Nokia Morph Concept

The Nokia Morph concept looks so very interesting. The promise that nano technology holds is mind boggling. Have a look at the concept here http://www.nokia.com/A4852062 and the video @ http://www.nokia.com/A4879144

Diya's favourite songs

Diya seems to like bollywood music a lot. Well she sits in front of the TV for a whole hour in the morning and watches 9XM, a new channel we are getting on cable. The filler jokes in between the songs are quite amusing actually. The "bakwaas bandh kar" bit, Diya loves to hear that. The travel and living channel music, which usually plays every hour or half hour (in between 2 programmes), well thats caught her fancy right from when she was 5-6 months old. She still loves that music and stops doing everything, however busy she is when she listens to the music. Amongst bollywood tunes, she love "Bhool bholiya" ("Hare Ram Hare Ram" song), "Yeh Ishq Kya hai" from Jab We met and "Sajnadi wari wari" from Honeymoon Travels movies.

Also my mobile has the Creed song "One LastBreath" and i have been playing this song to her from the time she was maybe 3 months old. i play this when she has a bath and she does like this song too.

Indian Stocks Info

These are some of the websites i track on a regular basis to keep in touch with the stock market and the trends.

MoneyControl (Easily the best available website to track the indian stock markets)
It has an extremely active discussion board. Some of the platinum rated contributors are worth tracking on a regular basis. Joetm, Kotakinvestment, Kfactor are some of the contributors who seems to have a fair idea of things really going on.

Traderji (good discussion board on technical analysis)

Sp Tulsian (market whispers and stock reccos are good and some of the articles are very well written)

Rediff

Yahoo Maps in India

I found the Yahoo Maps feature for India very promising. Now that one of my friends is actually working in Yahoo, its easier for me giving feedback as well. For example, i wanted driving directions from Madivala (In Bangalore) to Kamat Yatri Nivas on the road to mysore (About 60 Km away from Bangalore city) and currently yahoo maps doesn't help me. It does show me the road to the Kamat YatriNivas in Gandhinagar or National Market. The send to SMS feature works and is really useful. Should explore more of this and actually try out the routes mentioned to see if they really are the logical and faster ones.

Back Home

Im back home to Bangalore and its been an incredibly tiring last week or so. Had a flight from Osaka to Bangkok and to Chennai. Took the GT Express to Bhopal the very next day and after 3 days, took TN Express to Chennai again. 2 hours after arriving in Chennai, Took a flight with Megz and Diya to Bangalore. Megz seemed to like the kingfisher experience, it was good and the staff at the airport counters esp with the baggage were helpful. Had a similar experience while traveling Air Deccan recently. With Diya along, everyone seems to be very helpful!

Its back to basics now. From the super fast shinkansens (Bullet Trains) to Indian Railway trains chugging along, its been an amazing 2 weeks. Of course not to mention the move from the sleek hands-free toilet experience ( yet again of the TOTO washlets ) to Indian style and the Indian WC experience :)


Should blog about the Indian railways really-noticeable improvements and the toto washlets soon.

Mishima, Japan

Ive been in japan for about 1.5 months now and have stayed all the time in Mishima, which is about 120KM from Tokyo. Its a town and there are quite a few scenic places around which can tour. Mishima itself doesn't have much from a tourist's point of view but is like a transit point for a lot of people going to Mount Fuji or the F1 races (Held this time at the Fuji speedway). I am staying at Hotel Alpha 1, a 10 storied building right in front of the station (On the south Exit). Its just a 2m walk from the station and is a very convenient location to stay. At the entrance of the Hotel one can see the Family Mart Convenience store and the Lawson convenience store is also a stone's throw away. The Hotel itself is decent and seems to be booked pretty much all the time. Its advisable to reserver rather than walk-in directly. The rooms are all small, but then not many hotels provide you large rooms in Japan (Unless you are a millionaire willing to spend a fortune). The hotel has some weekly lottery scheme which i somehow never managed to win. I have no idea about what one can win as well :) The Staff is helpful (As in Japan everywhere) and they do understand English. One of the staff is also fluent in English. They provide a free internet connection which is very useful. I have stayed in Mishima Plaza Hotel about 5 years back and they dint provide internet connections then, not sure now. The hotel is also convenient because the taxi stand is again right in front of the station and there are taxis available all the time. The hotel seems to have ample parking space as well. I haven't tried their restaurant but you do get breakfast etc (i think for about 500-900 yen for a basic one with coffee/toast etc). All in all, its a decent business hotel.


Mishima offers a beautiful view of Mount Fuji which can be seen from the pathway along the Lawson convenience store (2 m In front of South Exit of the station). Fuji si now snowcapped and on a clear day, it looks awesome!