trip to harihareshwar cntd...

DAY Two:

7 am, hotel room, shrivardhan:
i lazily open my eyes to see the time...oh my God!! its already 8 am...we were supposed to wake up at 5 to see the sunrise on the shrivardhan beach..and we are still in bed...i call up the guys in the nxt room and as supposed they are sleeping as well..anyway we plan to meet for the breakfast downstairs in one hour...


9 am , shrivardhan beach:

(click on the pics for a larger view)











finally we are here...on the first beach..it looks so beautiful..its not crowded like the beaches in goa..it looks like a long spread of water just for us..we didnt hav any difficulty in finding the beach..it was 10 mins walkable distance from our hotel room.. and plus the cute girls going to school in shrivardhan told us the way... the beach looks so amazing... large shore.. silent boats floating to catch fishes..i soo miss my camera.. as we are enjoying cool breeze a stranger comes by and starts talking to us..he invites us to see his beach house and the whale skeleton kept there.. we are ammazed from the idea of seeing real whale bones.and go to the beach house..its really a beautiful place with all the tree houses and all.we hav a look at the place ask for charges so that we can plan and stay there in our nxt trip..and they ahve the whale bones..just the tail part but its too big...one can imagine how big a real whale is by just looking at its tail...only the tail is more than 5 feet long...










10.30 am, tahsildaar office, shrivardhan: we are leaving the shrivardhan beach and going towards harihareshwar...the more famous beach... we come to know that it takes one hour to reach harihareshwar in six seater rikshaw...so we get to the place where we can get the rikshaw which would take us to the final destination...



12 noon, harihareshwar: we are at harihareshwar finally...sitting in a local restaurant, waiting for our lunch to be served... although we had a heavy breakfast (of my favourite upma) but still the journey was tiring amd we are hungry already..we decide to have lunch and then move towards the beach... finally our orders come...as my frnds are from orrissa basically so they are more delighted to have the sea fish (i dnt know the exactly which one..they all are same for me...)..and i hav to compromise with veg thali...still the food tastes amazing..there is no btter feeling than going to a village and having the local food...



12.30 pm, harihareshwar beach :







wow..a beach with cemented shore?? this is something i hav never seen... the sea is at the foot of harihareshwar hills...and its deep...right from the piont where water touches the hill foot...so for safty it has been made from concrete...we sit near the water and talk..abuot the world and us and the world and us again...and enjoy the cool water sprinkles..and sometimes the waves are big enough to reach you and wet u all over..(as happened to my friend)..there is an old man sitting near the beach with huge coconuts...not big but huge!! they are three times the size of a normal one... this beach is a little bit crowded cos its more popular..but then its different ...different than all the other beaches i hav seen...its like some divine energy is holding us to be near it..not to leave..ever.....LEAVE!!!! oh my GOD!! what is the time?? we hav to catch a bus and return back...but first why dont we have a "naryal paani"... ;)



2 pm, harihareshwar: we are in a rikshaw again leaving harihareshwar and taking the memories with us..we hav to catch a bus at shrivardhan and reach pune before night...




3.30 pm: we are in the bus for pune..and mentally m still at shrivardhan- harihareshwar.. what a trip..what beautiful beaches...m mind in wandering in the shrivardhan lanes..and the harihareshwar restaurant and near the naryal paani wala...
i wish i had more time to spend there and enjoy the nature... its so strange how human beings love nature and cant live without it..but still chose to live far from it..in the city where all u can see is human faces in the crowd... why cant we live near the mother nature??? but then if we did we wouldnt admire it as much...



10 pm, pune: i reach my other friend's house to spend the night with her...and the trip comes to an end like every good thing does...cos other good things have to fill old one's place...bye harihareshwar..i'll come back again...

trip to harihareshwar

Imagine a place where the heights meet the depths...the mountain meets the sea...yes, a place where all you can see, feel and experience is 'Nature’. By my good luck, I got a chance to visit such a place last weekend...Hari-hareshwar...a beautiful beach and this beach was much more beautiful than the popular beaches of Goa. I thought why not share the experience. Let me start from the start.

Day one:

Place: dadar station, Mumbai, 8.30am

I am ready with my bag-pack to travel. No it’s not to harihareshwar…that’s not even among the rarest of my ideas...I am travelling to Pune, where I have to meet my friends to spend my weekend with. My exam of GATE has finished a few days ago and I m free, after months of studies, for some gala time with my friends. As the train leaves I decide to log into the messenger on my cell for a small chit chat before the cell looses network. And I see a friend online who has just arrived at pune station. We decide to meet up at the station itself before we move on to visit our other friends.

After three hours of journey I reach Pune station at 11.30am and see my friend waiting for me. We decide to take a few of other friends with us and travel to some place away from the city. After searching for getaways near pune the place Harihareshwar, 180 km from pune, is decided…

Place: swargate bus-stand, Pune 2.30pm

After lunch at famous chaitanya’s parathas at FC road, without loosing any more time I and a few friends have arrived at swargate, where we’d be getting a local bus to take us to Mangaun. We have got not much money and just the names of major stops ‘mangaun’ and ‘shrivardhan’ to start our journey with. We board the bus and the conductor tells us that we’d reach mangaun in approximately 3 hours…the bus is full of local villagers and we talk to some small girls about their lives.

Place: mangaun bus-stand, Mangaun 7pm

We have just arrived at mangaun. The journey to mangaun was good without many stops in between. One of the major stop was Mulshi Lake, which is also one of the major tourist spots near pune. After talking to the local people and a few bus drivers we came to know that we have to take another bus from here to Shrivardhan (one of my friends has major difficulty remembering this name and I suggest him to remember the name Govardhan which has much importance in Hindu mythology.) We also come to know that we won’t be able to get any bus service from shrivardhan to harihareshwar and will have to rely on local transport for that. After waiting for almost one hour we finally spot a bus to shrivardhan and with much difficulty fighting crowd we finally board the bus and get a place to sit. The journey from Mangaun to Shrivardhan is roughly of one and a half hour long.

Place: Shrivardhan bus-stand, Shrivardhan 9.30 pm

As we get down the bus we figure out that our timings were wrong and we are running late. Shrivardhan being a small village, we can’t get anything to go to harihareshwar until dawn. So the only option left for us was to find a nice place to rest and spend the night and start early morning for harihareshwar. But as it was a small village we had much difficulty in finding a proper accommodation for the night. After walking for about half an hour and the guys rejecting many motels (because of girls’ safety and bla bla) we finally reach a recommended place and take rooms for the night.

As for what happened the next day just wait a little more as my next post will be on day two which is the last day of the journey and where I get to see two most beautiful beaches of harihareshwar and shrivardhan.

10 Ways to Catch a Liar

Experts have 10 tips that can let you know if someone isn't telling you the whole truth.

J.J. Newberry was a trained federal agent, skilled in the art of deception detection. So when a witness to a shooting sat in front of him and tried to tell him that when she heard gunshots she didn't look, she just ran -- he knew she was lying. How did Newberry reach this conclusion? The answer is by recognizing telltale signs that a person isn't being honest, like inconsistencies in a story, behavior that's different from a person's norm, or too much detail in an explanation. While using these signs to catch a liar takes extensive training and practice, it's no longer only for authorities like Newberry. Now, the average person can become adept at identifying dishonesty, and it's not as hard as you might think. Experts tell WebMD the top 10 ways to let the truth be known.

Tip No. 1: Inconsistencies "When you want to know if someone is lying, look for inconsistencies in what they are saying," says Newberry, who was a federal agent for 30 years and a police officer for five. When the woman he was questioning said she ran and hid after hearing gunshots -without looking -- Newberry saw the inconsistency immediately. "There was something that just didn't fit," says Newberry. "She heard gunshots but she didn't look? I knew that was inconsistent with how a person would respond to a situation like that." So when she wasn't paying attention, he banged on the table. She looked right at him. "When a person hears a noise, it's a natural reaction to look toward it," Newberry tells WebMD. "I knew she heard those gunshots, looked in the direction from which they came, saw the shooter, and then ran." Sure enough, he was right. "Her story was just illogical," says Newberry. "And that's what you should look for when you're talking to someone who isn't being truthful. Are there inconsistencies that just don't fit?"

Tip No. 2: Ask the Unexpected "About 4% of people are accomplished liars and they can do it well," says Newberry. "But because there are no Pinocchio responses to a lie, you have to catch them in it." Sir Walter Scott put it best: "Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive!" But how can you a catch a person in his own web of lies? "Watch them carefully," says Newberry. "And then when they don't expect it, ask them one question that they are not prepared to answer to trip them up."

Tip No. 3: Gauge Against a Baseline "One of the most important indicators of dishonesty is changes in behavior," says Maureen O'Sullivan, PhD, a professor of psychology at the University of San Francisco. "You want to pay attention to someone who is generally anxious, but now looks calm. Or, someone who is generally calm but now looks anxious." The trick, explains O'Sullivan, is to gauge their behavior against a baseline. Is a person's behavior falling away from how they would normally act? If it is, that could mean that something is up.

Tip No. 4: Look for Insincere Emotions "Most people can't fake smile," says O'Sullivan. "The timing will be wrong, it will be held too long, or it will be blended with other things. Maybe it will be a combination of an angry face with a smile; you can tell because their lips are smaller and less full than in a sincere smile." These fake emotions are a good indicator that something has gone afoul.

Tip No. 5: Pay Attention to Gut Reactions "People say, 'Oh, it was a gut reaction or women's intuition,' but what I think they are picking up on are the deviations of true emotions," O'Sullivan tells WebMD. While an average person might not know what it is he's seeing when he thinks someone isn't being honest and attribute his suspicion to instinct, a scientist would be able to pinpoint it exactly -- which leads us to tip no. 6.

Tip No. 6: Watch for Microexpressions When Joe Schmo has a gut feeling, Paul Ekman, a renowned expert in lie detection, sees microexpressions.  "A microexpression is a very brief expression, usually about a 25th of a second, that is always a concealed emotion," says Ekman, PhD, professor emeritus of psychology at the University of California Medical School in San Francisco. So when a person is acting happy, but in actuality is really upset about something, for instance, his true emotion will be revealed in a subconscious flash of anger on his face. Whether the concealed emotion is fear, anger, happiness, or jealousy, that feeling will appear on the face in the blink of an eye. The trick is to see it. "Almost everyone -- 99% of those we've tested in about 10,000 people -- won't see them," says Ekman. "But it can be taught." In fact, in less than an hour, the average person can learn to see microexpressions.

Tip No. 7: Look for Contradictions "The general rule is anything that a person does with their voice or their gesture that doesn't fit the words they are saying can indicate a lie," says Ekman. "For example, this is going to sound amazing, but it is true. Sometimes when people are lying and saying, 'Yes, she's the one that took the money,' they will without knowing it make a slight head shake 'no.' That's a gesture and it completely contradicts what they're saying in words." These contradictions, explains Ekman, can be between the voice and the words, the gesture and the voice, the gesture and the words, or the face and the words. "It's some aspect of demeanor that is contradicting another aspect," Ekman tells WebMD.

Tip No. 8: A Sense of Unease "When someone isn't making eye contact and that's against how they normally act, it can mean they're not being honest," says Jenn Berman, PhD, a psychologist in private practice. "They look away, they're sweating, they look uneasy ... anything that isn't normal and indicates anxiety."

Tip No. 9: Too Much Detail "When you say to someone, 'Oh, where were you?' and they say, 'I went to the store and I needed to get eggs and milk and sugar and I almost hit a dog so I had to go slow,' and on and on, they're giving you too much detail," says Berman. Too much detail could mean they've put a lot of thought into how they're going to get out of a situation and they've crafted a complicated lie as a solution.

Tip No. 10: Don't Ignore the Truth "It's more important to recognize when someone is telling the truth than telling a lie because people can look like they're lying but be telling truth," says Newberry. While it sounds confusing, finding the truth buried under a lie can sometimes help find the answer to an important question: Why is a person lying? These 10 truth tips, experts agree, all help detect deception. What they don't do is tell you why a person is lying and what the lie means. "Microexpressions don't tell you the reason," says Ekman. "They just tell you what the concealed emotion is and that there is an emotion being concealed." When you think someone is lying, you have to either know the person well enough to understand why he or she might lie, or be a people expert. "You can see a microexpression, but you have to have more social-emotional intelligence on people to use it accurately," says O'Sullivan. "You have to be a good judge of people to understand what it means."

 Extra Tip: Be Trusting "In general we have a choice about which stance we take in life," says Ekman. "If we take a suspicious stance life is not going to be too pleasant, but we won't get misled very often. If we take a trusting stance, life is going to be a lot more pleasant but sometimes we are going to be taken in. As a parent or a friend, you're much better off being trusting rather than looking for lies all the time."

Hyderabad

Hyderabad, the city of biryani’s and haleem….and ya also called as Hi-Tech city. When I came here to study for my Gate exam, I hated it…not the hate of “I just don’t like it” level, but the hate of “it’s horrible” level…I hated the way people used to stay in hostels(15 to 20 girls in a single hall can you imagine?? just like poultry farm). I hated the way rate of eve teasing was increasing here (I bet every single girl or lady here has had to face it one time or the other). I hated the conservative society and the crowded roads. But mostly I hated the climate and atmosphere all full of dust and pollution.
a crowded road in hyderabad

But as the time passed I started to like the city for one or the other reason. I still hate these things. But there isn’t everything I hate about this city. I love chicken and mutton biryani ( It’s really amazing).

hyderabadi chiken biryani

I like the respect shown to others here…no person addresses u by “tu”, it will either be “tum” or mostly “aap”. If we leave aside eve teasing, this city has a respect for the females. If you are a female you will be called “amma” as in mother, with respect (doesn’t matter how much younger you might be).well as a matter of fact, it did sound odd to me when I was addressed like that by a professor in my institute. Not only that, there is not one or two seats reserved in bus for females, the half bus is reserved. In fact just for convenience, the entry door to the buses is also separate for females. And its not like ladies have to fight for their reserved seat if someone is sitting there. Men here have this much manner that if a lady enters, they themselves get up and offer seat.
Not only for females, but same is applicable for senior citizens as well. I have never seen anybody getting up from their seats in a crowded bus just to offer it to an elderly person, but in Hyderabad it seems that the “Tehzeeb” is still alive. Not only in buses in my class as well if even a single girl is standing the guys sitting in the front leave place for her, and move to back. In fact for front seats you have to come an hour before the class starts, still guys willingly leave it for girls. That’s why I have started to love it here, although the climate still doesn’t suit me and I fall ill every other day (I m down with viral this moment also). I feel this city is just like a muddy lake, all smelly but still the only place where Lotuses can bloom… after all its Hyderabad.

It Costs Nothing......

Dr. Stephen K. Sproul, a vet, once told of a typical spring day when his waiting room was full of clients waiting to have their pets inoculated. No one was talking to anyone else and all were probably thinking of a dozen other things they would rather be doing rather than "wasting time" sitting in that office.He said " there were six or seven other clients waiting when a young woman came in with a nine month old baby and a kitten. As luck would have it, she sat next to a gentleman who was rather distraught about long wait for the service. The next thing he knew, the baby just looked up at him with that great big smile that is so characteristic of babies.What did the gentleman do?? Just what you and me would do, of course; he smiled back at the baby. Soon he struck up a conversation with the woman about her baby and his grand children, and soon the entire reception room joined in, and the boredom and tension were converted into pleasant and enjoyable experience."
Yes, a smile, we are talking about the magic of a smile….. Actions speak louder than words, and a smile says “I like you. You make me happy. I am glad to see you.” That’s why dogs make such a hit. They are so glad to see us that they almost jump out of their skins. So naturally we are glad to see them. A baby’s smile has the same effect...
The effect of smile is powerful--even if it is unseen. Telephone companies in US have a program called “Phone power”--in which they suggest that you smile while talking on phone…it will come through in our voice.
If you think you have a dull life or you have lost all joy in work or at home…just try this... ‘Smile at someone every hour of the day.’ An insincere grin??? No. That doesn’t fool anyone. I am talking about a real smile, a heart warming smile; smile that comes from within… Do this for a week and then come back and write to me about your experiences and results…
You don’t feel like smiling?? Then what??
Do this: just force yourself to whistle or hum a tune or sing. Act as if you were already happy, and that will tend to make you happy. The best way to regain lost cheerfulness is to sit up cheerfully and to act as if cheerfulness were already there…
It isn’t what you have or who you are or where you are or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It’s what you think about it. Two people may be in the same place, doing same thing; both may have about equal amount of money and prestige and yet one may be miserable and other happy. Why?? Because of a different mental attitude.
Everyone in this world is seeking happiness and there is one sure way to find it. That is by controlling our thoughts. Happiness doesn’t depend on outward conditions. It depends on the inner ones…

SMILE:

* It costs nothing.

* It enriches those who receive, without impoverishing those who give.

* It happens in a flash, but sometimes its memory lasts forever.

* It can neither be bought, begged, borrowed nor stolen, it can just be passed.

* Smile even if someone is too tired to pass it back to you…cos NO ONE NEEDS A SMILE SO MUCH AS THOSE WHO HAVE NONE LEFT TO GIVE!!
And thats real living.........