman. Lord Shani is believed to be the karmadhipati in Hindu mythology. Let his harsh teachings lead us to path of wisdom.

I was disappointed to see the slacking pace of renovation. Not sure, if it was due to lack of fund. It apparently seemed to be paused since my last visit.

Chikka madhure temple hopefully sees complete makeover soon!

Jai Hanuman

Nature stroll along hinterland of Souparnika river

The days are tough in office nowadays. Somehow, I had an occasion in wife's house to escape from work and refresh in rural serenity. It would be misleading to use the term 'escape' rather it was 'relaxation' from work. The exigency never decreases in work and its onus on individuals to balance by negotiating leave plans. It was worth to go off the hook for 5 days enjoying in nature, rejoicing with kids and celebrating the ceremonies. Astonishing to notice was the time flying in jiffy. I still feel to have passed just 5 mins :-).

Emotions apart, after a hectic day of celebrating 60th birth day of my father-in-law, it was time for celebrating with nature under the hot sun. For a change, we chose odd part of the day purposefully since everybody would be dispersing by evening. It was impromptu decision made by brother of father-in-law to have jaunt along the banks of beautiful souparnika. We totaling three altogether, set out for the nature stroll despite the scorching sun and humid weather. Well the winter is yet to set in coastal karnataka, but I enjoy the humid weather in rural parts of coast. It keeps you free from sluggishness and away from cold diseases.

Meanwhile, we don't have winter yet. Still stray rains are pounding the region with heavy showers restricted to night.  Coast enjoys uniform temperature throughout the year but night times it gets little colder during months of winter. This season looks to be more humid than usual. Even during night, we have heavy perspiration streaming down the body. A mug full of water is insufficient to maintain water level in body!

We started off towards unknown destination, crossed our usual river bank spot, crossed the royal shrimp harvest camps and reached nearby dam. The sky was azure at one side while in contrast was hazy near the trajectory of Sun. The azure part of sky was marvelously lit by blazing sun, exposing the beauty of swaying palms, meandering river and the life saving mangroves. Conversely, dreary skies were witnessed along the trajectory of Sun. Moreover, the presence of cirrus cloud accentuated the haze over the region. Eventually, thwarting the despair and remembering an old adage "Make most out of less", the region under the azure sky was enough to quench the photography thirst :-).

We were strolling Northwards which was perfect for taking photos since the trajectory of Sun drift towards south in Northern hemisphere during winter. Both myself and DSLR were eager to shoot that clearer skies. Thanks to rains, the skies are azure and earth is verdant! I only grabbed periodic shots amidst the chit-chat. We had productive discussions on trending technologies adding to enthusiasm of our nature stroll.

Fishermen are vendors and some grab enough to prepare curry for lunch (fresh one!)

Thats conclusion of enticing visual tales from our nature stroll along the Souparnika river hinterland (possibly neverland) near Kundapura. Every moment was joyous despite the scorching sun and humid weather of coast (far better than the vociferous city!). A strenuous stroll of nearly 10kms exposed the wonders of the backwater region and its hidden beauty. We discovered the prolific charm of nature with profuse perspiration. I am obliged to enthusiasm of dear relatives, without them the memorable stroll would have been impractical to cherish and realize. Probably evening hours would have been ideal time to walk around the region but hardly squeezed time for the stroll. Anyways the azure skies were enough to spruce up the elegance of benevolent nature despite the torching hydrogen star. We walked over dam, royal fishing camps, talked to locals and enjoyed with nature. The conglomeration of swaying palms, the calm river, the life-saving mangroves and azure sky is irresistible to landscape aficionado! That splendid tonal contrast between green vegetation and azure sky is enchanting to both eyes and camera! Apart from relishing the beauty of nature, we had productive talk as well. It is not full stop, rather semicolon for now!

The distance measured was around 8-9 kms from fitbit gadget+app. That's great amount of workout on a tropical land. The stroll concluded with guzzling of tasty fresh lime juice prepared by father-in-law!

ಹಾಗೆ ಸುಮ್ಮನೆ - ದೀಪಾವಳಿ ಊಹಾಪೋಹ

೨೦೧೭ ರ ದೀಪಾವಳಿ ಸಮಯ

ಹೌದು ದೀಪಾವಳಿಯೆಂದರೆ ಎಲ್ಲರ ಮನೆಯಲ್ಲೂ ದೀಪ. ಹಬ್ಬವೆಂದರೆ ಎಲ್ಲವೂ ಹೊಸತು. ಜೊತೆಗೆ ಸಿಹಿತಿಂಡಿ ಕೂಡಾ. ದೀಪಾವಳಿಯಂದು ಹೂವು, ಹಣ್ಣು, ತರಕಾರಿ ಬೆಲೆ ಗಗನಕ್ಕೇರುವುದು ಮಾಮೂಲು. ಬೀನ್ಸ್ ೧೫೦ ದಾಟುವುದಿದೆ, ಕೊತ್ತಂಬರಿ ಸೊಪ್ಪು ಒಂದು ಕಟ್ಟು ೪೦ ರುಪಾಯಿ ಮುಟ್ಟಿದೆ. ಹೀಗೆ ಹತ್ತಾರು ಉದಾಹರಣೆಗಳನ್ನು ನೀಡಬಹುದು. ಪತ್ರಿಕೆಯವರಿಗೆ ತುಂಬಾ ಸಂತೋಷದ ವಿಷಯ ಏಕೆಂದರೆ ಮೋದಿಯನ್ನು ಯದ್ವಾ-ತದ್ವಾ ಹಿಯಾಳಿಸಬಹುದು. ಅವರಿಗೇನೂ ಪಾಯಿಖಾನೆ ಮಾಡಲು ನೀರು ಖಾಲಿಯಾದರೂ ಮೋದಿಯನ್ನು ದೂರುತ್ತಾರೆ.

ಪತ್ರಿಕೆಗಳ ವಿಷಯ ಬಿಡೋಣ. ೨೦೧೭ ರಲ್ಲಿ ದಕ್ಷಿಣ ಒಳನಾಡಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಮುಂಗಾರು ಭರ್ಜರಿಯಾಗಿ ಸುರಿದಿದೆ. ಸುಮಾರು ದಿನ ಮಳೆ ಬಂದ ಕಾರಣ ತರಕಾರಿ ಎಲ್ಲಾ ಕೊಳೆತು ಇಷ್ಟೊಂದು ದರ ಹೆಚ್ಚಾಗಿದೆ ಎಂಬುದು ನನ್ನ ಊಹೆಯಾಗಿತ್ತು. ಸರಿ ಒಂದು ದಿನ ನಮ್ಮ ತರಕಾರಿ ಅಂಗಡಿಯವನ ಬಳಿ ವಿಚಾರಿಸಿದಾಗ ನನ್ನ ತಪ್ಪು ಅರಿವಾಯಿತು. ಅವನ ಹೇಳಿದ ಕಾರಣ ಕೂಡಾ ಅರ್ಥಪೂರ್ಣವಾಗಿತ್ತು. ಪೂರೈಕೆ ಕಡಿಮೆಯಾಗಿದ್ದಕ್ಕೆ ದರ ಹೆಚ್ಚಾಗಿದ್ದು. ಪೂರೈಕೆ ಯಾಕೆ ಕಡಿಮೆಯಾಗಿದ್ದು ಅಂದರೆ, ಕೆಲಸಗಾರರು ಹಬ್ಬಕ್ಕೆಂದು ರಜೆ ಹಾಕಿದ್ದರಿಂದ. ಇದರಿಂದ ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ ದಿನ ದರ ಹೆಚ್ಚಿದಂತೆ ಕಾಣುತ್ತದೆ. ಹೌದು ಎಲ್ಲರೂ ಹಬ್ಬ ಆಚರಿಸಬೇಕು ಆಗಲೇ ಸಂಭ್ರಮ.

ನನ್ನ ಊಹಾಪೋಹಕ್ಕೆ ಅಂದೇ ತೆರೆಬಿದ್ದಿತ್ತು. ರಸ್ತೆ ಹಾಳಾಗುವುದಕ್ಕೆ ಸರಕಾರಗಳು ಮಳೆಗೆ ಬೈದಂತೆ, ನಮ್ಮ ನ್ಯಾಯಲಯಗಳು ದೀಪಾವಳಿಯಿಂದ ಮಾತ್ರ ಮಾಲಿನ್ಯವಾಗುತ್ತದೆಂಬ ತೀರ್ಪು ಕೊಟ್ಟಂತೆ, ನಮ್ಮ ಕೆಲ ಸರಕಾರಗಳು ಒಂದೇ ಧರ್ಮವನ್ನು ತರಾಟೆಗೆ ತೆಗೆದುಕೊಂಡಂತೆ, ಮಾಧ್ಯಮಗಳು ಮೋದಿಯ ತಪ್ಪನ್ನು ಮಾತ್ರ ಬಿತ್ತರಿಸಿದಂತೆ, ನನ್ನ ಊಹೆ ಕೂಡಾ ಸುಮ್ಮನೆ ಭರ್ಜರಿ ಮುಂಗಾರಿನ ಕಡೆ ಬೊಟ್ಟು ಮಾಡಿತ್ತು. ನನಗೆ ಮುಂಗಾರು ಅಂದರೆ ಬಹಳ ಪ್ರೀತಿ ಮತ್ತು ನನ್ನ ಊಹೆ ಅದನ್ನು ವಿರೋಧಿಸುವಂತಿತ್ತು. ಏನೇ ಆಗಲಿ ಥಟ್ ಎಂದು ನಿರ್ಧಾರಕ್ಕೆ  ಬರುವ ಮುನ್ನ ಸಾಕಷ್ಟು ಆಲೋಚಿಸುವುದು ಮುಖ್ಯ ಅಂತ ಕಂಡುಕೊಂಡೆ

AMIRTHAA Table Top Wet Grinder

I recently purchased this product from Amazon and here is short review of the Wet Grinder. I am not professional reviewer and findings are purely based on minimal considerations. Before you regard this review as your final destination of buying product (I will be glad if you consider ;-)), pay attention to other reviewers as well. I too ordered based on the buyer reviews in amazon site. So lets begin!

This review is unbiased and I have no affiliation towards the seller/company.

Intention of buying new one:

(i) Old grinder motor lost its energy. We had manually jostle its drum for few minutes to compensate the lack of vigor.

(ii) Repairs are not guaranteed to last long since it has completed almost 8 yrs of service. That may not seem too high but products nowadays are prone to early retiral.

OK, let's have sombre beginning. The product was ordered on 25th of Jan and expected to be delivered on 30th Jan. I was happy with delivery date since I had leave plans till 29th Jan. Unfortunately, the item was shipped in jiffy and product was out for delivery on 27th Jan. I was nowhere happy. I did not want the item to be received by security personnel since it was delicate. Sometimes on time delivery is what we expect and amazon should have an option in their site for this. After scouting Google for customer care contact, I finally managed to converse with customer care representative. The product delivery was successfully deferred to 30th Jan. Believe me, the customer care of amazon is excellent in every aspect with tangible actions and courteous crew. This one thing I admire a lot and probably enabled them to thrive in e-commerce space. Anyways 30th Jan arrived but item did not :D. I was frantically calling and  pestering customer care for the delivery and at last 3rd Feb 10PM, I received it. . Not to mention, the amount of grieve that lasted for 5 days. Phew.. Amazon has large delivery orders. Such inordinate orders would have delayed the item or was it lost? Nevertheless, the product is at the door step and its time to unpack :D.

The product is relatively expensive as compared to other brands. It costs Rs.6490/- with all discounts applied.  I don't believe in discounts, after all it's a marketing tactic. Ideally, higher the product price, higher should be the quality, durability and tenacity of the system. Ironically, that's not true in real world case. Higher the price, higher is the fragility of the product. It carries excessive delicate instructions to handle them too!

As mentioned in prologue, the product was bought just on the basis of motor. The wet grinder with 2L capacity comes with 2 year warranty on overall grinder and 5 years solely on motor. It's time to officially start review process!

Packaging:

As always, the packaging was sturdy and perfectly sealed with required cushioning. The bubble wraps, thermocol and cushions kept the product intact. The  outer part was tightened with straps and solution tapes. The box was neatly labeled for meticulous handling. No problems with packaging at all. All you need a pinch of patience to unpack the product cleanly :D.

The quasi look:

The consignment comes with vendor bill and product booklet. The product booklet has warranty card attached and is duly signed by vendor but not sealed. I believe, the bill will suffice for any repairs. The product does not include coconut scrapers and kneader.

Apparently, the product looks great.

Here is list of pros and cons.

Pros

-- The motor part is completely sealed from the drum (see figure). Hence possibility of liquid substance entering the motor unit on the run is feeble.

-- The motor unit has ventilation to control motor temperature.

-- The grinding stones seemed to great strength. The grinder could produce fine batter within 30 mins.

Cons

-- The lamenting part is the poor quality plastics. The cover of grinder is delicate and prone to early breakage. The plastics inside the drum also are of poor quality and seemed delicate. The plastic will need fragile handling. Eventually not as terrible.

-- No spatula provided.

-- One more observation from wife was that the ground clearance of motor unit is thin. Not sure if it is intended or really disadvantageous.

Grinding quality:

Ultimately this is what matters. The company claims to be No.1 is this segment but as end user, expectation is finely grind batter.  Here the grinding stones and the motor has primary role. As a male, I know only to grind for Neeru dose, Urud dose and Idly batter. So lets look at each one of them.


Neer dose

The neer dose grinding was impressive and smooth. It resulted in smooth dose as well. However few grains settled at the bottom at the end of grinding. This may be due to the excess water I poured while grinding. The trick for soft grinding of neer dose is pour incremental water and grind as thick as possible. I was joyous with end result and enjoyed the tasty dose with butter.

Idly

I had misconception that the grinding stone and the base stone of drum lacked sufficient abrasion. I was proved wrong as the Urud batter smoothened more than expected and finely grind batter was ready for the overnight fermentation. I had sumptuous idly next day with unusual humid weather resulted in perfect fermentation :-)

Urud dose:

This is something I call toughest since both Urud dal and dosa rice are mixed together (I don't have patience to grind them separately). The true strength is determined in the process. If this combination does not work, I forthright declare that modern equipments are losing strength. My older grinder used to grind seamlessly when it had strength. I was hoping similar or better results here and believe me, the grinder did not belittle my hopes. The batter was smooth more than my expectations. That's the potential of motor and grinding unit. The urud dal and dosa rice were grind to soft batter with energy of the motor. Not even single grain of rice was settled at the bottom. The entire cereals were grind uniformly and end result was one of the finest batter I had ever seen in my experience.

One general observation is the drum on spinning spits out batter quite early. This may be attributed to power of motor. Its annoying to see the batter escaping even the lid :(.

Power consumption:

I did not measure!

Overall:

It's really an excellent buy. I would rate it 4.5 out of 5 due to lack of spatula. Despite the overall performance dwarfing the absence of spatula, it was must considering the unit price.  The motor unit heats up after 30 mins of workout. Hopefully this is not major concern.