Saturday, April 30, 2011

Monday, April 25, 2011

An Arch Dam


This small arch dam was located somewhere on the way to Monterey Bay from Los Angeles. We pulled out of the freeway on seeing a beautiful lake and a snowy white cloud hanging on top of it, a picture is posted in my previous post.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

The White Cloud and Blue Lake


While driving back to Los Angeles from San Francisco, we found this wonderful white cloud hanging over a lake, just after a couple of hours since we started the journey. The sky was pretty blue as well as the lake. The cloud was snow white and added to the beauty of the location.

Friday, April 15, 2011

Elephant Seals In Cambria Beach


I got these video of Elephant Seals in Cambria Beach while I was driving back to Los Angeles from San Francisco along with my friends. We set the intermediate location as Morro Bay and San Louis Obispo, so that we made sure we are riding 120 miles along the central cost (Monterey Bay). Unfortunately the sky was always cloudy along the sea shore as a result of the warm air from the land touches the chilling sea in the western cost of US. We never knew that Cambria is famous for elephant seals, but we noticed some big creatures lying on the seashore just before it was about to be totally dark in the evening. We stopped by and turned back to find that it is nothing but these wonderful Mammals, the Elephant Seals. More about these Mammals can be read about in Wikipedia at the link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant_seal

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Mysore Bangalore Highway Robbery Attempt

I urge all my readers to spread this and give warnings to as many people, especially those who are in Bangalore and similar metro cities, those who drive late night, or even during day time, AND ESPECIALLY TO THOSE OF YOUR FRIENDS WHO TRAVEL TOWARDS WAYANAD, MYSORE, CALICUT, KANNUR, OOTY OR KASARGOD BY CAR FROM BANGALORE.

Location: Just after 1 kilometer from Mandya towards Mysore
When: 12th April 2011 (Tuesday) at around 10:30 pm
What: An unsuccessful car robbery attempt/or a robbery attempt on us


The door beam which was damaged by the stone thrown at us




This unpleasant event happened to me and my friends on 12th April 2011 (Tuesday) at around 10:30 pm, while two of my Friends (Binoy and Nirmal) and me were driving towards Wayanad to cast our Vote on the next day for the State Assembly Election in Kerala. We started from Electronic city in Bangalore at around 8:00pm, and just after crossing the city of Mandya, this event took place. Binoy was sitting behind and Nirmal along with me on the front seats. As soon as we crossed the city of Mandya and reached a place outside the town where there are no street lights or buildings or anything nearby, the rear window glass on the left side shattered with a loud bang noise, the safety glass granules got spread all over the rear cabin seats and on Binoy.
The place was very lonely, and nobody is in visible highway section in the car light. I on the driving seat could not understand what really happened, because the road was pretty clear and straight with two lanes on each side with no chances of hitting anything and no vehicles in rear and forward 1 kilometer. When we understood what happened and when I slowed down the car to stop, Binoy asked me NOT to stop the car and told that he is OK to be in that condition to travel a few kilometers until we reach a well-lighted safe area.
We traveled another 5 kilometers towards Mysore and stopped in front of a Petrol pump with enough street lights and people nearby. We checked the car and could not find anything other than the glass broken. We speculated theories that either it happened due to the harmonic vibration of the glass at around a speed of 80~90 kilometers at that time, or the glass got broken because of a manufacturing defect itself, but why with such a big noise? We called our friends an asked if Ford does have any such bad history. I remembered about a review that I read 3 years back before buying this Ford Fiesta, where somebody wrote that his Fiesta’s rear glass broken and shattered all of a sudden without any reason.

We cleaned the glass particles using some extra cotton floor mats that were kept in the boot of the car, and decided to resume and cast the vote and come back, but not to cancel the trip and go back to Bangalore.
Later we stopped for refreshments at Hunsur, just before taking a turn towards Gonikoppal (Gonikuppa). When we again inspected the car, I found the mark of something hit on the beam of my car where the rear door wind shield is fixed. Then we understood that it was a big stone thrown against the wind shield, to make us stop and to make a victim of another sad robbery. We remembered about a couple of news articles about high way robbery in similar manner on Mysore – Bangalore state highway.


Few good things that happened:
1. The stone did not hit on the front wind shield which could have made us stop the car for sure.
2. A hit on the front windshield may cause me to lose driving control which may cause a severe accident on such high speeds.
3. Binoy asked as not to stop, until we reach a safe point far away from the location.
4. I was not traveling with my family alone.


Few bad things:
1. We could not alarm the police (100).
2. The police system is not an easy approachable thing at the location.
3. Even though my brother asked me to log a complaint in Mandya Police station, I hesitated to do that thinking of the unnecessary problems that may be created along with it.


A few things that we learned:
1. Never stop in such highways on any dark areas for anything
2. If possible, never stop the car on such situation, and try to reach a safe destination if possible.
3. Carry a small weapon like a knife.
4. Carry a pepper spray in you r car and keep in in the shelves on the door easily accessible to the driver and not seen by others.

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Advertisement in Sky


An advertisement in the sky about Tequila Avion!!! Advertisements spam mails, SMS, streets, newspapers, radio, TV, internet, sky and what else? Is this called Advertisement Pollution?

Tuesday, April 05, 2011

San Bernardino Mountains


San Bernardino Mountains are beautiful. This picture is taken while driving towards Lake Arrowhead from City of Arcadia. You can read more about San Bernardino Mountains at San Bernardino Mountains

Friday, April 01, 2011

Peak Summer in California


This summer afternoon was one of the hottest in the year 2010 in California. The temperature reached a maximum of 45-46 degree Celsius during that summer.