Ten months

Annapara Homestay - 1st Anniversary

Place: Thalimala (Wayanad) - Homestay
Occasion: 1st Anniversary
How to reach: Buses available via Tellichery or Calicut. You need to reach Vythiri and from there pickup is arranged by the hosts.

It is a nice place to be in for a complete peaceful time without any disturbances. Homemade tasty food will ensure that you are always waiting for the next round of food. Morning wakeup is with birds chirping and singing, which makes it a very blissful experience.

However, there is no electricity in the place except for 6:30PM -10PM when generator is put on. During time, natural lights keep the rooms lightened. Since we were the only guests at the homestay, evenings were initially a bit scary (with nothing to be seen around).

We did not go anywhere (except for the tea plantation and nearby stream) and were relaxing most of the time. However, some of the attractions which one can visit are:

• Eddakal caves
• Chembara peak
  
• Pookoot lake
• Tea plantation

The host Shibu and Praveen (along with cooks) were very cordial (at times even overdoing it).









We went round the Tea plantation and a small water fall during one of the evenings.
Overall, a nice place to take a break away from the crowded daily life. If its just for relaxing, i would suggest that 1-2 days would be more than enough. However, if its planned well with all sightseeing and trekking activities, then it may be worth longer stay.

The one big catch is the cost. The stay at Annapara costs ~ INR4500/day, which i think is very high. If the prices are reduced to 2-3K, then it is certainly sound worth the money.

Drive in Muzhapilangad beach

Bangalore to Chennai

Bangalore (Jagadeesh Nagar) to Chennai (Thiruvanmyur) - 359kms

These are one of the best roads you can get. After initial 2 hrs of drive you get A2B (Adyar Anand Bhavan) at Krishnagiri where one can have very nice food and take a break.

While coming back from back from Chennai, one can take break at "Motel Highway". The motel is kept very clean and you can find nice food here.

Slumdog Millionaire

Kill Bill

Kill Bill - Quentin Tarantino movie. I had seen it in bits and parts earlier and could really not relate to it. This time i got to see the movie from start in one of the channels (and that too dubbed Hindi version).

The movie certainly has its own class and kept me on my seat for sure. Had seen Tarantino movie 'Pulp Fiction' some years back, and again could not make much sense. Probably time i should check it out once again.

Other movies from Tarantino which can be of interest:
Reservoir_Dogs (1992)
Pulp_Fiction (1994)
Jackie_Brown (1997)
Kill Bill(Vol. 1 2003, Vol. 2 2004)
Death Proof (2007)

VC's tighten purse strings

As per ET report - VCs invested $81 million over 16 deals in India during the fourth quarter ended December 08.

This is lower than the immediate previous quarter which saw $275 million being invested across 50 deals as well as the same quarter in 2007, when $227 million got invested over 45 deals.

On an average, at least 25 venture capital deals are struck every quarter, but this shrunk to 16 deals in the Oct-Dec quarter, possibly one of the worst periods for investors.

Satyam to Asatyam

The last post was list of top 20 software companies, without realizing a day after the list would no more be true (with Satyam out of it)














Jan'07, 2009 saw India's 4th largest software companies fall due to fraudulent management. Satyam CEO Rama Raju resigned stating he had mismanaged Satyam funds over a period of time stating he was responsible and no one else was involved (believable???). Fraud of Rs.7K Crore and no one knew?

Domestic IT growth may decline to 13.4% in 2009

The domestic IT- ITeS market is likely to grow 13.4% in 2009, the slowest since 2003, as per market research firm IDC India.

India is likely to witness a slower growth in the coming five years, IDC said. The domestic IT-ITeS market is expected to record an average growth rate of 16.4% in 2009-13, against 24.3% during 2003-08. The slower growth will see enhanced competition, leading to a change in strategy and continuous market re-alignment on the part of players.

The research firm said global IT-ITeS market is expected to grow only 2.6% in 2009, against 5% in 2008 and much slower than 7% in 2007. Despite a lower growth rate, India will continue to be the fastest-growing IT market in Asia Pacific, followed by China, Vietnam, Thailand and Philippines.

Top software companies

Sunday special

Items:
Rice/Oalan/Cabbage + Carrot uperi/Paripu vada sambar/Papadam

Water driven vehicle?

Few good things in life

Donated the following to Rakum's:
5 KG Ponni Rice
4 KG Toor Dal
1ltr Sundrop Oil
1KG - Green Dal
(Gulak - Rs.650)

The Usual Suspects

New year special @ home

Dinner @ home with Radhi & Aunty

Ice wine

Ice wine is a type of dessert wine produced from grapes that have been frozen while still on the vine. The sugars and other dissolved solids do not freeze, but the water does, allowing a more concentrated grape must to be pressed from the frozen grapes, resulting in a smaller amount of more concentrated, very sweet wine. With ice wines, the freezing happens before the fermentation, not afterwards.

Gift from Canada