23 Wednesday Nov 2011
Posted in Music
Tried these two songs and recorded them, there is lot of room to improve, but again thanks to friends for their encouragement. And as promised adding them here on my blog for download..by the way I had never tried Rafi’s song but guess it came well..
For downloading them right click and click on save as…
Sanam Teri Kasam(YouTube)
Tum jo Mil Gaye Ho(YouTube)
26 Tuesday Jul 2011
Back from long vacation in Europe. We decided to arrange the whole trip ourselves and not use any tour companies or agents. Generally these tours have time limitations and you need to reach at certain location to get into the bus, with kids I think that is quite a commitment and I was sure we were going to miss the bus every day.
But arranging everything on our own was also not easy. First problem was looking for hotel room which could accommodate five and we could not. Hotel rooms in Europe are very small and because of the fire code we had to book two rooms. Now the next challenge starts where you would like both rooms to be interconnected. You can do the same by calling each hotel in advance and requesting them for the same.
You need to plan the trip well in advance as most of the hotels specially international brands will sell off quickly and if you go out of the central location then you need to worry about proper connectivity through metros and underground tubes. Taxis are not only very expensive but will also chew up most of your time because of the traffic conditions in major cities like London and Paris. Suggestion is to download maps well before in advance and plan. Or take a bite for staying in central location.
I had never experienced Eurostar earlier so we decided to use Eurostar from London to Paris and booked our tickets online directly from Eurostar site, their service was quite good and they did deliver tickets through courier. Another place we visited was Leicester to meet our family friends and when I was trying to book tickets from USA, it was showing around $540 for first class tickets one way, when we shared this with our friends, they could get the same tickets for around GBP78 which is around $130. That was a huge difference. According to them the way it works is that UK rail system has deals on different days and months. They also have deals for families. And then on top of it what time of the day you buy tickets e.g. first day we bought a family pass around 9AM and we paid GBP28 but next day for the same pass we got it for GBP19 because we bought those tickets after 10AM. So if you have someone abroad who can help you, you might be able to save some money there.
By the way Eurostar no more starts from Waterloo, now it starts from St. Pancras International station. So when you buy tickets online you need to be careful.
If you are visiting Paris then you need to know the following: Louvre is closed on Tuesdays. Hotel De Ville needs pre-reservation. And if you are visiting on their National Day which is July 14th then you will enjoy concerts and some good shows but will miss going on top of Eiffel tower as Eiffel tower gets closed for the fireworks show. Also we could not visit Normandy because of the train timings; if you are planning to visit Normandy then you need to start your day around 8AM and if possible pre-book your train tickets.
If you are going to amusement parks like LEGOLAND etc. they get closed at 6PM unlike in USA where parks generally get closed by 9 or 10PM.
Visiting Europe is like getting buried in history and you always learn something new. We visited Windsor Palace as well, the palace which is still being used by the royal family so while observing and appreciating the collection of Royals I found a place where dress, turban, sword, shoes and treasure which included a big head of tiger made of real gold was kept. That was a gift from East India Company to Royal family when they had defeated and killed Tipu Sultan in 1799 in India. Killing someone, presenting the dress as proof and then making it a part of drawing room was quite disturbing.
Yes, last thing; do not forget to create a list of few words (Daily usage vegetarian, chicken etc) in each local language that will become handy as other than UK, people in Europe are still catching up with English.
09 Saturday Apr 2011
I am sure back home (India) there was a feel of Diwali last week when India won World Cup (Cricket) after 28 years. It was pleasure to watch how this young team performed. In 2003 when we lost world cup to Australia I had decided not to waste any more time and money on the Indian Cricket team and I stuck to my words until this year. Although I didn’t get time to watch every game but certainly did not miss semi-finals against Pakistan and off course final game was treat to watch and worth getting up at 5AM.
After losing wickets of Sehwag and Sachin at around 20 runs, we literally had no hope left. This feel and experience was nothing new where senior most Indian batsmen would not take the ownership on the crease and get out without any solid contribution. Our hope was completely shattered especially when we saw two young men Gautam and Virat came to help India. I did not even know when these guys had entered the Indian cricket team and after learning that they both are in their 20s, I was literally ready to turn off the TV. My friends urged me to be calm and reminded me, “Hope sustains life!”
To our surprise we saw these two young men batting with determination and patience, realizing the situation and every move they made was intelligent and gave India a solid base for big victory. Off course contribution from Yuvraj and Dhoni was recommendable; specially the six from last ball by Dhoni was a big show off. But hey no one minds show off if it makes sense. Dedicating this victory to Sachin, lifting him on the shoulders showed team work and respect for each other.
The way these young players played not only made Indians proud but also one can learn how team work, commitment, patience and respect for each other can turn things in your favor. Congratulations India!
11 Friday Feb 2011
Posted in Investment
One of the investments last year we made was in a farm-house with around 13 acres of land. Sole purpose was to build our future home but then I realized that even if we keep 4 acres of land for home and other amenities, we can easily use 9 acres of land for some other purpose. First thought was to set up a solar farm as the land is perfect flat and exposure to sun is great, so I started gathering some information, end result of this effort was disappointing but thought of sharing here. Hope this experience will not stop me in looking for other options to GO GREEN!!
Here are few myths and facts:
1. Solar plants on agriculture land: One would think that land zoned as agriculture can be used for commercial solar plants. This is a big no. Check with your township first and then also study state and federal laws. It seems like different states have different stand on this issue. You will only be able to set up plant to cater need of your home on that land.
2. Setup solar plant for your home and sell unused energy to your energy distributor: Generally when you talk to sales people, they will make these statements. But this is not true. First of all if you are setting up solar panels on your roof, chances are hardly it will serve probably not more than 25% of your total consumption of electric power. So there is certainly not enough power, but let us say you get approval to set up solar panels for commercial purpose and have extra energy available, you are totally dependent on your energy distributor e.g. PECO to buy this extra power and sell to other clients but this option might be available today, after two years PECO can say no to you and then you have no way to sell this energy. Only way you can sell energy would be to find out a private consumer like industrial plant, mall etc. That is the reason why more solar panels are sold to business offices and malls.
3. Setting up solar farm will pay for itself in 10 years: It depends upon in which state you are setting up the solar plant. Some states have very aggressive grants and energy rates are very high, e.g. in the state of NJ, but in certain states if grants are lower and or if the energy prices are not that high then this 10 years rule does not apply.
4. I also found that if you are setting up the solar panels on ground vs roof then the price goes up, which affects the ROI.
5. None of the vendors talk about maintenance cost, basically solar panels have glass sheet, and they are more effective if they are being kept clean, how many times in a year do we need to clean them and what is the expense involved, also if you live in the area like ours (North East) where snow hits hard from December until February cleaning snow and ice is extra expense.
Some useful links:
http://www.treasury.gov/initiatives/recovery/Pages/1603.aspx
14 Tuesday Dec 2010
Posted in Technology
India has emerged as global IT hub but new ideas, innovation and products for global market are yet to be seen, while I was keen in knowing what is happening in India specially on the innovation side, I came across this company called Notion Ink. A company started by young kid who had a great vision. NotionInk had made big headlines across the global market.
They have designed a tablet which will directly compete with tablets like IPAD or Galaxy from Samsung, have more rich features like dual-core Cortex A9 processor and NVIDIA’s Tegra 2 graphics processor. Built-in 8GB of flash storage, a microSD slot, as well as three USB slots (2x full-size USB port and 1x mini-USB), HDMI, and a swiveling 3.2 megapixel camera. I have not yet seen any netbook or tablet in that price range providing HDMI and this could be big selling point for them.
Product had some setbacks in between and launch had been postponed couple of times but again market timings are a big bet in today’s economy and sometimes desire to be perfect could spoil all the good work.
Pre-orders on the Adam started last week, but it appeared team was still working on some issues and delivery is committed during January 2011. Company has already sold out Pixel Qi LCD versions of tablet which is definitely boost to their confidence.
I hope these guys are not just targeting Indian market, as the shipping fee from India for the tablet was $50 which is kind of high. These guys might need to figure out how some of the online retailers from Hong Kong have managed to send products to US for less than $10.
I hope this tablet is a big success and if it does then this could trigger another big opportunity of manufacturing and assembling electronic products in India.
RajeshGautam.com 