Agumbe - A roadtrip

Agumbe - A roadtrip

AGUMBE A BRIEF CARD -

Type - Hill station , Rainforest

Elevation - 643 meters

Highest point - Kundadri Hills (826 meters)

Nearest Airport - Mangalore International Airport  (100 km )

Agumbe is a beautiful city located in the Indian state of Karnataka. Agumbe is 1 hour 20 minutes far from Manipal.Its in Shimoga district.

When I visited Agumbe first time the road was not in a good condition but now it is constructed and well maintained. It lies on SH65 that is state highway 65 of Karnataka state.The bike I used was Yamaha Fazer 150cc. To have a good biking experience one should always check the bikes condition

Roadtrip - Manipal to Agumbe

Before starting the road trip to Agumbe one should  make sure that his bike is in good condition.Because after driving 20 kms towards Agumbe there are no garages or bike repairing shops. After 40 minutes I was able to see the Agumbe valley.
It was moist laden. I was able to see the clouds and they were making the Agumbe peaks not visible.When I was driving my bike I meet more than 20 hairpin turns.These turns were so sharp that you can go faster that 10 kmph. The next thing to keep in mind is that this road is only connection between Udupi and Shimoga district , so always heavy vehicles are passing by. Driving safely and slowly were only options.In between Agumbe and the valley there is a tourist point made by KSRTC which is known as Sunset Point. This point seemed to be one of the main attractions of Agumbe the sunset from this point was awesome.This point is located on a point from where almost whole western part of valley can be seen.

Believe me the Sunset I witnessed was one of the best.The whole Agumbe valley was covered with clouds and I was thinking that today I wont witness sunset due to monsoon.But sudennly a little area in the cloud blanked went away and I witnessed bright diffused sunrays in the valley. I was totally amused with the beauty derived by nature.

After this I started driving and within ten minutes I was in Agumbe village. Agumbe is a small village in the heart of western ghats. There was a small guest house near Agumbe bus stand , also there was a small restaurant where one can get tea and snacks. I had some snacks and then I decided I should visit the water fall ie just 5 km from Agumbe bus stand. Its a very small water fall (dont get confused with Koodlu Theertha falls water falls ).

This waterfall was having very small pedicure fishes. I was just wondering for pedicure people spend so much money but they can find free pedicure naturally here in Agumbe.

 KUNDADRI HILLS

After the small water fall I moved towards the famous Kundadri Hill. Kundadri Hill is a mystic peak and its hight is 826 meters . It has religious importance for Jain religion. Kundadri Jain temple was build by  contemporary  Jain rulers. This temple is peice of art. It shows the classical Indian Architecture .Even in modern times carrying megalithic stones to this hight is a difficult task.The Karnataka government has created MPCA(Medicinal Plants in-situ conservation area) on kundadri hills.This MPCA project was funded by National Medicinal Plants Board.

There are lot more places to visit in Agumbe. But in a single day these three places are easily approachable.

If anyone is planning to stay in Agumbe for atleast two to three days he can visit many more places like kudlu theertha falls , kunchikal falls.

The best time to visit Agumbe is in mid monsoon.The rain fall is high during this time.

Some time Agumbe is also referred as "The Cherrapunji of the South".

In Agumbe rainforest flora and fauna is very diverse.  Its a hot spot for zoology and botany lovers.

There is a institute set-up by government.Its name is   Agumbe Rainforest Research Station .

Its main motto is to conserve the rich biodiversity of Agumbe rain forests. As it inhabitats many animals which are in conservation status.

So this trip was very exciting and informative one. If you want more information about Agumbe rainforest and how to reach there then feel free to contact.

Seven Beans Manipal - Best Cafe corner in Manipal

SEVEN BEANS MANIPAL - BEST CAFE CORNER IN MANIPAL

Mnaipal is one of the best study destinations in India.Manipal University has slowly gained quite a reputation in that.Manipal is a small town with people from 60 nationalities and almost each state of India.When a City gets people from diverse culture , countries and states then the food of the city also gets diversified.So Manipal is also gaining a reputation as a mini hub of food cafes , Coffee parlours and pub and bars.  Today I witnessed a new joint in the city named Seven Beans Manipal. Its on Manipal-Agumbe highway as per Indian roadways naming system its SH65(State highway 65).Seven beans was looking quite and quite different. 

WHAT'S UNIQUE

When I entered the parlour receptionist welcomed me. The staff told me that the place opened a day ago. So by default I was one of the first visitors too this joint. I told the staff that I am a travel blogger. Then the staff introduced me the CEO of Seven Beans Mr. Gaurav Shah. He told me that this is his third venture he has already a very popular Coffee parlour in Hubli. Mr.Shah gave me a trip to Seven Beans Manipal. He told me many things that opened my mind how an entrepreneur thinks.

I noticed that the whole place is decorated and designed in a unique way.

• Each table in Seven Beans Manipal is Unique and has something different
• Some tables have chess while others have ludo and snake ladder games.
• They have an awesome party hall that seems like you are in a maharaja style tent
• The uniqueness became surprising when Mr Shah showed the liabrary he has created in Seven Beans. This makes Seven Beans first in Manipal probably Udupi with a Liabrary.This liabrary has good fictions.
• There is a idea sharing area named - Garage. Its a small area with a white board where students can share there ideas , plans and execution platforms. Mr Shah told me that it was hard to find a place for such activities when he was a student in Mumbai.
• The open area is decorated with unique artefacts.And that too each table is custom made which is quite a unique idea and adds too uniqueness of Seven Beans Manipal.
• COFFEE AND FOOD

Last but not the least the best part of Seven Beans is its Coffee. Any Coffee you order you will have the perfect blend of coffee beans in this. Its so natural that you will come back to Seven beans for sure. I ordered my favourite cold coffee and Cheese Nachos ( a Mexican dish of tortilla chips). I loved both coffee and Cheese Nachos. So I think all Manipalites should visit this place once for sure .

You will relish it for sure. I recommend each Manipalite to visit this place once for sure. for more details log on www.sevenbeans.in

Era of Smartphone Photography in India

Era of SmartPhone Photography in India 

Now this a new Era of Smartphone photography in India. Five years ago it was it was quite difficult to see people with smartphones as now we see very frequently. In India the trend of smart phone photography was started when the phone came up with cameras like 2mp . No doubt Nokia was the one to bring good quality camera's in its N-Series phones and E-series phone. But due to the high cost of those phones smartphone photography was not present in the masses.

Factors responsible for Smartphone Photography revolution - 

1)Evolution of Android Phones Earlier when phones used to come with basic soft-wares. The relevance of mobile camera phones was not much. But due to Android phones came the era of google play store which started providing amazing photography based social networking apps for free like instagram and flicker  , there are many more but these are leading the market

2)Smartphones compatibility with internet  Now the smartphones are better compatible with the internet and now can run faster than the first generation reportedly said smartphones , most popular in India were nokia's classic series or E-series and the epic of first gen smart phones like N- series.These old phones were running on Symbian-s40 oe s60. These phones were not as compatible as of modern day Android , windows or ios phone.Modern phones are so compatible with operators that they are able to connect and run the apps with 2g very well
3)Improved connectivity in India - earlier India was has both problems due to high price and monopolistic market of Nokia Inc. and low connectivity in rural and suburban areas were showing synergistic effect and the smartphone photography was not able to take any leap. But the time changed a optimistic lap and now the smartphones who can run internet and apps efficiently are as cheap as           ₹ 2000 ($40)(mozillafire-1 based mobiles) and there are wide range of operators where Tata-Docomo is providing 2g internet for cheap and on the other hand ,operators like Airtel , Idea and Vodafone are providing smart phone friendly network. Not only this now India is one of the best countries having most improved coverage.
4)Better quality of photos than low edge point and shoot cameras - The quality of photos are equivalent or even better in case of smartphones now no one want to invest even ₹ 3000($50) for a basic point and shoot. People think and right they think , if they will buy a smartphone by an Indian manufacturer like Micromax or Karbon they can get a 8mp camera phone for even less than   ₹ 7000($115) and they have better editing software and apps. So this is a reason lower edge point and shoot manufacture are getting a major jolt .  companies like Kodak and Olympus are almost ex-tinted from market . Kodak withdrawn from the camera manufacturing .
5)Simplicity of Using - Smart phone cameras are pretty simple to operate , no professional expertise is needed that also adds in the smart phone photography very efficiently.Like any time you got a random subject and want to click this , then you can simply click the pic. You are not supposed to hold messy big and heavy DSLRs for even the subjects you just to want click simply. like in the picture below , there is nothing interesting but it looks good as the subject and framing was sufficient to be clicked simply there was no need to anything in that.
6)Instant Sharing and Status Updates make it just better - One can instantly Upload any pic and can  share it to almost all major photoblogging sites including facebook , tumler , twitter and many more. Specially like this is the natural flow how you are going to do things ->You went for a bike ride ->You saw a scenic place -> you clicked a pic -> you uploaded the pic with little editing -> Bravo you did it perfectly . So see , its simple and better all these features unite and make the smart phone photography just better. Almost all platforms instagram , facebook (normal and facebook page manager ) , picasa , flicker and twitter provide such uploading and sharing on all platforms at one place facility.
* conclusion - with a good smart phone with a decent camera , one can create interest in photography by randomly snaping some good shots and share it on sites like insta or fb. The people will automatically  will let you know that you are a good photographer or a bad photographer . by the way nothing in this world is like a good or bad photographer .

Royal Enfield - Made like a gun, goes like a bullet

Royal Enfield -Made like a gun, goes like a bullet

Royal Enfield is considered India's most preferred Cruiser motor-cycle in India.Also it has a long history . Royal Enfield started rolling in 1893 and was licensed under the crown.It was specially made and designed for the use of British army and had a symbol like that . Tagline of the logo was - made like a gun , goes like a bullet.

most FAVORITED cruiser among indian TOURERS

The fact why Royal Enfield is favourite bike of all Indian tourers is that it works well with all kind of roads and all type of Indian climates. India is diverse in both ways , in term of Roads and also in term of climate ,like in Rajasthan the roads are hot in afternoons (around 50+ in degree Celsius) and very cold in Ladakh (0-4 IN degree Celsius). So , to bear all this diverse conditions really a super tough bike is needed.Only few bikes in India suit all these requirements but the imported ones are really costly due to high import taxes. Meanwhile , Royal Enfield suits all these requirements and is economical.Watch this Royal Enfield history and timeline from BBC London.
Royal Enfield 500 cc

This Bike is the new favourite bike among Indian riders , because it can go anywhere. Now it has additional features that makes it modern but it has the DNA of ancestral bullet. It is having the timeless hand-crafted design . It has twin-spark ignition for better functionality and combustion.It is available in the wild green shade that makes it special.
Royal Enfield Continental GT
[caption id="attachment_565" align="aligncenter" width="720"] Photo Courtesy - Royal Enfield[/caption]
Royal Enfield Continental GT , is just the perfect bike for riders who love long drives and also love speed . Royal Enfield continental GT manufaturing was shut down in 1970's but again it is being manufactured and its price is really good which is Rs.2.25 lakh in India.
According to owners of continental GT it is canvas for customisation. Some says this is just the bike for cafe racers.
well that's it for this article
comment below if you want some thing to be added.

Rakesh Asthana to be new CBI joint director

Rakesh Asthana, is  a 1984 batch IPS officer of Gujarat cadre. He is basically from Bihar.Rakesh Asthana is going to be the new CBI joint director.

The current director of CBI is a Bihar Cadre officer named Ranjit Sinha. Ranjit Sinha is born in Bihar too.  Ranjit Sinha was the Director General of Police of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) .Also he had worked as  Director General of the Railway Protection Force before joining as the CBI Director in December 2012 for a two-year tenure. He has also served in senior positions in the CBI in Patna and Delhi.

Asthana is considered to be a favourite police officer of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.Being a senior Gujarat cadre police officer, Mr Asthana has in past worked closely with the present dispensation at the centre.Currently he is  Police Commissioner of Surat .

He had earlier served in the CBI as superintendent of police in Dhanbad, (then in Bihar) in 1994, and was one of the key investigators in the fodder scam case. The scam surfaced in 1996 but some of the cases are still pending in the trial court.

RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav quit as Bihar chief minister in 1997 when his name figured in the fodder scam. Lalu Prasad and another former Bihar CM, Jagannath Mishra, are accused in five cases. In 1997 Asthana had arrested RJD chief in the case.

The Gujarat IPS Association recently elected Surat Police Commissioner Mr Asthana as its president. He has held several important positions in his state cadre.

Meanwhile, the CBI is preparing to raise the issue of manpower crunch in the agency with the ministry concerned. “The government must take the matter seriously. Shortage of investigating officers (IOs) in different ranks has forced the CBI to seek assistance of the state governments in different cases,” sources said.

Top Selling Fictions of 2013

(1)Revolution 2020: Love, Corruption, Ambition  by Chetan Bhagat

Revolution 2020 is an excellent fiction that seems to be real at many places. Its all about Gopal and Raghav two friends who started there friendship in Varanasi. The fiction becomes dramatic when Gopal wanted to be an IITian but his familial and economical situtions does not allow him to persue his dream.  Even he went to the famous coaching town of Kota in Rajasthan but he failed. There is a great love story too and its trigonal initially Gopal loved her. Aarti was the only emotional support for him when his father died. Meanwhile he was in Kota the closeness between Raghav and Aarti increased to an extent. Raghav anyway cleared IIT. Raghav is very patriotic about his city and want to clear the goon and corrupt politicians. On the counterpart Gopal the protagonist took revenge from his relatives who betrayed him in his bad times with the help of a corrupt politician. Raghav parted his way and broke friendship with Gopal when he came to know that Gopal has shook hands with the politicians. The end of fiction is sad but its lovable story Raghav ends up becoming the independent MLA from Varanasi and Aarti gets married to her. In search of ambition and money the protagonist of the fiction Gopal lost a good friend and a girlfriend who once loved him like nothing.
2) The Immortals of Meluha -  Amish Tripathi

This fiction is amazing and it a start of a new era. You may ask why everyone loves Thor and other western gods why they are perfect blend of modern acceptability and religious harmony. The mythology and religion can be tought in a simple and interesting way.Amish Tripathi an IIM-C alumni has started a pioneering era in India as India is a country where there youth is religiously inclined also modernised. This fiction is first among the Shiva Trio-logy. The fiction is based in Meluha where an Tibetan tribal Shiva arrives. Mehuhans believed that Shiva is there saviour after he drinks Shom-Rasha that turned his throat blue. That gave him the name Neelkantha. Shiva lead Melluhans in the war with Chandravanshij who had joined hands with curshed Nagas. An totally fasinating fiction that every indian loves to read. Cover design and every aspect of the book is just perfect.

3) Life is what you make it - Preeti Shenoy

Preeti Shenoy gained mass popularity with this fiction Life is what you make it. This fiction is all about modern life relationship complications. The fictions protagonist is Ankita Sharma.She is young beautiful and cheerful girl but her destiny  changed completely . It touches feelings like What if it threw you to a place you did not want to go?  Would you fight, would you run or would you accept? This fiction is set across two cities in Inia, 'Life is what you make it' is a must read for girls at least.

BAU , Bihar developed seedless Mangoes

So, Its a new success story from Bihar considered to be a backward state of India.It is also considered scientificaly backward too. If you will the number of engineering colleges and Medical colleges they are quite less than South India states.

But this new suucess story has came from Agriculture sector of Bihar.Bihar is agriculturally as important as of states like Punjab and Haryana as its in Rank 10 states for many vegetable production. Bihar also has very old agriculture university named Rajendra Agriculture University , Pusa but due the earthquake the main building was demolished . Central government created a reserch center in Delhi with the same name Pusa. That is the IARI pusa.

In 2010 it was bifurcated into RAU Pusa and BAU , Sabour Bhagalpur.This bold move was taken in the tenure of Visionary ex cheifminister of Bihar Nitish Kumar.Bihar Agricultural University is an autonomous institute under Bihar state government established in 2010 under Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) situated at Sabour, Bhagalpur district of Bihar. Historically, Bihar State is endowed with soil and water resources as well as climatic amplitudes having vast potential of agricultural production of varied nature. The university's area of operation is  25 districts of Bihar. Many people criticized him on that time but the great research work came out in only a short span of four years.

Bihar Agriculture University has developed a seedless mangoes variety. After Seedless grapes here come Seedless Mangoes.

"We have developed a seedless mango variety from hybrids of mango varieties Ratna and Alphonso," V.B. Patel,chairman of the horticulture department at the Bihar Agriculture University(BAU) at Sabour in Bhagalpur district,.

Trials of the new variety, named Sindhu, are under way at different locations in the country but the result of the one at BAU suggests it could be suitable for both integrated horticulture and kitchen gardening.

"We are happy and enthusiastic as well as confident and hopeful of improving the seedless mango variety," Patel said.

wait for September 28th

probably  Narendra Modi is going to address 20,000 NRI'S in Newyork .This is a first of its kind by any Indian politician.This may be biggest political spectacle and will surpass all the receptions of previous Indian Prime Ministers.

According to Washingtonpost.com Narendra Modi has instructed supporters in USA to find a place big enough to accommodate the crowd.  This supposed to be meeting is a meeting of Indian diaspora staying in USA.The date for this meeting is probably is 28th September .


According to sources  there may be crowd of 100,000 people to hear his speech. The main trouble is there is no such a big public place to accommodate such crowd.The other places like Metlife stadium are booked for the date for sports activity. This stadium has the capacity of 82,5oo people.The Yankees is an other big stadium that is also have an event block.

Narendra Modi was able to drew big crowds of  500,000 and even more during the Indian General Elections 2014.He is a largest crowd puller of India.His meeting in cities like Patna's Hunkar rally was quite crowded but some terrorists attacked this meeting. When he was unable to attend all the public meeting for his party in Indian general elections he condusted 3D hologram rallies in many cities . This was first time in India and was quite popular. Many youth took this event very positively. His Merrut rally, Jhasi rally faridabad rally were big hits. The fact is like may cities saw such a crowd first time in history.His page on facebook has 19,623,447 likes.With this figure he is second most popular politician on Facebook after American President Obama.The new likes are growing with a rate of 1.171%while Obama's new likes are growing only with a rate of  0.305%.

Also modi is 6th most popular leader on Twitter . This may be due to less usage of twitter than facebook in India.

So everyone globally is waiting to see Narendra Modi in USA.The whole India and south asian subcontinent is waiting for 28th September.

The Log of Eternity

I just woke up and it was a rainy day. It was around 4:30 of evening. I thought I should take a bike ride. I called one of my friends and asked him - " Bhai Ghumne Chalega " . He replied - "Ha bhai kyu nhi , baithe baithe bor hi ho rhe" . After this conversation I asked him where to go . He said anywhere , that meant that he has no issues of time-log . I started my bike ie Yamaha Fazer and started driving initially I thought of going to Malpe but I am just bored of Manipal now.

         So this day I thought of going some where new but I wasnot getting any thing in mind. And I was almost near Malpe suddenly I got the place and this was - Delta beach of Udupi. Actually its a adjacent beach of Manipal. We reached there around 5:15 , anyway I drive fast when I get a chance.

 Some local young boys  were drinking beer at the shore far from the road. While some oldies were simiply talking some thing in Kannada . This was the clear generational gap we can witness now a days.

   Me an my friend went near the waters . After some time my friend put out his camera and started clicking pics. My this friend is obsessed with pics. I am an amateur photographer too but I try to click some thing about nature. But this friend he will click only his own pics and will ask me to do so. He will say like - Bhai tu to photographer hai" So what I mean that doesn't mean I don't love getting clicked. But this extraobsesed friend want to create impression on Manipal chicks . Oftenly he asked me - Oye Bhai Mota ho gya hu kya.

I was avoiding him . Suddenly and wooden log got my attention.

             This log was like half rotten lying on the shore and was brought here by the tides of sea. Arabian sea was on high tides some 5 days ago. And this high tide had already destroyed some part of Malpe beach. Also the fishermen were asked not to do fishing.

Well attention that this wooden was seeking from my side  was the photographic attention. I did this too. But after that I got a question from where this log has came.How many mythologies we have created about humans. Hindu's say body is mortal and soul is eternal some say we are son of gods . Some say that after death one can get the blessings of heaven and some get the cursh of god and are burnt like a satan in hell fire.

Thats it . You people might  be thinking what is he saying?

My answer is  in this poem - 

If Life is eternal,

Why this log's isn't 

If every-life has a soul

where is this log's soul

If there is religion

why its not for this log

The Molwi  , popes and Pandits 

You think that you know all of religion

Then tell me 

Whats the religion of this log

Anyone Molwi ,pope or Pandit

Can you tell

Whats the religion of this log

No you cant

you people only sell religion

and you sell it to Humans

You cant sell this to the Nature

Neither the birds woods or flowers

I give you fools the answer

The religion of this log is eternity

The eternity of truth

That he was alive once and he is dead now. 

  

  

Just beyond the sunset
Someone waits for me
Just beyond the sunset
Lies my destiny
Where the purple mountains
Lie in deep tranquillity
There I’ll find the treasure
Of love eternally - david haris

sunset and sunrise are the daily phenomenons and we human kind never get bored by watching this as one brings victory and the other one brings hope of victory