Rode 323.66kms in 15hours (a 2 day ride to Nagarjuna Sagar from Hyderabad and back)

One awesome Ride!
Best part; Lost about 1.5kilos during this ride(though we ate a LOT of food), feel proud that i helped someone.
Worst part; Had to do some Mud Fighting(read below, its long!).

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On Saturday 24th Sep, 2011, 12 of us started at 5AM from Hyderabad(IMAX) to Nagarjuna Sagar, only 7 people plan to stay overnight and return on Sunday, the rest planned to return the same day mostly doing 100-200kms. Except for crazy Sam who did 320 by evening same day on his MTB. Should bow down to this guy. For me, the ride from Hyderabad to Nagarjuna Sagar was easy, except the last 10kms where the hill begins, added to the heat and sultriness. Reached hotel by 2 pm or so and rushed for Lunch, had a heavy lunch and took rest for some time. We went down to Ettipotala waterfalls for some sight seeing in the evening. It became dark quickly and we returned back for dinner. Heavy dinner again and the much needed sleep.
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On Sunday 25th Sep, started late at 6am only to realize the return was full of headwinds(yesterday might be tail winds that made it easy ride) and heat came in very quick. That means too slow riding, tiring and too many stops. A lot of time got wasted resting on the way back. The two Seniors who came with us (one 74yrs and one 71yrs) were of great inspiration. The 74yrs rider did a 200kms(150+50) and the 71yrs rider did 100kms(50+50) both days put together. Both of them are champions in the State masters runners association. I wondered, by 70, forget running and cycling, would we be alive? Given our food habits and physical activities? We want to bring these two Seniors to all the 100kms HCC rides in future, they will be a great inspiration for everyone in the club.
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The Telengana Bundh part: 
with the Bundh and Vanta Varpu(cooking on the roads), there were blockades at 2 places while going and 3-4 places while coming back. With no buses and lorries, the roads were deserted mostly. Vehicles were stopped at few places and diverted at few. Luckly cycles are not in their agenda. At many places we answered that we were training for the Hyderabad team and its not a race. At one place, people want us to put Telangana flags on the bikes and ride for telengana. We said why don’t you put not one but two flags and do the riding yourself. The Fat buggers couldn’t answer that.(No offence pls)
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The Mob part: 
On the way to Nagarjuna Sagar(Saturday, Day1), somewhere just after the sai baba temple which is at 110kms or so, I was riding alone, Prasad and the new guy Raju were 1-2kms behind me. Sreekanth was 200mts or so ahead of me. There was a big crash sound behind me(some 400mts) – made by a motorcycle, it got dragged for some distance. I looked back and noticed a motorbike. I thought there was only 1 guy. Got down and started running with my bike towards him, heard a woman Shouting/calling Ayyo, Ayyo, Ayyo, Yemandi, Yemandi, Yemandi,(meaning husband in Telugu)….. Heart skipped a few beats, I feared the worst and said to myself, oh please not again. It was somewhere on the same road we witnessed an accident a couple of years back. An enfield guy hit a car from behind and fell very badly. It happened right infront of us. I normally don’t have the guts to see human blood. But that day I did help him, i felt it was not me. the accident was brutal and blood was pumping from his ears and nose. I am not sure he lived another day but the way people (some 100 odd) stood numb and watched him as if it was some funny show, irritated me the most.

Ok, coming back, I heard the woman shouting for her Husband, her calls will crush the weak hearted. I saw one lady picking up a small goat and running away from the scene. I realized the motorbike fell because of the goat. I reached the spot, so did Prasad and Raju. The couple were all bruised up and blood is all over the place. They must be in their 40′s. The lady is also badly hurt, amongst other wounds, her upper lip had a big hole and bleeding badly but she only cared for her husband, Was one hell of an emotional scene. Remembers you your partner’s love for you. The Husband was looking real bad and needed immediate treatment. She was pleading for help, they were in shock and the man wanted to ride and go home, we gave some water, made them stand in some shade and asked to relax for a minute… one car guy picked up their scattered stuff(they bought some Guavas for kids may be, they were allover the place), we tried to call 108 ambulances services, Prasad called and gave all details only to be told that they(108) were on strike? What the FUCK? Emergency on strike? Why take all details and say “Sorry we are not strike”. Fuckers!! Soooo pissed off. I spotted a private ambulance, hoping they can do some first aid and tried to stop it. But that asshole increased his speed and didn’t care to stop. It was not carrying anybody, except one guy sitting in the front, I could see it. Meanwhile the Husband started saying he is ok and will ride home. We told we have a vehicle(the 2 seniors riding with us brought a Tata mobile pickup with them) and offered them a ride till their place which is hardly 20-30kms away. He didn’t want to leave his motorbike, we told we can bring it to his place. Poor guy is worried about his new bike and in the shock he doesn’t know how badly he is hurt. The couple got onto the bike and from nowhere there were 2 people started who shouting that they need compensation for the goat. They came running after seeing that the couple could walk again. That bitch started shouting and abusing the couple, we simply got on top of her voice and said “Get Lost”. It worked I thought, and the couple started on their motorbike. Feeling relieved we got back on our saddles. Prasad then mentioned that someones’ following the couple on a motorbike, probably to stop them.

He was right, 1km ahead, they were stopped by the locals, probably by the other shepherds/assholes in the area. I couldn’t let it go. These guys were shouting/abusing the couple and demanded 5000 rupees. They didn’t bring the goat along with them, intelligent assholes… Prasad said he has seen the goat walking away after the incident. The Husband said he don’t have money. One thick skin guy wanted them to pay then-and-there and was trying to pull his bike keys off. It was very hot and even we couldn’t stand there. I knew this won’t be over soon and I had to shout on top of him. He looked like a fat bastard and can easily take me down. 1-2 other local guys were supporting the couple but that wasn’t enough. The Fat bastard took his phonebook out and says lets go to the police station. I told the guy, lets take these 2 people to hospital first and then you can settle it in police station, first lets get them some help. Knowing we were ready to go to police station, he switched to his next level of intelligence. Started shouting, did the goat hit the bike or the bike hit the goat, we went on top of his voice and said the goat did and we have seen it. After doing this several times. He started saying why will the goat hit the bike wantedly?… Fuck, I was loosing it already. There was too much heat and its not something that the couple could enjoy when they are loosing blood. I started shouting what he was doing was not right and said fuck off in the way he understands. By this time, some 50 people gathered, some were locals. The situation is heating up… Now, his next level of intelligence,,, came on to me and shouted; you come to my place and shouting on me and started abusing me…. Somewhere at this point I lost it completely. I had no choice. I shouted WTF if its your place…. Threw my bike away and went for his neck. Gave one tight crush. 3 other guys joined and started hitting/pulling me. One guy wanted to check how elastic was my new HCC Tshirt was. He ripped it off. Another guy wanted to see what brand shoes I was wearing and lifted me off balance, that resulted a bruise on my right elbow. Another guy took a stick and started hitting me. Later I came to know there is one other guy who started throwing stones. These 2 assholes were stopped by fellow riders and couple of onlookers. The couple also tried to stop the mob and they were pushed off. One group of 4 men came in and pushed the assholes away and took me away from the mob and put me in a car. In the end, I went on top of everyones voice and told the thick skin bastard that he too will fall one day and that there would be no one to give him water when he needed it the most and he was a blood sucking animal.

I was driven away from the spot for about 1km and one of those 4 men rode my bike just to get away from there. These men were also locals just from nearby place. They knew what was happening, they knew the locals wont let a Mob opportunity go away. They appreciated my intention and told it was too dangerous to get physical with the locals. But I didn’t have any options. I am not justifying my madness. The couple needed help. Nothing else was working at the heat of the moment and they were losing time. I came to know that these guys also pulled the couple away from there and let them go away. Hearing that, I was so relieved and proud of what I did. I resisted to madness, I tried to be human. I tried to help. Ha… I was pissed off because people tried to hit me with sticks and stones but that didn’t matter considering i did what i wanted to.

I thanked these men very very much and told people like them must be there for people like me and that couple.

Today, my legs are much stronger but my Heart is a lot stronger now.

Many might feel, I was stupid, some might feel its none of our business. But what is it that differentiates us as humans from scavengers/opportunists like Vultures? What would you do being in my/our shoes at that moment?

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How would you feel when you have a bad accident and no one comes to your help and if people start pull your stuff and run away? Can you imagine that? Let us hope those days will never come and there is someone to help you when you badly need it. Likewise, helping someone in a real bad situation will only leave you good memories and will make you less evil. Thats my personal feeling.

The AA or AAA lights that are generally available to us in India or no match to 18650(battery type) lights in their lumens(lighting power), built quality and LED life. Not just 18650 lights, but any good brands like Fenix, Solarforce, JETBeam, NiteCore, EagleTac, Olight, Quark/4Sevens, SureFire, Etc., product some high quality flashlights. But lets limit this discussion to Solarforce, Fenix, Magicshine and 18650 vs AA lights.

Here is a brief of what the 18650′s are about:
18650 lights are all tactical lights and NOT generally cheapo quality lighting. If you have a wish to loose your eyesight, just look directly into them and its fulfilled instantly. Well there are both the good quality LEDs and medium quality LEDs(Bulbs I mean) in these lights. But I am yet to see one useless LED bulb from the good brands. Single cell 18650 lights are usually around 220-320 lumens.
(FYI: there are several high quality, durable, dependable AA lights which can be used for biking but rechargeable, high power, anytime, anywhere takes me to 18650 types)

I have a huge collection of lights since years (protecting them as much as the ladies do with Gold and diamonds and as much as Bzeers/MTBrs do with their bikes) and I think I fell in love with Solarforce and Fenix lights long ago. For bicycling, Solarforce is what i choose. Fenix’s are costly, better built but the cost of the lights pushes me several steps back from mounting them on my bike. But Fenix’s are the bikini babes for light collectors. There are several other high quality light brands like JETBeam, NiteCore, EagleTac, Olight, Quark/4Sevens, SureFire, Etc., which collectors buy just for the fun of owning them (most of them will not be used more than a couple of times) but these are outside the scope of our discussion.

The basic Solarforce L2′s are good to go. The collectors however don’t buy full lights, they buy all parts like body(different colors), heads, bezels, tail caps, slings, lenses, Layard rings, belt clips, lanterns/wands/diffusers, etc and assemble to get the best looking, high performance lights which are never available on sale anywhere.

More about solarforce lights: http://flashlight-wiki.com/Solarforce
More about Fenix lights: http://flashlight-wiki.com/Fenix | http://www.fenixlight.com/newping.asp

So here is what i can tell you about Solarforce lights for biking:
The “Solarforce L2″ type lights is what I chose for biking. I have a 2 lights setup on my bike, I’ll tell you why, below. These lights give you around 270 to 900 lumens for depending upon the bulb type for about 1.5 to 3 hours on high mode. Some L2′s (high powered LED ones) have single mode, the rest have 3 or 5 modes. The best option is the 5-mode light -> High, Med, Low, Strobe, SOS.

Why 5 modes?
Because you need to switch between modes depending on your ride, time and situation. For example in city traffic, the Strobe mode is more useful than the High mode. Many times I keep one light in Medium mode and the other in Strobe. Medium is just to be visible for other vehicles(considering most of the city roads have enough lighting), and switch on the Strobe on second light when you want to say it LOUD. And sometimes when people annoy me without giving side by crossing me and occupying the left most part of the road and block me, i annoy then back switching both my L2s to STROBE. They are pretty annoying i can tell you and satisfy my ego.

Where to Buy:
Ebay.com – many international sellers (most from HK have free shipping)

What to buy:

Lights: Solarforce L2 5-output/mode lights on Ebay: http://j.mp/gyWtQe

Mounts: There are several options for bike light holders, I have tried all most all of them and here is what I suggest(look for the mount in the pics below): http://j.mp/gi3jqK – you might get each for $5 and free shipping also if you are lucky. They are not the exact fit for the Solarforce L2, but you can wrap your light with a piece of bicycle tube and if need be use another piece to wrap the handle bar where you want to fit the mount and there you go. Good enough for city riding. Trail riding, I’m not sure with this setup.

If you have the money and need just one light, Magicshines is what you should look at. (I think they are coming back corrected and new after the recent battery pack exploding complaints). Note  that the magicshine is also a 18650 light (4×18650 packed into one pouch which sits separately on your top tube). Magicshines on Ebay: http://j.mp/ijULLT

Batteries:
There are a variety of 18650s available.
Major differences are Capacity and Protected/Unprotected.  For our usage, we can go with the unprotected ones too. Most of my batteries are unprotected 18650s and I don’t have any issues. If you want to dig into the protected vs unprotected topic, check this: http://j.mp/fh57N2

Battery Brands you can buy are: Ultrafire, Solarforce, Trustfire and GTL
(I use Solarforce and Ultrafire, mostly Solarforce, and Ultrafire as backup)
Beware of unbranded 18650s. Just not worth even looking at them. They can give you some serious trouble like blowing up or switching off unexpectedly.

Battery Capacity: varies from 2200mAh to 3800mAh. Buy the 2400mAh or 3000mAh, these are tried and tested.  I prefer the 2400mAh types. You can buy the protected ones if you are v.v.particular about battery performance, life of lights, or are a little afraid of these HK stuff in general. They will safe guard.

18650 batteries on ebay: http://j.mp/hjDEz1

Battery Chargers:
For years, I have tested countless chargers. Some used to work only for a few times and then die.
My wife says, “why the hell do you buy these useless chargers all the time? when you know they are shipping fake ones?”

So you get the point, its hard to find great 18650 chargers, there are many lemons and few oranges. Even the best working chargers might have lemons if you are unlucky. Luckly if you buy from ebay, there is always replacement. So, you need to test the charger for atleast 3-4 times to see how its doing before you can confirm you got an orange and before the time to ‘report a problem on ebay about the item’ runs out.

Here is what I buy for the chargers:
Ultrafire WF-139: http://j.mp/hkacyA (check for WF-139)
Solarforce 18650 Charger Version 2: http://j.mp/g8DbkX (look for version 2)

Remember, if its available for too cheap, the quality/life of the item will reflect the price. Ebay or DealExtreme or Amazon or HK or USA is no different. They are all made in a small town in Hong Kong, cheap to high quality stuff.

There might be several points you want to know and which I missed here, I can add points based on questions coming.

Ok, here are some pictures:

[Show as slideshow]

In the pictures you can see the Twin Solarforce L2′s setup for bike lights, size comparison with batteries and other lights and mounts.

For the Solarforce lights setup, if anyone goes for it, this is what i recommend:
2 lights – $60
3 mounts – $15(its 3 not 2, just in case one of these breaks)
4 batteries – $24 (2 always on the lights, 2 as backup for cycling and other purpose, read below why)
1 charger – $12

That comes to around $110. Thats some 5k INR for excellent anytime, anyday lights. any-night lights?
For that cost, you can get basic model magicshine light i think but in case of battery or LED failures, the dual lights with single cells are increasing your chances of survival. The new magicshines have 5 modes now. low mode is what you need in the cities, and mid sometimes. But if you want to switch to Fast blink(Strobe) mode, you have only the strobe mode (unlike the dual light mode setup where you can have one light pointing little forward in high or mid mode and the other pointing low with strobe mode) and the strobe mode in the magicshine might be somewhere between 700-900 lumens and thats really a lot of annoying lighting for others on the road as well as the rider.

And as i said earlier, the magicshines are more for Trail riding. They will blow you out on the trails and highways where you just want to enjoy more light than you actually need.

The 2 extra/backup batteries that i mentioned above applies to any light setup ( for single cell lights, buy 2 batteries for each light, for dual cell lights, buy 4 batteries for each light) because you never know when you want to use these lights to their full capacity for more than just bicycling. These are tactical lights and can be used for various outdoor purposes like camping, etc. and sometimes indoors too – when there are power failures. Extreme cases – earth quakes, floods, what ever you want to imagine, you never know when these multi mode lights come in handy. I have personally used them in power-cuts, paddy fields, mango gardens, palmoil/jamoil plantations and forests like places and they also make excellent car travel lights (long journeys) – in case if you have a flat tire or need to help someone in the middle of no where. These lights (not just solarforce, any tactical lights) make good house lights and personal protection lights, in case you encounter some as$hole the light physically becomes a weapon with sharp teeth in the front and the illumination also is powerful enough to block the view of the other guy giving you a few seconds of advantage to do your thing.

The best way to use your 4 cells on 2 lights is this: Charge all 4 cells, use 2 till they drain out or get dim. Bring the backup ones and use them, meanwhile charge the drained out ones, so at any point you definitely have 2 cells fully charged and the other 2 drained or sometime they are also ready to go. One more thing, if your lights are 2-cell lights, do not mix and match the cells, maintain sets of 2′s strictly all the time to get the best out of them.

To the Bollywood first- Guys, what the heck is wrong with you all? sometimes you talk like you are great people, know only to do good things and can lead people in the right way. But when it comes to actually doing the deed. You play dead?

Fuck Man. Seriously! – Animals are better than us. If one Crow is dying or dead, all the crows come together. When one of your own is being bombarded with threats by some goondas, you all play dead?

Ya we know you have professional rivalries. Professional rivalries should be only be kept to professional matters. But when one of your own is being targeted by some ass hole goons – where the heck were you all? Don’t have balls to come out?

MNS/Shivsena, these people are not the underworld for gods sake, they wouldn’t kill your families if you open your mouth. They are just ass hole political parties who have nothing to do except to make everything a communal issue. We all know this fact. Oh, if you are supporting those people, fuck you.

Our country is a democratic country. And anyone who believes in democracy should be on the right side. You were on the wrong side or no side at all? You don’t believe in democracy – meaning you don’t believe in India and you are not fit to be an Indian. Or are you thinking you on the majority?

Aamir Khan – There is no one else in Bollywood or the whole the whole of Indian film industry whom I and many people like me adore or respect more than you. That’s right, I said it. Not SRK. Matter of fact I don’t like him at all because I feel there is something wrong his attitude. But that’s my opinion. – But he is an Indian and I don’t hate him for that reason. You came out to support but people like me expected something bigger. A much stronger statement. Not statements – openly call them into the boxing ring. You are loved for not just your movies but all the social things you do. When people see your ads about Respecting Foreign Tourists, oh ya people love you for that. The fact that when we cannot respect and support fellow Indians, how can we expect some useless goons on the streets to respect foreign nationals?

Why not an all-out war against the Shivsena? Why not challenge them you will bring them to their knees? Oh ya only you can do that I believe. We all know BigB wouldn’t do that anyway. Where are the others? Why Isn’t the entire Bollywood clan coming out when one of your own is in trouble?

To all others –
When we are inviting the Pakistani foreign minister to talks and when our Prime Minister consistently tries to talk to Pakistan for bilateral relationships, why desert someone who is just supporting a sports team? Its sports, guys, we are not inviting some terrorists. All Pakistanis are NOT terrorists. I am not supporting Pakistan on the whole. There is a bigger angle you need to look at. I am sure all the terrorists are in Pakistan. Its the system in their country that failed. The government there is a victim of its own acts(feeding the terrorists) and is a puppet now in the hands of terrorists. Yes it still feeds them to gain a piece of India. Yes we all hate Pakistan for that. Ah… feels good to say that. Isn’t it? But don’t you think there are also good humans living there. If all Pakistanis are terrorists, WHY didn’t we kill the Pakistani players when we had hundreds of chances? One single bomb thrown into the dressing room when they are here in India would do the needful right? But we didn’t do that. WHY? We love to watch those India-Pakistan matches. don’t we? But that’s where our rivalry with the players ends. We wouldn’t mob and beat them to death if see the pakistani players on our city streets shopping when they are here for a match right? I wonder how many of us would lineup for autographs. But that stupid team is spoiling its own credibility and name by doing all those mindless things they have been doing in the recent times. Pity them for that.

In SRK’s issue, We’ve came down to a stage that we wanted a fellow Indian to prove his patriotism or to prove if he was an Indian at all? Shame on us all. Isn’t this so close to the “Chak De” SRK role where he is seen as a traitor by fellow Indians? We all had tears rolling when we saw that scene in the movie. Why act dumb now when the same thing is happening to a fellow Indian for real? for that matter, unfortunately the same fellow who was acted that scene. But he isn’t acting now. Do you know that? You think this is a publicity stunt? If its his religion in doubt, he married a Hindu, Both Namaz and Hindu Prayers are offered in his house, What does that tell you? His kids – What religion are they?

Guys, organizations and assholes like Shivsena, MNS, RSS are no-good to us. They will only bring more trouble to our country which is already lacking in development and lot of things. Lets not feed these people.
Lets not act like a bunch of sleeping cock sucking morons. Wake up.

To the fellow Muslim-Indians - this is just not my personal opinion, I’m addressing a larger issue and opinion here and this part is not related to this topic – Stop acting like aliens. I know most of you are not doing so. Most of you are educated and broad minded. But for the others – Stop thinking my community, my people and seeing Hindus as muslim killers or something? We are not that bad. Are we? We shared our country with you are continuing to do so with great affection and patience. It is we Hindus who are in majority here and do not try to remind that to us. (that does not mean you can claim special minority reservations in everything, minority does not mean backward you see?) – (sorry for that attitude of mine). Because you are doing so, we had to feed anti-muslim organizations/vote-banks and they have grown so much that we all became victims to these goons. – Everything that you do, reflects on the other side of your city or on the other community. We had rivalry in the past, we can’t change that now. But lets not teach hatred to our children. Lets teach them how to love. How to be better Indians and better Human Beings. We can have different Gods but they are not rivals you see? Gita or Quran exists to teach us good in the language we speak and understand but not to teach hatred. So, lets all stop doing this communal thing. Lets all live like Indians first and not Hindus, Muslims, Maharastrians or Andhraites. We are going no where with these attitudes. Sorry guys, if you hate me for speaking out. Love me as an Indian, you will be loved back for sure. Nothing else matters. I would happily marry a Muslim girl or any girl from a different religion if she(who ever it is) was my girl friend – but sorry that part is already done. btw, I love my wife, she is in her 9th month of pregnancy and I’d be soon leaving for the delivery – on that front, i’m on a little emotional high right now but staying far away in 2 different states for this Valentine’s day sucks (which is day after tomorrow – too bad). Wondering what stopped me from going. grrrr… ok lets come back now.

Ok, Coming back to the SRK issue, I appreciate the small number of stars who came out and supported openly. Here is the certificate that you all have balls. Seriously. Adorable Ladies, – sorry if that offends you, but let me put it the other way, you all have the guts. Others Do Not.

Here is also appreciation for all those in Mumbai who went to see the movie today (Febuary 12, 2010) on the release date of My Name is Khan despite the threats from Shivsena. Let the spirit of our great cities and country be with us and not with some goondas.

Here is appreciation for one particular sweet looking girl that I saw talking on NDTV – here is what she said in front of some theater and its being aired again and again on the national channel –
“I’ve heard that Bal Thakrey stays here somewhere near this theater and I really want to show him that I can watch the movie in front of his house.”
Wow – Now that’s something.

For all others, here is something for you, it happened to SRK, it happened to several people in the past, tomorrow it will happen to you too. It might not be MNS/Shivsena, it might not be about supporting Pakistani players. It could simply be about your very own constitutional right – “Right To Freedom” and more specifically “Right to Freedom of Speech and Expression”. Lets not bring things to that stage.

Its not too late now. Its better late than never. Or you leave a sorry state of India to your next generation. We don’t want to be another China right? If we are in China, you would not be reading this blog, because it would have been blocked long ago. But this is India baby!

What are we afraid of? If its about fearing the goons, oh comeon…. r u kidding me?
If we all clap TOGETHER just once, they will die to that sound.

I was frustrated and angered till some time back. I still have it. But right now I’m a little happy or may be very happy this evening seeing all the people rushing to see the movie and support SRK. I would go see the movie may be tomorrow, i don’t know – may be the movie is good, but I will see for the sole purpose of showing my support. Oh, ok let SRK make some more money. No problem. I’ll hate him a little more for all his bank balance and attitude. That’s a different story. Now plz don’t bomb me for that.

note to readers: I speak for myself, you may sync to my opinion or you may have an entirely opposite opinion, but I would still love you for one reason – you are a fellow Indian. There is nothing more that matters.

Oh – A Very Very Happy Valentines Day – Go Celebrate Love.
Though there is no day that Love shouldn’t be celebrated, When there is a Day why not celebrate it? Don’t care if it came from the West or The Ancient Egyptians, who cares man?  Let no goon tell you what you should do this Valentines Day, if you are an adult and are doing no crime (as per our laws) – you are allowed to do anything. Go Love!

Love ya’ll.

Narrated by none other than David Attenborough – the series is spectacular in showing the goodness of nature as well as telling the story in a way that you will forget yourself and wont realise your mouth is open since a loong time.

Sir David Attenborough is Britain’s best-known natural history film-maker (and is known to all Discovery/NGC/BBC fans throughout the world). His career as a naturalist and broadcaster has spanned nearly five decades and there are very few places on the globe that he has not visited.

His Knowledge – unbeatable, His Narration – Outstanding! Always.
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Most of us live in cities away from wildlife making us forget/ignore about the world beyond humans. ‘Life’ takes us on a journey into nature we never get to see in our normal lives or the regular Tv shows, and for the most part, we never knew things existed. “Life” is one such series which will remind you that there is nothing more beautiful than nature and that its also full of mysteries.

“Life” is a must watch for all those Nature lovers and Discovery/NGC/AnimalPlanet fans. Watch only the HD/Bluray on a HDTV/Full-HD-LCD or DON’T watch at all.
I’ve watched it on my new Benq 24″ full HD LCD and the experience is awesome.
(Downloaded 65GB (6.5GBx10episodes) of Bluray(1080i) rip and I will buy the blurays for sure when I have a Bluray player, for now Sorry BBC, couldn’t help downloading when I watched a sample and being a fan of David)

Official Description of the series:
David Attenborough looks at the extraordinary ends to which animals and plants go in order to survive. Featuring epic spectacles, amazing TV firsts and examples of new wildlife behaviour.

Discover the glorious variety of life on Earth and the innovative, intelligent and sometimes bizarre tactics animals and plants employ in order to survive. More than four years in the making, taking full advantage of the latest advances in filming technology, this breathtaking ten-part blockbuster reveals the natural world’s most remarkable behavior in unprecedented depth and detail. Full of amazing filming ‘firsts’ on every continent and in every habitat – from 250 six foot Humboldt squid hunting as a pack to Komodo dragons (the world’s largest venomous animal) stalking buffalo and cheetahs (notorious lone hunters) working cooperatively to hunt prey twice their size – this is evolution in front of your eyes. Yet this astonishing series is not simply about revelation, it is also about entertainment. With sequences that inspire awe, wonder, sadness and humor, Life allows us to truly relate to the animals and their endeavors, and to understand and appreciate them as never before.

If you are interested to buy the Blu-ray copy,
Amazon has the full series on sale. (pre-order as of Feb-5-2010)
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For those who want to watch all the 10 episodes online, here you go:

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For Best Experience: Once you click play, switch to full screen by clicking on the full screen button . If you have a good broadband internet connection, watch in 720p mode – you can switch the modes while playing.
(But I strongly suggest buying the Blu-ray version, you wont regret!)

Note: Each episode has 6 parts (10 minutes each) and they will play continuously.

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————————— Now, Enjoy the Show! —————————

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Episode 1: Challenges of life
A look at how some animals and plants go to extremes to give themselves a chance to breed.

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Episode 2: Reptiles and amphibians
David Attenborough, Reptiles and amphibians look like hang-overs from the past. But they overcome their shortcomings through amazing innovation. The pebble toad turns into a rubber ball to roll and bounce from its enemies. Extreme slow-motion shows how a Jesus Christ lizard runs on water, and how a chameleon fires an extendible tongue at its prey with unfailing accuracy. The camera dives with a Niuean sea snake, which must breed on land but avoids predators by swimming to an air bubble at the end of an underwater tunnel. In a TV first, Komodo dragons hunt a huge water-buffalo, biting it to inject venom, then waiting for weeks until it dies. Ten dragons strip the carcass to the bone in four hours.

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Episode 3: Mammals
Mammals’ ability to learn new tricks is the key to survival in the knife-edge world of hunters and hunted. In a TV first, a killer whale off the Falklands does something unique: it sneaks into a pool where elephant seal pups learn to swim and snatches them, saving itself the trouble of hunting in the open sea. Slow-motion cameras reveal the star-nosed mole’s newly-discovered technique for smelling prey underwater: it exhales then inhales a bubble of air ten times per second. Young ibex soon learn the only way to escape a fox – run up an almost vertical cliff face – and young stoats fight mock battles, learning the skills that make them one of the world’s most efficient predators.

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Episode 4: Fish
Fish dominate the planet’s waters through their astonishing variety of shape and behavior. The beautiful weedy sea dragon looks like a creature from a fairytale, and the male protects their eggs by carrying them on his tail for months. The sarcastic fringehead, meanwhile, appears to turn its head inside out when it fights. Slow-motion cameras show the flying fish gliding through the air like a flock of birds and capture the world’s fastest swimmer, the sailfish, plucking sardines from a shoal at 70 mph. And the tiny Hawaiian goby undertakes one of nature’s most daunting journeys, climbing a massive waterfall to find safe pools for breeding.

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Episode 5: Birds
Birds owe their global success to feathers – something no other animal has. They allow birds to do extraordinary things. For the first time, a slow-motion camera captures the unique flight of the marvelous spatuletail hummingbird as he flashes long, iridescent tail feathers in the gloomy undergrowth. Aerial photography takes us into the sky with an Ethiopian lammergeier dropping bones to smash them into edible-sized bits. Thousands of pink flamingos promenade in one of nature’s greatest spectacles. The sage grouse rubs his feathers against his chest in a comic display to make popping noises that attract females. The Vogelkop bowerbird makes up for his dull colour by building an intricate structure and decorating it with colourful beetles and snails.

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Episode 6: Insects
There are 200 million insects for each of us. They are the most successful animal group ever. Their key is an armored covering that takes on almost any shape. Darwin’s stag beetle fights in the tree tops with huge curved jaws. The camera flies with millions of monarch butterflies which migrate 2000 miles, navigating by the sun. Super-slow motion shows a bombardier beetle firing boiling liquid at enemies through a rotating nozzle. A honey bee army stings a raiding bear into submission. Grass cutter ants march like a Roman army, harvesting grass they cannot actually eat. They cultivate a fungus that breaks the grass down for them. Their giant colony is the closest thing in nature to the complexity of a human city.

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Episode 7: Hunters and Hunted
Mammals’ ability to learn new tricks is the key to survival in the knife-edge world of hunters and hunted. In a TV first, a killer whale off the Falklands does something unique: it sneaks into a pool where elephant seal pups learn to swim and snatches them, saving itself the trouble of hunting in the open sea. Slow-motion cameras reveal the star-nosed mole’s newly-discovered technique for smelling prey underwater: it exhales then inhales a bubble of air ten times per second. Young ibex soon learn the only way to escape a fox – run up an almost vertical cliff face – and young stoats fight mock battles, learning the skills that make them one of the world’s most efficient predators.

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Episode 8: Creatures of the deep
Marine invertebrates are some of the most bizarre and beautiful animals on the planet, and thrive in the toughest parts of the oceans. Divers swim into a shoal of predatory Humboldt squid as they emerge from the ocean depths to hunt in packs. When cuttlefish gather to mate, their bodies flash in stroboscopic colours. Time-lapse photography reveals thousands of starfish gathering under the Arctic ice to devour a seal carcass. A giant octopus commits suicide for her young. A camera follows her into a cave which she walls up, then she protects her eggs until she starves. The greatest living structures on earth, coral reefs, are created by tiny animals in some of the world’s most inhospitable waters.

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Episode 9: Plants
A look at plants and the ingenious and manipulative ways they counter life’s challenges.

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Episode 10: Primates
Primates are just like us – intelligent, quarrelsome, family-centred. Huge armies of Hamadryas baboons, 400 strong, battle on the plains of Ethiopia to steal females and settle old scores. Japanese macaques in Japan beat the cold by lounging in thermal springs – but only if they come from the right family. An orang-utan baby fails in its struggle to make an umbrella out of leaves to keep off the rain. Young capuchins can’t quite get the hang of smashing nuts with a large rock, a technique their parents have perfected. Chimpanzees, our closest relatives, have created an entire tool kit to get their food.

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What do you think? Leave your comments.
Have a Great Day!

Here is one of several clips of that day:

Times of India news Article about why this Full Moon is special:

Don’t forget to watch the Moon today — it will be the brightest and biggest full Moon of 2010.

Scientists said the Moon will be at its brightest and biggest because its orbit is an ellipse with one side being 50,000 km closer to the Earth than the other. Saturday’s full moon will be around 15% bigger and 30% brighter as compared to other full moons.

Science Popularization Association of Communicators and Educators (Space) director C B Devgun said the full moon will be at its best around 8 pm.

The two extremes are called apogee (far away) and perigee (nearby). On January 30, the Moon becomes full, three hours after reaching the perigee, making it bigger and brighter. The moon at its perigee will look bigger than it looks in all other positions, as the apparent size of closer objects is always more. At its closest, the Moon is about 3,56,630 km from the Earth, compared to the average distance of 3,84,800 km.

N.S. Raghunandan Kumar, general secretary of the Planetary Society of India added: “As this is the second full moon of the month, this will also be a blue moon.”

For more info on this Full Moon – read the National Geographic article.

So what do you think?

These emails wont have your email address in the “to” field, they are sent to undisclosed recipients and the email also wont have your account number.

They might have content something like this:

Your Google Adwords Account has stopped running this morning.
Some of the ads have stopped running today (Thursday, 4 February 2010, 04:34:08). We had encountered a number of problems with some of our servers that crashed this morning and at this time we cannot check to see what customer accounts are now running 100%.

Most of all, the links in these emails will take you to a fake login pages on domains like Google-ob.com, Google-ov.com, Google-kd.com, etc. and not Google.com – All real emails from Google AdWords will take you to Google.com only and not to some “Googlesomething.com” or “google.com.something.com”.

For those who are managing clients accounts: you might want to give a heads-up to your clients just to make sure they don’t fall prey to these phishing mails.

Sample copy of AdWords phishing emails:

So, before logging in to links from emails, do check the domain name always.
This applies to all emails and not just Google AdWords emails.

I had a dream to settle down in Hyderabad – my chosen city. My Parents/Grandparents choose this city for investment thinking their next generation will prosper and grow as the city develops. And this is not just about me or my family. (I am not trying to be selfish even when there is a proper cause for the agitation) May be then they didn’t know that the Indian Government would one day become so weak that it would bow down to one man blackmailing by fasting and divide the state for selfish gain, give away a the capital city to gain politically. How long will it take for people to understand neither of these political parties are interested in the actual problems but are all interested in taking credit and saying that they are the ones who formed the state and they should be elected next time. JAAAGOOOO!

Don’t people understand the cost of dividing a state?
No matter who(Telengana or Andhra) gets Hyderabad or even if Hyderabad is made a free zone, the cost involved in this selfish decision is going to be paid by TONS of tax payers money to build new Infrastructure or share infrastructure.

If Hyderabad is going to be shared by both Andhra and Telengana, Neither would make the best out of it. Jobs wont be created by dividing the state. The existing jobs wont come to you because the company is in your region. Didn’t we learn anything looking at smaller states and free zones? Do we want more Jharkands and Chhattisgarhs? I am sure the division is going to benefit KCR and Naxals. Telengana is going to be a safe heaven for naxals. Mark my words!

For decades many families from Andhra settled down in The City of Hyderabad thinking and dreaming that their lives will become better as the city grew. I am no exception. I dreamed that I could settle down here at Hyderabad and build a beautiful house which my family will call Home. I called Hyderabad my Home! Even if I was in any of the of the Telengana districts, I would still call that my home because its in Andhra Pradesh. I never knew that the political parties that WE voted to power will shatter everything to gain a few votes and seats. Overnight my dream is shattered. If Hyderabad is not my state capital or if its not in my state, why would I want to be living here? Why would I want to pay my taxes here? Why would I want to part of the City’s development. Why would I be helping any business here? Why would I want to be a part of the city in the first place.

When I say Andhra, My heart says, hey its our Andhra Pradesh State. But when someone like KCR says you Andhra people, who is he talking about? Aren’t we(Telengana, Coastal and Rayalaseema) are all Andhra people? My mind is confused just like all my brothers and you cousins in different regions in the state. Someone who doesn’t know the meaning of "Divided We Fall" is trying to wake up that regional feeling and make the most out of it.

Now to the dirty political parties:

First to the Congress:
Rosaiyya: I thought you are one strong man when you didn’t let Jagan into power. I was impressed. Not just me, but no one wants Jagan expect some YSR sympathizers who think ministry means hereditary. I don’t want a man who drives 2 dozen high end sport-utility vehicles (wherever he goes) for no reason to rule my state. Does he know the meaning of the words "Pollution" and "Global Warming"? I am not ready to be ruled by a person who has a ton of allegations that sounds and looks to be true. I dont want to be ruled by a man who paints his face with a sad expression so that he can benefit his father’s death. And You can’t handle a few students wrongly encouraged by some political goons? You can’t handle one man threatening hunger strike? You can’t handle some political goons (who didn’t get any votes and are totally ruled out by their own people) when they ask for half a state as their own? Is that a piece of chocolate? When you can’t handle things you run to Delhi and ask Sonia to please just give them what they want? Is that what you said there? May be I was wrong. May be Jagan Mohan Reddy is a better choice and a better leader. May be he can fill the gap his father left.

How will people sitting in Delhi, understand what a common man here things? By seeing a few agitations and one man fasting on TV, you people think you know everything? Whom did you ask before making a statement? How can a common man reach you and tell this is not what everyone wants. Its your responsibility to study the facts and act accordingly, even if its making statements to calm someone for the time being. Your statements can create Panic and that is the state of this state now. At least the state of most of the state.

Do you even know why YSR never considered this as an issue? Why he never gave in when there was noise on this issue? Do you know why KCR never raised his voice when YSR was there in power? Even if KCR made some noise whenever he can, YSR knows the usual BS that KCR talks and never gave it any true value. Telengana people know this.

You are making a big mistake if this Telengana bill clears. This is the last time you are going to be in power here. Mark my words! Have you ever thought why YSR didn’t give Telengana though he promised earlier to win allies. Have you ever thought why would people in Telengana vote to Congress and not vote TRS (in the recent election) when we(meaning state Congress) are not willing to give Telengana? Even for a kid who does not understand complex political calculations, that means the majority thinks separate Telengana wont help and KCR/TRS talks only BS.

This is a State for Gods sake and PEOPLE live here. Not a Cake to be cut and divided on Birthdays. Soniaji – Happy Birthday by the way. There will be more wishes from my State to you and your team soon.

To the Telugudesam:
Babu Chandrababu, have you lost you mind? Rather I should say have you lost your balls? Where is that Chandrababu who was known as the man who developed Hyderabad and man who is against separate Telengana? Now the whole state knows that in the all party meeting you too supported the agitation and separate state bill to be introduced. Frankly, have you lost your balls? Someone threatened you? Or silly you – have been thinking you will get 1 or 2 seats in separate Telengana? I am not sure who in Telengana would vote for you. We in the IT industry liked you more than your opponent YSR even though he was more successful than you are in terms of winning people’s hearts because you brought up this IT industry in Hyderabad. You should be resigning from the TDP. I demand! You seem to become just like any other political rat craving for power and craving for any minute chances you can grab. You don’t deserve to be leading THE NTR’s party. Shame on you. Shame on you!!

To the BJP:
Only God knows what kind of cruel things you should be planning for the separate Telengana when you people agitated for the separate state. If there is one party that i would like to eliminate from my country without thinking, that would be yours. Yay! taaliya!!! You people are desh drohis to me. You don’t deserve to be citizens of India. Your parties and leaders would BURN in HELL. Like someone said, you people are not Ram Pujaris, you are Ram Bhejaris. I hope the meaning is clear. You made Ram the Hindu God your prostitute and you would do whatever it takes to impress the Hindu community for votes. Well, I am a TRUE Hindu and I am telling you, one day all Hindus will realize the dirty mind of yours and burn you alive and on that day, Ram will be proud again to see his Ram Rajyam without the dirty and sick BJP. Shame on you!!

It would be wrong if I don’t mention the Shiv Sena, MNS and Co., your cousins right? Shiv Sena? WTF man? Who gave you that name? You are an insult to the name of lord Shiva. Burn!!!

Oh btw, WTF do you(BJP) want in separate Telengana. I am not sure if there are many Muslims to mass murder or to do mass rapes in Telengana.

Ah…Hyderabad Muslims? Now I see what your idea is.
Burn in HELL. Remember!

To Chiranjeevi/Praja Rajyam:  
I am wondering when you are saying that you are supporting separate Telengana – "who cares if you support or not?" May be you are planning for at least 1 seat in the separated Telengana? Who would vote you there when you cant convince the strongest of your regions to vote for you. Shame on you. Btw, even if you close the party and get back to movies, we wont be watching them. So, take some rest Chiru. Another important point is that candidates who want to stand for Praja Rajyam in separated Telengana, wont be having that much money (they plan to start from ground) to fill your pockets Unless they were already in power earlier in another political party and made some money through corruption. In real life you are not the people’s hero. You are not the Tagore in real life. You are going to fall. Mark my words!

To Loksatta:
Dear Jaiprakash Nayaran, I like the sound of your name itself. It sounds corrupt-free. I believed you are the only person who has some brain among the state political leaders. Not just that, I thought you were intelligent and know what you are talking always. I listen to your criticism on political parties and always found my leader in you. I would vote for your party without question, either you standing or any unknown candidate of yours. Because to many people like me, leaders like you are rare (at least that’s what we thought). You always talk facts and we the young generation like that.

But what happen to you? got threat calls and thought to give-up? Or got a piece of that Telengana NRI fund? How can you support separate Telengana. It was sad to see you give a statement that "congress is doing a mistake be delaying and not listening to people of telengana". You seem to be bribed. I lost hope on you. Convince me if it is otherwise.

Finally to the TRS:
Why the heck seperate telengana? do you even have a plan, a strategy of how would be improving the region? Your people didn’t even vote for you man. Dont you get it? You are making a big mistake by intimidating people. A BIG mistake by giving a wrong message to student communities. If at all you make it and get a separate state, one day i am sure, those students whom you inspired to throw stones in the city, will realize how selfishly you and your party wanted to cash out the regional sentiment and those students will then drag you on to the roads and make you run naked. Your heroism will be short lived.

Unless you people think, these rouge politicians will cash out on everything they can. Even God is not spared. But religion, caste, color, region – how does all this really matter?

Jaagooo brothers. How long man? How looooong?

Andhra Pradesh, as we call it(our home), will never be the same?

Who will answer all these questions?
All we are left with is questions, disappointment and anger.

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Update after seeing reader’s comments:

Guys, I respect the sentiment of Telengana and the people fighting for seperate state or any other region and I am not trying to be selfish! But the IDEA of splitting the State for betterment does not look like a proper solution. Think of this – When so many leaders came up till now (I am sure you elected Telengana People as leaders) 30-40 years and no development happened, how can forming a new state help? If funds from center is what the hope is about, why cant it be asking the state/center for development schemes, industries, projects and funds to the region while there is an united state?

A few other seperate state agitations resumed in other states because of Telengana agitation and the statement given by Congress on passing the bill. How many more states? Smaller states can easily fail. That’s definitely not the solution. Every state has regions/districts which are comparatively less developed that others. Does that mean the less developed areas should go separated? Every district should be a state because one district is better developed than the other.

Are the seperate Telengana supporters saying there are no regions/districts in Andhra/Rayalaseema that are lack development? Everything is like ram rajyam – full of green fields, people filthy rich, people eat 4 times a day, no problems, bindas life? what else are your assumptions? If you visited one or two places and think the whole state other than Telengana is like that, you are wrong. 

If you think Congress or BJP(the only 2 main political parties in India) is interested in giving a seperate stage for Telengana, why are they not talking about development and welfare of the region? Why is it that they always keeping saying "we will give Telengana". Same applies to BJP – it didn’t talk about separating telengana when it was in power, why are they trying to support now? BJP also started supporting other agitations now in other states. Dont we get it? Every party other than the ruling one will try to support – because they can loot more.
The rich becomes richer and the poor becomes poorer.

Rather than asking for seperate state which will only lead to more problems like improper administration and quarrels(both internal and external) and corruption – why not ask for development of the region. We are not asking for it and they are not saying anything about it.

If the question is about dry lands and water, a seperate state meaning diverting waters going to other regions in the state? Or is there really a solution for both the regions that Telengana leaders or people have in mind? If there isn’t a solution for both the regions, separation will only result in fights between the two/three regions. Till now its fight for a seperate state, in future it will be fight for water just like the existing problems between states. Why wouldn’t anyone talk about sharing the resources peacefully with a proper plan? 

I read in another Telengana blog suggested by a commenter below and it states jobs and waters are stolen and we will get them back. There might be dispute on waters which can be resolved with proper planning but how can jobs be stolen? Statements like these provoke people to freak-out and create violence. Is this what education and our culture thought us? If we are working in Chennai or Bangalore that means we are stealing their jobs? Isn’t the whole of IT industry stealing jobs from the west?

Some commenters to this post say Hyderabad always belonged to Telengana and Andhra people dont belong to Hyderabad. I dont think so. Telengana doesn’t own Hyderabad. It belonged to Andhra Pradesh since I was born. Telengana itself is a part of Andhra Pradesh just like Rayalaseema or Coastal Andhra Pradesh. If our neighbors Pakistanis say that Kashmir belongs to them because during the British rule if(assume) the British maps showed Kashmir in Pakistan region, now we will give it back to them? Wont you fight to death death for it just like any of us Indians? I am not trying to take a class or something here. Understand the essence.

Chidambaram says "It seems people feel that they are neglected despite speaking the same language". As far as I can see this, this can only add fuel to the fire. Of course they feel so. In spite of looking for a solution and looking into how the people in the region can be satisfied, or instructing the state government to plan development and betterment of lives, the center deliberately gives up? or may be all this is a very good plan to calm down things and may be both the regions are not aware of?

And btw, just for clarity about the other agitations – seperate Andhra, seperate Rayalaseema – these are just tactics as far as I know. I am against the separation of the state in the first place. Forget separation of the state in to 3 pieces.
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Well, It was an 1hr30min episode on NGC. Normally any episode lasts for only 30 or 60min right? Well, this was special, very special. We are talking about a holiday video which was set to be one of the best wildlife video ever shot. It is now the most watched wild life video on YouTube. The video tops all other wildlife videos posted by BBC, NGC, Animal Planet that were shot by full time professional wildlife photographers.

The NGC’s documentary mentioned the video on YouTube, no of views it got and highlighted at least 2 dozen good comments among some 30K comments at the time of creation of the NGC documentary, I’m guessing that was in 2008. The video was shot in September 2004 according to Wikipedia.

Battle at Kruger is an eight-minute amateur wildlife video that depicts an unfolding confrontation between a herd of Cape Buffalo, a small pride of lions, and one or two crocodiles. The video was shot in September 2004 at the Transport Dam watering hole in Kruger National Park, South Africa, during a Safari guided by Frank Watts. It was filmed by videographer David Budzinski and photographer Jason Schlosberg.

The Video on YouTube now has close to a 50 million views and 60K comments. The video was all over the press, both News Papers and News Channels. Check out the press section on this site.

In one line, this is one such footage, that professional wildlife photographers with all those top quality equipment and by spending all their life in the wild will die to capture at least 1/4th of it. And when some guy on a holiday gets it just like that, you can only imagine how it feels for a Pro.

Dereck Joubert, a photographer and writer for National Geographic says in the NGC documentary:     "There is no doubt at all that the tourist who shot that scene was unbelievably lucky. I mean, we would’ve considered ourselves lucky to have had that whole scene happen in front of us."

Watch it and I am sure you will learn something and will never forget it.

Global Voices (Globalvoicesonline.org) has an interactive map “Threatened Voices” showing bloggers who have been threatened, arrested, or killed for speaking out online. China has the most with 33 on record; Egypt is a close second with 29. India has none? I love my country! checkout the map here.

It was Devesh Mishra’s friend from Singapore who shot the video and uploaded it on YouTube. “I know a little bit of English as I am intermediate (10+2) educated. However, in the video, I was helped by my friend as he told me what exactly to speak in front of the camera,” the taxi driver reveals. Mishra further informs that eight foreign travellers have so far contacted him and five of them have turned out to be good business.

According to Mishra it was amazing to get such response and this made him understand the power of internet. “It was a wise decision as I eventually understood that I could not have reached those consumers if I had advertised on some other media. Internet helped me to reach out to foreign customers,” he said.

Internet has now become an important part of Mishra’s life. “I created my email id on Yahoo and now I religiously surf the internet at least twice a week. I get hundreds of emails every week. Most of the mails are from foreign travellers looking for my services. I also visit Yahoo and Google to be always updated about latest happenings,” he said.

Get the full story here.

See? Now that’s a good case study of how the Internet can be put into use.

But, well if you think what kind of accent this man has,.. He is an ordinary Local Taxi Driver, You are not looking at a pilot. Are you?

I Wish Good Luck and Success to this man who is for sure going to be a role model for several others.