Mission:
--------
To make life of a student more meaningful and purposeful.
Target Audience:
---------------
School students of 9th to 12th standard.
Includes:
---------
1) Importance of studies / Eductaion
2) Importance of each subject
3) Importance of fear - Exams, performance, etc
4) Importance of communication
5) Importance of competiition
6) Importance of mutual respect
7) Importance of career
8) Importance of hobbies
9) Importance of fitness
10) Importance of right friends
11) Counselling about basic individual problems
12) Feedback about teachers, school and parents
13) Creative games
14) New generation topics like Brands, tech products etc
Benefits:
--------
1) Confidence
2) Focus
3) Self Identity
4) Responsibilty
5) Big picture
6) Avoid depression
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Friday, April 24, 2009
Talent Management (TM) - Next Revolution!
Now a days many companies have renamed their HR function as Talent Management. It is indeed a very nice thought from these companies. But I wish these HR people also evolve themselves in implementing this change in real sense.
As it is becoming more and more challenging to hire and retain talented people, we should first define "talent" in people. Are we referring to any skill set of say any technology or we aer thinking about whatever knowledge the person is keeping in his/her mind? There are many tools available to track the skill set of employees and document management initiatives for putting everything on paper.
But by narrowing down the meaning of talent as above, we are just ignoring many other impportant aspects of a talent employee such as :
1) Loyalty
2) Proactiveness
3) Teaming
4) Commitment to work
5) Organization
6) Fitness
7) Enterpreneurship
8) Patience
Above aspects are very important and should be considered seriously while hiring and retaining people working for you.
As it is becoming more and more challenging to hire and retain talented people, we should first define "talent" in people. Are we referring to any skill set of say any technology or we aer thinking about whatever knowledge the person is keeping in his/her mind? There are many tools available to track the skill set of employees and document management initiatives for putting everything on paper.
But by narrowing down the meaning of talent as above, we are just ignoring many other impportant aspects of a talent employee such as :
1) Loyalty
2) Proactiveness
3) Teaming
4) Commitment to work
5) Organization
6) Fitness
7) Enterpreneurship
8) Patience
Above aspects are very important and should be considered seriously while hiring and retaining people working for you.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
250 sq ft mind!
Owning a house is quite an important landmark in the life of a person. A child stays with parents till he is grown up to start earning and live independently. Then, generally he rents a house. Few people, are fortunate enough to save some money over the years, purchase their own house. The size and price of the house purchased at this point depends on the circunstances prevalent at that particular point i.e. savings, market price, preferences etc. Purchasing or building a house is a tediuos activity and so there are very few who later think of moving into a bigger house even if future allows them to do so.
The same cycle applies for owning a mind. There are many people who keep staying with their parents mind or with a rented mind without thinking to own a mind of their own.Few who actually purchase or build a mind of their own do not want to move into a bigger mind later. This is because they feel secured in their small mind and do not want unnecessary inconvience which this shifting might create.
But this change may not be so difficult as generally understood and can be rather benefical for them and everyone. This decision of moving and some efforts to find a bigger mind itself can redefine us as a person. This is how the world has generated so many leaders. One most recent and obvious example is Barack Obama.
Nobody can own a big house or big mind at the first instance unless inhherited. But there is quite a defference between self made thing and something which is inherited. One recent example is George Bush (Jr). You may not respect the things which you have inherited and so cannot understand the importance.
Mind is rather easy to be expanded within very less time. It is just a matter of realization the real characterstic of mind. Mind is boundary less if we ourself don't create boundaries of our ego around it. Why we think that only what we are doing or thinking is right? This is applicable in all spheres of life. The minute we start pushing us in other's shoes, we can easily understand why right and worng is a matter of perception and why something which is right for you can also be wrong for others and vice versa.
You don't really need to increase the area of mind which is already infinite. But yes, we need to remove the boundaries created by us which are coming in our way to define our growth path. One simple approach I learned recenlty, whenever you say NO, it is creating boundary and when we say YES, it is actually helping to remove boundaries. This principle has to be used with prudence and not blindly.
Sometimes, mind actually shrinks when someone is too busy with the success which becomes like a boundary and so create reasons for the downfall earlier or later. For a celebrity, his fame becomes a boundary and sometimes it is so strong that it is really difficult to break. It is impossible to break the boundary when you think that there is no boundary at all. Even a farm house has a boundary though not visible from the bedroom.
The same cycle applies for owning a mind. There are many people who keep staying with their parents mind or with a rented mind without thinking to own a mind of their own.Few who actually purchase or build a mind of their own do not want to move into a bigger mind later. This is because they feel secured in their small mind and do not want unnecessary inconvience which this shifting might create.
But this change may not be so difficult as generally understood and can be rather benefical for them and everyone. This decision of moving and some efforts to find a bigger mind itself can redefine us as a person. This is how the world has generated so many leaders. One most recent and obvious example is Barack Obama.
Nobody can own a big house or big mind at the first instance unless inhherited. But there is quite a defference between self made thing and something which is inherited. One recent example is George Bush (Jr). You may not respect the things which you have inherited and so cannot understand the importance.
Mind is rather easy to be expanded within very less time. It is just a matter of realization the real characterstic of mind. Mind is boundary less if we ourself don't create boundaries of our ego around it. Why we think that only what we are doing or thinking is right? This is applicable in all spheres of life. The minute we start pushing us in other's shoes, we can easily understand why right and worng is a matter of perception and why something which is right for you can also be wrong for others and vice versa.
You don't really need to increase the area of mind which is already infinite. But yes, we need to remove the boundaries created by us which are coming in our way to define our growth path. One simple approach I learned recenlty, whenever you say NO, it is creating boundary and when we say YES, it is actually helping to remove boundaries. This principle has to be used with prudence and not blindly.
Sometimes, mind actually shrinks when someone is too busy with the success which becomes like a boundary and so create reasons for the downfall earlier or later. For a celebrity, his fame becomes a boundary and sometimes it is so strong that it is really difficult to break. It is impossible to break the boundary when you think that there is no boundary at all. Even a farm house has a boundary though not visible from the bedroom.
What do you really want??
Some desires are fulfilled and some are not. The pain of one unfulfilled desire is sometimes more than gain of ten fulfilled desires. Also with every fulfilled desire, we may have sacrificed or compromised many other important things of life. This imbalance in concept of desire converts most of the successes to failure without being getting noticed easily.
Any unfulfilled desire gives us an opportunity to look back and understand whether the desire was worth for? Rather controlling desires at the point of origin can help and simplify life to a great extent. With so many desires adding to the wish list daily, we can classify them in to two categories which are created:1) because of others - like competition and social status, 2) not because of others.
For former, just remove them from the list and for later, one question can help - Do you really want this?
Any unfulfilled desire gives us an opportunity to look back and understand whether the desire was worth for? Rather controlling desires at the point of origin can help and simplify life to a great extent. With so many desires adding to the wish list daily, we can classify them in to two categories which are created:1) because of others - like competition and social status, 2) not because of others.
For former, just remove them from the list and for later, one question can help - Do you really want this?
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Short term thinking of long term visionaries..!
I will not start and end with Raju..because he is just one of us (not many). His contribution to Indian economy may be understood later by everyone if we start taking it as learning event. He is a true example for result of greed and also courage to accept. To me, the Satyam story is not about fraud and it is actually all about greed. There can be many implications of greed and fraud is just one of them. The 2009 recession does'nt look like just another cyclic recession. This is also one of the implication of increasing greed at all levels globally. The reason of collapse of housing and banking sector in US is no different.
While sleeping, if you take your body out of the bedsheet (chadar..), you may get hurt by falling from the bed and start feeling the cold of the floor. This is the difference between growth and sustainable growth. Now a days, every business house is calling their chairman as visionary. The word vision is attached to a person after he has achieved signicant growth. This cannot be right. Vision should come before growth. Unlimited growth is not a vision. Actually whether growth will follow vision is also not important. No body called Dhirubhai Ambani a visionary before Reliance became so big. Growth is not always the product of vision. Most of the times, growth just happens...just like that..sometimes because of good circumstances, sometimes luck and many times because of greed.
As I said before, the greed is increasing at all levels i,e, individual, family, corporate, country and global levels. Any professional (not just IT), wants to become a CEO too fast without thinking whether he or she can sustain this growth. The difference between can and should is undermined by everyone. Even one becomes of CEO in 5 years of his career, it may not be good for everyone and so for you. Similarly, corporates are also doubling their sales target every year. This is because of unhealthy competition present in the market which is again a result of greed. Too much aggression is not passion for work and can not achieve much in long term. With so much expansion of businesses, it is actually difficult to take hollistic view of the situation and so every "leader" is ending up survival of each day.
The choice is between God and Greed. Your interest in GOD is only one thing which can be grown unlimited without analysing for sustainability.
Hare Krishna
While sleeping, if you take your body out of the bedsheet (chadar..), you may get hurt by falling from the bed and start feeling the cold of the floor. This is the difference between growth and sustainable growth. Now a days, every business house is calling their chairman as visionary. The word vision is attached to a person after he has achieved signicant growth. This cannot be right. Vision should come before growth. Unlimited growth is not a vision. Actually whether growth will follow vision is also not important. No body called Dhirubhai Ambani a visionary before Reliance became so big. Growth is not always the product of vision. Most of the times, growth just happens...just like that..sometimes because of good circumstances, sometimes luck and many times because of greed.
As I said before, the greed is increasing at all levels i,e, individual, family, corporate, country and global levels. Any professional (not just IT), wants to become a CEO too fast without thinking whether he or she can sustain this growth. The difference between can and should is undermined by everyone. Even one becomes of CEO in 5 years of his career, it may not be good for everyone and so for you. Similarly, corporates are also doubling their sales target every year. This is because of unhealthy competition present in the market which is again a result of greed. Too much aggression is not passion for work and can not achieve much in long term. With so much expansion of businesses, it is actually difficult to take hollistic view of the situation and so every "leader" is ending up survival of each day.
The choice is between God and Greed. Your interest in GOD is only one thing which can be grown unlimited without analysing for sustainability.
Hare Krishna
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Life as a freeway!
I could never have understood the meaning of life till the time I learnt driving few years back. When sitting as a passenger in a car, it is like a life of a child who is dependent on his parents for everything and assume things will go right everytime with no need to think of any uncertain possibilities. The child life is more of his parents life or we can say is a part of parents life, as it is parents responsibility to take care of the child.
One need some skills only when one start living life on his own i.e. independently. Similarly you need to learn driving only when you want to drive the car yourself.
The life is like a road because:
1) Uncertainty - On road, we can see only to some extent at a time say 500 ft. Then a new view will come after the turn. Even in case of a straight road, you can not see till the end of the road and your view keep increasing for next 500 ft evry time you travel 500 ft. In few cases your view can be 700 ft and sometimes it can be 300 ft. But with your limited view, you may think that the road ends with the end of your view which is not the case. The road remains of its own length irrespective of your view at any given point. Similarly life has its own length and we can only see or forecast only till some extent say next 6 months and as we progress we keep getting more clarity for future period.
2) Competition - The cars keep overtaking each other in attempt to reach their destination as early as possible. I have seen some drivers who will keep changing lanes and overtake all the cars just because of the attitude that they cannot see any car ahead of them. This kind of mad competition is more because of impatience than hurry to reach the destination. This can be dangerous too for all people on the road and in most of the cases delay things more. This also results in over speeding which can get you a ticket. Similarly everyone should be patience and follow rules while competing in all spheres of the actual world.
3) Opportunities - Taking exit at the right time is important to take advantage of the shortcut ramp to reach your destination on time. One should also keep watching for other lanes to chnange and avoid traffic in your lane.
5) Threats - One should be always precautionary for Stop Signs and Red Lights to avoid collision. Rules are for safety and avoid unnecessary tensions.
6) Corrections - One should always look for U-turn immediately after realizing wrong route. After going too far on wrong way, you may decide to change your destination.
7) Direction - Right direction is more important than right route. If direction is right, finding route will not be difficult. Be careful on one ways where there is no turn back.
8) Certification - You need a education qualification also in addition of your knowledge to get trust of others to do a job. This is similar to driving license.
9) Accidents - Regular servicing and maintainence of horns, mirrors, Seat belt and brakes can help you avoid accidents. Precautions like yielding while changing lanes are also helpful. Having insurnace can give great relief in event of any mishappening inspite of all precautions. Similarly, plan things in your life to make it safe.
One need some skills only when one start living life on his own i.e. independently. Similarly you need to learn driving only when you want to drive the car yourself.
The life is like a road because:
1) Uncertainty - On road, we can see only to some extent at a time say 500 ft. Then a new view will come after the turn. Even in case of a straight road, you can not see till the end of the road and your view keep increasing for next 500 ft evry time you travel 500 ft. In few cases your view can be 700 ft and sometimes it can be 300 ft. But with your limited view, you may think that the road ends with the end of your view which is not the case. The road remains of its own length irrespective of your view at any given point. Similarly life has its own length and we can only see or forecast only till some extent say next 6 months and as we progress we keep getting more clarity for future period.
2) Competition - The cars keep overtaking each other in attempt to reach their destination as early as possible. I have seen some drivers who will keep changing lanes and overtake all the cars just because of the attitude that they cannot see any car ahead of them. This kind of mad competition is more because of impatience than hurry to reach the destination. This can be dangerous too for all people on the road and in most of the cases delay things more. This also results in over speeding which can get you a ticket. Similarly everyone should be patience and follow rules while competing in all spheres of the actual world.
3) Opportunities - Taking exit at the right time is important to take advantage of the shortcut ramp to reach your destination on time. One should also keep watching for other lanes to chnange and avoid traffic in your lane.
5) Threats - One should be always precautionary for Stop Signs and Red Lights to avoid collision. Rules are for safety and avoid unnecessary tensions.
6) Corrections - One should always look for U-turn immediately after realizing wrong route. After going too far on wrong way, you may decide to change your destination.
7) Direction - Right direction is more important than right route. If direction is right, finding route will not be difficult. Be careful on one ways where there is no turn back.
8) Certification - You need a education qualification also in addition of your knowledge to get trust of others to do a job. This is similar to driving license.
9) Accidents - Regular servicing and maintainence of horns, mirrors, Seat belt and brakes can help you avoid accidents. Precautions like yielding while changing lanes are also helpful. Having insurnace can give great relief in event of any mishappening inspite of all precautions. Similarly, plan things in your life to make it safe.
Indexing your Life!
Index is the most important page in any book. An index:
1) explain the purpose of the book
2) gives overview of all the areas covered
3) helps to identify intereting or useful topic
4) explain relationship of all topics
5) Helps to find any specific topic easily
5) helps to remember summary of the book
6) Initiate your thought process about every topic before reading the details. You can relate the details with your thoughts while reading.
7) Last but not the least, helps you decide whether you want to read the complete book or not.
Not only in reading, we can use indexing in all other means of communication except listening. Before speaking, you can index all major points to organize and proper selection. In writing, we should always start with an Index which gives structure and ensure all important topics will be covered. We should not use indexing during listening so that we are not pre occupied with our own thoughts and so limit ourself. In listening, indexing can be done in the last for summary and right understanding.
Not only in communication, we can and we should use indexing in our life too. Life is a journey and not a destination. So there should be a plan of your life to achieve some goal. The goal can be similar to title of the book. Though many people dont think about any goal in life and live life like a book without title. But just having a title is not enough. Next step should be proper indexing. This is during this exercise when you may think of alternatives and organize it in a better way. You may also knock out few things as they may not suit in the index. Please see the above benefits of indexing which are also applicable in designing the index of your life.
1) explain the purpose of the book
2) gives overview of all the areas covered
3) helps to identify intereting or useful topic
4) explain relationship of all topics
5) Helps to find any specific topic easily
5) helps to remember summary of the book
6) Initiate your thought process about every topic before reading the details. You can relate the details with your thoughts while reading.
7) Last but not the least, helps you decide whether you want to read the complete book or not.
Not only in reading, we can use indexing in all other means of communication except listening. Before speaking, you can index all major points to organize and proper selection. In writing, we should always start with an Index which gives structure and ensure all important topics will be covered. We should not use indexing during listening so that we are not pre occupied with our own thoughts and so limit ourself. In listening, indexing can be done in the last for summary and right understanding.
Not only in communication, we can and we should use indexing in our life too. Life is a journey and not a destination. So there should be a plan of your life to achieve some goal. The goal can be similar to title of the book. Though many people dont think about any goal in life and live life like a book without title. But just having a title is not enough. Next step should be proper indexing. This is during this exercise when you may think of alternatives and organize it in a better way. You may also knock out few things as they may not suit in the index. Please see the above benefits of indexing which are also applicable in designing the index of your life.
Thursday, January 1, 2009
My first road trip!
Thanks to recession that many companies decided for year end shutdown. Less concidentally, both of our (Deepti and me) clients observed the shut down. This gave us 11 days off starting from 12/24. This was good for us because unlike contractors this was like a paid holidays for us.
We could not decide anything for vacation well in advance because my client postpone the project deadline only on previous Friday(otherwise there would have been lot of work during this shout down also). One thing I always knew was that I will utilize this time for a road trip. Now the question was the place. First thought which came was Mt Rushmore and Yellow Stone National Park, the only reason we dropped it, was distance which was 1400 miles one side and would have made the complete trip almost 3000 miles. I was not so comfortable with so long trip (being my first one)..The second option was San Diego as I had heard a lot about Sea World (with Shamu fame..).After a breif discussion, we easily agreed upon this option and started further planning..
Now the question was how many number of days. First we thought 2 days of San Diego and 1 day at LA should be enough. Thanks to Google and Wikitravel, that we found that there are many interesting places in both the cities though we already visited Universal Studio, hollywood and Disney land in a Bus Trip a year ago. We also did not want to make the trip very hectic and also wanted to travel majorly in day time. We finally concluded for 7 days including 3 nights in San Diego and 3 nights in LA. The dates decided were 26th to 1st after considering weather, preparation and new year.
Next step was to book the hotel and purchase tickets. It took us almost 4 hours of continous surfing kayak, priceline etc, to finalize the hotels. There were too many options and a wide price range. Hotels in LA were quite expensive. We opted for budget hotels, Ramada and Super at San deigo and LA respectively.
Daywise experience is as below;
Day 1
=====
We started at 9.30 am from home. It was a sunny day to make the driving more enjoyable. Drive from LA to San Diego had lot of traffic with 6 lanes. The average speed of this trip was 75 mph excluding 2 breaks for 30 and 15 mins. Though we initially thought that we will share the drive but I did all the driving till the San Diego hotel which was about 450 miles. We reached the hotel by 6 PM.We went to downtown and saw following places on the way:
1. Airport: Was facing the harbor.
2. Kettner Blvd and San Diego Skyline - Very beautiful though not not very large.
3. Hyatt Hotel - Mentioning because it was very well decorated
4. Convention center - An auto show was running in this large building. We did not go inside.
5. Gaslamp Quarter (5th Avenue) - Happening and upscale market full of restaurants and many people performing at streets. It was a surprise to hear bhajan music and we found ISKON team dancing to the Hare Krishna mantra on the streets.
6. Hotel Del Coronado - It was like a Mysore Palace in India (I have just heard but not seen). Fully decorated with lights. We went inside and found it to be luxury hotel with Gold, open spa and big dining hall..
Day 2
====
After having the breakfast in the hotel, we left at 9 AM:
1. Sea World - It was little disappointing (may be because we went with very high expectations). And also becasue we found it to be very similar to animal shows we earlier saw in Six Flags at Vallejo. The park was not too big and we could easily finish it by 5 PM. But we really liked the sky tower and sky ride. We purchased a Shamu poster as Soveniur.
2. Old Town - The town was built in 1850 and had lot of shops with antiques and craft. It was cold in the evening and we enjoyed a masala tea at a small cafe.
3. Sea Port Village - This was a market facing the harbor.
4. Buggy - At Seaport Village, we saw couple of buggys and decided to have a ride. After little negotiations, we finalized for 85$ an hour. It was very cold and he offered a red plush and royal blanket. It was a fabulous experience roaming around the city in this royal buggy and people watching us (infact few people were shooting as well!) This was the best and most romantic part of the complete trip.
Day 3
=====
Next day also we left at 9 AM and day included:
1. San Diego Zoo - The place was very ineteresting. We started with a bus guided tour. Then we went to other corner of the zoo by Skyfari. The main attractions were giant panda and polar bear. We also liked Koala (generally known as teddy bear). There was a big elevator conviniently located which avoided steep hiking. At last we did one more round of guided tour and skyfari. From the skyfari, we could see the whole forest beneath us and could also spot some gorrilas and elephants from above. We purchased one Kenyan crafted wooden wall hanging as Soveneur.
2. Prospect Street - Market at La Jolla beach.
3. Masala Restaurant - This was rated as the best Indian restaurant located at 5th Avenue. We liked the food and ambience.
Day 4
=====
After checking out from hotel at 9 AM our schedule was as below:
1) La Jolla Beach - The place was very scenic and the 30 mins walk there was very refreshing. We also saw some seals lying there and it was their puppying season.
2) Costa Mesa - As a break on the way to LA, we went to south coast plaza (shopping mall) in Orange County. The mall was so big that it has its own zip code.
3) Little India - Artesia, popularly known as Little India is so called because the entire area has shops of Indian jewellery, Indian ethnic dresses, sweets, Indian resturaunts. We happily landed in Ambala dhaba and enjoyed chaat, lassi and stuffed parathas.
4) Getty Villa - This is a sister museum of Getty Center. The sculputures and paintings were very nice.
5) Rodeo Drive - The shops were closed but the street was fabulous and full of all big brands. The chandeliors were placed all over and were used as street lights. We decided to go again the next day.
Then we checked in hotel at 8 PM. The hotel was very near to LAX airport.
Day 5
=====
1) Catalina Island - The ferry took 2 hrs from Marina Del May beach to reach Avalon in Catalina Island. Then we took a bus tour for 2 hrs from 1 to 3 PM. The tour was very adventurtes with bumpy and sharp turns over the mountains along the coast. The tour guide Randy was funny as he kept speaking and we were wondering if he has a tape running in his pocket. The bus also took us to the Island airport at top of the hill (approx. 1800' above the sea). Then we went round in the market, along the casino and a beautiful beach, Descanco cove. The beach was one of the best beaches i have ever seen (full filmy..)
We both caught some cold at the island and so went directly to hotel from there. But I had to take a small call with offshore as they were working during shut down also.
Day 6
=====
1) Venice Beach - Famous for people watching. Also there was a muscle beach with open air gym.
2) Santa Monica Pier - Full of activites and rides.
3) ISKON - The temple was added in the plan in LA itself. It was wonderful experience to have lunch in the temple.
4) Rodeo Drive - This time we could also enter in the shops. Surprisingly, all the shops were selling ladies purses with prices going till 40,000 $. At present, we cannot understand the worth..!
5) Celebrity homes - Instead of taking the famous tour, we found the addresses of some famous celebrities on google. Some of the stars home we visisted included Tom Cruise, Julia Roberts, Angelina Jolie, Arnold Sch.., Robert Mudrock, Cage Nicholas ect. Cage Nicholas mansion was huge but the boundary so high so that only a fraction of balcony was visible. The Bel Air and beverly hills area obviously had an air of royalty and luxury.
6) Getty Center- We could just spend 45 mins in the museum as it was closing time when we reached but the tram ride and view from the museum was breathtaking.
7) Sunset Strip - Full of night clubs, we couldn't figure out much there and so decided to go for dinner.
8) Clay Pit restaurant - The best rated Indian restaurant in LA located in Brentwood. The food and ambience was perfect for bidding farewell to 2008.
9) The Bridge - We don't want to be in hotel room. Hotel receptionist suggested us to go to Universal studio to see fireworks, but we decided to go to movie as U-S was approx 35 miles away. We went to Bridge and watched movie "YES MAN". The movie was hillarious and we enjoyed Jim Carrey a lot.
Day 7
=====
After checking out, we started from hotel at 9:30 am and reached home safely by 4:30 PM. The average speed was 75 mph. Fortunately, we found an Indian restaurant "taste of India" during lunch which was a treat as we were felling hungry because we skipped our breakfast. This time Deepti also drove last 120 miles.
Conclusion: In all, the trip was very good but little more hectic than planned. I would also like to appreciate my new car for a trouble free and fantastic ride.
We could not decide anything for vacation well in advance because my client postpone the project deadline only on previous Friday(otherwise there would have been lot of work during this shout down also). One thing I always knew was that I will utilize this time for a road trip. Now the question was the place. First thought which came was Mt Rushmore and Yellow Stone National Park, the only reason we dropped it, was distance which was 1400 miles one side and would have made the complete trip almost 3000 miles. I was not so comfortable with so long trip (being my first one)..The second option was San Diego as I had heard a lot about Sea World (with Shamu fame..).After a breif discussion, we easily agreed upon this option and started further planning..
Now the question was how many number of days. First we thought 2 days of San Diego and 1 day at LA should be enough. Thanks to Google and Wikitravel, that we found that there are many interesting places in both the cities though we already visited Universal Studio, hollywood and Disney land in a Bus Trip a year ago. We also did not want to make the trip very hectic and also wanted to travel majorly in day time. We finally concluded for 7 days including 3 nights in San Diego and 3 nights in LA. The dates decided were 26th to 1st after considering weather, preparation and new year.
Next step was to book the hotel and purchase tickets. It took us almost 4 hours of continous surfing kayak, priceline etc, to finalize the hotels. There were too many options and a wide price range. Hotels in LA were quite expensive. We opted for budget hotels, Ramada and Super at San deigo and LA respectively.
Daywise experience is as below;
Day 1
=====
We started at 9.30 am from home. It was a sunny day to make the driving more enjoyable. Drive from LA to San Diego had lot of traffic with 6 lanes. The average speed of this trip was 75 mph excluding 2 breaks for 30 and 15 mins. Though we initially thought that we will share the drive but I did all the driving till the San Diego hotel which was about 450 miles. We reached the hotel by 6 PM.We went to downtown and saw following places on the way:
1. Airport: Was facing the harbor.
2. Kettner Blvd and San Diego Skyline - Very beautiful though not not very large.
3. Hyatt Hotel - Mentioning because it was very well decorated
4. Convention center - An auto show was running in this large building. We did not go inside.
5. Gaslamp Quarter (5th Avenue) - Happening and upscale market full of restaurants and many people performing at streets. It was a surprise to hear bhajan music and we found ISKON team dancing to the Hare Krishna mantra on the streets.
6. Hotel Del Coronado - It was like a Mysore Palace in India (I have just heard but not seen). Fully decorated with lights. We went inside and found it to be luxury hotel with Gold, open spa and big dining hall..
Day 2
====
After having the breakfast in the hotel, we left at 9 AM:
1. Sea World - It was little disappointing (may be because we went with very high expectations). And also becasue we found it to be very similar to animal shows we earlier saw in Six Flags at Vallejo. The park was not too big and we could easily finish it by 5 PM. But we really liked the sky tower and sky ride. We purchased a Shamu poster as Soveniur.
2. Old Town - The town was built in 1850 and had lot of shops with antiques and craft. It was cold in the evening and we enjoyed a masala tea at a small cafe.
3. Sea Port Village - This was a market facing the harbor.
4. Buggy - At Seaport Village, we saw couple of buggys and decided to have a ride. After little negotiations, we finalized for 85$ an hour. It was very cold and he offered a red plush and royal blanket. It was a fabulous experience roaming around the city in this royal buggy and people watching us (infact few people were shooting as well!) This was the best and most romantic part of the complete trip.
Day 3
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Next day also we left at 9 AM and day included:
1. San Diego Zoo - The place was very ineteresting. We started with a bus guided tour. Then we went to other corner of the zoo by Skyfari. The main attractions were giant panda and polar bear. We also liked Koala (generally known as teddy bear). There was a big elevator conviniently located which avoided steep hiking. At last we did one more round of guided tour and skyfari. From the skyfari, we could see the whole forest beneath us and could also spot some gorrilas and elephants from above. We purchased one Kenyan crafted wooden wall hanging as Soveneur.
2. Prospect Street - Market at La Jolla beach.
3. Masala Restaurant - This was rated as the best Indian restaurant located at 5th Avenue. We liked the food and ambience.
Day 4
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After checking out from hotel at 9 AM our schedule was as below:
1) La Jolla Beach - The place was very scenic and the 30 mins walk there was very refreshing. We also saw some seals lying there and it was their puppying season.
2) Costa Mesa - As a break on the way to LA, we went to south coast plaza (shopping mall) in Orange County. The mall was so big that it has its own zip code.
3) Little India - Artesia, popularly known as Little India is so called because the entire area has shops of Indian jewellery, Indian ethnic dresses, sweets, Indian resturaunts. We happily landed in Ambala dhaba and enjoyed chaat, lassi and stuffed parathas.
4) Getty Villa - This is a sister museum of Getty Center. The sculputures and paintings were very nice.
5) Rodeo Drive - The shops were closed but the street was fabulous and full of all big brands. The chandeliors were placed all over and were used as street lights. We decided to go again the next day.
Then we checked in hotel at 8 PM. The hotel was very near to LAX airport.
Day 5
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1) Catalina Island - The ferry took 2 hrs from Marina Del May beach to reach Avalon in Catalina Island. Then we took a bus tour for 2 hrs from 1 to 3 PM. The tour was very adventurtes with bumpy and sharp turns over the mountains along the coast. The tour guide Randy was funny as he kept speaking and we were wondering if he has a tape running in his pocket. The bus also took us to the Island airport at top of the hill (approx. 1800' above the sea). Then we went round in the market, along the casino and a beautiful beach, Descanco cove. The beach was one of the best beaches i have ever seen (full filmy..)
We both caught some cold at the island and so went directly to hotel from there. But I had to take a small call with offshore as they were working during shut down also.
Day 6
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1) Venice Beach - Famous for people watching. Also there was a muscle beach with open air gym.
2) Santa Monica Pier - Full of activites and rides.
3) ISKON - The temple was added in the plan in LA itself. It was wonderful experience to have lunch in the temple.
4) Rodeo Drive - This time we could also enter in the shops. Surprisingly, all the shops were selling ladies purses with prices going till 40,000 $. At present, we cannot understand the worth..!
5) Celebrity homes - Instead of taking the famous tour, we found the addresses of some famous celebrities on google. Some of the stars home we visisted included Tom Cruise, Julia Roberts, Angelina Jolie, Arnold Sch.., Robert Mudrock, Cage Nicholas ect. Cage Nicholas mansion was huge but the boundary so high so that only a fraction of balcony was visible. The Bel Air and beverly hills area obviously had an air of royalty and luxury.
6) Getty Center- We could just spend 45 mins in the museum as it was closing time when we reached but the tram ride and view from the museum was breathtaking.
7) Sunset Strip - Full of night clubs, we couldn't figure out much there and so decided to go for dinner.
8) Clay Pit restaurant - The best rated Indian restaurant in LA located in Brentwood. The food and ambience was perfect for bidding farewell to 2008.
9) The Bridge - We don't want to be in hotel room. Hotel receptionist suggested us to go to Universal studio to see fireworks, but we decided to go to movie as U-S was approx 35 miles away. We went to Bridge and watched movie "YES MAN". The movie was hillarious and we enjoyed Jim Carrey a lot.
Day 7
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After checking out, we started from hotel at 9:30 am and reached home safely by 4:30 PM. The average speed was 75 mph. Fortunately, we found an Indian restaurant "taste of India" during lunch which was a treat as we were felling hungry because we skipped our breakfast. This time Deepti also drove last 120 miles.
Conclusion: In all, the trip was very good but little more hectic than planned. I would also like to appreciate my new car for a trouble free and fantastic ride.
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