Domestic Airlines tax increase

The prices of domestic airline's tax have again increased from the start of December. Now one has to pay Rs 2025 as tax for domestic flights. This rise in prices have been done gradually over a period of time. In 2006 one used to pay in 3 digits and by start of 2007 the prices went into 4 digits. If this continues one has to be ready to pay an increase in airline tax every 2-3 months. The best reasons either the government or the airlines justify for the increase is the surcharge on the fuel, construction of new airports or expansion of existing ones.

Long break...

It's been around 4 months since I last posted. It could be that I was busy with a lot of things on my mind or just the plain old laziness getting to me. I am pretty sure that the latter is always been the case with me. This last quarter of 2007 has really made me lazy. I had a lot that I wanted to post but kept on letting it go. Any how, I hope with the start of the new year I will be able to keep posting. Now I am getting redundant with the message I am trying to convey.

Kung Fu Fighting

This is a very old song which I really like. The singer's name is Carl Douglas and this song was released in 1974. This song hit number 1 at that time. This song has appeared in a lot of movies for example Shaolin Soccer, Epic Movie, Beverly Hills Ninja and the most recent being Rush Hour 3. The song 'Kung Fu Fighting' had been inspired when Carl Douglas had seen a Kung Fu movie, and had attended a Jazz concert and also was having side-effects of pain killers as he had a foot injury. Another interesting fact about this song is that it was produced by Biddu Appaiah.

Biddu Appaiah is associated with lot of songs and artists. Artists like Carl Douglas and Tina Charles started off their career with him. Biddu gained lot of fame in India with the release of the movie Qurbani in 1979. He had produced a song with a new singer, Nazia Hassan who was only 15 and had sung the hit song 'Aap Jaisa Koi' and 'Laila o Laila' for the movie Qurbani. Even after these accomplishments, he brought forth Alisha Chinoy in 1995 with the hit song 'Made in India'.

Airline taxes

Nowadays everyone uses airlines either to cut on their travel time or due to the prices closeness of second/third class air-conditioned compartments of the Indian railways. This is why the domestic air sector in India is booming. Now due to the large varieties of airlines available the price competition has also become fierce. Due to these, tickets are coming cheap. Ofcourse that is what the advertisements show. Tickets for Zero, 99, 199, 299 etc.. The catch part is the taxes that are paid at the time of purchase of the ticket. Now these prices have risen a lot in the past few years. Just starting this month the tax was increased by Rs 150. Anyways, let me show you how the break-up of the taxes take place. For each ticket one purchases for a journey, the tax collected are divided as follow:

• Passenger Service fee: Rs 225.
• Fuel Surcharge: Rs 1100 (This got increased from 950 since August 2007).
• Transaction surcharge: Rs 100.
• Congestion fee: Rs 150.

Now donot get misled by the word 'Taxes'. People in general will consider that taxes are collected by the government. But in this case, except for the Rs 225 for the passenger service fee which is taken by the Airport Authority of India (AAI), the rest is taken by the airlines. The government still charges 0.62% on the base fare of the ticket. That is if the base fare is Rs 100 then the government gets 62 Paise. Anyways, the one of the reason what the airlines give for the so called taxes are that the Jet Fuel prices are high so Fuel Surcharge is increased. The above break up when added will come to Rs 1575.

When we take the same tax's price list to the International sector, we get the amounts roughly Rs 3600+. Here we have to consider that the charges put by different countries, both the source and destination and also the airports at both places. That is why I have to be mentally prepared before purchasing any ticket after looking at all the awesome dirt cheap prices different airlines offer. So this is what flying is all about.

Directional Signboard!

We see signboards everyday at every corner when we are moving around. Traffic signs, address signs, construction signs and many others are put up all around us. We come across it on a daily basis and some catch our eyes. Here is one which I saw on my way to a friend's house. This is an address sign which let's people know that the particular place is in that direction. This sign belongs to a Gym called Talwalkars. I am not a gym member but looking at the sign really gives me a good laugh. This idea was really innovatively taken from the road construction symbol - Road Construction Ahead. Just for information sake, the sign here says AHEAD while the arrow shows the right hand direction.

Blazing Red Bike

This post will be more of a show than write. The pictures that are displayed here was taken by me when I was visiting a restaurant. Ofcourse, the pictures are of a bike outside in a service station next to the restaurant. This bike was getting serviced, but looking at it just made me click a picture of it. It is a really good looking bike. It's red colour is an eye catcher, but even the design of skulls along with the red colour give it a beautiful look. Just take a moment to look at it and take a deep breath. I have seriously no idea what are the features of the bike like what CC is the engine and how much Horse Power it produces. So I cannot provide any technical information.

Airport TV Service

When returning from Delhi, I had to check into the domestic departure terminal. My check-in counter was supposed to open in sometime, so I has some time to kill. I wanted to check for the updates on the flight status, so went to one of these TVs. Now since it is Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport, the TV installed is a Samsung Plasma screen TV (I think it is a 32 inch). There was no information available due to some access problems. But I know that for the 1 hour and above I spent there, I never saw it once functioning properly like displaying flight status. If that was not enough, the TV was being accompanied by 2 pigeons sitting over it. At one point, the pigeons flew above me and their droppings missed me by a small distance while I was seated waiting for my counter to be open. I am pretty sure that AAI (Airport Authority of India) has been working very hard in expanding the IGI airport for the 2010 Commonwealth Games that they miss these small things.

Rush Hour 3

It is really nice to see a movie in the opening weekend in a theatre (PVR Cinemas - Forum, Bangalore). This is a usual comedy that Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker bring to us. The story line is not that strong but the comedy by the duo is enough to keep the people glued to the seat until the end credits. There is not much to write about it. I would consider this as a proper sequel to Rush Hour 1 and Rush Hour 2. This movie doesnot give much highlight to the other cast members but they all do contribute to the action and comedy in the movie. Even the sequences in and around the Eiffel tower in Paris are really well portrayed. It is really worth watching for the comedy as it keeps you laughing throughout.

Indigo Air

My latest journey took me to NCR (National Capital Region : Delhi) from Bangalore and back. For this trip I chose Indigo Airlines as it suited both - time of travel and my pocket. The prices are reasonable when compared with other low cost airlines. I was able to book the ticket 2 days before my flight. So I guess everything was pretty much convenient. As usual one should check into the airport with their luggage atleast an hour before their flight. But in my case I needed 2 hours before my flight as two things are important for Bangalore's public. One, you cannot trust the traffic and second, the amount of people that show up at Bangalore's HAL airport.

Anyways, the luggage limit that Indigo permit for travel is 8kgs hand luggage and 20kg check-in luggage. The only thing was that my flight was delayed by 25 minutes from Bangalore as the incoming flight was late. The funny thing is that the same kind of delay happened from Delhi but the a delay time was 45 minutes. Now the fun part, as usual the flight provides water on the house while the other eatables come for a cost. Example, Vegetarian and Non-veg sandwich are Rs 100, Soft drink cans for Rs 25, Freshly Baked cookies (2 pieces) for Rs 20 (by the way this is the cheapest thing available). All the fleet of Indigo Air are new Airbus 320 planes. There are total of 6 crew members on each flight: 2 Pilots and 4 Air Hostesses.

Attestation of academic docs.

Foreign countries do not recognise any of the degrees of India. So the degrees need to be attested by the government of India. Of course the departments responsible for these are as follows.

STEP 1: The academic degree needs to be attested by the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry (In other words, this is also the ministry of education). This particular ministry has all the information needed to know whether a college or university is authentic or not. Therefore their attestation is needed on the academic degree (of course on the back - if the degree is laminated then the lamination on the back should be removed. Get professional help). HRD attestation centres are available in most of the state capitals. The list of centres can be downloaded from the HRD link below. Also an application form is needed to be submitted with the academic degree, this also can be downloaded from the link below. Time required for attestation: roughly an hour or more depending on the centres load. Also the charge for this is only Rs 50 as one needs to make an Indian Postal Order for Rs 50 and submit with the document.
Click HERE for downloading attestation related documents from HRD website (One needs PDF reader).

STEP 2: After getting the HRD attestation, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) needs to attest the academic degree. This is because any foreign related Embassy in India recognises any document attested by the MEA as they are in direct contact with each other. Of course the Embassies verify the attested document with the MEA office. This attestation is done only in Delhi at Patiala House near India Gate. Time period for attestation: One can collect it in one hour after submission. No charges for this as it is a compulsory step after HRD attestation.

STEP 3: After the MEA attestation, one can submit the documents with the respective Embassy depending upon their submission time and collection time. Some Embassies collect in morning hours and return in the afternoons or even take a couple of days to return the academic document. Charges for the attestation varies from Embassy to Embassy. All the embassies are situated at Delhi in Chanakyapuri area.

The whole attestation process is not a lengthy one but then again we are talking about Indian government officials. Anyway, the documents that need to be carried with one to the HRD ministry attestation centre is the Academic Degree, Cumulative Marksheet (or Individual marksheet if cumulative is not there) and the Passport. Xerox/Photocopies of the above three documents should be submitted with the application form. The passport will be instantly returned after verifying with the copy. So no submission of the passport. The academic degree and cumulative marsheet will be returned within the hour. For MEA, the academic degree needs to be only submitted for attestation, but one can carry the cumulative marksheet and passport just in case for showing. For submission in the Embassy, only the academic degree is needed. In this case also Passport should be carried just in case for showing. In general all these attestation work is done by the person itself or his/her relative. There are official attestation agencies which go through all the above process on behalf of a person, of course they charge money which starts generally above Rs. 5000 onwards.

Harry Potter 7 book

This day has finally come, the day when I would read the final book of Harry Potter. I had pre-ordered the book and picked it up in morning of Saturday. The book is as thick as the 6th book. The name itself makes one think of the detail adventure Harry will face throughout the book. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is the final book which I have finished reading today. I made it a point to go into total Internet and media isolation once I picked up the book from the bookstore. The condition was the same during the 6th book in 2005. When I tried reading the 5th book in college, people just kept blurting out the end which was really depressing. So my reading of the 6th and 7th book have been satisfactory.

J.K.Rowling should be given amazing credit to finish this book under so much pressure and still bring a very satisfactory ending. While reading this book one feels the change happening from moment to moment. For example, while reading the book in the night just before sleeping, I got depressed with the story. But in the morning when I continued reading, the mood changed as the story took a change from one side to another. This keeps happening throughout the book. Also I am really amazed at the feeling one gets when waiting for a book over a long period of time.

This I will let people know that I am a cartoon and Anime fan, also I watch a lot of movies but apart from all that I do love reading books (ofcourse not the course materials) like novels and stories. People should learn to keep a balance in things, it is necessary for all. Books let people work on their imagination. One should ask the Harry Potter fans who read the first and second book before the movies had released. Anyways this book has brought a fitting end to this whole series.

Harry Potter 5

I started this post on 20th but am finishing it now. I was waiting to watch this movie somehow before the final book was going to get released (on 21st July 2007). The CGI effects used in the movie is amazing and I do give credit to the director for the movie but being a fan of the Harry Potter book (I am a fan but my friend is a more bigger fan and I consider him to be a authority on it.), i found the movie disappointing. The major reason being the modification of storyline. We found a lot of things different in the movie than compared to the book. In the previous movies the amount of changes made were less compared with the book. The best is the new sets like Minstry of Magic and the Room of Requirements.

The new set of actors who play the role of Luna Lovegood, Bellatrix Lestrange and Dolores Umbridge is amazing. Let's hope the next 2 parts will be kept more with line of the book.

Die Hard 4.0

Nice name for a title, Die Hard 4.0 as it deals with Cyber terrorism. Anyways initially I thought that the name of the movie is going to be 'Live Free and Die Hard'. Now the confusing thing is that the name being displayed in imdb or any other place is the latter while watching the movie in the theatre, the only name I saw was the previous one - Die Hard 4.0.

This is the latest in the Die Hard series and has proven enough to be considered a proper sequel. Just ten minutes into the movie and we get to see action and this goes throughout till the end. This is a proper action pack movie. This movie stars Bruce Willis, Timothy Olyphant (The guy who played detective in Gone in Sixty seconds and who says "Are you alright? Are you sure? 'Cause, you just went through a wall." He has also been seen in the movie 'The Girl next door'), Justin Long, Maggie Q and Mary Elizabeth Winstead.

The movie is with the typical storyline where Detective John McClane gets tragged into a situation and has to be "THAT GUY" to save the country and situation. Justin Long is a hacker who is being shoot at throughout the movie for writing an algorithm to bypass the Social Service's security. The one shooting are the bad guys and he doesn't get shot at until the end of the movie that also in his leg at close blank range. Timothy Olyphant has played a good role for a bad guy. Maggie Q has an awesome set of moves. In overall, this 2 hours and 10 minute movie is really fun to watch and a must see for all Die Hard fans.

Dirty Politics

Since the time of Caesar in Rome, (This is from my memory, it is possible that politics existed way before this time) politics has played a major role. Be it a dictatorship or democracy, or be it a person in power or a person being overthrown, politics has played its part. With modern politics being played in almost all the countries of the world, one gets to see the competition between candidates trying to get the seat of power.

Every person keeps an eye on an election nowadays. When the presidential election in the United States of America takes places, not only the 250 million American voting population keep an eye on that election, but the rest of the world is also busy keeping track of it, irrespective of the time difference (be it Eastern Standard Time, or GMT or IST).

Now when we talk about the Indian Elections, that will be an unending topic of discussion. Let me come to the point. A president's position in India is a nominal position, which doesnot give any powers related to the passing of the laws but atleast is a powerful position to be recognised. In the last 60 years many great people have been presidents of India. But now the current national parties like the BJP and Congress and many others have put forth 2 candidates for the president's position. Worst is when all these parties start to play DIRTY POLITICS by slandering the images of opponent candidates. I agree that people have dark pasts which haunts them for the rest of their lives. This doesnot justify what each of the parties are doing. They are working really hard to create a damaging image of the opponent's candidate, which is degrading on the parties point of view.

Finally when either one of the candidates become the President of India, the image of the president will be thrashed. This will remain for the next 5 years, as the parties donot realise that spoiling the image for winning an election is not the only time it will be used. Every other country in the world will correlate that image with whomever becomes the president. Therefore giving a bad name to India.

Harry Potter

With the month of July comes amazing news of the release of Harry Potter's fifth movie installment. With the release set for 11th July in India and most of the other countries, it really builds up the anticipation for the final book release.

The Final Installment of the Harry Potter Book which is getting released on the 21st of July, a Saturday is duly being awaited by its fans. Like many I have pre-ordered the book couple of months back. But rumours have it that the book has leaked over the Internet, just a few days earlier. The final book is not being given the same security precautions like the sixth installment. I still remember than within hours of the release of the sixth book, pirated copies and also pdf file over internet were available. Anyways there is not many concerns related to the seventh book as the pre-order number has reached over 1.3 million copies already.

With the final book's release, it will finally end all the rumours and excitement one had, imagining about the end of the Harry Potter and his adventures. Recently I have been watching the making of the fifth installment movie over the Television. Most of the channels have been showing the making of the movie and the interviews with the cast. Everyone knows that the movies that are created based on books donot cover detail aspects of the story. I had just come across a thought that once all the seven installments of the movie are finished within the next 3-4 years, someone can make a TV series of Harry Potter. It's pretty general if one thinks about it. The set for Harry Potter has been created since the first movie and still remains. After the seventh movie, the same set which spans over 180 acres can be used for the TV series. A TV series is made in season which are of 26 episodes (either 22 minutes or 44 minutes per episode). Each season can explain one book. This way all the details in the book can be covered.

May passes by

This month came and went by without me writing any posts on this blog. I can't complain about being busy as it just takes some time to update a post. But still i have kept myself busy this month by finishing up some things that have been pending for quite a while. Also with the sudden thundershowers observed in Bangalore led to my internet connection getting disconnected for a couple of days. Therefore forcing me to keep my thoughts away from the internet.

This month my friend has been writing heavy amounts of posts on his blog. He is an amazing guy who finds a lot of interesting info on the internet. If any of the information on his blog doesn't help you then atleast it will be worthwhile for gaining knowledge from it. He is a major Google and Linux fan. I would suggest you to give this a try: Stumbles of a Stag. Also another try to his wordpress blog: A Stag's weblog.

New Blog related to Quotes

Just made a new blog related to interesting quotes I come across. They can be in reality or from a Movie, Anime, Actors, Ordinary people or anything. As long as they are interesting and worth something to read and remember, they will be available on the blog. Hope you all will give it a chance. Just give it a quick peek.

Quotable Quotes --> Click This.

Ad: Motorla Rokr

This Ad which stars Abhishek Bachan has an interesting twist. I do like the head movements made by Abhishek throughout the ad, even the music gives an added flavour to it. I am not sure how good is the Motorola Rokr's wireless headset but I guess it gives people another accessory for the cellphones. The above Ad is around a minute long.

This Ad is the next in series to Abhishek Bachan's Motorola Rokr which lasts for around 15 seconds.

Hailstones in Bangalore

Around a week back, first drops of rain were witnessed in Bangalore. That didn't help much in reducing the temperature in Bangalore. The only thing that occurred was plenty of power outages which recovered properly within a day. But today's sudden hailstorm which lasted for a few minutes in the evening should bring the temperature down. After that it has been raining throughout the evening until night. Hopefully this will benefit Bangalore as one of the positive things that could be seen is that the amount of Power outages were at minimum.

Let's see how the coming days turn out.

Mumbai Airport's Int. Terminal

Last time when I was traveling from Mumbai Airport's International Terminal, I found the seating arrangement pretty comfortable. These seats were better as it gave people complete rest compared to any of the seats I have come across on other airports terminals. First of all many flights are scheduled at late nights or early dawn. The thing about International flights are the check-in time is 2-3 hours prior to the flight takeoff due to luggage check-in and immigration clearance. Therefore lots of passengers are deprived of their sleep. This kind of seating arrangement atleast give people some shut eye. Apart from these seating arrangements, there are plenty of food joints like Subway, Little China and many more. I hope other airports around the country and the world come up with some of these seating arrangements so as to assist the already exhausted passengers.

Low cost Airlines

Recently I went on an air journey and chose the low cost Airlines to travel and what an experience I had. I had to take a domestic flight and also an international one. Both the flights were low cost airlines. I will even give some info on the airport taxes that were charged.

My domestic flight was an Air Deccan flight. It was my first time on an Air Deccan. When getting my baggages checked I came to know that the allowed luggage for check-in was 15kgs and 10kgs for the hand baggages. It was shocking for me as the international standard and other domestic airline's charge is 20kgs for check-in baggages and 5kgs for hand baggages. Even after tell them that they could work out the maths that the total is 25 going through their Air-Deccan plane, they still charged me with extra for above 15kgs. The rates for the extra are Rs 70 per kg. Here I wish to point out that the airport taxes for domestic flights were Rs 1250 per flight and is supposed to be hiked. It really messes up with people's heads when airlines announce ticket fares of Rs 500 and one has to add the airport tax to dish out from their pockets. The other amazing thing is the Shotgun technique used for getting seats. The boarding passes issued at the Check-in counter doesnot contain a Seat number so whoever reaches first on the plane gets the seat. And everyone knows how human we are when we want seats, be it a plane or a bus.

Also when traveling abroad, I chose a low cost airline as it has become popular. Jazeera Airways is the one. The prices on the tickets compared to the normal fares of other airlines is atleast half or even more less. The fleet is all new Airbus 320's, currently having 5 planes and 6 are in order and are awaiting delivery. In this case also when I was flying out of Mumbai airport, the airport taxes were atleast Rs 3600 while on my way back the airport tax in Kuwait was hiked to the amount after conversion of Rs 2500. This tax was also more than the price of the ticket I had purchased for in both cases (to and fro).

Here is the fun fact, since the prices of the tickets are low as ofcourse it is called Low cost Airlines, there will be no entertainment or food given to the passengers as it is not included in the ticket. The only way to get the food would be to purchase it from the flight crew that is the Steward and Stewardess. I agree that these flight members are professionals but this makes them look like Salesmen selling items on board. The price of these items will be costly making one feel to bring things from home. A coffee or tea also costs amazing. In Jazeera Airways as the journey was long, there were screens provided overhead for watching. The only catch was that for the sound one has to purchase a headset. The other thing was that since it was late night travel, usually the lights are dimmed so that people could sleep. But here the lights were kept on full as the salesmen went on to work and wanted the passengers to be awake throughout their sales pitch. Eventually just some time before landing the lights were switched off for people to take some rest. I was even worried if I could ask for water thinking they will charge heavy prices for it. But I am really grateful that was the only thing that was not charged.

I guess eventually for every good there is something bad. If one wants to cut down on the prices of the air tickets then they should be understanding enough to handle the pressure of all that which will be thrown by the Low cost Airlines.

Rave: Wrong meaning

The original meaning of Rave Party is : A dance party that lasts all night and electronically synthesized music is played. Few of the people and groups which are associated with Rave music are Prodigy, DJ Tiësto, Paul Van Dyk, Apex Twins and many more.

With the drug bust in a rave party in Pune a week back, the meaning of Rave has now been associated with narcotic drugs. This is completely wrong as in general the indian public has no idea what is the meaning of Rave. Now whenever the word rave will be mentioned or a Rave party will take place, people will think that Drugs are being used in such a place.

I am a music fan and love Rave music, so wanted to let people know that not to make up their minds about the Rave music, based on Media reports associating it with drugs. Narcotic drugs are not only used in this kind of party but can be found in use in a lot of high profile Celebrity parties. The only thing is that the corruption level is so high within the police ranks that those kind of parties are left alone. When the police are really interested in busting Drug peddlers then they should do it uniformly by raiding all kinds of parties. I am not telling how the cops should work, but only that these kind of parties are not a secret and is known publicly.

The funny thing I found regarding the Pune Rave Party bust is that the cops (Pune and Mumbai) and also the Media knew about it, way in advance like a couple of days and still couldnot plan it properly so that they could get the drug peddlers. The ones who were arrested were the group of students and professionals who probably might be using the drugs or the organisers of the party.

CBSE board exams commences

New month begins and lots of things are happening including the start of the CBSE board exams. Brings back some good memories like writing my boards, can't say that the exams were always great but the memories were great.

Over 5 lakh students are writing the 12th CBSE board exams while 7 lakh students are getting prepared to write their 10th CBSE board. With a lot of changes happening every year related to the exam patterns and comfort for the students. Now 15 minutes before the exam begins, the students get the question paper so that they can go through it. This helps them in making up there mind for answering the optional questions. I guess as time moves forward the board will try many more moves to ease the mind of the students.

Movie: Ghost Rider

This movie got released in India just yesterday on 23rd. I really wanted to see this as I am a fan of comics and wanted to see whether another comic character could be successfully brought to action movies. I got to see it on yesterday itself in the night at the theaters.

The concept of the a person selling his soul to the devil for saving the life of his loved one is not new. This movie is kind of a combination of Faust and Constantine. The Devil's son Black Heart wants to take over the earth and the Devil himself is against this. The devil decides that he will release the soul of Blaze Jr. if he stops Black Heart and for this purpose forces Blaze to become Ghost Rider, a bounty hunter of the devil. The form of Ghost rider can be attained only in the night time when the presence of evil is at its peak.

The action sequences are good for watching but in overall the movie is a 5/10 which is an average, can be watched once in theaters. The action sequence keep us in the seats for this movie.

Myth: Indian Programmers

This article was there in The Times of India on Page 6 of the 19th February 2007 edition. My friends who work in the IT sector read it and wanted me to publish it onto the Internet so that they can suggest it to others. It is a good article and shows the dark side of the IT/Software Industry in India.

A myth called the Indian programmer-The Times of India This is the online link for the article.

Movie: The Holiday

This weekend I tagged along with my friends to watch the movie 'The Holiday' in the theatre. Initially before I saw the movie, I thought it would be a drama kind of movie. But after watching the movie, I really have a good opinion about it. It can be categorised under romantic comedy.

The main stars of the movie are Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, Jack Black. This movie can be watched as it deals about problems faced within relationship of couples. The best thing in the movie is the amount of small time humours throughout which makes the movie interesting.

Anime fever

I have been a fan of Cartoons and Animes for a long time. I remember the cartoons like Thundercats, Voltron, Grendizer, Captain Tsubasa, Tom & Jerry, Popeye and other cartoons which I used to watch when I was a kid. Anyways now I get to see a lot more animes due to the Animax channel.

The best thing about the animes is the variety of story lines they provide. There are many choices one gets to see like action, adventure, romance, mystery, sports and many other categories. I have seen many animes and like a lot of them. I guess if I start naming each of the animes then the list would be endless. But I can name a few from post to post with some info.

In a mystery related anime, I did like Detective School Q as they came up with beautiful concepts of murder mysteries. They were really challenging and entertaining. The other things about the animes is the number of episodes they are made of. The list is usually like

• Half Season which comprises of 13 episodes
• One full season which comprises of 26 episodes
• and multiples of either 13 or 26.
• Last but least customised number of episodes for an anime.

For information regarding the Animes, I usually refer to Wikipedia as they have a lot of info on animes and also that I am a regular user of Wikipedia. Ofcourse not every anime can be found on that website itself, so I usually google it to see information regarding those animes. Like number of Episodes, main characters and also the information on the themes and songs of the anime.

Each of the Japanese animes are initially made into a Manga (the word comics in Japanese) and then created into Animes. I would really like to read Manga but none are available in the Indian Markets (even if available less number of variety and copies). So I guess I can spend time watching animes only. There are many more stuff I need to talk about regarding Animes. See you until next post.

Aero India 2007

The Aero India 2007 show was held between 7th to 11th February. I attended the show on Saturday, 10th February with couple of my friends. We thought of reaching there in the morning around 10am so that we can see the planes in action between 11am and 1 pm. But as being a weekend and most of them attending the Aero India show, the roads were jammed. We reached there at around 11:45 am, found a parking space and went to see the show and the exhibition.

In 2005, I had attended the 5th Aero India show. The difference between this years and 2005 show was the inclusion of some new exhibits and some planes. The one I found attractive was the MIG-29 OVTS or the so called MIG-35. Their performance was beautiful when compared to the F-16 Fighting Falcons and F-18 Super Hornet. Even the new fighter aircraft Grephen made by the swedish company was in display. The flying by this plane was also amazing.

In the exhibition area, the presentations and prototype models were on display. Lots of electronic gadgets, engine designs and other accessories were on display. In the Indian exhibit section, HAL displayed there latest prototypes including the new Light Combat Helicopter. If they really produce these then this could prove very advantageous for combat. Supposedly HAL will be producing 70 of these by 2009 which will be under use by the military. This Helicopter gave a very close resemblance to the Apache and Cobra Helicopters which are used for Air to Surface and Air to Air attacks. These are used to take out ground forces like infantry, trucks and even tanks.

I am sure that the next Aero India show in 2009 will be more entertaining with some new flying skills and also some cool exhibits meant for viewing for visitors.

Time Flies...

It's been a month since I wrote a post. It's funny as I have plenty to write but have been lazy. Lots of things have happened so far. I am not talking about the world news just other things. I visited the Aero India 2007 show which took place in Bangalore. I will write some details in another post.

As for Bangalore, now some changes are being seen as the road widening project and re-tarring of the roads are taking place all over. These are the visible changes, just hope that the condition of these roads last for some time. As for the Metro Rail, I just see signboards placed around Bangalore without much changes. Let's hope that the year 2007 turns out good for Bangalore.

A year has passed

It's amazing to know that a year has passed since I started my blog. I have really enjoyed about writing anything and everything that I come across. Time flies I guess because I don't feel like its been that long since I started blogging.

Another year has passed as I grew a year older just some time back. I am still in Bangalore and the climate here is still pleasant while the city has grown in population and also in area (As in today's newspaper they mention about Greater Bangalore being officially announced making Bangalore bigger).

Fake money thro ATMs

I was going through the newspaper today and saw an article on the front page stating that every year crores of fake rupee notes are circulated in India. The problem now that has come to everyones attention is that the fake notes are coming out of the ATMs. I remember being told that if I wanted to be careful with regard to Fake notes then I should withdraw cash from banks and ATMs. But looks like we lost one source of money that being the ATMs, so finally everyone will start withdrawing cash from the bank branches itself.

I think the question on everyone's mind would be that how come the ATM contains fake notes. The only one who put the money are the bank people who are accompanied by the security personnel that also in an armoured vehicle. So I think the whole thing is an inside job and is easy to trace. Anyone who withdraws cash from the ATM can inform the bank about the fake notes and then check when the money was put in the ATM and who was responsible. Atleast this should help the authorities in curbing this problem.

After a week of new year

Lots of stuff happened with the beginning of the new year. Saddam Hussein's death sentence which was carried out at the end of last year has made quite a news. The new Iraqi government along with the help of the US and its allies wanted Saddam dead so early. This punishment was an easy way out for Saddam. He was tried only for some of the crimes. He was not accounted for all the injustices he had done in his life. Also hanging him on an auspicious Muslim day is not the right thing. Out of all the days in a year, they had to hang him on that one day.

Lots of other news like 2006 was named the year of Mergers in the business world (With Arcelor-Mittal merger being the main topic). Who knows this year could also be a year of mergers. I use Hutch network on my cell phone and I have been hearing about the competition that is taking place to attain the 4th largest network in India.

The CAS (Conditional Access System) boxes are to be used starting with this year in the Metros like Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai. But what can we say when people have started to take their own connections with Dish TV and TataSky. While the smaller cities are using the cable connections with many channels disappearing and reappearing due to the payments not paid by the local cable network operator. What a way to watch things.

This year is also contains a lot of holidays as people have been calculating it. Number of holidays in a year usually remain same. The only difference is that most of the holidays this year fall on weekdays and not on a Sunday. Hope people are already making plans.

What a beginning...

What a beginning has this been for many people. Having a 3 day weekend, then a four working day before another weekend shows up. Apart from the classic parties that people attended on New Year's eve, I think the rest of us were sleeping or atleast watching TV.

There are quite number of shows coming on the TV to keep people busy. Otherwise just pick up a novel and start reading which should keep one busy. This year Bakrid falls on January 1st, so celebrations will keep going on.