Treasure Box http://blog.koshashah.com A box without hinges, key, or lid, yet golden treasure inside is hid. Mon, 26 Apr 2010 09:04:08 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 en hourly 1 Spam!!! http://blog.koshashah.com/spam/ http://blog.koshashah.com/spam/#comments Mon, 26 Apr 2010 08:55:33 +0000 kosha http://blog.koshashah.com/?p=247 I was getting a lot of spam comments from a long time, mostly Russian spammers. But recently I have seen very strange spam comments. They are actually the comments made on the post. They copy paste the same content with their links. What all tactics do people use to spam. Thank god, the anti-spam on my blog, Akismet, is so good and filters out everything :-) .

]]> http://blog.koshashah.com/spam/feed/ 4 Facebook ‘Like’ Button http://blog.koshashah.com/facebook-like-button/ http://blog.koshashah.com/facebook-like-button/#comments Fri, 23 Apr 2010 05:36:52 +0000 kosha http://blog.koshashah.com/?p=241 Yippeeee!! I finally managed to add a working facebook like button to my blog posts with the help of the following links:

http://www.pathikshah.com/blog/how-to-add-the-facebook-like-button-to-wordpress-blog/
http://www.webcheatsheet.com/php/get_current_page_url.php

I was facing a problem with the general way used for wordpress as I use static links for my permalinks. So the second link helped me out :-)

Edit: I stumbled upon another blog and got an awesome solution :-)

http://www.labnol.org/internet/add-facebook-plugins-to-website/13505/

]]> http://blog.koshashah.com/facebook-like-button/feed/ 2 Finally – Humans and Nature in Unison http://blog.koshashah.com/humans-and-earth-in-unison/ http://blog.koshashah.com/humans-and-earth-in-unison/#comments Thu, 22 Apr 2010 12:10:04 +0000 kosha http://blog.koshashah.com/?p=236 Yes, you did read it correctly. Humans and Nature are in unison. Don’t you think so? Look at the news papers and try to link things.

“Bomb blasts at xyz location.”
“Earthquake in that country.”
“Shootout at so-and-so college.”
“Landslide sweeps off so-many people.”

Finally, mother nature has give-in and is working hand-in-hand with humans to destroy this planet. We truly deserve it, its our hard work for centuries that is finally paying up! :-)

[P.S. - Happy Earth Day to all of you.]

]]> http://blog.koshashah.com/humans-and-earth-in-unison/feed/ 1 Memories, your own Mindgame! http://blog.koshashah.com/memories-your-own-mindgame/ http://blog.koshashah.com/memories-your-own-mindgame/#comments Fri, 16 Apr 2010 12:02:56 +0000 kosha http://blog.koshashah.com/?p=234 Recently, I saw a play “The Blue Mug” (btw, its an awesome play, do watch it, if it comes to your town). Well, the play was not about any Blue Mug, but about memories – small, big, funny, emotional, sad, happy, awkward – all kinds of memories.

Memories are such an entertainer for all of us, a game which every individual loves to play. You live more in your memories than you would have lived those memories. And memories are far more vivid than the actual event. Sometimes you spice up the memory on purpose, sometimes its just that you remember it in a spicier way than what actually had happened. And its so much fun to share your memories. Its the best thing you can do on a rainy evening and a power cut-out :-) .

Memories are the most integral part of you, what will you do if you did not have memories, much like one of the character played by Ranvir Shourie in “The Blue Mug“, or much like the guy in “Memento“. You are lost, you actually loose your identity. We never realize that the importance of memories in our life is so astronomical – its your identity, its you!

So lets keep making memories and keep sharing them! :-)

]]> http://blog.koshashah.com/memories-your-own-mindgame/feed/ 4 Peeping into the windows! http://blog.koshashah.com/peeping-into-the-windows/ http://blog.koshashah.com/peeping-into-the-windows/#comments Wed, 07 Apr 2010 08:47:48 +0000 kosha http://blog.koshashah.com/?p=230 Nowadays, I spend around 2.5 hours in commuting between work and home. This gives me a lot of time to do time pass and due to my ever restless nature, I have to constantly engage myself into different activities, like – sleeping, listening to radio, reading (but stopped as it gave me a headache), writing blogs (though I lost all of them while updating my iPod), and most of the time playing games.

But today, I tried something new – peeping into the windows of BMTC buses. As it’s a Bus day today, I thought what better thing to do than this :D . And what did I find – a young lady, entusiastic, and eager to reach her destination, maybe her first week at work; a pair of twinkling and inquisitive eyes belonging to a cute little girl sitting in the lap of her father, who was lost in world of worries, probably of the future of the girl; a smug lady typing away on her laptop oblivious to people around, in a crowded Volvo; another lady, somber, a strange stoichness about her face, as if made still with the daily rut of life; a bunch of college kids, giggling, gesturing and teeming with joy, maybe bunking the college and going for a movie; a formaly dressed foreigner accompanied with an Indian, scared, thrilled, his eyes reminded me of the eyes of people embarking on a rollercoaster; a lady, maybe in her late thirties, eyeing everyone, in a quest to find an empty seat. In short, it was a quilt of varied expressions, a mixed bag of people from all ages, class and genres.

Man, this was an interesting thing to do, might try it everyday :-)

]]> http://blog.koshashah.com/peeping-into-the-windows/feed/ 4 Moral Policing – What’s your take? http://blog.koshashah.com/moral-policing-whats-your-take/ http://blog.koshashah.com/moral-policing-whats-your-take/#comments Tue, 06 Apr 2010 07:48:49 +0000 kosha http://blog.koshashah.com/?p=215 Moral policing is on a rise, or should I say that its getting more widespread publicity! What do you think about it? Is it correct or is it wrong?

Well, my view – I think every individual has his/her own right to lead a life the way they want it to. They may be wrong, may be right, but it does not mean that anybody else can come and force them to do something else. I agree if they are committing some crime, yes it needs to be intervened. But unless it is a criminal act, there should be no policing. And talking about these moral police, these are the same people who will drink and beat their wives and chuckle with delight on seeing sexy bikini-clad women in movies, bl**dy hypocrites. What do they know about morality? Morality is a much deeper concept than what these so-called “Moral Police” can even try to understand.

]]> http://blog.koshashah.com/moral-policing-whats-your-take/feed/ 5 What’s wrong with NGC? http://blog.koshashah.com/whats-wrong-with-ngc/ http://blog.koshashah.com/whats-wrong-with-ngc/#comments Wed, 31 Mar 2010 12:31:10 +0000 kosha http://blog.koshashah.com/?p=213 Yesterday I saw a feature on NGC – “Girl Who Cries Blood”. It was about a 13-year old girl, Twinkle Dwivedi, living in Lucknow, who supposedly bleeds spontaneously from her eyes, head, nose, hands, feet, etc. I was curious, and watched the entire feature, but there was nothing conclusive till the end. Later, I did a bit of research over the internet and surprisingly could not find any reliable data. Though there are loads of article on Twinkle, but none of them are reliable. There is no wiki page, it has not been reported by any reputable news sites, and there are no medical papers about her unique problem. But the article can be abundantly found on gossip forums etal. After a bit more searching I found that it was part of a series called “BodyShock” which was a mere sensationalist reality (read “unreality”) TV show. And that was a shock to me. As I had never expected NGC to show sensationalism and not the truth. I have blindly trusted NGC till date. But this episode has left me with my doubts and apprehensions on trusting NGC anymore.

If anyone of you knows the truth about Twinkle Dwivedi, please let me know.

]]> http://blog.koshashah.com/whats-wrong-with-ngc/feed/ 5 Finally!! http://blog.koshashah.com/finally/ http://blog.koshashah.com/finally/#comments Sat, 20 Mar 2010 03:52:45 +0000 kosha http://blog.koshashah.com/?p=211 Finally I feel I am getting back the hold of my life. I am doing good at work, still keeping in touch with family n friends over phone and email. Atleast, I have managed to get out of the extremes of mailing-all-the-time and mailing-not-at-all to a moderate amount of time, which seems apt :) .

I am finally done with my Photo website, just adding some photos is left, will do that and make it live :) .

I finally have started to get ideas to write blogs. I had actually written a lot of drafts while commuting to office, but last weekend, out of my foolishness I lost all of them :( . But no worries, I still have ideas in my head :) . And will keep posting them from time to time.

I am finally taking out time to manage my pictures and process them. Though taking new ones is still a bit far, but I now have confidence that I will be able to achieve that too in some time :) .

I feel so good!!! :)
Hope to keep this momentum going! *fingers crossed*

]]> http://blog.koshashah.com/finally/feed/ 2 Land of mystic mountains! http://blog.koshashah.com/land-of-mystic-mountains/ http://blog.koshashah.com/land-of-mystic-mountains/#comments Tue, 21 Jul 2009 06:39:00 +0000 kosha http://blog.koshashah.com/?p=71 Kodai Kanal has always been my favorite destination, ever since I visited it as a kid. The beautiful mountains, the lush green jungles, the Kodai-1placid lake, the lovely mist, and the beautiful waterfalls always had remained etched in my memory. I had a chance to visit Kodai a few years back with my friends. A log of that trip is here. But it seems, I never had enough of Kodai, and my craving to visit that place is still the same :D
Kodai-2Kodai has always been a part of my family favorites. And guess, Ritesh had got so bored of listening to the dinner-time-kodai-stories, that he decided to visit it and become a part of the memoirs recitation :D . So when his parents were coming to stay with us for few days, we planned for this much awaited trip to Kodai Kanal.

Kodai-3Ever since we got our new car, we have actually never travelled anywhere without it, so this trip also had to be by car :-) . We started on the friday evening and reached Salem at night for a halt, as we don’t drive in the night (reason being, there is absolutely nothing that you can see in the night…driving in day is so much more interesting). And next day early morning drive from Salem to Kodai was all the justification we needed for the night stay at Salem :-) .

Kodai-4When we reached Kodai, the scene was right out of a fairy tale. It was mist & fog everywhere. And the small town was abuzz with activity. And the best was a view from the lawn of our hotel. We just went all gaga over it…and stayed up at the Kodai-5lawn taking pictures and breathing in the fresh air and purging our lungs of all the pollution and toxic gases. The climate in Kodai in June was just amazing. You see a beautiful sunrise and nice “dhoop” in the mornings, then by the time its afternoon, the clouds come down as if to give you a hug, the late afternoon, there is slight showers, and then it miraclously clears up and you see twinkling stars in the sky.
Kodai-6
Kodai-7
Kodai-8
Kodai-9We spent three full days in Kodai, each day exploring an area around Kodai that is not so well known, so as to avoid a lot of crowd. And yes, every day was followed by an evening …cycling around the lake. Its one of the best activity you can do. Its healthy and you can take lot of beautiful pcitures around the lake. The rest of the evening was well spent at cards and food at the Kodai Club. :-)

Kodai-10We just enjoyed every bit of our time spent in Kodai and now Ritesh also has a craving to visit Kodai again and again…so watch out for more travelogues coming! :-)

Kodai-11Facts
Bangalore to Kodai – 480 kms
Route: Bangalore – Hosur – Krishnagiri – Dharmapuri – Salem – Bhavani – Erode – Kangeyam – Dharmapuram – Palani – Kodai
Kodai – Palani – Dharmapuram – Kangeyam – Mechcheri – Dharmapuri – Krishnagiri – Hosur – Bangalore
Google Map
Kodai-12Places to stay: Villa Retreat – Official Site, My review on trip advisor
The Kodai Club – Official Site
Best time to visit: April to June & September to October
Places to see: The Kodai Lake, Pine Forest, 12 Mile circuit and view points along the way, Coakers walk, Berijam Lake, any drive coz its so beautiful to pass through mist-ful roads and we are still exploring better places! :-)

Kodai-13Suggestions

Try to avoid the weekend rush and go on a weekday.
Better have your own car, so as to move around easily.
There are a lot of hiking and trekking trails in and around Kodai. Get more information from the DFO, office.
I have come to know of a trekking trail from Kodai to Munnar, and it sounds amazing. Me and Ritesh are waiting Kodai-14for the calendar to change, so that we can do it the coming january! :-)
There is this site 360Inn, they have an interesting and off-beat lineage of organized tour. This too is on our list and will do it soon!

]]> http://blog.koshashah.com/land-of-mystic-mountains/feed/ 4 …of warm hugs, subtle kisses n family reunions http://blog.koshashah.com/of-warm-hugs-subtle-kisses-n-family-reunions/ http://blog.koshashah.com/of-warm-hugs-subtle-kisses-n-family-reunions/#comments Tue, 21 Jul 2009 05:49:00 +0000 kosha http://blog.koshashah.com/?p=70 Last night me and Ritesh went to pick up a friend coming from Spain. We had to wait for around 1 and a half hours for them to come out.

And during this wait we witnessed so many families and friends reunite. It was a very exhilarating experience. The long waits…the searching eyes…then a glimpse of their loved ones…and then a sudden smile…the rush to meet them…the hugs…the kisses…the laughs…the questions…the compliments…the sound of shutter to capture the moment forever…the jumping around…wow!!!

That reminded me of the times when Ritesh came to Tokyo to meet me and when I cam back from Tokyo… :-)
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