Call of the Druk

It's time again for the ride of the year.

This time it is the call of the Druk, to the land of the Thunder Dragon - Bhutan.
I will be riding with Vandit Kalia [An avid tourer, diver, founder of DiveIndia - http://www.diveindia.com ]


Tentative Itinerary :
[Entirely Vandit's hard work who has toured extensively across the land of Druk]


25th - Fly Bangalore-Kolkata-Bagdogra. Arrive in Phuentsholing by the evening.
26th - head to Thimpu, assemble bikes and go for a short afternoon ride;27th - explore Thimpu
28th - ride to Punakha
29th - spend a day exploring Punakha and the dzong
30th - head to Phobjikha
1st - explore Phobjikha
2nd - ride to Trongsa
3rd - ride to Jakar
4th - explore the Bumthang area; cycle to Ura in the evening
5th - (drive to Mongar?)
6th - Mongar to Trashiganj
7th - drive back to Paro
8th - explore Paro / Haa Valley
9th - explore around Paro (Tiger Hill Monastery?)
10th - head back to NJP
11th - fly out


Will keep tweeting [subject to network avilability]
Twitter handle : frnzi


Wish me good luck :)


Jogay - Let's go!

Of Mosquitoes, Tweets, Su-kam Inverters and Targeted Advertising

Last Sunday I was at my hometown. Thanks to the power cut policies of Karnataka govt, Power went off at 11pm.. buzzzz came in swarm of mosquitoes... and I tweeted :

Aur ek khoon bhari raat. Power cut + mosquitoes 

And here comes the reply from Su-Kam Inverters :

khoon bhari raat hi banate rahoge ya kucch aur option bhi dhundoge powercut ke liye

That's some real good use of social media for targeted advertising...
Impressed.

Dr. Thammu Achaya and The Origins of Idli

While on the quest of the origins of Gobi Manchurian I hit upon this old "The Hindu" article which talks about the origins of Idli. Surprisingly, this - pride of South India - is not South Indian uhm well it is not even Indian!
The Gastronome scientist- Thammu Achaya digs out, your favourite Idli came to India all the way from Indonesia somewhere around 8th to 12th century AD.
Here is the verbatim extract of the Idli section of the article:

[ Image taken from wikimedia commons : http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Idli_Sambar.JPG ]

"In Box 19 of his Indian Food: A Historical Companion, on the snacks of the South, he first points out that while early Tamil Sangam literature talks of Dosai, reference to Idli comes only after 920 AD. Even as late as the 17th century, the Indian Idli missed three elements of its modern version — use of rice grits, fermentation overnight and steaming of the batter. Steaming is an ancient Chinese method and Xuan Zang, the Chinese traveller to India in the 7th century, says that India did not have a steaming vessel. Apparently, cooks who accompanied the Hindu kings of Indonesia during their visits home during the 8th to 12th centuries AD brought fermentation techniques with them, as also perhaps steaming methods and vessels."

Interesting, isn't it?!
More interesting to me was knowing about Dr. Thammu Achaya - The Food Scientist, Historian, Painter, Musician.. whew the renaissance man :)

More about Thammu saar:
Thammu Achaya — tribute to a gastronome scientist- The Hindu article
An obituary from Indian Academy of Sciences [PDF]
Food, his story - an Indian Express article

Where is the Rabbit?

They always said there is a rabbit up there...
I see only craters there :(
Who took my rabbit?

Some info for the shutterbugs:
Camera : Lumix TZ-7
Mode : Manual, Infinite Burst, Center point light metering, Point Focus.
Focal Length (35mm eq): ~535mm (extended zoom) X 4x digi zoom

Postprocessing: Burn Shadows, Sepia filter
Software - Picasa