101 Freeway

This is the view of the roads connecting to the 101 Freeway which connects Los Angeles and San Francisco. Day or Night the roads are alive with rubber cruising and the roar of the engines resonating.

Festival of Light - Deepawali

F U Z Z Y

5.6 Magnitude Earthquake 8:04 PM - South Bay

There was a 5.6 magnitude earthquake just a few minutes back in the California Bay Area with the epi center at Alum Rock, two miles away from Evergreen where I live. I was in the backyard disposing the garbage in the trash can and initially thought it was a Haloween prank by the neighbours when the wooden fence next to me was shaking along with the ground beneath for a few seconds.



My brother-in-law, sister, mother and neice were downstairs and all of us rushed into the frontyard lawn. Luckily nothing happened and no damage in property or life.



When I entered my room, the penstand was scattered and thankfully the laptop from which I am blogging now was safe.



This particular picture was broadcasted on Kron news on American Television. I emailed them the pictures in a few minutes.

Top Class Roads

A 2005 Post by me

Two months have flown by since I have left my home sweet home namma Bengalooru - Bangalore. It is natural tendency for human beings to be bitten by the comparison bug. So far during my stay in the Bay Area I have been impressed by the road infrastructure and the law abiding public. The legal system is so strong here that people have no other option than to abide by it. Else they need to face the music irrespective of whoever they are.

Coming back to the roads now . Other than the usual main roads like in India, there are also two other categories of roads. The Expressways and the Freeways.

Flora Vista Avenue. One of the many internal roads which run within the city.



Capitol Expressway. An Expressway is a road where there are limited signals and intersections. The speed limits is usually less than the free ways and is between 45 - 55 miles per hour.


880 Freeway. Freeways are roads where there are no signals throughout the entire stretch and the speed limits is usually 65 - 70 miles per hour. It is a totally different experience to drive on a freeway where the vehicles seem to be cruising. One mistake and it ends up in a multiple crash and a pile up. The rush hours on the Californian roads are during 7 to 10 AM and 3 to 7 PM roughly.


Having a road system and implementing a lane discipline on the lines of this back in Bangalore will be an automatic solution to most of the problems with regards to the population, traffic, infrastructure. What I mean to say is , the government should develop satellite towns around Bangalore , in places like Kengeri, Bidadi, Chennapatna, Ramnagara, Nelamangala, Tumkur , Maddur etc and all these places should be well connected with top class road networks. If easy conectivity is achieved which takes only about 30-45 minutes, automatically industries tend to crop up in these areas and people start moving out from the concentarted hub which is Bangalore. Will this happen? Not with the greedy corrupt politicians around. With the kind of comedy going on in Karnataka today for the power it looks a distant dream.

Barren

The vegetation is barren at the moment. In the days ahead I am waiting to witness the spectacle which the valley is going to offer .. The Evergreen Valley.

These are some shots I captured at around 3 pm in the afternoon. The sun at this season is at its harshest at this time. During summers it is bright till 8 pm. As it starts getting cold with the onset of the winter, the length of the daytime also gets shorter. I heard in December it gets dark as early as 4 pm.





This is the Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. Actually I identified this using this amazing website I found. Click here

Melancholic Mood

Without even a word being said I feel these pictures I have taken convey the melancholic mood ............. that I am in

Location Shift - A peek into the new place

On the evening of August 23rd 2007, I left my hometown Bangalore to become a student again in America. I was a little emotional inside as I drove to the airport along with my Dad and Uncle, with the rain pouring down non stop.

Singapore Airport. The cleanliness, discipline and courtesy of the people here was heart warming.




Archstone Apartments, Santa Clara where I spent a week. The Apartment fitness complex



The tasks associated with moving to a new house and setting it up, gave me an opportunity to visit numerous malls and travel extensively in the Bay area.

Silver Creek, San Jose. This is the place where my sister and her family moved.



The mountains in the backdrop with the winding roads adds to the beauty of the place. The vegetation has gone dry beacuse of the summer. In a few months the entire Silicon Valley I heard will present a scenic view with all the mountains covered with greenery and variety of rich flora all around.




The place encourages to get involved in a lot of physical activities to keep oneself fit. There are many public grounds and courts to play all kind of sports.



Its lovely to watch small kids grow up. Their innocence and activities is the perfect antidote for the self made stressful lives of adults.




El Camino Real, Santa Clara. The place where the School I go to is located.



Santa Clara University. The place where I hope to gain some quality knowledge. A small beautiful campus.

Colors of Nature - Mungaaru Male ( Monsoon Rains)

The Monsoon has been very active all over the country. It has taken a lot of lives and caused a lot of destruction in many places. Nature exposes the vulnerability of us human beings.

Today morning I went out for a morning walk / ride after a long time. In Bangalore the rains have not been so rampant as in the other parts of the country. It has provided a natural air conditioning and the colours of nature have emerged in full glory.

A Marigold with the Sankey tank in the backdrop.



The green bed of algae on the stone walls in RMV Extension.

Petronas in Bangalore

I shot these pictures from the Hebbal hillock. The two towers in the background are those of Lifestyle Habitat comprising 24 floors, modeled after the Malaysian Petronas Towers.

This is one of the most spectacular projects in Bangalore and is in the finishing stages.

' Deep ' Purple !!!

This week I was welcomed by this wonderful bloom in my house.



A cool pleasant weather with the sun playing hide and seek is what we Bangloreans are experiencing from many days.



Have got many visitors who are making hay whilst the sun shines.



It is always good to grow some plants in the house as it adds to the beauty along with its main role of purifying the air from CO2 and releasing O2.

Ascent

This was the scene at 3-30 AM in the Tirupathi bus stand. There was a huge crowd of devotees waiting to get the tickets for the darshan up the Thirumala hills. Left Bangalore on the night of July 6 with three friends.



After we got the tickets for darshan at 9 PM we checked into a hotel and freshened up. We decided to experience the arduous climb while it was still cool. So we started at the foothills at 7-45 AM. Devotees walk up the steps round the clock.



It usually takes 4 hours on a average inclusive of the numerous rest breaks taken. Portions of the path are very steep and it puts the body to the maximum stress test.



The lovely Deers along the footpath up the hills.



My friends and me ascended without taking a single break. It was really taxing and rejuvenating for the body.



Along the path there are numerous such arrangements of stones by the devotees. According to one version there is a belief that one will build a house in his lifetime if he does this.

Finally we reached up after climbing up 4000 odd steps / 9 Kms, in about 2.5 hours.

After the darshan of lord Venkateshwara, we left for Bangalore on the same night.