A Technocrats view

Music at its Best @ South by South West

2009-03-22T21:18:00.000-07:00

I am a big fan of Live Music. No matter what type of music, language, country it belongs to, i would like to see them. People who has similar taste will love some place which has tons of Live Music and Austin is very well known for its self-proclaimed nickname "The Live Music Capitol of the World". It is not just the nickname, i would say, it is really the live music capitol of the world. It has two Mega Music fectivals in a year- "SXSW" and "Austin City Limits". I recently tasted my first Experience of Live Music Festival @ the South by South West (SXSW) Festival which is a combo of Music + Film + Interactive and i thoroughly enjoyed the music festive this year. Here is my experience @ The SXSW:-

Day 1:- Friday Night
On a wonderfull friday evening, Sudu, Arvind, Prem and i decided to see some Live bands @ the SXSW. None of us had any information about any bands, but still we were enthusiastic enough to watch some live performance. Well, we started with the great Texan House Martini @ The trudy's and headed straight to the Auditorium Shores, Downtown.

First group we saw was - "The ARC Angels" from Austin, TX, Music Type- Rock. This is pretty famous and tight Rock Band. One of the band members from this group had performed with Rodger Waters and also became a member of Eric Clapton's Touring Band. Listening to such nice live music @ the open air auditorium is a different experience alltogether. Auditorium Shores is the perfect Outdoor place to see any live performances. Typical Spring weather which has light breeze adds more flavor to the show.

After watching 45 mins of live music @ the Auditorium Shores- we went to "Hooters" for some chilled Beer and food. Then we went to 4th street. We briefly checked this open air club "Cedar Street Courtyard". This club allways has some amazing International Bands and it lived to its expectations. The band was amazing. The music band that electrified everyone was called- "Peter Bjorn and John" from Stockholm SWEDEN, Music Type- Rock.

After a quick glance at the Cedar Street Courtyard, we went to 6th street and entered club "Barcelona". We met bunch of our frens (Mohan, Praveena, Ravi, Girish, Tim, Pablo, Prameet, Sid) @ this club. This time it was POP music. Music band name- "Fannius III" from Los Angeles, CA. Band was pretty impressive. They performed 4-5 very upbeat songs. After the Fannius III came the next band name- "..Music Video?" from Tcsan, AZ. Music type- POP. I did not like this band. Well that is just my opinion.

It was allready 1:00 am and the night was rocking. We came out of Barcelona and went to this club name- "Vice". One band had just finished performing and it was time for some other performance. What we saw was- instead of live music band, they had a DJ. This club had few people when DJ took the stage but the dance floor was jamm packed within few mins of the DJiin. The name of the DJ was:- "Papparaazi" from Los Angeles, CA- Music Type- electronic. The real name of the DJ is Cesar Rios and is just 24 years old but a well-known name on the dance floors and he surely was a surprise package for us. This guy is one of the best DJ i have ever heard. The music was mostly Trance/Electronic. His music selection and mixing was amazing and the transition was very impressive. This was the highlight of the night.

Day 2- Saturday Night
This time we had a big gang (Arvind, Prem, Sudu, Ullas, G3, Jameel, Kunal, Arun, Prameet, Nivas and i). We were outside the "Chuggin Monkeys". This band sounded pretty nice, so we entered the club. This group was playing some awesome music. The name of the band was- "AutoVaughn", from Nashville, TN, Music Type-Indie, Rock. This band is very much influenced by The Beatles, The Police, MJ, Pink Floyd. Interestingly, this live performance was not the part of the SXSW. It was part of the RedGorilla Music Fest which was going on with parallel to SXSW. RedGorilla Music Fest does not have any association with SXSW. Well, overall this group was certainly the highligh of the night.

AutoVaughn @ Chuggin Monkey's

Next stop was at my all time favouraite club- BD Riley- Irish Club. Arvind and i saw two performances at this club. First group was - "The Orchid Highway" from Vancouver BC- Canada, Music Type- Rock. It was a 5 member group. Drummer was simply rocking. This was their first road trip to Austin, TX and group members were very much excited. I would rate this band as "Tight Band". It was simply awesome. We also managed to had a great conversation with one of the band members for a long time. The next band in the same club was "The Parties" from San Francisco, CA, Music Type- Rock. It was a decent group too. Out of two bands- I personally liked- "The Orchid Highway".

Next was at The SXSW venue. Some music group was playing, Music Type- Country. It was ok. They played some nice soft songs. It was very relaxing though. Ya this band had celo instrument too.

Apart from the regular music bands playing @ the clubs/shores/venues, they also had street bands. I saw two such bands- One was country music and other was african music. One thing we missed was the group name- "Delhi to Dublin". That was one one of the highlight of the festival this year.

I liked this festival very much. You go downtown where hundereds of music bands are performing live. You listen the music from outside the club, if you like it go inside the club, get your drinks and njoy the live performance. There are tons of clubs in Austin- Downtown. During the festive- every single club has live music band and every hour different band performs. Simply exstatic.

Well to end my note i would simply say if you want "Music at its Best, be @ South by South West".

Texas Tadka

2008-10-16T16:28:00.001-07:00

Yo everyone. This article is to introduce you to austin's most talented, enthusiastic and energetic dance group - "Texas Tadka" and i am proud to be the active member of "Texas Tadka" (TT).

When and how was "Texas Tadka" formed?

Texas Tadka is fairly a new dance group and was formed by bunch of talented young chaps in austin. It was formed in Jan/Feb 2008. How was it formed? Well, everyone in our group is dance maniac. We use to go for dancing @ the clubs on regular basis, so we knew our dancing strength and over the period of time, the spirit of performing on stage in public was evolved. Couple of us thought of taking part for group dance in Jashan 2008- Indian Cultural festive organised by UT of Austin. Initially, "Texas Tadka" had no name and in no time people suggested couple of spicy / happening names for the group. I remember, top two names recieved the maximum votes- "Chance Pe Dance" and "Texas Tadka". And final voting round made "Texas Tadka" as the clear winner for the group name.

When did "Texas Tadka" first Performed?

TT's first ever performance was @ the UT campus in South Mall in March 2008.

How was the Experience?

Simply electrifying. This group did lots of hardwork in bringing up their first performance. we have enjoyed each and every practice session that we did together. It was jan end when we decided to do punjabi dance on super hit song "Rang De Basanti" (RDB) from movie "Rang De Basanti". It was one of our talented member "Praveena" who came up with most of the choreography for (RDB). The best part about our group is you will find lots of talent in different forms in each individual. Also, rehearsing together made each person closer to other in terms of friendship. We were becoming a bonded group in very short time which is very essential for group dancing. On the final day of the performance, we all got ready in the dressing room. We wore punjabi costumes. Boley to sab log ekdum punjab de Kudaas and Kudiyas lagte thein:-). We were waiting for the announcment and from the stage they announced- "Our next performance is from Texas Tadka. Up we go on the stage and before the music started, the beautifull mother nature started showering. It was drizzling but not bad at all. The music started- Ting ning ning ning ning ning ning, Ting ning ning ning ning......and our Rock stars started awesomely. The dance stage was wet by the ongoing drizzle, but we did not fail to perform. Everyone danced nicely with full energy, very expressively and very much in synched. Our Dance ended with our great styling and while we ended we heard a huge round of applause from the lovely audience. For me, that was the best part of all hardwork. Listening to the applause from the audience and people appreciating your talent and hardwork, that was the great feeling. Simply awesome. Watchout the Video of the Dance Performance

Where else TT performed apart from Jashan 2008?

TT's next dance type was medley- It was a fusion of three songs- Mehboob mere, Hare Raam, Hare Raam.. and Mauja Mauja- 1 min each. It was very well choregraphed and very much different then the first performance. This dance performance was initially planned for a public event @ Barsana Dhaam. We did not perform @ Barsana Dhaam. Finally, this awesome dance- The Medley was performed at my brother Vishal's Wedding Reception party in Dallas in May 2008. The performance was simply awesome and energetic. Again, Texas Tadka recieved huge round of applause from the huge audience.

What's next in the agenda for TT?

After the "Medley" performance in dallas, we took a long break of around 3 months without any new dance idea. Finally, in November, we decided to get back and start working for any new dance. We decided to take part in "The Show of Hope" by Asha Education. It is the talent contest. There was prelim round. Texas tadka was selected as top 3 Dance Group among Adult Dance category. We will now be performing for the main showcase on 25th Oct to compete among three groupss. This time the dance theme is Hip Hop. we are dancing on the song name:- "Aai Paapi" from Kismat Konnection. We are very much looking forward for the main performance.

What are TT's future plans?

TT's main goal is to entertain everyone, inspire others to expose their hidden talent, to create new dance steps on different dance themes, participate in public events and have fun.

Any Group Slogans?

Recently we have created some of the slogans for our group and we would like you to cheer us by shouting- following slogans at the show when we are performing.

Tadkan's- Austin ki dhadkan

Tadkan's- Sabke Dillon ki dhadkan

Texas Tadkan

Active members of Texas Tadka:-

Mehul Dave

Gitanjali Mathur

Ullas Pazhayaveetil

Gayathri

Bijal Sanghani Shah

Steve

Praveena Vadrevu

Ravi Mathur

Mohan Rokkam

Deepti Busireddy
Vamsee Krishna

Sitha Bhagawat

Well, i hope Texas Tadka have a great future and perform in many many shows and entertain everyone. Thanks for reading this introductory article about Texas Tadka. I will keep you informed about future performances by TT. Till then goodbye from a tadkan.

Jal Pari and Doorie- Great Music Albums

2007-01-19T00:02:00.000-08:00

19th Jan 2007:- This is my first ever experience to write for someones music album. These albums has touched my heart that its now unavoidable to not to write about it. So whats so special about this music albums. In one word its "Awesome". Well, i have heard the singer/maker of this albums earlier. His name is "Atif Aslam". I heard his earlier songs such as "Aadat"- Jal Pari , "Tere Bin" - one of my fav. Both songs were exceptionally great. His songs has lots of specialities in it. First of all the words are so touchy, secondly the tunes are great, third is the composition of the song is awesome and fourth and important thing is the way he sings (especially his voice). His voice is undoubtedly different then many other singers. He is a talented person. He is exceptionally good for performing live concerts. Though i havent seen in personal, but have seen the videos.

Well, his first album "Jal Pari" had some good tracks. Among the hits were "Aadat". Aadat was a hit song. It was mega hit in bollywood. This song was also videographed in the movie "Kalyug". The orignal song from atif aslam was an excellent composition. Especially the use of guitars. One of the main reason this song is all time favourate is its Lyrics. Just read the following lines for song "Aadat":-

"Aadat"

"na jane kab se .

umeedein kuch baki hain

mujhe phir bhi teri yaad kiun aati hai

najane kab seEeEeY

duur jitna bhi tu mujhsee

pass terey meinnn..

ab to adat si hai mujhkoooo aise jiney mein"

Other gud tracks and especially my favourates in this album (Jal Pari):- * Ehsaas, * Mahi Ve and * Yaqeen. Ehsaas is an average song which has nice rhythm. Mahi Ve has typical punjabi ascent and very well sung. My fav in this album and topped as number 1 is song "Yaqeen". Ohh man, this song says it all that it has to be my fav. Excellent starting music that has the mixture of guitar and piano. Then the way atif has started singing is so special. Ohh man, i love this song. The words are really touchy. Maybe thats the reason i love this song a lots. You should definately listen this song.

"YaQeen"

aaj dil dukha hai tum yaad aaye

anjanay loog hain apnay kahan dhoond payein

jagay hain sooye nahin

aisi hai meri yeh baichaini

din bhi wohi raatein wohi

sansoon main sansain hain nahin

shamain ab dhalti nahin

anchal jo tera simat jaye

aap yahan hamesha rahein

duuri rahay na houn faslay

ab agar tum milay to itna yaqeen hai

hans deinge hum to roona nahin hai "

The latest album "Doorie" was released on 22nd Dec 2006 and is already a big hit. Atif decided to continue his love related songs in "Doorie" too. The hitest song in this album is ofcourse title song "Doorie". This song has all top qualities in it. Again, as of in all Atifs songs, words are always the higher then the average words you find in any other music albums. Lines makes intense meaning. I am highly impressed with atifs songs. His songs lyrics have reall meaning and is not made just for the rhyming purpose. Great atif, you did a great job. Checkout the Doorie track"-

"Doorie"

Doorie ....Doorie ....Doorie sahi jaey na ...

sahi jaey na ...

sahi jaey na ...
khamoshiyan ye seh na sakun ....

awaz dey key mujhe tu dey ja sakun ..."

I was amazed to listen this song "Hum kis gali ja rahey hain (Dance Mix)". This song starts with just guitar and light chords with slow start from atif and then the drums comes in. Uhmm very impressive. Especially on every antraas he takes the song with lower scale and then repeat it on higher scale uhmm yaaar thats too good. Excellent mixture of electric guitar, acoustic guitar with the drums and the punjabi ascent of atif ohh man simply good. Excelent composition."

"Hum kis gali ja rahey hain (Dance Mix)"

hum kis gali ja rahey hain ..

hum kis gali ja rahey hain ...

apna koi thikana nahi .....

Armanoon ki anjuman mey ,

beysud hai apni lagan mey ...
apna koi fasana nahi ....

apna koi fasan nahi ...."

Other good tracks from Doorie are "Kuch is tarah" and "O Re Piya". You can check out his website to know more about him at www.aadeez.com. I give my best wishes to this young and talented singer. He has bright future ahead. Its great to listen and watch a talented person such as Atif Aslam. Too good. Keep it up Atif.

Austin Freezes again

2007-01-17T10:00:00.000-08:00

Ice Crystals formed on our house roof

17th Jan 2007:- Goodmorning everyone. Austin freezes again on wednesday, making sure that all business stays closed. When i got up this morning and glanced from my window and saw that it wasnt raining neither snowing but roads were wet and icy. I guess everything was done by early morning. Early morning it had Light Freezing Rain , Light Snow , Light Ice Pellets (sleet). These caused ice pellets formed on roads which is is very dangerous to drive. The weather channel shows that by noon the weather will be above freezing level and ice will start melting soon. Maybe by 3pm everything will be up and running. Meanwhile, i have started my work from home. Its pretty good on such weather day to be at home, have jot cup of tea. work from home while watching news on TV. What else you need more..?

Well regarding the condition outside, today its much of ice sleets rather then snow. To take a glance i went outside and saw my car conditions.Both cars were freezed with crystal ice. Our palm trees git shrinked and was on the verge of death due to extensive freezing. On our roof, the crystal ice formed were much longer then yesterday. It was nice to see such scene. Yap i packed every such scene on my didgi cam. I guess digicams are made for such things only:-).

OK OK enough of blogging now. I better go back to work now. I have plenty of things to do.

Its snowing in austin

2007-01-16T21:06:00.000-08:00

My sweet home in austin, TX

16th Jan 2007:- Uhmm, this is the special day for all austinites and especially for me for a special reason. Well, this blog is not for that special reason. Today in austin it snowed. Thats a rare scene you see. Last time it snowed was back in 2004 on valentine day. The weather man predicted that there will be storm and snow too. On monday, 15th jan, our office got closed at lunch time and almost everyone in city were at home by 3pm.

Well, this morning wen i got up, i saw outside my window and to my amaze i saw that its snowing. Well, aur kyaa karnaaa thaaa...I brushed and freshen up and took my camera and we all went out. Its a rare scene in austin like this. Its so nice to see snow. I love it. I shud tell you all that i am lucky to see snowfall again. In past 20 days i have seen low to heavy snowfall for 6-7 times by now. Here snowfall was not heavy. It was mild. Our cars were covered with snow and our house roof ends was formed with crystal ice tubes. It looked beautifull. Lots of people came out and took pictures. It was very nice weather. I love such cold weather. Our grass were completly dead. Wen i walked on the grass it made crunching sound haha. I asked my mom, dad n bro to pose for kodak picture moment:) and they gaved a nice pose haha.

Most of the business were closed. Travelling was disscouraged unless its important. Roads were covered with snow. In news, they reported that ice sleets has formed on some roads. Approx 20 flights were cancelled from ABIAirport, many were delayed. In such conditions, the bridges are the most dangerous. Mostly, such bridges are closed but even if its not closed people shud avoid travelling on such roads and if its unavoidable you may have to drive with extra care and skills.

Well, it was gud to see such weather with office closed particularly (had to work from home though:-( ). Still weather guys have given storm alert till wednesday noon. If it continues to snow, office will be closed again for tommorow. Lets c wat happens. Most probably storm has already moved towards east.

I wish austin shud get such snowfalls every year. Njoy the cold weather austinites.

Escape from Death - Adventorous journey of New mexico

2007-01-16T01:03:00.000-08:00

31st Dec 2006:- Year 2006 was one of the worst year i ever had in my life. It was last day of the year and i was a bit relaxed cos i was waiting for new year. But i never knew that something bad was coming up later on the eve of 31st Dec 2006 . I along with my fren sid, went to new mexico for the x'mas week vacation. It was amazing vacation. Trip was great. excellent snowfall and nice skii experience at NewMexico. Everything was perfect untill the eve of 31st Dec 2006. We were on our way back to austin from New Mexico and suddenly we met with an unfortunate accident on I10 East bound near Sonora, TX. This is wat happened:-

I stopped the car at the gas station at the inersection of US285N and I-25E. we were driving a SUV. FORD Escape. It was time to refuel and change of driving shift. We refuelled at the gas station and had gatarade and candies. Sid took the driving seat and started on our next 270miles journey towards Austin. he took I25E. It was perfect Interstate Highway. nice weather. It was one hour now from the point we changed the driving shifts. we were discussing about the New years plan and other stuff that were problamatic in 2006. then we started a new topic about what we gona celebrate at austin that same nite. We were woried whether we can make it before 11pm. I was changing songs from my iPod which was being played on our SUV audio system. Suddenly i told sid, that even if we cannot make it to austin on time, we will celebrate our new year party at Fedrigsburg which is just 80 miles away from there. Thats all at this time something happened. I dont know wat really happened but sid lost control of the SUV. It was moving on 65-70miles. it went on left side and then he moved wheels to right side and again left side and so on to make the SUV stable. I shouted that sid what are you doing make the car stabilise. It was moving fast and zigzag and the SUV was out of drivers control.

Our SUV before accident :- 31st Dec 2006:- 1pm

He applied breaks and then our SUV bashed the nearby Cliff (rocky mountains) on the left side and then our SUV rolled off the right side. All this while i was watching and i sensed the death in my mind as our car was in speed and out of control. That was a tragic scene. As our car rolled off on one side, i found to my amaze that my organs and my body accessories were all perfect. I was protected by the Seat belts. Thats y they say Buckle up your seat belts all time. My first reaction then was, i shouted and asked sid that is he allrite..? he said he is fine but his legs are stucked. As soon as he replied i saw a cop coming to our rescue. he first enquired both of us about our condition. Sid again said his legs are stucked. A passerby passenger stopped and came to our rescue. he fed lights on us so that cop will know wat to do next. Cop asked me to swtich off the ignition. I unbuckled my seat belts and stood up and switched off the ignition. Then sid shouted pls unbuckle him. I unbuckled him and tried to pull him to free his legs but was unable to do so. Then he himself pulled and somehow freed his legs.

Our SUV after accident :- 1st Jan 2007:- 7am

It was hardly 2-3 mns and i saw 5 cops cars. Now both of us were standing inside car and our head were outside side window which was already broken. The cop said to close our eyes and move against the winshield. We did so and he started breaking the winsield. he tried his best, but winshield just coulnt break in whole. He then told me whether i am all rite and asked me if i can jump out of SUV. I climbed on the window and jumped out of the SUV. As soon as i came out i sensed pain on my left chest. It was paining a lot. Cops pulled out sid from SUV. he was out and i saw his right knee was badly injured and his face on left side was bleeding minorly cos of window breakage. he was shivering a lot as it was cold outside. I was leaning on my stomach and a sherriiff came nearby and inquired about my health. he said a ambulance is on its way. He then asked sid about his condition and asked him for his driving license. He started filling accident forms and asked about my DR license. After filling the forms he returned back the DR License. Meanwhile Ambulance had reached. Two ladies started treating us. They took us in the ambulance and took us to hospital. At the hospital they took all our Xrays, took urine test and treated Sids knee and treated my neck and chest pain. Luckily all our test came positive. Non of our ribs were broken. They finally asked what we want to do next. I told them that as it was nite time i dont want to call any of my frens and family. We will better stay at some hotel and will depart tommorow by bus or train. They called sheriff and the sheriff took us to the nearby hotel. Bad part was that we were in a very very small town. they did not had any rental car service. Luckily the hotel was good. We stayed there for a nite.

Next day early morning i called the Wreckage company to take our luggage from the car. The wreckage company guy came to pick us. As sid was injured i went alone with the towing guy to pick our stuffs. When i reached there i was shocked to see the SUV condition. My god that was horrible. How the hell did we survived was my first reaction. Then i gathered all our luggages and small stuffs from the destroyed SUV. To my amaze everything was fine. My laptop, digicams, My iPod and to the surprise i found my glasses stucked inside but were not broken. This is a big miracle. Nothing was broken. I took the stuffs and that guys dropped me to the hotel. Then we took Greyhound Bus towards San Antonio. It reached San Antonio at around 3:30pm. Our next bus for austin was late. That was again bad. we had to sit and wait for next bus. Finally we were boarded in the next bus at 6pm. We reached austin at 7:30pm finally. Ohh my god. Got relieved wen i saw dad to pick up us.

Just take a look at the destroyed car photo. We are really lucky to be alive. We just escaped from the mouth of the death. This is surely a big miracle Some proven facts to note down:-

1. Always keep your seat belts buckled all time while on roads. (We did thats y we are still alive).

2. Dont drive too much for long hours. we were driving for almost 11 hrs. (This is the lesson learnt by us).

3. Always expect the unexpected (One more lesson learnt).

4. If you driving a long drive, always take a Big SUV like we did. I am sure if we were in small car we wud not have been alive. I thank the FORD Escape for protecting us.

5. If you are renting a big CAR, always buy full coverage or LOSSS and DAMAGe plan. I am glad that i purchased this plan so i dont have to give anything from my pocket.

6. Believe in miracles (One more lesson learnt). As the worst ever year 2006 has finally ended, i hope the year 2007 will show me some good days.

I really like to thank to the cops and the paserby passenger for rescuing us, the Hospital crew who took care of us, the sheriff who took us to the hotel and to the towing guy Mr Black who helped us get our luggage back. Thanks to all for your patience for reading such a long true story. You all have a very Happy New Year

Regards Mehul

Adventorous journey of New Mexico- Day6

2007-01-15T22:43:00.000-08:00

Natures beauty Enroute austin via US 380 E.

31st Dec 2006:- On the way back to austin:- This is the utmost important day which i will never forget in my life. This morning we got up at 5am. Got ready and watched news and noted all closing Highways. They did not mention about our US 285 highway. we noted down the Highway status road phone number for checking later. We took all our luggage and went to front desk to check out. Had cofee there and checked out. it was pretty cold but was not snowing, but it was chilling. I started the drive. It was dark in the morning. In our SUV we set our destination to austin in our Nav system and asked for shorter route. we knew we have to first take I25N and then US 285S. when we reached at the I10 higway our first disappointment was waiting. We saw the I10 North bound was closed due to heavy snow. That was just our start of journey. We got our maps back and figured some route that we decided last nite. we knew than itself that its gona be avery long drive back home. I took I10South then cos that was the only option left. Thats the longer distance. Our first goal was to reach Albuqurque and then figure out which route to go. It was dark and heavy fogs with mild snow.

At around 7am we reached albuqurque. And now was the time for b'fast but before doing that we first thought to discuss and finalise the route. We were at the intersection of I40 and I25S. wondering which to pick. Ofcourse I40 towards texas was the shortcut but i called the highway status number and it did not say any status about I40. Sid said to take I40 and take chance as it might have opened but i was not confident to go from that route as we knew that something is wrong on that way and we knew that I25S is all opened. I half heartedly said ok lets go from I40. But i still wasnt sure to go from there so i saw a cop and we went to him and aksed about I40. He said it might be closed ahead. I took our SUV back towards the junction of I25 and I40. I was eager to start the journey from I25S but my fren sid he wanted to go from the shortcut I40 which seemed closed. We waited at the junction forawhile and took our SUV back on I40, I wasnt happy to go thru this route. and finally just 5 mile ahead we saw that I40 is closed from ahead. man, we just wasted 2 hours just waiting for I40. I then took the SUV and took I25S without any further discusion. Cos it was usless to wait there for I40. Meanwhile we decided to open our maps and figure out the shortcut ahead. We then finalise to move on US 380 which will be 100 miles far from Albuqurque. i continued driving and then just before US 380E we took b'fast halt at the McDonalds. Aaaah haaa my fav, Egg Muffins and cofee uhmm vow.

From there, sid took the driving seat and i rested a bit. Sid took the US 380E and to our surprise, this route turned to be a scenic route. It was exceptionally great route. It was again a bi-directional one-one highway. So it was not the safest route but the scenery was exceptionally great. Roads were small, the side were covered with low snow and dry mountains and sometimes white dry mountains and in background snow mountains. I shud tell you guys, whenever you travel a long journey by road sometimes select a scenice route. Its always worth selecting such routes. You will see lots of natural beauty on your way on such routes. we then reached the intersection of US 54 and US 380. Refuelled our SUV. let me say something about our Ford Escape fuel capacity. Its an nice heavy SUV but bad part is it does not have huge Gas capacity. Full tank is just 13 gallons. man u need to stop more to refuel such heavy gas consumable SUV. But no complains about the drive and the toughness about this SUV. Its the same Ford SUV that us saved from death (refer my next blog:- Escape from death). Well, we were still njoying this scenic route. Overpassing on such routes is always dangerous. You have to keep watch on the signs on when we can overpass a slow vehicle and also keep thorough watch on oncoming veicles. Its fun though. I was already taking the photos of the scenic view. I love taking pictures, especially when i am moving on roads and trains.

We were moving quite steadily and covered lots of distance. We were still in New mexico but were close to Texas by then. Signs were clearly seen by the heavy snow beeing disapeared on the mountains. now the mountains were green. It was an awesome sunny day by then. Still outside the weather was a bit cold. I switched on my iPod and started The don title song. uhmm and our driving was getting fun with the music. hehe:). It was again time for petpuja and we wedre waiting for a city to come. At around 1:15pm we reached rosewell city. We went to Pizza-Hut. had pizza buffet. vegies are always restricted with limited items only:-) I just had salads and cheeze pizza. not bad though. After lunch i took the driving seat and started the rest of the journey. From here we had to take US 285. It took awhile to get to US 285 cos of city traffic. Again i shud tell u that our Navigation system helped us a lot. Its hastle free. It shows and says all directions. Even if you have missed some ext or went in wrong direction, it will re-calculate the direction again and show you the new route. I was amazed by the accuracy of this system. I was very much impressed by this Nav system thruout my journey. Ok back to our route :-). I finally took US 285S. This was a small highway as well. It was sunny weather. We cud see the oil refineries and fans on this route. It was very unique. Also found so many cattles on side. This is the highway where you will pass the NewMexico-Texas border. Its always nice to pass thru the borders. Well, this was the longest route and i drove all the way till we reached I10E. On US285, my avg speed was 80miles. I went till 100 sometime to cover the distance. Had overpassed some SUVs on the way. I noticed one thing on a long journey that, its sometimes great that many cars stay in a group. It was pretty much samething going. Like speeded and overtook someone and then resting a bit and fueling at one gas station and you meet the same car there haha:). Nice driving experience.

Well we reached the intersection of I10 and US 285. We halted at the gas station. We dint knew at this stage wats gona happen next. I had some gatorade and chocobars and then we changed our driving seats. Sid took driving seat from there. None of us knew that in next 1 hour somethng bad gona happen to us. Well thats in my next blog (Escape from death).

I hereby end here. We njoyed our driving all day long. It was nice experience and unique experience. I thank you all for reading my true life incidents. Hope you have njoyed my adventorous journey of New Mexico. Please do drop some comments if you feels so. Dont forget to read the next blog :- Escape from death. I shud also thank the camera support:- Kodak easyshare:-).

Freeways teachs us one lesson:- Always Keep moving on

Adventorous journey of New Mexico- Day5

2007-01-15T18:22:00.000-08:00

30th Dec 2006:- Uhmm this was relaxing day. It was 6am when we started from albuqurque from our frens apartment. Took break at the Burger King to have B'fast. there was nothing opened due to heavy snowfall. It was my turn to drive now. I drove all the way to santa fe. Roads lookd dangerous. We dint knew whether its open or not either. I shud appreciate the work done the Road guys from the NM Government. they tried the best to keep the roads clean and salted so that people can drive safely. The salt and sand truck were continously cleaning the highway. On the way the worst part was the visibility. Very heavy fogs were getting me to drive very slow. that all u can do in foggy weather. Dont drive fast at all on foggy weather and snowy roads. Its dangerous. They had displayed the noticeboard that travel is discouraged. Slowly and steadily, we were approaching our destination. Lucky part was the highway was just opened till Santa Fe. just after santa Fe exit the highway was closed. Ohh man we finally reached our hotel and dozed off. We pretty much spent our day inside the room as it was very heavy snowfall. In the eve we started exploring the city. We first saw the city capitol building. Then we did one new inetersting thing. We purposely got lost to explore new places and as we were having Nav system we wud sync back our route to hotel. That was interesting.

We then went to this nice place call "Santa fe Plaza". Its nice place to hang around. Snow park, Shops, snowman and cool place to hangout. I bought some soveniiours from the native american shop. I like the shops at this place. They were unique. i also tried the cowboy hat and took a pic haha. It was cool place. Then we asked our nav system about the best and expensive mexican restau in town. It mapped us and we followed it. We were not disappointed. The restau seemed to be very nice. Nice ambience, nice service and nice food. I tried sangrila and tried some new mexican dish. It was awesome. Very nice restau. Restau name is "Tomacitos".

We then went to our room and opened the highway map to plan the return journey as there were so many highways closed. We knew it will be difficult to reach austin before 11pm on 31st nite. So jotted down different routes and planned to get up reall early and start our journey on the way back to austin.

All thses days passed very fast. we had initially planned to visit Taho mountains on day 5 bit due to heavy snowfall, roads were closed. But we njoyed staying at the santa fe, skii at the mountains and clubing at the Albuqurque. Santa fe a small town and capitol of NM is peacefull and very beautifull place to spend ur vacation. I highly recommend you this place for the vacation. night life here is poor. but u can always drive to Albuquque. That place is crowded and is a big city. I appreciate to everyone at the Santa Fe, Albuqurque for there generosity and hospitability. thanks a lots. Thanks to all my readers as well. hey folks dont think i m done yet. Day 6 is the most interesting day ever occured in my life. It was the last day for year 2006. Do read the last day of the tour and the continued story of Day 6 "Escape from death".

Adventorous journey of New Mexico- Day4

2007-01-15T16:51:00.000-08:00

Heaven on Earth- Santa Fe Mountains

29th Dec 2006:- This was my best day of the tour. we got up very early this morning and switched on the TV to listen news. They said its snowing heavily all over Santa Fe and lots of higways and roads are closed. We were disappointed to know that but we dint gave up. We said we will still go to the mountains for ski. As soon as we came of the room we saw our SUV covered fully with snow. How to get in the car and how to start it n wat to do where the questions in my mind. Took a big brush from the receptionist and cleaned the front side window and the windshield and got in the car, started the car and strted the anti-fog heater. Came out and cleaned the snow from all the windows. Voww this was a unique experience alltogether. Then we had bfast at the Dennies. Ohh man, everything was covered with white snow. This was the day for new mexico record snowfall. Later this day we came to know that it had 18" of snowfall in santa fe.

After b'fast, sid started driving and me on the front passenger seat all set for photo sessions. First we saw the beautifull houses on the way. It was extremely gerorgeous. Snowing mildly and it was great scene to see. Its hard to find such scenes and with camera in my hand i took some of the most exciting and mindblowing pictures. We were amazed by the looks of the mountains and the trees. just a day back everything was green and beautiful. Today everything has turned to white but it was much more beautifull then the other day. Vow, two different kind of beauty for same site. Xmas trees were all covered with heavy snow with forming different shapes, then you see the curved roads, then you see the snowy mountains. This mixture of beauty was perfect for anyone to fall in love with nature. I again saluted nature for creating such distinct change in weather beautiness. At one curve there was a picnic area. we stopped our SUV and tooked lots of pictures here. This was the most interesting spot haha. I shud mention this event. we had parked our SUV just next to a pick-up truck. As i got down from our SUV i saw this guy n gal having fun in the middle of the mountain. haha they were of no shy and sharam they were making love without any concern of anyone haha. That was interesting. We left the scene so that they can continue more :) and now headed towards mountain. We reached there at around 10am. Rented the ski gear. Today it was not difficult to wear the boots and the ski guy gaved me the intermidiate skiis. All set for the ski we first started with the auto ski lesson. Theres i spent an hour to learn my turns and especially i learnt how to stop and apply breaks appropriately. First tried without poles to get it controlled and then tried with poles so that i can speed a bit. It was nice self learning lessons. I watched other experts and learned myslf. Though was not perfect yet.

Now its time to go at higher levels haha. I bought the lift tkts and stood in queue for Lift 4. I thought this lift will halt at midlevel mountain so took this lift but wen i sat and it took off and it took me all the way to the top of the mountain. man now thats scarry. I am not even in begineers level and i have came to the top of the mountain. There i reached the top and unboarded the lift and as soon as i unboarded i felt down haha. Thats how it hapens wen u take lift for the first time. I reassembled my ski gears and got it ready. I was relaxed wen i saw the boards at top of hill that they have 4 routes that goes down. One is Blue:- Steep down, second Blue mid:- steep and fat for intermidiate skiiers and other two were green thats for the begineers. i took the green beginers route. First step was a not-so steep slope but pretty much steep for me haha. With much reluctant i jumped and skiied and then i felt down haha. That was fun. I was all dressed up with ski jacket , gloves, neck/nose protector and warm cap. my glasses were getting fogged and cos of that i cudnt c. So kept it in my pocket. Next was flat route. i njoyed this section as it was flat for 5-10 minutes. then cam the steep curbes. Man how do i go now haha. I pushed my poles and headed and then again got out of controll and fell down on back on purpose. Thats the trick i learned. if u r out of controll just fell down on ur back n u will be fine. I felt down so many times. N finally i learnt how to quickly get up with ski wearing on snow. this was fun. One expert also taught me how to stand firmly with ski on slopes. That was realy helpfull man. Then after lots of efforts i reached the midlevel. Vowww it look lot of time. I fell down many times but i njoyed. Lessin learnt is:- "In life no matter how many times u go down or met with no sucess, u shud try to get up and take try again n again and try to work on ur new goals very enthuly till u get the success". From the midlevel to the base i learnt how to controll speed, how to turn, how to apply brakes. I was now very much good enuf to ski. I came down at the base n saw the time. My god it took 1hr:30mins to reach down from the topmost peek of the mountain..Voooowwwww.

At the base, Sid, had already returned the gears and was taking photos. I was still in skii moode and told him i will go up again. this time i took Lift 2 which went to the mid level of the mountain. this time i unboarded properly and skii nicely. vow once u get to know how to ski as an beginers level u will njoy. After two more tries from the midlevel it was time to wrap up the ski gears as ski mountains closes at 4pm. It was snowing heavily. At the base we had some photos. I was very much exhausted. Returned back the ski gears and went to search our SUV as it snowed a lot and all cars were covered with heavy snow haha. We now started returning back to our hotel. Ohh man i shud admit ski has become my one of the fav sport now.

We had subway sandwitches for dinner and then slept for awhile at our hotel. Got up at 10pm and headed towards Albaqurque for partying. Ohh man we departed on the wrong day. It was nasty weather out there. Heavy snow and low visibility. This was the most adventorius drive we had. It was 60 minutes drive and was very interesting. Night time, low visibility, sleepery roads and tempt to drive fast haha made out drive very interesting. We reached Albuqurque (ohh man it took 4 days to pronounce this city name haha). We had been calling this city as Abbu-Turkey hahaha. Well wen we reached there we came to know that everything is closed cos of nasty weather. Ohh man. And to our ba luck our hogway back to santa fe was closed due to very heavy snowfall. It was 11:30pm . I called our fren there n then she said they can stay at her appartment. We were not sure and then we first went to the restau with our frens. I had spicy black bean burritos. Ohh Man, thruout Newmexico, u can get spicy green chilli chutney. Voww.

It was nice that our fren provided us the accomodation that night. she was with her aunt. It was nice to meet them. Next day early morning we returned back to santa fe. Read more about Day 5 in my next blog...

@ the base of santa fe ski mountains

Adventorous journey of New Mexico- Day3

2007-01-15T16:36:00.000-08:00

28th Dec 2006:- Welcome back to the journey de Santa Fe. We got up this morning and straight away headed to Tortila Flats for our BFast. It was snowing a bit. We had omlete and coffee there and then we headed toward the santa Fe Ski mountains. I was very much curious to see the snow mountains as i have never seen such things in my life. We asked Nav system about the santa fe Mountains and followed the nav map. Vow the weather was excellent to drive. It is just 18 miles from down to uphill. It was simply beautifull route. Driving slowly as it was slippery. on the route all beautifull xmas trees and the mountains and the roads were simply looking great. It was all green and a bit covered by snow. Vow i saluted the nature for creating such a beautifull thing on earth.

We reached on mountains and then rented the ski gears. Vew my first exp haha. It was tough to wear the ski shoes and then carried my skiies and poles and headed to mountai base for skiing. Sid was still fixing his ski gears and i started to put my skiies on snow. Haha this was so funny. I thought its easy to put but was difficult to put ski under boots on snow surface. It took 20minutes to get use to gears and then was a bit comfortable. First took the auto ski lesson and then went on the first level. haha i felt so many times though. Learned lesson ki if u loose control of manuvers then just throw urself on ur back and fell down haha that was fun. I learnt how to turn and how to get up. Ouuff the day was tiring and i was exhausted. But was fun.

At arounf 7pm we came downhill and reached hotel. Man u wont believe we were dammn tired and just slept and got up the next day hahaha. Day 4 was the best day of the tour. Dont miss it. U shud definately read it. Catch u on day 4.

Adventorous journey of New Mexico- Day2

2007-01-15T15:38:00.000-08:00

Don ko pakadna mushkil hi nahi...na munkin hai:-)

27th Dec 2007 (Day 2):-Got up pretty late and came out of room and there was the nice view of the city "Santa Fe". Santa Fe is capital of New Mexico and is pretty much a small town. It has unique house architecture. Its called adobe types. Houses at santa fe are very very expensive. The city is well known for its historical structures, housing architectures and Ski mountains.

Well, our first goal for the day was to have Pet Puja (to eat) haha. we got some info from our hotel receptionist. She was pretty and well informed about the place. her name was tamy. sid was mad about tammy haha.. every morning he use to first get up and visit the front desk haha. Well we went to this nice restau called "Tortilla Flats". This place was amazing. Ultimate restau. I had martini and Vegiee quesadilas. It was too gud. Spicy too. We then headed to see the city in general and visited the Outlet factory and all other small places. We bought the ski jacket, gloves and warm caps to get ready for the ski the other day. By the time we roamed around the city it was already dark. We then went to inquire about the nite life this city had. To our disappointment santa fe did not had any nite life in particular. They had clubs but were nit interesting and wud close down by 10pm. Then some guy told us to go to city called Albuqurque. We left for Albuqurque. Its 60 mins from Santa Fe. Weather was perfect to drive. we reached albuqurque at 7pm. we got all the info about clubs, bars, dance clubs and restaus. we then went to a nightclub njoyed the show and came out and went to Taco Caban for Dinner and then headed to dance clubs. At 10pm the club starts tehre. We reached there at 11pm at the Sauce. This is a very cool place. It has two dance floors. one for salsa and ither for HipHop. As the nite passed by this place was packed with all youngster vowwww....

We met two new frens there. We made frenship there itself. Pretty soon we danced together. But i wasnt that interested that nite for dance so i pretty much watched and smoked. It was fun though. i shud commit that i am a very poor dancer too :) haha.At 2am we came out and we were dammn hungry. Gurls asked us to follow them for dinner. We reached at the restau called "The Frontier". This is at the Univ campus. Man, the restau was jamm packed at 3AM. Spent some time there and it was already 4am. we said bye to gals and left for santa Fe. As i had consumed few beers i dint drive :) It was sid who had to drive agaian and he was sleepy too. Reached hotel at 5am and dozed off. Read for Day 3..My first exp for skii..

Adventorous journey of New Mexico- Day1

2007-01-15T14:41:00.000-08:00

It is 26th dec, Tuesday 2006 and we were suppose to depart at 7:00am from austin. But cos of sid, our journey start got delayed by half a day. Sid missed his flg the other day and departed from DC on 26th morning. Meanwhile the same morning i was all set and rented our SUV. It was FORD Escape with Navigation system. I drove to home and kept my bags and all stuffs and drove to BestBuy to buy a charger for my iPod. Bout car charger and FM transmitter for my iPod so we can listen all my iPod on our SUV audio system. Fast fast i went to pick sid at airport. Flgs were late and finally picked him, he freshen up at my house then we had lunch at the Tacocabana and now all set to start our 800+miles journey to New Mexico. we hit the roads at 4pm from austin. Ouuuuuuf it was too late to start.

There we go ....had our first halt at the fedrigsburg. had icecream and walk around the downtown. I always love this place. Its a german town. U get pretty good wines and german beer here. Its known for the german beer. It was already dark and still the destination was far far away. Sid took the driving seat from this place and we continued to move. It was good to have nav system for such a long distance. its fun avtually. We took US 290W and then finally reached I10 headed W. I10 highway was pretty good and safe. We have to drive approx 250 miles on the I10 stretch.

Ouuf it was tiring run but was getting interesting as it was my first ever long journey by roads. There we were all ready for dinner at the Burger king. after dinner i smoked a cigarate....Vaaah kyaaa baaat hai:) no man i m not a chain smoker lekin once in blue moon on such cold night i never miss such apportunities haha. I took the driving seat now. we took US 285 N. it was already 11pm and this highway was not a safe one too. It was bi-directional one way lane each highway. Sid dozed off pretty much thruout the journey from then.

We had reached El Paso and were closing towards Santa Fe. I was in city limits and it was 2am and suddenly a cop showed his lights to me that means i got caught haha. Yap in city they had speed limits of 35miles (i hate driving at 35)..and i was driving on 45 miles. I got a tkt from that cop. That was my first ever tkt that i got it. man i was angry on that cop. It wasnt that much speedy. well me n sid were already making some fun on the cop ..ofcourse after he left haha. It was less then 10 miutes in some other city....i guess it was rosewell (where you can see UFO museum) a lady cop caught me again for the same reason. man, i was angry on this cops. Cos on highways i drove all the way 100miles and no one caught and in city just for 45miles u r catching me haaaa not fair:). we argued with the lady cop and somehow the lady cop just warned us n left us without any tkts hahaha....

By this time we were in the state of New Mexico. It was night time so cudnt watch anything. it was 3:30am and i was still driving. Mr sid was happily sleeping. sala kaminaaaa:-). i had to loo. I stopped the car on the shoulders and got down and peed in the woods. Ohhh wat a relief. there i breath the coolness of NewMexico air. It was cold and little snow was there on the ground. I got back in our SUV and speeded and finally we took I25S and reached santa Fe and we checked in our hotel at 5am early morning. I drove continously for 6 hrs. Ohh man that was tiring. next day in other blog.. coming up...

First step to secure your online accounts

2007-01-15T14:12:00.000-08:00

This article is not purely a technical one but is intended to spread awareness to use complex passwords for online accounts:-
I have heard a lots from my frens and some people complaining about their online accounts being hacked. We all know that these days people use online accounts:- Email, Shopping, Bank, Phone and other work related ID and passwords too often. I want to give some scenarios on how that accounts can be hacked without any special tech skills and how can you prevent them, atleast make it tougher for hackers to crack for it. I am not a very well techie guy that can hack into any account. But have ideas on how to prevent them. Atleast wana give some basic first step:-
Well very common things that people do is set their account passwords too common. Like name, last name, phone number, wife name, kid name, apt name, work phone or employer name. Take an example. If someone meet a person online. N if someone intends to hack her/his email account then they use the pshycological skills. They will try to collect more personal information from chat like a/s/l, name, last name, city, state, country, boyfren/girlfren name, school name, college name, best fren name, employer name, fav stars, etc etc....They will form a word list of that person. Download an tool from web, from which u can generate more combinations of words from the available list (collected from chatting, mailing and phoning). Now they will use some brute force technique. It will try all possible passwords with ur email ID automatically till it hits the match. N boom account is cracked. This is the common technique used by many peple especially to crack public mail accounts (*ot*mail and *ahoo).
Another plot:- A dummy webpage of *ahoo logon page or bank acoount page is e-mailed to you (which is exactly same looks). Asking you to enter the credentials. Wen you enter the credentials that details are e-mailed to the bad intentioned Culprit who wanted to see your user ID and passwords. So never fill any info on a webpage that u recieve by e-mail. For bank sites always rely on digital certificates ..(I will go in details in my next blog)
To avoid being the victim, try to define a complex password. Do not reveal more info to strangers or new frens or even to ur closest fren. Try to create a proverb or rhyming word which does not have any of ur common information. Try to keep one Capital letter, and alpha numeric word and ofcourse give a long password. the long the password, the long time it takes and more difficult to crack it.
Thanks for reading this blog.
Lets make the online world more secure