The land of Koalas & the 'Roos

Planning

So, we decided to go meet the Mayteys down under. Mindful of the overhead of managing our 5 yr old monkey, we decided to take a guided tour approach.
Kesari seemed to have the best user feedback on the web ( mouthshut.com )
The 'Australian Escape' from Kesari was what we wanted. They were priced the highest, but we later learned that Kesari prices had several extra benefits.

• The prices were all inclusive
• No extras for paying the bus drivers, porters, guide, etc.
• Breakfast, lunch & dinner are paid for. They also arranged for Indian food at almost every place we went.
• Even at the Mumbai airport, they gave us a food satchet with lots of snacks. They included a Tel Poli, Chaklis, Mixture, Dink Ladoo, chocolates, etc.

Some negatives( there always are)

The Bangalore office was less knowledgeable/helpful than the Mumbai office (compared to the experiences of fellow travellers).

We were mis-informed about stuff like clothes to take, despite us asking several times. I was forced to look up the web for better connections between Bangalore/Mumbai and prod Kesari to make them book us a decent connection. They told us the flights out of Bangalore to Sydney had LOONG layovers, which again was not true. The Itinerary The whole trip over 12 days was split amongst 4 main areas Melbourne Gold coast Cairns Sydney & Canberra

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Sania not playing in India..

So, who's benefitting from this?

We can break up the populace into several categories
1. Sania / Her folks
2. Tournament Organizers
3. Press
4. Fans/ Tennis lovers/ Kids who emulate her
5. People who have problems with her

1. Sania /Her folks: No benefit.
She's started a controversy that will kick up each time there is a tournament in India. So, she's not free from the talk.
She's bound to lose some money/rankings in the process -both prize money & ad revenue.
She doesn't get to play in her home country.

2. Tournament organizers: She's definitely a great sell - both with her excellent game, and looks. Their takings will definitely reduce, and reduce such tournaments from happening in India.

3. Press : These guys might profit some - by raking more muck out of this, and filling up pages with crap. But the balance is more or less even coz they don't get to write about her great plays either. But its not like ppl really buy their stuff to read about tennis matches. So, they probably benefit more from muck raking than the game.

4. Fans/ People that adore her - They lose out big time. They can't see her play, can't get autographs, shake hands with her.. etc. etc. And anyway its not like any fan of her game was yelling about her clothes, her fidelity towards islam, etc.

5. People who have problems with her: These clearly don't care about tennis, or appreciate her game. They do lose some opportunity to bicker. But they'll be back at it the moment she starts playing in India again.
And anyway its not like international matches aren't telecast. For the really determined that want to make sure she's not disrespecting issue X, there's no stopping. In fact, this would even be claimed as a victory for those folks.
This could also increase the activities of such wagging tongues against other players.

Some ppl are saying this is a 'boycott' against intolerance. That doesn't make sense to me. In a boycott, you aim your activity against a set of people that benefit by your normal activity - using their service/product/etc.
Who are the targets here? Ppl that don't care anyway whether she plays or not. They'll go back to picking their noses or whatever until they see some dog peeing in the wrong direction.


Conclusion: Only the muck raking section of the press, and the maniacs holding demonstrations, filing court cases, and hogging some airwaves are benefitted.

Coast II Coast, Koramangala, Bangalore

We had lunch a couple of days ago at Coast II Coast @ Koramangala.
Neat place, not too sky high prices. A frequent visitor had come along, and had suggestions about what to choose.

Stuff we thought were awesome
* Chicken Sukha
* Chicken Kundapur
* Crab Sukha
* Fish curry ( BaangDa)
* Aapam

Stuff we didn't like
* Fish Masala fry ( KaaNe ) . The masala was too wet/fresh.
* Fish Rava fry ( anjal ) . This was deep fried, with small rava.. so tasted very bland.
* White rice. Badly cooked, and didn't feel fresh.
* Veg fried rice - Again felt too hard/dry
* Baby corn pakoda - too dry, and hard.

Bottom line: Most Mangalorean items are great. Don't try chinese.

Price: The bill came up to Rs. 1200 ( 30$ ) for 6 of us. Not bad.
Will I go there again? : Oh yes.
My rating: 4/5

Sania Mirza's 3rd round loss

Being a tennis enthusiast, and being Indian , I'm ashamed to say I'd never watched Sania play.
The Australian open 3rd round match against Venus Williams was my first time.
And I was surprised to see how good Sania was. And disheartened that she lost. Its a shame that our media / people hound her about trivial crap and distract the girl.

About the match:
Her serve is clearly not very strong. But it goes in deep, and Venus could never really take advantage of it. She didn't produce any great winners.

It was her lack of focus/or over eagerness, I felt that gave away the match.
She lost a lot of points trying hard returns to serves, or trying to hit the corners too early in the rally.
Of course, the great aces by Venus - she couldn't do much about.

Again, if it was early in the rally, she wouldn't chase the ball. It looked she decided she didn't want the point, or gave up too quick.

But counter to all these unforced errors - anytime that the rally went beyond the 2 shots, she won the point. And really spectacularly - each time. She literally slapped Venus around. And that was a treat to watch.
And those crosscourts- both backhand & forehand.. were literally untouchable.
Venus was clearly harried and tired running after all those shots, and losing them. Instead of using these wins to her advantage and destroying Venus further, Sania would lose the next point in some silly way.


Here's wishing she'll overcome her minor mental deficiencies, and rise up to her true level. Her technique is really up there.

Jayanagar, Bangalore Skating rink experience..

Before heading to Bangalore, we had this bright idea: We'd buy a pair of inline skates for my son(4 yrs) , and my niece(5 yrs), and teach them.
There's a skating rink in 3rd block, Jayanagar, Bangalore.
After a couple of days on the terrace, I took the kids to the rink. A lot of kids were going around.. there was nobody at the entrance, no boards marking any fees, etc.
Every kid had a ridiculous helmet on.. so I guessed there was some authority at work here.

Anyways, not seeing anybody I could talk to/ask, I took the kids into the rink, put their skates on and was encouraging them to walk.
Just then, my wife came by and said "They say you can't skate here... " . She pointed at a lady sitting on the stadium steps.
I walk up to this portly lady.. with a frown on her face. The conversation went something like this:
"she: you need to take those children out of the rink right away"
"me: Can't we skate here ? "
"No. Only those that take lessons from us can skate here."
"me: Oh, ok.. I didn't know that. I can sign up"
" Also, they can't use those skates here. They'll have to get the recommended ones (the old roller kind)"
"me: why not ? "
"Those are toy skates. Plastic inline skates. The kids learn skating here for professional levels "

I was awestruck for a couple of seconds.. at the smugness of this frog about her knowledge.
I went on: "they are not toys. But they are inline skates. As a kid, I too learnt roller skates, but in fact, inline skates are the ones that are now used all over the world... "

"No.. but we don't teach those here"

"thats ok, I can pay your fees for using this rink, and I'll teach my kids"

"No. We can't allow that. Its against our policy"

The frown had turned into a full blown scowl now.
I say " Doesn't this place belong to the govt. ? Isn't this public property? "

"Our skating club has taken this over. We maintain it, and pay money to the govt. So we have the right to charge for use, and forbid those that don't follow the rules. We only teach kids to compete at a professional level"

I was done with this conversation. Hearing crap like "professional level roller skating" in India, was too much to stomach. The next step was either to start a yelling match, or just get out of there and find out more.

I got out of there.
The kids didn't understand why I stopped their little play, removed their skates, and took them out. I'm glad they didn't. They started talking to each other about something else they saw around them.