It was bad news. Dad had caught fever and mom had not yet recovered from altitude sickness. And this was our second day in Ladakh.

My bro and myself had found out the other day that Jammu and Kashmir State transportatin run buses on alternte days to different small villages and towns in Ladakh. We decided to go to Diskit in Nubra Valley, about hundred twenty kilometers from Leh. A hot spring and a Camel Safari were the main attractions of Nubra valley, besides the natural beauty of the valley itself.

So on day two we planned to book bus tickets for the next day, and then tour more of Leh. There's an old strucutre called Leh Palace, situated on top of a small hill in the main bazaar itself. And furthur uphill, is a temple. Both these structures are made up of stones placed one over other without any binding material. At some spots, binding is done, but then that by mud paste. These old buildings are supported by wooded columns and beams wherever required.

The 'look' of these structures reminds you of the Indus Valley Civilization. When you walk your way to reach the doors of these buildings, you get this feeling that a big downpour of thick water from the clouds and the complete palace will get washed away. Luckily, it doesn't rain there too often. Snow fall is all that happens here besides light drizzles at times. The Himalayas to the south of this region, never let monsoon make any impact at this place.



We peacefully got bus tickets for all five of us. It was a little more than a hundred ruppees per person. Then we also asked a travel agency guy to get the permit needed to go to Nubra Valley from the DC office. The students I card of my bro and myself saved couple of bucks since the government there charges less for students.

We had reached the bus-stand, from our hotel near main bazaar, following a short-cut. In hilly areas, short-cuts are generally, stepped routes which bring you downhill faster than the regular motorable roads, circumferencing hills. We had to return to the main bazaar from the bus stand because the Leh Palace was there itself. But for the return jouney, I suggested that we take the longer motorable road so that we get to see more of Leh. After initial resisitance, my siblings bought this logic and consequently we did find a new place to greet us. It was kind of a view point which went furthur up to lead to a small temple. After spending some time here and getting pics clicked, we proceeded to the Leh Palace finally.



Once the jobs for the second day were done, we had all the time in the world to explore the yet to be enjoyed Leh Palace. It was fun climbing the hills, and passing through made-of-clay-andstone-lanes as we made our way to the Palace. The temple was furthur up the hill, and sis gave up on climbing that much. But my enthusiasm kept everyone on their toes, and after more than an hour we finally did reach the top. The view from there was awesome.



Coming down was peaceful, but by the time we had reached back hotel, we were really tired. We had shot so many pics and taked so many videos that dad got bored seeing all of them. But he did see finally! :)All of them!
The bus to Nubra Valley would leave early morning the next day. For that we had to be at the bus stop at half past five in the morning. So we crashed early that day. About the Nubra Valley in the next post....

Even when you are out of the aircraft, the temperature and air pressure do not change in Leh. At an average altitude of 16000 ft, you don't expect anything less. It was twenty degrees when I landed at the small airport surrounded from all sides by barren rocky giant of hills. And they say that's the hottest you can get there. Cool!

A twenty four hours time is recommended to tourists to adjust to the thin air that prevails at this exotic place. But I was too excited to wait to explore the city. So when everyone else was busy crashing in the hotel room (mind you, we had an early morning flight for which we had left for the Delhi airport at three in the morning), I, the birthday-boy, took bath and came out in the streets to witness the beauty around. Though the temperature is so low, you wont feel too cold here because of the bright sun shining all through the day. Only when you find some shade, you realize the real temperature. It's quite an experience.


I walked a lot, sight seeeing before I found an old stable which had just one white pony. These two little kids, came to me and asked to take thier snaps. And they were so happy to see themselves in the LCD screen of the camera. Their smile made my day.

The picture above is the view of the barren mountains seen from inside the stable. And here is the white pony for you.


Nothing much happened that first day. Later in the evening, when everyone else got up, energized, we roamed in the nearby Leh Bazaar. We went to some tour and travel outlets to enquire about sigh-seeing and stuffs like that. And then we realized that most of the places worth visiting were far off and the taxi fares were exorbitant. It was kind of discouraging because we were running on low budget. There are good hotels in Leh which are cheap and it's not too difficult to find a budget-restaurant either. In fact we found a dhaba which served us for most of the time we were in the town of Leh. By the way Leh is the biggest district in the Ladakh region, the second biggest being Kargil.

Unable to decide, how to spend the remaining four days, we planned for the next day. Will post that tomorrow! Have a nice time.

When I had decided to start two blog sites, I was sure what kind of post would go where. The site amritvatsa.blogspot was supposed to carry my regular posts, while amrithome.blogspot was supposed to carry the personal ones where I talked only about myself and stuffs I thought were personal and too boring to be posted as a regular blog post.

But sometimes it's difficult to decide how much personal is personal. Like my recent tour. Initially I was posting it at amrithome, but now I think, it could have gone well as a regular blog because afterall it's about the places that I am visiting and will be visiting rather than anything else. So from now on, I will use this site to post about any tour or trip that I make. The two posts that I made are here and here.

As the title suggests I am in Delhi today. Not that we (read family) had plans to go for sight seeing in Delhi, but we had to stay here because of unavailablity of tickets to Leh on 24th. Any of you who plan to go to Leh by flight make sure that you book your tickets sufficiently early. Airlines run full during the peak seasons of June-August.

Lakshman Jhoola in Rishikesh was a normal suspension bridge, but with Ganga flowing below it, the whole scene was a delight to watch. Water here was way cooler (close to five degrees) than that in Haridwar but we did take bath. It started raining at the same time, and for the first time, rain water appeared warm. Talk about relativity!

There was an eight storyed ordinary temple close to the Lakshman jhoola, and we did climb all the stairs to reach the topmost floor and have a view of the scenic beauty around.

Have to rush now, will come back later. BBye!

Can't believe it but I finally got a reply from Michael just moments ago! Can't quote his mails any more because they are supposed to be personal. Will let you guys know if he liked my work.

This reaction follows this post.

I use gmail for sending and receiving e-mails. But then before gmail happened, I did have a yahoo id like everyone else. To make sure that I don't miss any mail from someone who still does not have my mail id, I do check my yahoo mails once or twice a month.

I did that today. And wow, I found this one. Read it!

Dear Amrit

I found your information on the Internet.

I am looking for a Caricature artist who can produce electronic art from photographs provided. They will all be of people.

I generally have about six different people at a time - about twice a month.

If this is something that you could undertake, please let me know your costs.

Sincerely

Michael Goody

Fort Myers, Florida USA

I am happy! :) In fact this is the second time, a guy proposed to offer me work. The last time, I had replied that I wont have enough time or some crap like that. This time I just couldn't do so.

This mail was sent on 27th of June, so I wish the offer is still open. And are you wondering what rate did I quote? Well, it's two dollars for a black-n-white caricature and three for a colored one.

No, I am not talking about the Politicians. I am talking about Superman and Krrish here. And this is not a movie review. This is for those who have already seen the two recently released movies showcasing these two guys, and who have some more time to waste. Yeah if you are one of them, go ahead and read this post!

Superman is a cool character, completely original, and even though the recently released movie was boring with a very mediocre story line, the character is still as charming as ever. The one and only Superman!


Turn your heads to Krrish now (without having a head-ache if you can)! Not a single thing about the movie, or the character is original. The movie was not as boring as Superman to watch, but it was annoying to see scenes copied from so many different hollywood blockbusters.



Talk about the character first.

• Hairs: borrowed from Tarzan/Anniyan
• Mask: borrowed from Anniyan, painted black and slightly modified
  
• Costume: borrowed from The Matix Reloaded Trinity (yes you read it right, Trinity)
  
• Anti Gravity Skills: Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon

Anything else that makes him a superhero? At least Shaktimaan's costume was(is) one hundred percent original to boast of. What has Krrish got?
And like the character, the rest of the movie has so many borrowed things as well. The made-in-2-years-and-then-destroyed computer resembling a mixture of stuff they had in The Minority Report and Paycheck is jut one example.

And why is that bollywood refuses to grow beyond "20 years" yaar? I am fed up with this number. Every son has to take "badlaa" only after "20 saal". Why not 21, 22, or something less like 18?

If India can boast of an Indian Superhero, there's just one man: Amitabh Bachchan! Krrish, go get some new original costumes first!

More about this video here.

While the sem will begin on time for the rest of us (IITians), the freshies this year will have to wait for one extra week to join the insti! This news report tells that counselling held on day3 and day4 across all IITs will have to be repeated because some error had occured earlier.

So, all the dear freshies-to-be, have a nice time! And don't you worry, the Profs will always manage to call you guys for extra classes and compensate for this one week loss, due to no fault of yours.

Imagine doing this when the Prof is trying to explain some equation in the classroom!

This is the first (very) short (stupid) film shot from my brand new Sony Mini DV cam (yeah it's mine only till I hand it over to dad). A very boring one in my eyes, but let it be. I should leave some scope for improvement, shouldn't I? :)

By the way the actual video that I shot was in 16:9 ratio. Google (previously youtube) however tampered it to 4:3. That's sad!

Updates: There are two mistakes in the narration:

1. The monkey that you see is a 'she'. I have used 'he' instead! oops!
2. Plural of Deer=Deer (I forgot that while narrating). Sorry for that!

Thanks to Nanny for pointing out these two mistakes.

new update: After a lot of wated time, I did figure out how to prevent Google from distorting my video. so here you have a video in 16:9 finally, the way it was actually shot.

This movie is a must-see for all. It's so real and so sweetly authentic and shining with the charm of the old sixites. Only when I went through IMDB, I realzied that it was released in 2005! A classic!

The movie is about an old man, who has a dream, and who finally meets it by his sheer determination. And it's based on real life. Superb! It inspires you to be a person like Burt Munro.

As usual I wept a lot. The tears of happiness, they say it; they make my life! :) Go watch this movie and you wont ever look at your Grandpa the same way!

Here's a trailor, but I think it's not effective enough. Do watch it anyways.

Have you seen one of those mastercard ads, that end with this tagline: There are something's that money can't buy. For everything else there's mastercard!

All the ads in this series have been pretty good, and always manage to leave a smile on your face.

And now, I found this one! And oh my God, this time, it was not about leaving just a smile, it was about making you die of laughter. Watch this commercial for yourself! Creative minds at work! :)