Back to cricket

It has been quite a while I wrote abour my favourite topic, cricket. And thanks to Zaheer Khan, I got the topic to write about. To be very precise about my point here, Zaheer khan's comments about australian team are uncalled for. Statements like this australian team is the most defensive australian team are completely uncalled for.  It is clearly evident from the score cards as to who dominated the game. The very fact that Ponting dared to give a sporting declaration with a target of under 300 on a day to finish is enough to show the amount of courage he has and the amount of confidence it has in his bowlers. Then , it was left to India to find out ways of delaying the inevitable and to put it in best words for India, they managed to salvage some pride in this tailor made slow pitch for them. Yes, it is a fact that Aussies are missing a key spinner in their side for this tour, but nevertheless, this match was always under australian control for me and we just managed to sneak through. Hope such statements from players do not start the war of words again and eventually we end up losing the main focus on the game .

The unforgettable tour 2

Here goes the second part of the so called unforgettable tour which I made to LA. After a wonderful and entertaining day at the universal studios and an overnight stay at the hotel, next morning we headed to the supposedly, happiest place in the world. The place where the clock never strikes midnight, the place where everyone irrespective of their age becomes a kid. We thought we would be the early birds by making it there before others come in but we were in for a rude shock. By the time we entered disneyland after wading through the marathon crowd on foot, we saw the entire world there. Again due to maverick planning of our tour guide, we managed to hit all the famous and not to be missed spots first.

As soon as we entered, we saw a breathtakingly beautiful disneyland railroad station and the street called main street U.S.A. And there was goofy waiting for us to take snaps with it.

First on our list was the most famous indiana jones ride. After a really long walk to the ride from the entrance into a cave like structure we were made to sit on a jeep prototype and then made to ride on rough roads having lots of ups ,downs curves and artificially created dangers. The best part was the statue of a man hanging from the ceiling as if he will just jump into the jeep and the big dummy stone being rolled over as if it would straight land on your head. After around 5 to 10 minutes the bumpy ride came to and end but not before giving us very nice thrilling moments.

Next was the best of the lot, the pirated of the carribean ride. This ride was a very smooth ride , no ups,downs,thrills whatsoever. But the effect they have created of the sky and other sets relevant to the movie inside this ride gives an out of the world experience. At one point it looks like the end of the world, meaning there is a dead end in the ocean and the way it looks here in the ride is nothing short of the real experience. This ride lasted for more than 10 minutes and all the time as expected we were seated on a boat navigating on an artificially well created ocean.

After this rather calm and spellbounding experience, we were headed for some short and quick thrill in the form of splash mountain. Which is nothing but just another water ride with a steep and thrilling fall at the end of it. A good place to take some memorable picture at the cost of 15 bugs though.

Next we headed to the other side of park , tomorrow land where our first destination was space mountain. The amount of thrill felt in this ride cannot be expressed in words. Your carriage(if we can call that fast moving thing a carriage) , moves at breathtaking speed in a pitch dark auditorium kind of structure. The only small source of light throughout the entire ride is some artificial shining star. The twists and turns, the steep climbs and falls, the sharp U turns, all at a breathtaking speed and pitch dark environment, this is surely enough to give a nauseating feeling but fortunately and intelligently we had hit upon this ride just before lunch. The single thought that came to my mind after this ride was about the amount of testing and planning that would have gone in for this ride .Our guide was smart enough to get us fast pass for this one when we were enjoying the other rides.

Fast pass means you do not have to wait for the next ride in the queue. You will be given a ticket with the ride timings and you can just report at that time.

Once done with space mountain we went for lunch and that’s when the other group among us who wanted to hit california adventures, the adventure park opposite to disneyland moved on after lunch. And post lunch we were left on our own as our guide moved on with them and this is when we were left on our own for the rest of disneyland trip . Post lunch we were not sure where to go and we lost lot of time and post lunch rush at all the spots was very high.

After deciding to go to the Findind Nemo submarine ride next, we boarded Disneyland monorail , not knowing that it is less for sight seeing and more for real transportation from nearby hotels to the disneyland. So we reached back to the same place after a rather disappointing ride on monorail. My personal recommendation, use monorail only if you have to , otherwise it is just worth a snap.

Once back from here, we found that the queue for the much hyped submarine had a waiting time of more than 1.5 hours and hence, we made our way to the the nearby autopia but again a long queue and a waiting time of more than 20 minutes. This was a kid dish version of the go carting experience, and to be frank the hot sun blazing us did not allow to enjoy this either.

The next we decided to give the finding nemo submarine ride a try nevertheless and waited in queue for more than 1 hour and 15 minutes before getting into an kid dish submarine ride. With all artificial fish and creatures underwater, I would say this one was not worth the 75 minute long wait but nevertheless when you become kid you are bound to enjoy all these stuff.

Once done with this we headed to the other side of the park , Mickey's toon town to meet all the famous characters created by Sir.Walt Disney. And yet again another queue at Mr.mickey's house as if it is a visit to tirupati devasthana. We finally waited and took some nice snaps with the richest mouse of the world in his own house.

Next after having a stroll around the toon town which was indeed very beautiful , we took the Disneyland traditional railroad back to the main area from where we began our morning trip as it was time for some refreshment before the ultimate fun.

After meeting our California adventures folks and then taking all the memorable snaps, finally we went and waited for the two best part of the day.

First one being the disneyland parade. Where all the world famous disney characters, you name them they are there march in front of you in their beautiful and decorated carts. Mickey,minnie,goofy,snow white and the seven dwarfs,pinocchio,donald duck all of them were there and this whole parade lasted around 18 minutes and I had to see the entire parade through the small 4" display of my digital camera as I was recording the entire parade video. To say the parade was awesome would be understatement by all means.

Finally after the parade, we managed to grab something to eat and then started the rock music by an unknown brand singing songs unknown to me but the whole auro surrounding the place was enough for one to be engrossed in the music. It went on for around 40 minutes for every hour and we managed to watch it for two consecutive hours and it was a nice experience. The amazing sound effects created using the high tech instruments was indeed a superb experience.

After buying some souvenir, we went to back to the main street U.S.A reluctantly though, from where we were supposed to see the next of the show stealers. It was the disney fireworks. It started at 9 pm with all the other lights put off. It was by far the best fireworks I had ever seen. The amount of precision they maintained and the flawlessness which was observed can only be felt and cannot be described.

After about 20 minutes of this fun, we were all set to go back but the park was open , open till midnight. We returned back to our hotels, with our minds, hearts and cameras full , full of some everlasting memories. For me it was a day of mixed responses but the two events towards the end of the day the parade and fireworks worked for me. They stood out as the man of the match for this one day entertainment package. As one of the pamphlets of disneyland read " here you leave today and enter the world of yesterday ,tomorrow and fantasy", we experienced the world of fantasy. The world where everyone turns into a child.

The unforgettable tour I

There has been no trip for which I had done so much pre-planning like this one. Right from the moment I landed here, I eyed the long weekend for a visit to LA and had been eyeing at various options available to me for this trip and when nothing worked out we joined the tour operated by joy holiday. It was a 4 day trip and it began on the Saturday, 30th August 2008.  LA is at a 7 hour drive from San Jose and the journey was pretty much comfortable and mostly uneventful . The moments that stood out in this journey are a visit to the winery, a Danish town called Solvang and the best of it all, the drive from Santa Barbara beach along the road adjacent to the ocean. With my favourite music playing on my ipod and the scenic drive, I was in heaven but alas soon it was dark and the marine drive came to an end. We reached LA at about 9 pm that night and checked into hotel after yet another struggle for vegetarian food in US.  A average hotel room but all we had to do there was just sleep overnight and get ready the next day. Ken our tour guide had given us a strict deadline to keep. Morning 7.30 AM we were supposed to be on the bus. And to everyone's surprise not even one group in the bus delayed and we set off for the first day of adventure at the universal studios, LA. After a journey of about an hour into the city, we landed up in universal studios and my first impression of the place, well man..it it truly is a place not to be missed. 

Our tour guide made nice plans for us, he had all the ride timings in his mind and hence, all we had to do was to be with him and follow his spartan timings. First we set off to Simpson's ride, the newest attraction to the universal studios. It is a ride fully based on simulation. They trap you into a seat and just shake the seat, the way you would feel when driving on a really pathetic road on india say hosur road, bangalore but the effects they create around you in the screen make you really feel as if you are flying. The ride was simply awesome but a short one. Once done with the simpson's we moved to the other part of the studio where rides like mummy and jurassic park where there.  

The jurassic park was a very quite ride apart from a steep fall at the end and  the mummy was kinda ok, nothing much to crave about but what is commendable in these are the amazing sets they created for the riders to feel as if they were really there in the movie playing the real characters. Next we headed to the nearby special effects stages. After making one feel how the real characters in the movie would have felt, this was a place where they showed us how fake the hollywood world is.  They showed almost every trick they use in their movies and a short sample of how all this is done in a very engaging and enlightening way.  

Our next ride was the Backdraft. A set of the the movie backdraft which is based on the life of firefighters. Here the set which we all stood in caught fire right before our own eyes and we had a glimpse of how difficult the life of the real firefighters would be . It had amazing effects which will linger in memories for a long time.  

Next, we headed to the universal studio tour and here our guide was slightly off the target and we lost some 15 minutes , but nevertheless the tour was amazing. They took us to different sets which were and are still used in some of the hollywood movies. We saw sets of movies like Fast and The Furious,Psycho,King Kong and many other and the very famous serial Desperate Housewives. Also, we experienced how the create floods and rains in the movie. This tour of more than 30 minutes  was a great experience and some ardent fan of english movies would have had the time of his life time for sure. The man who stood at the psycho set with knife still in hands just to give the feel of the audiance shows the amount of thought that has gone in to entertain people.  Once done with this we went for our lunch, once done with it, we chose to do more of quite things. 

We headed straight to the Terminator 2 : 3D show. I would term all these 3 D and 4 D movies here as the next level in entertainment. You have real people and a screen running the characters, you have breeze blowing over your head when a helicopter flies above you and the 3 D effects they create.... simply marvellous. The next stop was Shrek 4 D. Where you feel all the adventure and jerks sitting right there in your chair in addition to the 3 D effects and the water sprinkled over you when the same is happening on the screen adds to the thrill.  

Finally we landed up in the biggest attracion of all, the water world. Well , the set of this movie have been amazingly re-created right here with a big space for audiance to sit and man how it was packed. After a struggle for the seat and waiting for the show to begin, it was more than 20 mins of great fun and excitement. With the plane crashing into the sets towards the end of the show marks the climax of excitement. Though I did not enjoy the movie water world, this show was among the best I have ever seen in my life. Awesome stunts and action sequences and some snaps with the star added to the glory of this. Our last stop was a trip to the horror house and frankly nothing much to be scared about. 

This marked the end of our trip to Universal studios. Overall the experience can be summed up as an effort to make the visitors re-live the moments the characters would have lived, to feel the same thrill,fear and excitement the characters would have felt. To be more precise, it is entertainment taken to the next level.  It is indeed worth all the praise you might have heard and all you are going to hear in future because they are on a trot to improve it and take it to the next level.

Feel proud to be a human

Most of the time looking and aspiring for better things in life, we forget to appreciate and relish the very fact that we are humans and the life is to be enjoyed. A film preaching this very simple but usually ignored message is "The Shawshank redemption". Now, this is a very old movie but I may look crazy to be writing about this now. But the fact is that I watched it only recently and that it left such a mark on my mind that I can write about it even after another 30 years . Now to get to the movie, it is one of the most under-rated movie according to me. And I read somewhere that it didn't make money and to everyone's surprise it didn't win even a single oscar. Though it does not contain any earth defying stunts and a complex narrative, it is a film with a true heart in its right place. It is the story of hope and freedom. It is the story of celebrating the very fact that inspite of all our problems in life, we are human and that itself is worthy of celebration.

The protagoinst of the story is Andy, who is convicted of double murder, which he claims he has not done, and hence, he is subjected to 2 life sentences in shawshank prison. Now, shawshank prison is portrayed as one of the toughest and worst place to be in. And the prison inmates have lost all their hope about life, some even fear about going out. But Andy comes in as a fresh air. He , with his skill with his bank and money matters starts helping inmates and also prison guard and also warden in the meantime getting a lot of favors for the inmates like a very good library. Mid way through the movie he find proof for his innocence, but then when that proof is also lost forever , he still shows a lot of compassion in recovering from the situation. His character is a benchmark in taking positives from the toughest situations in life and then moving on with life with a smile. What happens to Andy and some of his friends marks the rest of the story culminating in a brilliant climax.

The movie is marked with remarkable script,dialogues and acting. The narration by Morgan Freeman is simply awesome. All characters live their part. Though the pace of the movie is really slow, by the time it gets over you end up yearning for more. And each time I see the movie, I derive out a different meaning out of it, probably a different message it wants to convey. And at the end of each such viewing, one thing is for sure, I feel energized to take up the challenges in life. In fact, this is the best movie I have seen yet. Like they say in the movie , Remember hope is a good thing, in fact..the best of things... I will be hoping that you like this blog and keep visiting this page of mine again and again.

Mysteries of mystery spot

Visiting a lot of places grants you the virtue of reviewing them and here I am reviewing one of the places I visited last weekend. The Mystery spot, Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz is a small town situated around 35 miles to the south of San Jose. Santa Cruz boasts of a beautiful beach, a theme park and mystery spot. Now before we headed for it, I did some homework about it over the net and found it to be a good place to visit. However, the whole story was not as honky dory as the homework was.

The first mistake we did was to go on a tour without a person who knows to drive a car and of course without a car. Nevertheless, the took the greyhound bus to the place from greyhound station of San Jose. The journey took alomst 1 hour and there we were estranged at the Santa Cruz bus stand , clueless as there were no taxis around to take. After a wait of almost 1.5 hours at the bus stand and many calls to the call taxi service, finally we found a taxi at around 12. Mystery spot is in the outskirts of this small town, in deep red wood forests. Next, came the shocker, we had a huge sunday crowd there. We stood for the tickets and and got the tickets for the 3 pm tour. Even though there were 45 minutes tour starting every 12 minutes. That was the amount of rush there. So we were left waiting for another 2 hours for our tour.

Now to the tour, as every other thing in US the tour started bang on time and we got a nice tour guide. Mystery spot is a place where the laws of gravity go haywire.

The first thing we saw here was a plain platform. With one part of it inside the mystery spot border and the other outside it. The magic here was the difference of height between 2 persons who stand there. The difference in their heights vary a lot when they change places. To be precise, one looks to be shorter when he is inside the mystery spot boundaries.

The next thing to experience was the uphill climb. The slope which looked to be less steep was difficult to climb and the slope which appeared more steep was easier.

By the time we finished climbing, we reached a tilted wooden hut. This was built for the purpose of tourist attraction only and it was built straight. But due to the mysterious gravitational force here, it started tilting on its own and here it was tilted at about 15 degree. If you are inside the house, ideally you should be tilting at the same angle as the house but thats not the case. Wherever you stand in the house you are tilted at the same standard angle of 17 degree. Now to prove this point, there are planks in the room with a different angle so that you can stand countering the tilted angle of the house. But again you stand tilted at the same 17 degree.
Here, we saw things rolling upwards on the plank indicating the anamoly in the gravitational force.

At the other side of the house, we were shown some more instances of height illusion on a flat plank and then our small mystery tour was over.

Now I won't call this place breathtaking probably because you are really not allowed to spend your own time and do some research on the things over here, and thats probably because, we don't know what is wrong where and it would take a long time to discover things yourself. And seeing the sunday rush expecting this is too much. But at 5 $ ticket, and in a car's drive from San Jose this place is definitely worth. What more, you can flaunt some very brilliant photos and videos.

My contribution on you tube.

One more trivia about this place is that, the owner wanted to buy the flat piece of land which is currently parking place for mystery spot. The owner was forced to buy the mountain which is the mystery spot earning thousands of dollars every day.

Another very mysterious aspect of the place was what do Indians have to do with this mystery spot? I mean more than 60% of the crowd there was indian. It was not a one day story. Prove to this, there was dal and rice served as a dish at the local eatery.