nidhiramblers

When  D A Prasanna  invites us for a program, we do not miss it. It is very well organised, we get to meet him, also Mukund Rao and Gayathri; and Lakshminarayan and Raji. In fact, we met Prasanna and Rajani through them.   It was in honor of Professor D S Achuta Rao, Mysore University. An endowment initiated by his family in his name. The endowment gives Research Grants, publishes DSA History Series books with Manipal Universal Press of Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) To mark the launch of the book, a symposium,  titled Challenges of Tribal Development and the curious case of Bastar was quite absorbing. Bastar 1862, edited by Uma Rao and K S Ram is it's 10th publication. The endowment has many more activities. DSA memorial conferences, performances, lecture series, celebrating scholars, and DSA History Channel on YouTube. The book, which actually is ' two books in one' , is brilliantly conceived. It is a labor of love as the editors lived in Bastar fo...

This July- dry eye awareness month we would like to introduce BLINKBUDDY.  A unique blink reminder app for laptops and Android phones.  It is  not a medical treatment We received this from Sahana, Ophthalmologist.   We know Sahana since her childhood, from our Pune days.  Interestingly we were thinking of her as I went through a procedure for 'Posterior Capsular Opacification". I did struggle with dry eyes! The APP is easy to install. It is free. I installed it in both my android phone and on my laptop. It gives us periodical messages. I believe it is a very useful  App. Good for all those who spend a lot of time on either phones and Laptops. We do forget and this is a welcome innovation which Sahana has developed! 🔔 Gentle reminders to blink and rest your eyes 🧘 Posture check alerts to prevent strain ⏱️ Built-in Pomodoro timer with customizable work/break cyclesd  We feel proud to introduce Sahana! I am sure so would be, her alma mater Sankara Netra...

  Tara told me that Leela is in Singapore. The sponsors had sent her a ticket. I knew she was involved with a project while doing a semester at NTU. Back in Vancouver, her team mates informed her that their project was selected and she began working with the group from Vancouver! It was nice the sponsors thought of getting her back to Singapore, to be part of the event! Leela, in reply to my question, said that she was doing 'A bit of everything! So just a designer is a good umbrella term:). It was a team effort! I was mainly assisting with this project, in whatever cases my group members needed! We all worked on conceptualization. I did the UX and was mainly assisting from here as it was hard to be 100% involved from Vancouver! Leela volunteered more info as I asked for more! ' I was in Singapore studying at NTU -Nanyang Technological University. One of my required courses was called interactive 1, however, I was on the waitlist during the first week so I only entered the clas...

Nandini, after our morning walk, suggested we go sightseeing and eat lunch at a different place. She researched and chose Bangala resort which is rated high and is popular! When we reached the resort, the staff at the reception said we need to book ahead! Nandini requested him to check if we three could be accommodated! He went in, a little hesitantly and returned after a while. He said we could get a thali meal , not the full meal served on banana leaf. We accepted gladly, and we were seated a little away from where people were already busy eating! The service was polite and gracious! The food was nice and tasty! Less expensive than she thought. We walked out thanking the manager! He just waved, perhaps late comers was a routine for him!   https://www.thebangala.com/ Do notice the village woman carrying cow dung! Can't read the small print, written for an Angreji news paper, by a farang!  (In Thai, a foreigner!).  A typical  nose up in the air attitude ! Having seen...

 As we entered the Chidambara Vilas I noticed a picture which reminded me of my grandfather in a similar attire and his photo displayed in the same way! Just that, no other similarities!  https://www.sangamhotels.com/chidambara-vilas-pudukkottai/ The resort is very impressive. The staff very welcoming. We arrived around lunch time and had a quick lunch. Being a bit tired after the morning activities and the drive I just slept. I missed a demo of how to cook Chettinad cuisine but joined a talk about Chettiars and their style as businessmen. We retired early after dinner! As Dayanidhi commented on my earlier blog on mansions, chettinad reminds one of Thailand and Penang, in short, areas which are better off. Sethu was also surprised to see so many mansions in that small area! There are so many lessons one can learn from the chettiyars. The way they became prosperous, the reason they had to leave Burma. The rationale for building so many Mansions and so on! However it is also tru...