tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-89572549659272403692024-03-21T17:18:13.215+05:30The Thoughts...Life is outcome of our thoughtsHariprakash Agrawalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07364277749776152154noreply@blogger.comBlogger18125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8957254965927240369.post-78831641380799318252015-12-28T10:21:00.001+05:302015-12-28T10:24:11.475+05:30A Solution to reduce pollution and traffic in large cities..
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/p-eV5zxWklU" width="480"></iframe>
<br />
<br />
<br />
This video presents a solution to reduce pollution and traffic in large cities. Delhi Govt has introduced a new rule to reduce pollution and traffic that odd cars would run on odd days of the month and even cars would run on even days of the month. Many thinks that it is not a feasible solution and would add inconvenience to Delhiites and NCR residents.<br />
<br />
Please do watch this video that it does provide a believable solution in fun way. People can carpool or bikepool to their workplaces and for all other tasks and emergency situation, we can also depend on neighborhood..<br />
<br />
RideAlly (a Carpooling app) has launched a "Know Your Neghbor" Campaign to connect odd-even car owners in Delhi/NCR region. It enables People without vehicle also to get ride. Females can share rides with only females. It has 10+ security features to ensure safety and security. Overall, it provides a perfect solution to pollution/traffic issues in large cities.
Hariprakash Agrawalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07364277749776152154noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8957254965927240369.post-55880234267194320302015-12-06T17:00:00.000+05:302015-12-09T19:39:21.517+05:30An open letter to Kejriwal Ji and Delhites on odd-even day car rules<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Just learnt that due to high court order about reducing pollution,
Delhi Govt is planning to try an odd-even number formula for cars,
means, Cars with odd/even number would ply on alternate days. All recent studies have indicated that in cities,
major source of pollution is vehicles on roads and its no-brainer that we need to reduce number of vehicles on roads in order to
reduce pollution. I live in Bangalore and it has 3-4 times
more vehicles than its capacity. I think that Delhi is not any better.<br />
<br />
My
10 year old kid coughs almost every night. I have heard that air-borne
diseases are on rise. We may agree or disagree with this odd-even
arrangement but we HAVE to agree that we collectively need to do
something about air pollution. It is not just Govt's duty but it
is us, our kids, parents, siblings, friends who are breathing harmful
air every second. Its easy to criticize
everything but lets understand the intent and take action now.<br />
<br />
I
do own a car and quite used to the convenience it offers. I have an odd
number car and feel quite threatened that I cannot use it on even days.
How do I reach my office on even days? I run a small
business and travel a lot within city, how do I do that? How do I drop
my daughter to day-care everyday? What happens in an emergency etc etc? I
see that there are many others who have raised similar questions and
worried.<br />
<br />
Many have taken it in humorous ways and lots of jokes, tweets are in the air. One such is below and I hope you get it.<br />
<br />
<a data-mce-href="http://blog.rideally.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/odd-even-number_delhi.png" href="http://blog.rideally.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/odd-even-number_delhi.png"><img alt="odd-even number_delhi" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-183" data-mce-src="http://blog.rideally.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/odd-even-number_delhi-300x168.png" src="http://blog.rideally.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/odd-even-number_delhi-300x168.png" height="168" width="300" /></a><br />
<br />
Not sure, how Delhi Govt is going to implement it? There are some concerns mentioned in <a data-mce-href="http://www.firstpost.com/politics/odd-even-formula-fine-but-will-delhi-govt-pass-the-implementation-test-2533856.html" href="http://www.firstpost.com/politics/odd-even-formula-fine-but-will-delhi-govt-pass-the-implementation-test-2533856.html">this article on firstpost</a>
which seems to be valid. Our
main purpose is to reduce pollution and traffic. If we reduce number of
vehicles on roads than we reduce traffic, we reach faster, we consume
less fuel, we are on roads for less time, we pollute less and we spend
more time with family or at doing something productive and overall,
economy/environment improves. Can we reduce pollution and traffic using any other ways?<br />
<br />
Long term solution would
be population control, more public transport, more CNG vehicles, more
metros, last mile connectivity with feeder mini buses, more over/under
bridges, widening of roads, better town planning, etc but all these
would take time/money and may be, we, mortals, dont have that much time
and money to realize all above.<br />
<br />
So, are there some better and immediately possible ways to do
that?<br />
<br />
Here, I would like to appreciate the effort put by <a href="http://blog.rideally.com/rideally-is-supported-by-traffic-police/">Bengaluru Traffic Police who has started promoting carpooling</a> quite aggressively.
Do check their <a href="https://www.facebook.com/BangaloreTrafficPolice/">facebook page</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/blrcitytraffic">twitter page</a> and media
coverage to understand more. They are supporting many apps who are
enabling carpooling/bikepooling in safe and secure way. There has been so much happening in this space that we must take it
seriously now. We can
reduce 50% vehicles on roads if we just add one more person in the car
or bike. However, people dont do it due to various factors but that's changing.<br />
<br />
I started my
carpooling initiative, <a href="https://rideally.com/">RideAlly</a>, almost 4 yrs back and it was a failure until recently. Many other startups are also struggling. We have added significant users in just last one month who have shown interest in carpooling and shared taxis. Many corporate are talking to us to enable carpooling/bikepooling for their employees.<br />
<br />
Can Delhi Govt
look at Carpooling and bring some legislation around carpooling so that people start
doing it? Govt can take many steps to encourage carpooling, like, provide insurance for carpoolers, preferred parking, make it mandatory for organizations having more than 500 employees at one location, allow people to earn (tax free) from personal cars/bikes, promote/support apps who are enabling it, encourage taxis/autos to take more passengers and some incentives for them to do so etc.<br />
<br />
Also, if Govt can bring some legislation with parking of
cars than we can control vehicles on road big time. Except parking at home, rest all
places should be governed by the parking legislation, such as,<br />
<br />
1. Free
parking for cars which has min 3 people in the car at all public places,
like, markets, hospital, Govt offices, airport, railway station etc<br />
2.
Clear instruction to all private place-owners for allowing free parking
for cars with 3 or more persons, such as, Cinema halls, Tech Parks, Malls, Companies, etc.<br />
3. Heavy parking charges for single person occupancy cars,
e.g. 100 Rs per hour. Even if they park in company premises, companies
should be instructed to do so. <br />
<br />
There are many more ways to reduce
pollution however I'm sure that with carpooling/bikepooling and parking
control, we can control it to large extent. Do share what do you think.
Lets debate and take actions and do not rest till we and our next
generations can at least breathe fresh air.<br />
<br />
Regards, Hariprakash Agrawal, CEO, RideAlly.com</div>
Hariprakash Agrawalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07364277749776152154noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8957254965927240369.post-36761602303649626522015-11-10T03:05:00.003+05:302015-11-29T23:42:45.944+05:3010 Takeaways for StartUps from Bihar Elections<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
I
followed Bihar elections quite closely and as part of that, read many
articles, talked to many friends (including Biharis), agreed/disagreed
with them, followed Media (their hypes, sensations and facts) and
saw/listened how various politicians spoke, strategized and worked day
and night to have election results in their favor.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBrygwLMyXBPpLcd-f0_VbAkTByjBB6rK5MK4qDD2kccjjulOdZP7Sb-wIoCQ2l6f22w63BfT8C_81lP50TNPxFKcQg9wFgJkhBzClkbavu41OOhXtZ5FNX6e5zNfExk2TPRWsaKuAEs0/s1600/Bihar+Election+2015_Voting.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="124" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBrygwLMyXBPpLcd-f0_VbAkTByjBB6rK5MK4qDD2kccjjulOdZP7Sb-wIoCQ2l6f22w63BfT8C_81lP50TNPxFKcQg9wFgJkhBzClkbavu41OOhXtZ5FNX6e5zNfExk2TPRWsaKuAEs0/s200/Bihar+Election+2015_Voting.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bihar Election (Courtesy: India Today)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRCgPLMZ4IFXsNpm2byLHgKbVik2lZZFAPfDXvPinnYoyFK90zlskrHblTFdasJkJbnXhyZyuu46NBqNl9kknRlVR2omoJqaGT4GFa9_cwbRIXIXDgOa5fOHZWxN61kb0Zr74Edi5czP4/s1600/Bihar+Election+Results+2015.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="139" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRCgPLMZ4IFXsNpm2byLHgKbVik2lZZFAPfDXvPinnYoyFK90zlskrHblTFdasJkJbnXhyZyuu46NBqNl9kknRlVR2omoJqaGT4GFa9_cwbRIXIXDgOa5fOHZWxN61kb0Zr74Edi5czP4/s200/Bihar+Election+Results+2015.png" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Election Results (Courtesy: Times of India)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Election
results baffled me and it made me wonder what happened and why? My tiny
entrepreneurial mind was looking for some analysis that what can a
startup learn from this, what went well for whom, what could have been
done better by someone and I could come up with the following:<br />
<br />
<b>1. Thorough Preparation before hitting market.</b>
Elections reminded me of days of my engineering education where we used
to have exams with 2-3 days gaps and it
used to last a month. There were 2 kind of students, one who studied
through-out the year and another who usually found it enough to study
during the gaps of each exam and even few times, passed with
distinction. JDU+ did a thorough study and worked from long time to
build unprecedented tieups while BJP kind of relied on period between
polling days. JDU+ had gone to villages, worked at grass-root level and
campaigned while BJP relied on big rallies during polls.<br />
<br />
Takeaway:
We at StartUps, need to understand our market, prepare well with our
unique positioning, understand our competitions with the limited
resources we have. Whole marketing effort may go waste if we go to market and cannot serve on time with best quality.<br />
<br />
<b>2. Its best to collaborate than going solo.</b> We see a clear
trend that from multi-parties contest, it is becoming 2
coalitions contest. Politicians have realized that its difficult to win
even a state election alone hence they do make gathbandhan (coalition)
to share resources, get more local updates, organize gram-sabhas, reach
out to people in smaller rallies, get votes of each other etc.<br />
<br />
Takeaway:
I do see that there are way too many startups in some domains, like
food delivery etc. If two or more startups are trying to solve almost
same (or similar) problem than at times, its wise to merge or
collaborate with someone to be ahead of many other startups. If not done
than the chances are that startup may run out of cash.<br />
<br />
<b>3. One may collaborate with past competition as well to beat bigger opponent.</b>
This was one of the main highlight as 2 bitter rivals came together.
They together understood Bihar Janataa (public) like no-one else. It
would not have been easy for 2 rivals to come together but it did happen
and results are remarkable <br />
<br />
Takeaway: If your
opponent is quite big than even for big companies, it is wise to merge
or have joint-venture or get acquired. At one point of time, Ola,
Taxiforsure and Uber were competing with each other but to sustain
against Uber, Taxiforsure got acquired by Ola and it became bigger to
compete with Uber. Startups can never say never. Do a good competition analysis. <br />
<br />
<b>4. One needs to be hyper-local to succeed.</b> Knowledge of locality/region is critical. People have their local/regional problems and they need them to be
resolved for daily life. When someone is struggling to earn 100 Rs per
day, he/she is ok if someone can just offer that much. It was a state
election and people understand that someone from state who understands
their basic needs, can help them better. BJP+ top management seemed to not listen to local/regional leaders
somehow and lost key insights to
ground realities.<br />
<br />
Takeaway: Startups need to offer
their services within a small region first, make customers happy and
keep growing steadily. Develop local leaders who has best knowledge of
that territory. Make it hyper-local with terminologies, language,
clothing style and blend in local culture to get connected. E.g. Its not
easy to make a sale in a village while talking in English.<br />
<br />
<b>5. Study your opponents well. If possible, get their key person on your side. </b>
JDU+ got hold of Prashant Kishor, the person, who strategized the
election campaign for NDA during National election and now, he was
sharing critical tips with JDU+ leaders. JDU+ knew how to tackle large
rallies, social/print/digital media etc. JDU+ successfully used the
slogan of 'Bihari Vs Bahari'.<br />
<br />
Takeaway: Try best to
not loose your key person, co-founder, CTO or even a junior employee who
can be potential asset. Same time, Do have clauses in contract and
ensure that your employee should not start working for your direct
competition. Keep an eye that where are they joining.<br />
<br />
<b>6. Customize products/services as per market size and target segment. </b>We
have been seeing the trend that voters are able to make difference
between National vs State
vs Panchayat election. We do see contrast when voters choose one party
in National election and another party in State or Panchayat elections.
Caste, religion does have its influence in Bihar politics and JDU+ had
realized it well. BJP+ did not seem to care for that as their few
leaders spoke out of turn. Many Biharis work outside Bihar and they
could not vote and JDU+ did succeed in influencing actual voters in
Bihar. There was big hype on Social media but they were not going to
vote.<br />
<br />
Takeaway: Its easy to start anything but
difficult to sustain over time. Satrtups need to carefully understand
customer base and keep refining it. We usually start thinking keeping
large market but actually find that we cannot offer many variants of
products or services hence its critical that we refine ourselves to
address minimum viable customer base first.<br />
<br />
<b>7. Be connected and have an edge over others. </b>
Indian voters have been
giving decisive mandate from last few elections. They have understood
the adverse impact of hung assembly hence they want clear winner. People
are more connected than ever due to social media, like, facebook,
whatsapp, twitter and once they understand the X party has an edge, they
vote to that party so that there is clear winner. We saw that BJP got
more seats than expected during National Elections, AAP got more seats
than expected in Delhi elections and now, JDU+ got more seats than
expected in Bihar.<br />
<br />
Takeaway: As a product startup, you
need to keep an edge over your competitors all the time. Try to sustain
for longer time as many startups may fade away by the time ecosystem
wakes up for your kind of offerings. What may become viral, one may not
be able to predict. Out of 1000s of videos, something becomes viral and
gets 1 Lakh+ hits in no time and it closes down rest all by big margin.<br />
<br />
<b>8. <span class="st">I am more afraid of an <i>army</i> of 100 <i>sheep</i> led by a <i>lion</i> than an <i>army</i> of 100 <i>lions</i> led by a <i>sheep</i>. </span></b>People
seem to have literally understood this quote and implemented it well.
Its the Leader who is more important than the party. Ideology keep
changing on the basis of who are the leaders in the party. <span class="st">JDU+
chose Nitish Ji as their unanimous leader much before elections while
BJP+ could not select a name. BJP+ could have called for a meeting of
all Bihari leaders before election and democratically selected one.
After-all, </span><span class="st">It was a state election and state leader was more important than national leader. </span><br />
<br />
<span class="st">Takeaway:
I think that everyone knows it but its important to remind that CEO and
core team is the one which takes startup (or a company) forward.</span><br />
<br />
<b>9. Decentralize. Have local Leaders.</b>
People understand that giving absolute power to
anyone can be detrimental hence they keep everyone in check. One party
cannot depend too much on one leader as Democracy is about everyone's
participation and giving chance for everyone to grow. Also, Star performers should make their presence felt few times and
continue focus on bigger things. <br />
<br />
<span class="st">Takeaway: </span>In a startups, one
need to realize that when CEO needs to make a pitch and when anyone else
can do it. If junior staff makes mistake, CEOs can correct it but what
if CEO is directly exposed every time. A human, even if he/she is CEO, can do limited work, after-all there are
only 24 hours in a day. Its important to decentralize and develop
leadership to accomplish many things in parallel.<br />
<br />
<b>10. Consistent messaging over time</b>. JDU+ had a strategy and they stuck to it while BJP+ kept changing it. JDU+ hired 5000 cycles and went door to door with their 10 slogans and delivered consistent messaging to each villager, towner and urban folks. <br />
<br />
Takeaway: We at StartUps, cannot do everything as we have limited
resources hence need to focus on our unique offerings and keep sending
that message again and again. It takes time to reach to many people and if you keep changing your offerings, users get confused.<br />
<br />
Last but not least, Many Congratulations to Nitish Babu and Lalu Ji !! Bihar has given clear
decisive mandate to you to lead from front and fulfill its aspirations and I hope you would do so.<br />
<br />
Regards,<br />
Hariprakash Agrawal (Hari)<br />
<a href="https://rideally.com/">RideAlly</a> - Earn or Save Money by Sharing Taxi, Carpool or Bikepool. </div>
Hariprakash Agrawalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07364277749776152154noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8957254965927240369.post-52571239080336382992015-10-30T01:20:00.003+05:302015-11-04T09:25:07.311+05:30Are we tolerant?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Intolerance has been the buzzword nowadays. We are bombarded with this word by print and digital media. High pitch debates are happening and views are being shared in intolerant way. Although, I have not had any debate with my friends and we all seem to be living peaceful but I am wondering that <b>have we become intolerant suddenly</b>? <br />
<br />
I could not hold myself as I have been reading, listening a lot on this matter. I thought that its time that I also penned my thoughts. My heartfelt apologies that you need to read another piece on this.<br />
<br />
Where do I start? I thought that why dont I <b>look at the past for examples of tolerance</b>. When I look at history, I find that it is full of wars. It is full of incidents where brother has killed
brother to gain some physical attractions. Does it show tolerance? Most of the family fights are due to intolerance. Intolerance does have a
short-tempered mind which must seek peace. <br />
<br />
<b>Tolerance is a virtue not everyone can master.</b> In
history, very few people really showed the true meaning of tolerance and who mastered tolerance are treated as great men/women but society at large, does not seem to be tolerant. These few great persons are the ones to whom people followed in abundance and made religions/sects out of that. I believe that when people
<b>cannot agree to disagree</b> than that is intolerance. When we cannot get
along even with friends after having a fight than that is intolerance.<br />
<br />
Does any religion teaches intolerance? Intolerance, for sure, does not have a religion. <b>Some of them took religion so seriously that it lead to a journey to intolerance rather to tolerance </b>and at times, intolerance
leads to violence with adverse consequences. A small incident shows us the
mirror that we can become intolerant in some seconds.The line between tolerance and intolerance is becoming thin.<br />
<br />
<b>Many of us are tolerant by chance but not by choice.</b> If
someone can kindle our feelings and make us lynch
someone by just speaking on loudspeaker than it does mean that we are
not tolerant. If someone can incite
riots (or fights) by speaking some words, it does mean that as a
society, we have miserably failed on tolerance. Has society ever been
tolerant including intellectuals? One can look at the articles on '<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_violence_in_India">Communal violence in India</a>', '<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_riots_in_India">Riots in India</a>' '<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_massacres_in_India">Massacres in India</a>'
on Wikipedia to understand tolerance level of Indians. Almost every
year, there have been one or other riots. I dont want to sound negative but one can also check the number of court cases to understand the intolerance. <br />
<br />
When a country boasts its arsenal which includes <b>thousands of nuclear bombs</b> than are they tolerant of world? When there are tax heavens and that money can be used for all kinds of illegal activities than are they tolerant of others? When a country sponsors terrorism in another country for a small piece of land than are they tolerant? When we have our jails and hospitals full due to violence, hatred etc than are we being tolerant? When a girl is burnt alive due to dowry or not allowed to even take birth than are even the families tolerant? When someone is killed or issued Fatwa for having difference in opinion than who is tolerant here? By returning the well deserved awards and highlighting carefully chosen incidents, are intellectuals (or conscience-keepers) being tolerant or intolerant? <br />
<br />
Whether it was Kingdoms, British rule, Congress rule, BJP rule or any other Government, we have been constant and consistent in intolerance. <b>We need another god or saviour to teach us tolerance</b> and may be, there would be peace for some time and than another religion will born and earthlings will have one more reason to be intolerant. I might sound cynical but there seems to be a cyclic process which would stop with extinction of human beings. Gladly, animals show much better behavior and Im hopeful that they would finally live in peace on earth.<br />
<br />
Same time, all is not lost. I do have many Hindu / Muslim / Christian / Sikh / Jain friends with whom I interact on daily basis either in person or on social media. <b>Friends are part of my life like my body parts and soul.</b> I cannot imagine a life without them and rarely, we discussed on these matters. We are so busy with our lives, trying ends to meet, caring for our children, caring for little we have and taking care of business as usual that we do not get that why so much hype? <br />
<br />
Now, you may agree or disagree on above thoughts. Do share it either way. Lets see whether we together can increase tolerance in each other and the chain may continue..<br />
<br />
Regards,<br />
Hariprakash (Hari)<br />
<a href="https://rideally.com/">RideAlly</a> - Earn or Save Money by Sharing Taxi, Carpool or Bikepool.</div>
Hariprakash Agrawalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07364277749776152154noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8957254965927240369.post-48458610626483816462012-06-25T14:54:00.000+05:302015-11-01T20:18:19.949+05:30Challenges of Small Services (& Product) Companies<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
My Good friend, Amarinder, asked on <a href="http://occbangalore.org/solution-center/" target="_blank">OCC</a> googlegroup that what are the challenges one faces while running a pure services company, or doing services to sustain yourself and your product development?<br />
<br />
I just realized that we kind of fit in this category as we are developing products and surviving by providing services. I started OpCord abt 3 yrs back (in fact, we celebrated our 3rd birthday on 22-Jun) with trainings, services and also thought that I could develop products in future. Services / Trainings are surviving us from last 3 yrs. I got an idea of a product worth pursuing (as I am crazy sometimes) about 2 yrs back of a mobile app which enables rides sharing (much more than car pool) and we are working on that as well. We are also working on test automation framework for web / desktop based applications and intend to make a product out of it.<br />
<br />
After setting the background, the challenges we faced are:<br />
<br />
1. Focus on product misses unless your services business revenue is so high that it can take care of both.You tend to make product team members billable if revenue is not good enough which breaks the flow. We are delayed on our product "RideAlly" by 6 months because we made key people billable.<br />
<br />
2. Cash flow is a challenge. In our case, out of 35 members, 8-10 are dedicated to product development hence cost of these has to come from services. We are bootstrapped and able to manage without any loan/investment hence if some services gets stopped, we are on our toes.<br />
<br />
3. You cannot hire high class talent required for product development due to high cost hence more mistakes, more learning time and more cost.<br />
<br />
4. Out of 10 proposals, one gets 2-3 projects and each proposal takes considerable bandwidth. Whomsoever senior is available, participates in analysing feasibility, estimation and we dont care whether product development is taking a hit. We have worked for 2 months with 3 persons to get a project and still, we could not get Because customer changed technology itself, HTML5 over flash.<br />
<br />
5. You are lucky if you get very tech savvy partner who understands product life cycle, architecture and fully committed (do or die kind). I have talked to almost 10 part time senior people (< 15 yrs exp) who wish to take plunge but ultimately could not. Its not easy to leave >20Lakhs/Annum job when you have EMI commitments, single salary, particular lifestyle (car, flat, kids going to school, maids etc), status etc.<br />
<br />
6. Services business means you are always on hunt. You may have done great work for one customer but it does not mean that customer has repeat business for you. We get lots of 3-6 months assignment and once these people become non-billable, you just take a nosedive. Every year, we have 2-3 very bad months and 2-3 very good months.One needs to be very cautious in spending when earnings are good.<br />
<br />
7. Being small company, we work with many small companies and they come to us due to cost advantage than large companies which necessarily means even you provide resource better than large company, your margin is less.<br />
<br />
8. Many a times, we work with large companies through a middle partner and actually they earn, not us. I am not complaining as I also become middle partner nowadays.<br />
<br />
9. Getting high performers on payroll is tough and retaining them is even tougher.<br />
<br />
10. In India, we have so many taxes, service/professional/TDS/ESI and so many acts/laws with different CAs giving different interpretations. We spend lots of time in finance and marketing time reduces. E.g., we pay professional tax always on time and one month out of 2 yrs, it got delayed by 2 days (due to weekend) and we got about 1200 Rs penalty. Person, who delivered, asked for bribe which we did not pay and later, our CA got it waived as well but it took unneccessarily my time.<br />
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11. Late delivery of invoices payment just kills you. I have to admit that I had to delay senior persons salaries just because invoice payment is delayed. Junior persons are always paid on time irrespective you take loan or sell yourself or whatever.<br />
<br />
<br />
Challenges are many (above list is just top of mind and some points can be repetitive) and rewards are also many. Whatever it is, we are there and someone said that if one can survive for 3 years than they are going to be in business for forever. Amen!!!<br />
<br />
<br />
Regards,<br />
Hariprakash Agrawal (Hari),<br />
<a href="http://www.facebook.com/OpCord">http://www.facebook.com/OpCord</a></div>
Hariprakash Agrawalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07364277749776152154noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8957254965927240369.post-83028133862109274472009-12-09T18:17:00.000+05:302015-11-01T20:22:27.603+05:30What's going in CEO's mind?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Before we talk on optimizing business, I think that its apt to talk about what is going in CEO or MD or Business Owner's mind? What do they want? Are they interested in any of these frameworks? What outputs they wish to achieve for their organization?<br />
<br />
Below, I am trying to list some of the parameters (list below is not exhaustive but indicative) which they might like to measure, track and improve for their organization:<br />
<ol>
<li>Profits (YoY, QoQ)</li>
<li>Revenue (YoY, QoQ)</li>
<li>Customer Satisfaction (YoY, QoQ)</li>
<li>How many new products or its variants launched and market response?</li>
<li>No of new customers added or retained</li>
<li>Attrition or ability to retain best talent or employee satisfaction</li>
<li>Best Recruits or Ability to attract best talent or how industry perceives us?</li>
<li>Awards or recognitions in the industry</li>
<li>% of market share compared to competition</li>
<li>There are more depending on nature of organization</li>
</ol>
<br />
If top management wishes to address above parameters than what approach should they adopt? or which framework should they deploy? Should they invest in <a href="http://hariprakashagrawal.blogspot.com/2009/12/circle-of-principles-for-business.html">circle of principles</a>? If yes, how? How much?<br />
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We will discuss more on approaches and their mapping to business critical parameters in next discussions.<br />
<br />
Note: We encourage you to participate in this blog and add your comments on what parameters interests CEOs/MDs/business owners? and Which approach do you prefer to address them?<br />
<br />
More later,<br />
Regards,<br />
Hariprakash,<br />
http://opcord.com</div>
Hariprakash Agrawalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07364277749776152154noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8957254965927240369.post-49852615387293309802009-12-06T18:04:00.000+05:302015-11-01T20:03:48.221+05:30Circle of Principles (CoP) for High Performing Teams (or Businesses)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
We all know that to grow the business and to sustain the growth over time, teams need to continuously look/measure customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, revenue (top line) and profitability (bottom line) as a bare minimum.<br />
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If anyone of these goes down, it will be just matter of time that business or organization collapses and it may take significant time and effort to bring it back to its glory.<br />
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To achieve above business parameters, we need many high performing teams. High performing team is the one which keeps their commitment (on-time delivery), with best of quality, with right set of features or requirements, keep it in budget and with every project, teams becomes even better.<br />
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To do that, businesses/teams needs to adopt Circle of Principles (CoP) as mentioned below:<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #000099;">Quality over Time</span><span style="color: #000099;"><span style="font-family: times new roman; font-size: 78%;"><br /></span>Mentors over Managers</span><span style="font-family: times new roman; font-size: 78%;"><br /></span><span style="color: #000099;">Innovation over Compliance</span><span style="font-family: times new roman; font-size: 78%;"><br /></span><span style="color: #000099;">Team Spirit over Individual Excellence</span><span style="font-family: times new roman; font-size: 78%;"><br /></span><span style="color: #000099;">Leading Indicators over Lagging Indicators</span><span style="font-family: times new roman; font-size: 78%;"><br /></span><span style="color: #000099;">Lean Documentation over Comprehensiveness</span><span style="font-family: times new roman; font-size: 78%;"><br /></span><span style="color: #000099;">Measurement of Goodness over Defects</span><span style="font-family: times new roman; font-size: 78%;"><br /></span><span style="color: #000099;">Face to Face Interactions over Emails</span><span style="font-family: times new roman; font-size: 78%;"><br /></span><span style="color: #000099;">Collaboration over Competition</span><span style="font-family: times new roman; font-size: 78%;"><br /></span><span style="color: #000099;">Automation over Manual</span><span style="font-family: times new roman; font-size: 78%;"><br /></span><span style="color: #000099;">Facts over Intuitions</span></div>
<br />
<br />
CoP has 11 principles which enables the teams to satisfy its customers, reduces overheads, increases interactions, keep them focused/accountable/happy and in turn grows revenue/profit of the business.<br />
<br />
To understand these principles better, have "Prefer" as prefix e.g. Prefer quality over time or prefer measurement of goodness over defects etc. Items on both sides of 'over' are important however businesses/teams which chooses items on left side have more chances of success over a period.<br />
<br />
We can discuss each one of these principles in our talks with ample examples whenever we meet.<br />
<br />
Regards,<br />
Hariprakash Agrawal,<br />
http://opcord.com, https://rideally.com, http://testoptimizer.com</div>
Hariprakash Agrawalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07364277749776152154noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8957254965927240369.post-2992437953838596772009-08-16T10:24:00.000+05:302016-01-08T12:59:54.234+05:30How RWAs can help Khatha Registration for its members?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
16-Aug-09 is another historical day for suncitizens residing at Suncity Apts, near Sarjapur junction, Bangalore when 50 Khatha completed without paying any bribe and were distributed by MLA, Mr Satish Reedy, Bommanahalli constituency. Addressing a gathering of 200 Suncity residents, Mr Satish Reddy congratulated the association office bearers on undergoing the process of legally obtaining khata without bribing anyone. He offered the residents to come forward and contact him for any issues concerning various Government departments in his constituency.</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
Although the journey was long to reach to this milestone and it took nearly 6 months but Kudos to our office bearers Kashinath Prabhu (Secretary), Vidyasagar Magdum (Treasurer), Chander hass Banotra (Vice-President) and our senior citizens especially Mr Ashok Kumar Dube for doing wonderful job on publicity, organizing camp for common documents, helping BBMP in arranging documents, visiting BBMP office minimum once every week and persistent follow ups.</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>How it all started</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It all started with inspiration from a few suncitizens who completed their khatha in Dec-08 without paying any bribe for which success story is mentioned in this website at <a href="http://vicharpravah.com/index.php/power-of-common-man/3-erdaicate-evil/5-about-khata-registration-transfer.html">http://vicharpravah.com/index.php/power-of-common-man/3-erdaicate-evil/5-about-khata-registration-transfer.html</a> and another one at <a href="http://anuradhagoyal.blogspot.com/2009/01/khata-transfer-at-bbmp.html">http://anuradhagoyal.blogspot.com/2009/01/khata-transfer-at-bbmp.html</a> . Within our Suncity Apartment Owners Association (SAOA), we started discussions that how we can enable khatha in bulk for our members and we decided to move forward in this direction. Office bearers of SAOA with the help of senior citizens thought of approaching MLA Mr Satish Reddy and check if he can be of any help in this.</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>MLA meeting at Suncity premises</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
We invited our MLA and he joined us with officials from BBMP, BWSSB, Police, Traffic, BESCOM etc on 21-Feb-09 and we raised our multiple concerns to him including Khatha registration which is very difficult to get it done without paying any bribe and requested MLA to organize a camp in Suncity. Mr. Reddy agreed immediately and instructed BBMP officials to conduct a camp in Suncity within 2 weeks. Even after assurances from MLA, we were bit sceptical about it happening but started rigorous follow-up with BBMP officials and camp was held on 28-Feb-09 at Suncity premises.</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Khatha Registration Camp at Suncity</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
We had confirmation from BBMP officials on 26-Feb-09 evening that camp will be held on 28-Feb-09 hence we immediately started publicity campaign within Suncity and nearby apartments. We had already instructed our residents to complete all the documents and SAOA executive committee arranged for all common documents for the benefits of its members and organized a camp for suncitizens to provide common documents before BBMP camp so that residents do not miss any document and their files should not be rejected. On the camp day, we could submit 86 khatha registration applications despite some hurdles faced from BBMP officials.</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Follow-ups, Follow-ups and Follow-ups</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Nothing moved for next 2-3 months as all Govt dept were busy with parliamentary elections. Many times, BBMP officials rejected a few files stating one or other document missing for which our association employee Mr Ajay, office bearers, senior citizens visited BBMP office and either pointed those documents in the files or collected those documents from flat owners and provided to BBMP. SAOA employee Ajay was a big help as he could do most of the running around with the help of and able guidance from senior citizens. Post elections, SAOA sent another letter to MLA to understand the status of khatha applications and within a fortnight, we could see some progress on this front. With persistent follow-ups by
suncitizens from May-09 to Aug-09 and continuous pressure from MLA, at last, BBMP asked us to deposit the amount for khatha registration which is 2% of stamp duty. We collected all the demand drafts and deposited in bulk to BBMP office.</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
Once we got confidence that about 50 khathas have moved significantly than we thought of inviting MLA to distribute those khathas as without his help, it would have been an even more daunting task. Mr Reddy agreed to visit Suncity on 16-Aug-09 and instructed BBMP officials to release khatha for about 55 files before that. However, we are still waiting for remaining 30 applications to complete. These 30 applications are pending due to non-availability of OC (Occupancy Certificate) for some blocks, however, we have learnt that OC is not a mandatory document to get khatha hence we will be working on getting these khatha.</div>
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<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Taste of Success and Khatha distribution by MLA</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
BBMP released khathas for about 55 flat owners on or before 14-Aug-09 and SAOA organized an event to get it distributed by MLA. Mr Reddy distributed all khathas and pledged his support for future camps and mentioned that he can be approached by anyone. Speaking on the occasion, the President of Suncity Apartment Owners Association Mr Hariprakash
Agrawal thanked the MLA for supporting the endeavour of residents.</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbB5RRZo1LFc15dFo-93tezD9OSBJTY3Nawzs3qMaZEvI8O9xOcu_j3ETx-h9eOqG67O-w8UBhk6BHzew3-HI1esbFd6B26ZLPukXp102jTq2Tz6pRxjRD6XFqEgQiuWctUYJmrUqviP0/s320/Disribution+of+Khatha+by+MLA+Shri+Satish+Reddy.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="320" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Distribution of Khatha by MLA Shri Satish Reddy</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF2wOQpxIiXDBSbigF3IwPAFDUYmU0vX0UXU48R2dL-S8Q4UGF_vKye1OHiX-TJtgmqvG8_SVbSP-Ch5JatdDaIzamS7Omp9gNDnU1_oDmkDXNGGNWl-iqOv8VzEhfeDpajGzyVNBN9Jc/s1600/Suncitizens+gathered+for+Khatha+Distribution+Ceremony.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF2wOQpxIiXDBSbigF3IwPAFDUYmU0vX0UXU48R2dL-S8Q4UGF_vKye1OHiX-TJtgmqvG8_SVbSP-Ch5JatdDaIzamS7Omp9gNDnU1_oDmkDXNGGNWl-iqOv8VzEhfeDpajGzyVNBN9Jc/s320/Suncitizens+gathered+for+Khatha+Distribution+Ceremony.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Suncitizens gathered for Khatha Distribution Ceremony</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
We all learnt lots of things during this journey and it will remain as one of the finest memories in our lives. One of the major learning is that strength of common man is in unity. Task is not over yet and we still need to organize a few more camps for Suncity and spread awareness for the larger society.</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Regards,</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Hariprakash Agrawal (On behalf of Kashinath Prabhu, Chander Hass Banotra, Vidyasagar Magdum, Mr Ashok Dube and many more suncitizens who contributed whenever required and who remained united during this long journey)<br />
<br />
Note: This article is also published at <a href="http://vicharpravah.com/index.php/power-of-common-man/3-erdaicate-evil/63-how-residents-association-can-help-khatha-registration-for-its-members.html">Vicharpravah</a> .</div>
</div>
Hariprakash Agrawalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07364277749776152154noreply@blogger.com0Bengaluru, Karnataka 560001, India12.9715987 77.59456269999998312.4764182 76.949115699999979 13.4667792 78.240009699999987tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8957254965927240369.post-28760034775906643802009-08-01T18:30:00.000+05:302015-11-01T20:23:33.901+05:30About a concept - OpCord<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Earlier, I had published about my <a href="http://opcord.blogspot.in/2009/07/journey-to-entrepreneurship.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: #3366cc;">journey to entrepreneurship</span></b></a> and now, we are making an attempt to explain the concept "OpCord". </span></span></span><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">OpCord means Optimizing with Coordination.</span></span></span><br />
<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0"></span></span></span><br />
<span class="blsp-spelling-error"><span class="blsp-spelling-error"><span class="blsp-spelling-error">OpCord is a concept which understands that each organization has multiple factors / constraints which affect their output. It believes that one can achieve best results when they recognize all possible parameters and optimize them rather maximize any one parameter. Here, we are listing some of the outputs which organizations are usually interested in:</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span class="blsp-spelling-error"><span class="blsp-spelling-error"><span class="blsp-spelling-error"><b>Organizational Success Parameters</b><br />Customer Satisfaction <br />Employee Satisfaction <br />Revenue (Top Line) <br />Profitability (Bottom Line)</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span class="blsp-spelling-error"><span class="blsp-spelling-error"><span class="blsp-spelling-error"><b>Product / Project Success Parameters</b><br />On time Delivery <br />Delivers expected functionality <br />Product Quality <br />Within Budget <br />Organization becomes stronger or product is a hit</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span class="blsp-spelling-error"><span class="blsp-spelling-error"><span class="blsp-spelling-error">Once we wish to achieve many mutually exclusive outputs, we no more can work in silos. Let's say, we would like to maximize productivity but it is important that we do not loose focus from product quality while looking at only productivity. Some times, developer develops one functionality in hurry and is not able to grasp that one small mistake (or bug) today might affect whole product and in turn, whole company in future. At times, we consider only a few outputs in mind and face the brunt at later stage.</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span class="blsp-spelling-error"><span class="blsp-spelling-error"><span class="blsp-spelling-error">Let's focus on optimization of various outputs rather maximization of one of the output precisely because of reasons mentioned above. It is good idea to keep customer delighted all the time but burning employees at the same time, might not keep customer delighted for long time. We need to understand the importance of trade-offs and that one does not get everything every time. It is of utmost importance that we decide trade-offs in the beginning, understand our constraints and achieve most optimized outputs.</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span class="blsp-spelling-error"><span class="blsp-spelling-error"><span class="blsp-spelling-error">Second, most important point, we miss some times is the coordination. A few organizations fail in integration while each and every individual or team or division or dept is doing their best. Organizations are not able to integrate well due to either rivalry, lack of transparency, lack of bigger picture, lack of accountability, lack of coordination, lack of trust etc.</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span class="blsp-spelling-error"><span class="blsp-spelling-error"><span class="blsp-spelling-error">Organizations need high degree of coordination among team members, business analysts, designers, developers, testers, managers to ensure the smooth and best delivery of products. No matter, how great the process is or how great the technology is, we might miss on hitting the road just because of lack of coordination among various horizontals, verticals, domains, divisions etc. Hence, it is very important that we coordinate well.</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span class="blsp-spelling-error"><span class="blsp-spelling-error"><span class="blsp-spelling-error">That's the reason, we thought of optimizing with coordination for organizations and self. Let's opcord and be happy.</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span class="blsp-spelling-error"><span class="blsp-spelling-error"><span class="blsp-spelling-error"></span></span></span><br />
<span class="blsp-spelling-error"><span class="blsp-spelling-error"><span class="blsp-spelling-error"></span></span></span><br />
<div>
<span class="blsp-spelling-error"><span class="blsp-spelling-error"><span class="blsp-spelling-error">Regards,</span></span></span><br />
<span class="blsp-spelling-error"><span class="blsp-spelling-error"><span class="blsp-spelling-error">Hariprakash Agrawal (Hari)</span></span></span><br />
<span class="blsp-spelling-error"><span class="blsp-spelling-error"><span class="blsp-spelling-error"><a href="http://opcord.com/">http://opcord.com</a></span></span></span></div>
</div>
Hariprakash Agrawalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07364277749776152154noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8957254965927240369.post-41916862016729655952009-07-25T19:09:00.002+05:302009-07-26T13:15:56.842+05:30Some revolutionary ideas...Are you looking for ideas? Being an entrepreneur, I have been thinking of ideas from long time and I have a few age-old ideas which I do not know how to make them feasible but I am sure if they get realized, it will be a revolution bigger than internet or computer. Is there anyone who can take up the challenge? Here they are:<br /><br />1. Hindu Lord <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Hanuman</span> used to become as small as and as big as he wants any time. How? My one uncle explained me one day that like we have 3 states of matter, solid, liquid and gas and we all understand that in solid, molecules are quite nearer than liquid and gas. Similarly, can we design something for body where we can increase or decrease distance among molecules without <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">affecting</span> functions of various organs or may be, we can increase or decrease the size of molecules. If we can even increase/decrease size of molecules by 1 mm, whole body might be quite big. If we can do these, we might accomplish that. Can we do this?<br /><br />2. Hindu Gods or angels can fly without need of any machine, like, aeroplane etc. How? We all know birds can fly but what do they do differently which we human are not able to do. We human have already learnt technique of swimming without putting any machine on/in our body hence I am sure we can also fly some day. Is it just weight or do we need wings or what our Gods are doing differently which we are not able to understand. Lets invest in this, we might get a way of flying. We might resolve issue of traffic although air traffic will increase.<br /><br />3. Hindu Gods can vanish from one place and appear somewhere else in a split of second. How? ever thought on that. May be, they travel at the speed of light and our human eyes cannot notice that and we see suddenly, the God has disappeared and the God appears somewhere else instantly. Can we human being travel at the speed of light?<br /><br />4. Many movies have been made on how can we become invisible and do whatever we want even in a crowded place and still nobody notices us. Is it a solution or watch or something else, which we apply on our body and we can disappear and do funny acts. One can also choose to punish all terrorists or bribe-takers or bad politicians etc but if everyone becomes invisible than can an invisible person see another invisible person. If not than we have another idea to work upon that how can one invisible person see another invisible person or how can someone else make an invisible person visible?<br /><br />5. Hindu Gods and many saints can cure/heal a human being just by their touch or by providing some fruit or ash or something else and receiver gets cured or can generate a new life. How? Does the Gods and Saints radiate some kind of rays from their hands or body which heals/cures us? or do they have some kind of lotion on their hand and when they touch, we get cured? Can we work on this and cure crores of people including me.<br /><br />Lets not laugh on above ideas as they might shape the future and someone might make them reality. I think that these many ideas are enough to rock the world or universe or do you have some more ideas which at any point of time has already been discussed but still we could not accomplish or enlighten me if someone in some part of the world has already progressed a lot or working on these ideas. So entrepreneurs, start working and lets have even better gadgets. We still have miles to go....<br /><br />More later,<br />Hariprakash Agrawal (Hari),<br /><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://opcord.com/">http://opcord.com</a> - Optimizing Business Variables with Coordination<br /><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://vicharpravah.com/">http://vicharpravah.com</a> - An initiative to make common man aware of their potentials and responsibilitiesHariprakash Agrawalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07364277749776152154noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8957254965927240369.post-23846730873878786382009-07-08T00:18:00.000+05:302015-11-01T20:20:24.978+05:30Journey to entrepreneurship...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: georgia;">From long time, I had this dream of becoming <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">entrepreneur</span> and at last, I could realize it last month, Jun'2009. I knew that this is going to be a tough job as I am new to <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">entrepreneurship</span> but I realized that it is not really that tough if you enjoy what you work and you work for what you believe in.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: georgia;">I do not remember when first time, I thought of becoming <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">entrepreneur</span>, may be, it is in blood as I belong to a community known as "<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Baniya</span>" in India. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Baniya</span> means business person. I am a calculated risk taker and I do take risks after doing my home work with whatsoever little I know. The day, I entered in <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">IIT</span>-<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">KGP</span>, I knew that one day, I can realize this dream and it took 10 years to have that courage, confidence, financial stability, family support (in fact, strong support from family), goodwill among friends (even those persons who are yet to become friends), some level of network and most important recession, which brought me out of comfort zone. Sometimes, you feel like flowing with life especially when life is smooth but than one day, you are in mid of the river and find that one storm has <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">arrived</span> from nowhere and you need to take prompt action to sail and reach to destination safe and sound. Recession has had similar impact on me.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: georgia;">What might make the difference is your preparation on your dream. How far one goes, depends on how strong the foundation is. <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">Entrepreneurship</span> is a creative process and I learnt a few steps from many individuals and I could take care of some of them. Below mentioned points might help a few other <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">entrepreneurs</span> as well.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: georgia;"><b>1. Understand your finances</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: georgia;">Only few can undermine the importance of money especially when you are about to take a new journey. One must calculate the current savings and how long can one survive. In my opinion, do not count on your properties, immovable assets at this point because those will be useful if you hit rock bottom for some reason. In normal scenarios, I could foresee that I can survive for about an year even if I do not have any profit from new venture (<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">Pls</span> note that I do depend on my spouse's income which is very very big support). Me and my wife sat together and understood our savings and inflows and we <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">collectively</span> thought of a few cost cutting measures, like, delay paint for our flat, no major expenses, cuts on outings, reduce lavish lunches/dinners/parties etc and we felt that we can pay our <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">EMIs</span>, we need not to trouble our parents (and extended family) and more important that we need not to borrow.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: georgia;"><b>2. Ensure family support</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: georgia;"> There is an old saying that hope for best, prepare for worst. Life looks good when everything is going good but in bad times, it is the family who provides moral, emotional, and financial support. This is key to start business as one will have rough patches on the journey (like Indian roads:)) and that time, if someone is around, life does not look that bad.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: georgia;"><b>3. Develop competence</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: georgia;">One need to be thorough in the area one wishes to enter unless you have huge money and you can hire experts in that area. One also should learn a bit of company law, equity, finance, HR, legal areas etc to not to be cheated by others. Network can help you in reaching to key <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">stakeholders</span> but its your competence, confidence which will convert it in a deal. In simple words, do not miss a single opportunity to learn. Just be open to any kind of learning.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: georgia;"><b>4. Nurture your friend base</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: georgia;">I am realizing that most of the tasks get done due to the <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">relationship</span> one share with his/her friends instead of logic behind the task. Sometimes, we argue a lot about a particular task with a person but if we share great rapport with the person, the argument reduces. One's friends are their business managers in the beginning when one can not invest much money in marketing. At times, one's reach in market is directly <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">proportional</span> to the friends one has in the beginning. Needless to mention, do help your friends in need, share life with them and one might get unbound, limitless <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16">opportunities</span>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: georgia;"><b>5. Build your network</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: georgia;">Who can dare to deny importance of network in coalition days? Do attend most of the business events (like, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17">startup</span> fairs etc), attend trainings, <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_18">Alma</span> mater, from very beginning. Nobody can predict that which relation may help you in getting some assignments. Do initiate/ involve in community service projects as it might help in building goodwill and some good friends.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: georgia;"><b>6. Understand customer base</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: georgia;">Synonym to business is customers. Do some amount of research on what industry segment one wish to enter, what problems one is trying to solve, who can be potential customers etc. Have a discussion with few potential customers to understand their challenges, pain areas and wish lists. It might help you in refining your approach.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: georgia;"><b>7. Prepare business plan</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: georgia;">Enough is <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_19">written</span> on need of business plan and one can do google to know enough on this topic. Point is that one need to keep end in mind, have a clear vision & mission statement and a plan to achieve them. Planning is like setting strong foundation and validating your thoughts with industry veterans. It is indeed even more important if one is looking for investments. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: georgia;"><b>8. Business vs Service</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: georgia;">Each business addresses some or other need of society hence it does have a social linkage. Society at large must feel <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_20">benefited</span> with that business. The degree of benefit may vary. New company must highlight that how do they plan to create more value to society. Define the USP (Unique Selling Proposition) or in minimal words, explain your unique offerings or value to society.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: georgia;">When one does business than always have your interests in mind and be clear on that. In other words, service is done with more involvement of heart while business is done with more involvement of mind hence have a clear distinction between these. In nutshell, no space for <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_21">intuitions</span>, collect as many as facts possible before the jump.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: georgia;"><b>9. Plan <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_22">distribution</span> of equity</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: georgia;">If you have many partners and investors than must plan equity carefully. One of the major factor of loosing trust can be this. Choose your partners carefully with whom you share trust. It does not matter that how long you have been knowing them but it does matter that what is the general perception of the each individual. Building <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_23">competence</span> is easier at times than building trust.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: georgia;"><b>10. Unique identity of company (Logo, name, website etc)</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: georgia;">For some reason, I do not see parents naming their son / daughter with very old names , like, mine. There is lot in name and its important that we understand it. If one wish to create its own brand, do not copy some already published name, like lets refrain from naming your company <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_24">Petsi</span> in line of Pepsi. It might not give impression of creativity.</span> Name of company should reflect your line of business.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: georgia;"> Logo is something which should reflect theme of the company. It can be a simple line if one can explain rationale or theme behind it. It should generate curiosity among onlookers and they should ask you that why did you do it this way.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: georgia;"> Website is one's identity in faceless world. It is never complete and one will always find scope of improvement. Have a basic website ready to launch as early as possible. With so many open source frameworks (content management system, like, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_25">Joomla</span>) available, it is very easy to build website with minimal technical knowledge.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: georgia;">Not sure, where this journey will take me but I just thought of putting my thoughts and one may provide his/her feedback that does it look enough or am I missing any <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_26">important</span> point.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: georgia;">Bye for now..</span><br />
<span style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_27">Hariprakash</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_28">Agrawal</span> (<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_29">Hari</span>)</span><br />
<a href="http://opcord.com/" style="font-family: georgia;">http://opcord.com</a><span style="font-family: georgia;"> - Optimizing with <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_30">Coordination</span></span></div>
</div>
Hariprakash Agrawalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07364277749776152154noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8957254965927240369.post-63691637089266881762009-01-27T16:09:00.005+05:302009-02-28T21:27:44.724+05:30Voter Registration Camp @ SuncityHere is another opportunity to do your bit being common man. One of the fundamental rights being citizen of a country is to exercise vote and choosing representatives in democratic way. What we choose today will decide what we get in future. Please get your voting rights at the place where you stay or plan to exercise vote. JaagoRe is one of such rare initiative which enables citizens of India to get their vote registered. This article provides you some useful information on how to register your vote using JaagoRe.<br /><br />This article has been shifted to website <a href="http://vicharpravah.com/">http://vicharpravah.com</a> (Let thoughts flow...) under link <a href="http://vicharpravah.com/index.php/power-of-common-man/3-erdaicate-evil/3-voter-registration-camp-suncity.html">http://vicharpravah.com/index.php/power-of-common-man/3-erdaicate-evil/3-voter-registration-camp-suncity.html</a><br /><br />To conclude, I must say that it is very good initiative, I got to learn a lot and wishing to spread this as much as possible.<br /><br />- HariprakashHariprakash Agrawalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07364277749776152154noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8957254965927240369.post-2402667639240580062009-01-27T12:30:00.003+05:302016-01-08T10:13:48.268+05:30About Khata Registration/Transfer<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Few of us might feel that being a common man, we cannot do anything against corruption, but here is a small opportunity to fight against corruption. One can also get useful information on Khata Registration.<br />
<br />
Kudos to a team which worked together and achieved Khata Registration at Bangalore where bribe takers (I don't call them officials because it is a reputed word for honest officers) are blooming. The team involved few Suncityites, Vidyasagar, Harshad, Sanjeev Suman, Renjith Chitharanajan and Dayanand (FYI, Suncity Apartments has >1150 flats near Sarjapur Junction, Bangalore) who struggled/fought for 4 months to get their khata registration while it should not take more than 1 month provided we have officials.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #660000;"><strong>What is Khata?</strong></span><br />Khata
is the recording of one's property in the books of the Government (here
BBMP). When one registers Sale Deed with the BDA, it is just an
agreement between the seller and the buyer but when the Khata (of the
property) is registered/transferred to one's name, it means the property
is in the current owner's name in the government books. This also
identifies the person / persons (on whose names the Khata is registered
or transferred) who are primarily responsible for paying the tax.<br /><br />For
new flats, the type of Khata is called Khata Registration, since one
has purchased the flat from a builder and the Khata would be
generated/created for the first time. If one has bought a pre-owned
flat, it would be classified as Khata Transfer. Khata registration is
also a process which identifies the value of the property and guidance
for calculation of the tax every year thereon.</div>
<br />
<div>
<span style="color: #660000;"><strong>How many days are required for Khata Registration?</strong></span><br />7 working days if property belongs to:</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<ol>
<li>BDA / Karnataka Housing Board Layouts</li>
<li>If Existing Khata is registered with BBMP</li>
</ol>
30 working days if property belongs to:<br /><ol>
<li>BDA approved areas</li>
<li>Apartments ( new Khata is created )</li>
<li>Merging and Bifurcating of Khatas</li>
<li>Gramthana and Revenue sites</li>
</ol>
</div>
<br />
<div>
<span style="color: #660000;"><strong>What are the necessary documents to be submitted along with the Khata Registration form?</strong></span><br />As of the date of writing this document (Republic Day, 26-Jan-2009) here are the list of documents:<br /><ol>
<li>Current khata document (which is the existing Khata)</li>
<li>BDA Approved plan</li>
<li>Notarized copy of the Sale Deed</li>
<li>Encumbrance Certificate (for last 5 years)</li>
<li>Any other documents (subject to RTI as mentioned in References section link 3)</li>
</ol>
One can also file an RTI to BBMP commissioner seeking clarification on documents required for the Khata registration/transfer. <a href="http://vicharpravah.com/index.php/power-of-common-man/3-fight-against-corruption/7-typical-template-for-filing-rti-1.html" target="_blank">Typical Template for information purpose can be accessed here.</a></div>
<br />
<div>
<span style="color: #660000;"><strong>What is RTI?</strong></span><br />RTI
- Right to Information Act. Passed by the Govt of India allows an
Indian Citizen to access any government information which falls under
the public domain purview. All information related to National Security
and deemed sensitive do not fall under RTI Act. In our view, this is the
most powerful tool to create transparency in Government work. In
absence of transparency, corruption breeds.<br /><br />One can obtain any
government information pertaining to self or the general public. This
can be done by filing an RTI Application to the concerned authority (See
references section). There is neither specified format nor any special
skill to write an RTI application. It can be written in plain English.</div>
<br />
<div>
<span style="color: #660000;"><strong>Procedure to Register Khata :</strong></span><br /><ol>
<li>Obtain the Encumbrance Certificate (EC): File for an EC at any BDA
office. The fee is usually 55 Rs only. One has to carry a copy of the
Sale Deed along with. The EC is handed in 4-6 working days.</li>
<li>Obtain Notarized copy of the sale deed: Near to BDA office, one can
also find many notaries who does this work and charges reasonable fee.
Entire Sale deed is notarized anywhere between Rs 80 – 100. Agents
normally charge Rs 5-10 per page which comes to 200 Rs or above.</li>
<li>Obtain Current khata from builder or earlier owner</li>
<li>Purchase a Khata transfer / Registration form available at any BBMP
office e.g. Bommanahalli, Belandur BBMP office. Its value is Rs 10 and
generally sold at the same value.</li>
<li>Obtain copy of BDA approved plan (available with builder or one
should get it at the time of booking the flat or registering the flat).</li>
<li>Fill the Khata Registration form (very simple and easy)</li>
<li>Submit the Filled Khata Registration form at the BBMP office (for
Suncity, it is in Belandur). Most important point to remember is to
obtain the sealed acknowledgment after submitting. The acknowledgment is
one of the sheets in the Khata Registration / Transfer form. (Note :
Refuse to pay any bribe while submitting the form. The bribe could be Rs
50 for issuing acknowledgment to Rs 10,000 for doing the Khata work.
Don’t be nervous, over the next pages, we will inform how can one be
safe by refusing to pay the bribe and still get the Khata registered.)</li>
<li>Once acknowledgment is issued, Please visit the BBMP office and ask
for a status of the Khata Registration application. Don’t be cowed down
by demands for different documents to be submitted. Any documents
demanded by the BBMP office, over and above those listed above, and
validated by the RTI is illegal to ask and just a means to harass you
and tire you down. Challenge the BBMP officers. (Ex : They asked us BDA
NOC for Khata Registration, which is not required. The officer mentioned
receiving a circular from BBMP commissioner which requires us to submit
BDA NOC. We asked for a copy of the circular and he kept quiet).</li>
<li>Visit the BBMP office once every 15 days just to do your part of the
duty. Don’t be bothered whether they are doing the work. Do this
activity for about 1.5 to 2 months, thus making 3-4 formal visits during
this duration.</li>
<li>After 2 months if there is still no activity then file the RTI to seek information on status of khata registration. <a href="http://vicharpravah.com/index.php/power-of-common-man/3-fight-against-corruption/6-typical-template-for-filing-rti-2.html" target="_blank">Typical Template for information purpose can be accessed here</a>.</li>
<li>If everything has gone smooth (after Step 7) then here’s how the actual procedure works.</li>
<li>The BBMP Revenue Incharge and Assistant Revenue Officer personally
visits the property to assess the property. Please note that if the
property is assessed as commercial read as 'Rented Out' the property tax
is twice the normal property tax.</li>
<li>After the property is assessed BBMP formally communicates this
mentioning the property dimensions (in sq feet), its value as per BBMP
assessment and the tax liability thereon. One is also provided with a
notice mentioning the same and informing you to pay the Khata
Registration fee - 2% of the property values as Khata Registration fee
(this is 2% of the value mentioned in the Sale deed).</li>
<li>Once you pay the Khata Registration fee, in about 1-2 weeks, one
receives the notice for paying the pending property tax. Without this
the Khata Extract will not be issued in your name. But if you have
reached this point it means CONGRATS ! Khata has been technically
registered on your name.</li>
<li>Once one has paid the Property Tax (difference amount in Property
Tax in case you have already paid ) the Khata Extract is issued in the
property's holder name. As we understand the official fee for issuing
the Khata Extract is Rs 100.</li>
</ol>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
That’s all, friends. Khata
Registration is done and if one has followed above mentioned steps, one
can save anywhere between Rs 10,000 to Rs 25,000. Also one contributes
majorly in fighting against Corruption. Go ahead, Give it a try.<br /><br />Also
as a goodwill gesture, Please donate saved amount to any orphanage or
an NGO, so that we can continue adding value and improve sense of
community service.</div>
<br />
<br />
This article is also published at <a href="http://vicharpravah.com/index.php/power-of-common-man/3-erdaicate-evil/5-about-khata-registration-transfer.html">http://vicharpravah.com/index.php/power-of-common-man/3-erdaicate-evil/5-about-khata-registration-transfer.html</a><a href="http://vicharpravah.com/index.php/power-of-common-man/3-erdaicate-evil/5-about-khata-registration-transfer.html"><br /></a><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #660000;">References:</span><br />
<a href="http://www.bmponline.org/egov-property/khatha-services.shtml"><br />http://www.bmponline.org/egov-property/khatha-services.shtml</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://vicharpravah.com/index.php/power-of-common-man/3-fight-against-corruption/6-typical-template-for-filing-rti-2.html">Typical template for filing RTI to seek information on status of Khata Registration</a><a href="http://vicharpravah.com/index.php/power-of-common-man/3-fight-against-corruption/7-typical-template-for-filing-rti-1.html"><br /></a><br />
<a href="http://vicharpravah.com/index.php/power-of-common-man/3-fight-against-corruption/7-typical-template-for-filing-rti-1.html">Typical template for filing RTI to seek information on documents required for Khata Registration</a><a href="http://vicharpravah.com/index.php/power-of-common-man/3-fight-against-corruption/7-typical-template-for-filing-rti-1.html"><br /></a><br />
<br />
- Hariprakash<br />
(On behalf of the above mentioned team and special thanks to Vidyasagar for writing above steps)</div>
Hariprakash Agrawalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07364277749776152154noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8957254965927240369.post-65903743717111553382008-12-31T15:30:00.016+05:302009-05-14T16:43:08.638+05:30Travelogue: Bangalore to Goa in Car<p></p>From some time, I had been thinking of driving to Goa and I could do this on 23-Dec-08. Before this, I had gone by car from Bangalore to Chikmagalur, Bangalore to Bijapur, Bangalore to Mysore (2 trips), Bangalore to Sivanasamudram hence I had some prior experience of long journey which I could use it in this trip.<br /><br />This was my 4th trip to Goa (and my wife’s 3rd trip, first trip was our honeymoon in Goa) and I had learnt few things by now. I am fond of beaches and had seen many beaches of Goa and missed Arambol beach in all earlier trips which I wanted to visit in this trip. I also wanted to see scenic beauty of Karnataka, Konkan route, Karwar, Jog Falls, Ghats hence did some search on internet and decided on different forward / return routes. Pls check the links which were very useful in Reference Links section below. I specially liked the information provided by Mr. Abhijit Roy, Mr. Ramesh, and Mr. Suraj, and many others in the link # 1. Do read info in these links in addition to this travelogue.<br /><br />We booked resorts near Benaulim beach in south Goa (near Margao) and we also requested my wife's real brother and her 2 cousins (all bachelors) to come along with us which they agreed immediately. So we were 5 adults (me, my wife, my 2 brothers-in-law and 1 sister-in-law) with my 3 year old son who was most excited about this trip. Although all involved parents were worried but we explained them about our preparations and at last, they agreed.<br /><br />Everyone gathered at my flat in Suncity (near Sarjapur junction) on 22-Dec night as we planned to start in the early morning, say, between 3 AM and 4 AM. We had all preparations done on previous day/weekend. Pls check section “<a href="http://hariprakashagrawal.blogspot.com/2008/12/points-to-remember-in-self-driven-long.html">Points to remember in self driven long journey</a>”. We could complete most of the points mentioned in this link.<br /><br />We woke up at 2 AM and everyone got ready within an hour or so and we started loading our car with all necessary items. We started from Bangalore on 23-12-08 at 3:50 AM in my Santro AT and briefly chanted mantras of lord Ganesha and Shiva for our safe and sweet journey which they ensured to our satisfaction.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">23-Dec-08, Forward route</span><br /><br />Bangalore (near Sarjapur junction, 3:50 AM, 0 km) – NH4 – Tumkur (5:20 AM, 75 km) – Sira – Hiriyur – Chitradurga (7:30 AM, 198 km) – Davangere – Ranibennur – Haveri (11:30 AM, 335 km) – Bankapur – Hubli (12:30 PM, 405 km) – NH4 – Dharwad (12:45 PM, 425 km) – SH34 – Alnavar (1:30 PM, 455 km) – SH93 – Bedi (475 km) – Khanapur (2 PM, 495 km) – NH4A – Londa (515 km) – Anmod (2:50 PM, 540 km) – Molem (560 km) – Ponda (3:30 PM, 585 km) – Margao (4 PM, 605 km) – Resort near Benaulim Beach (4:10 PM, 610 km)<br /><br />It was good that we started early as we could avoid heavy traffic within Bangalore and due to metro train and over-bridges work, many places are congested. We reached Tumkur at 5:30 AM (take care of few diversions due to road repairing work) and Chitradurga at 7:30 AM. Roads till Chitradurga is very good and one can drive at >100 Kms due to user fee roads.<br /><br />We halted briefly at Chitradurga and than started for Haveri via Ranibennur, road is good till Ranibennur with few bad patches. At Haveri, we wanted to take a diversion to Sirsi to pass through Devimane Ghats but we missed it hence we changed our route and went till Hubli. Roads from Ranibennur till Dharwad is very good and one can drive at >100 Kms speed. We reached by-pass to Dharwad at about 1:00 PM.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQF07DDsL_GcDYQqLRdJoyg9x81DleKCQGwMIrCqdU34PXIdwf_VevuXEuzSndYE91mvB_4EsKgVQ5EpvN2uqkfgFKibwkjxQDeOIgJAJfqJQMFoY1aCGFBK4ztC1qJHmyXHjl52AuJVw/s1600-h/Forward+trip.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQF07DDsL_GcDYQqLRdJoyg9x81DleKCQGwMIrCqdU34PXIdwf_VevuXEuzSndYE91mvB_4EsKgVQ5EpvN2uqkfgFKibwkjxQDeOIgJAJfqJQMFoY1aCGFBK4ztC1qJHmyXHjl52AuJVw/s200/Forward+trip.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5286586044206440850" border="0" /></a>We did not enter in Dharwad instead took route to Belgaum (Belagavi) and after about 3-4 kms, we got one over-bridge. We took left turn below the bridge and saw a signboard which read 185 Kms to Panaji. This route took us to Alnawar.<br /><br />I recollected that many bloggers and travelers had not advised for this route and found that road between Dharwad – Alnawar – Londa – Anmod is not good at all especially between Londa and Anmod, it is worst. When we reached Alnawar, we asked for directions and were advised to take turn towards Bedi and than go to Khanapur and take NH4A towards Ponda. We followed this advice and got it re-confirmed with available maps with us. Road till Khanapur is excellent and we traveled 40 Kms in only 30 min. 2 Kms before Khanapur, we found one left turn which goes to Londa. The milestones read Panaji 115 kms.<br /><br />From here, till Londa, road is good. At Londa, turn right to Anmod. Londa to Anmod is good for about 10 kms and next 10 Kms are nightmare. There is no road, only ditches, go very slow, sometimes you wonder that from where we should take the car out of this ditch. We had to reverse the car in few instances and think for a while and take best possible ditch to avoid damage to car. I could successfully manage this stretch in about 30-40 mins. Do not panic as after this, road is good till Margao or Panaji.<br /><br />Anmod to Molem is almost 19 kms of ghat road through forests. Excellent scenic beauty as you pass through Ghats, steep inclines / declines, sharp curves, etc. Check for vehicles coming from opposite direction.<br /><br />From Molem, asked for directions to Ponda than we moved towards Margao and ultimately reached our resort near Benaulim beach at 4:10 PM (total journey in 12 hours 20 minutes).<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">24-Dec-08: Benaulim, Colva, Calangute beaches; Water sports (about 90 Kms)</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho6Nsebb_qXs25Vse5xemkjurwffOhBIvrg6w8NH_c-WHbKF_cGvl9G_ll1q0Phhlk6q2gmrax-Ym_SdZXWaw5TBZAYY1f36XreIuHEX7bmWtlljrvhfSQMMdx0WLsPCyI3YqYT9GkKEI/s1600-h/Benaulim.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho6Nsebb_qXs25Vse5xemkjurwffOhBIvrg6w8NH_c-WHbKF_cGvl9G_ll1q0Phhlk6q2gmrax-Ym_SdZXWaw5TBZAYY1f36XreIuHEX7bmWtlljrvhfSQMMdx0WLsPCyI3YqYT9GkKEI/s200/Benaulim.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5286590442524952162" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifB7-9FVUppBi1XF6bMtUwgYCrHuygzssofPW_yrRL1xLp7QV77Elm-Qm-KZ2d3l_aolF27r7VAQE2FXjFM3xhVPXn1DXWnOJQVOBL0v8UaXt803o79RcV2ETqQ5SwTHV2NPlrN_Up4cA/s1600-h/Colva+Beach+-+All+in+Row.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifB7-9FVUppBi1XF6bMtUwgYCrHuygzssofPW_yrRL1xLp7QV77Elm-Qm-KZ2d3l_aolF27r7VAQE2FXjFM3xhVPXn1DXWnOJQVOBL0v8UaXt803o79RcV2ETqQ5SwTHV2NPlrN_Up4cA/s200/Colva+Beach+-+All+in+Row.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5286651713323357986" border="0" /></a>We thought of having morning walk at Benaulim beach which went little long and after having breakfast, we returned to our resort at 11 AM. We started at 12:30 PM for Colva beach and stayed there for about an hour. After that, we went to Calangute beach which was quite crowded and has all kinds of water sports, like, Para-sailing, Para-gliding, boating, banana ride, motor boat etc. We all bathed in sea water for sometime. We did boating with full family and my relatives were planning to take banana ride as they had seen it in Roadies on MTV.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Experience with Banana ride</span><br />My wife stayed with kid and rest 4 of us went ahead for banana ride. Banana shaped boat is driven by another motor boat, you sit on the top of it and a life guard goes with you in the boat. Banana ride was really a thrill as they take you in the sea and ask you to leave the banana shaped boat and you are almost alone for some time in sea water. Nobody knew swimming hence it added to thrill factor. We were given life jackets and sat on banana ride. I was unaware of the fact that we have to leave banana shaped boat when they turn boat by 180 degree. I left it little late and landed myself in trouble. I went little farther from boat and also drank some too salty sea water. I was in real trouble for few seconds under sea water and when I came up due to life jacket, I found that boat was almost 5-6 meters far from me. As I do not know swimming, I felt it impossible to reach there. I saw my 1 brother-in-law and sister-in-law also struggling while one brother-in-law had sat back on banana ride. I somehow caught the boat side and slowly climbed up on the boat. My sister-in-law found it even harder to get boarded on banana ride and 2 of us had to lift her to banana boat. At last, everyone boarded again banana shaped boat and we went back to shore. We remembered these moments through out the trip and I think that I will remember it forever. Overall, it was good experience.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF-jNPJv-YVQSGUM8nhCMW5Mq2YXNuC-oK38DOa40wIcji3zIq5Qg2qELHQ9GRlFQNO6rJkA3oU8qZMHfucHW-suAccBS5E9hUfU7wpr7EPd1twCehQhS27xmz0Tna8wOIKzYKryBD70M/s1600-h/Calangute+Shacks+%26+family.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF-jNPJv-YVQSGUM8nhCMW5Mq2YXNuC-oK38DOa40wIcji3zIq5Qg2qELHQ9GRlFQNO6rJkA3oU8qZMHfucHW-suAccBS5E9hUfU7wpr7EPd1twCehQhS27xmz0Tna8wOIKzYKryBD70M/s200/Calangute+Shacks+%26+family.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5286592120887205778" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDrEDbnOjzio-MeV8hu9GMlMLhfLnB1wD-6GZy37Ruq0KJaG0yl9iMdpBJNd6Rg8SPP1nfuU4Gc1BeftakML0DxIx5A8MatkyhCnnMQN1j5lSo13K-lx538nM_6BJSS7dB3Qhh53mNorw/s1600-h/Calangute+Sunset.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDrEDbnOjzio-MeV8hu9GMlMLhfLnB1wD-6GZy37Ruq0KJaG0yl9iMdpBJNd6Rg8SPP1nfuU4Gc1BeftakML0DxIx5A8MatkyhCnnMQN1j5lSo13K-lx538nM_6BJSS7dB3Qhh53mNorw/s200/Calangute+Sunset.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5286591547466443138" border="0" /></a>We took our lunch + dinner (together) at 5:30 PM and left Calangute beach at 6:45 PM for our resort and reached resort at 8:30 PM due to traffic and unknown roads. We could see 3 beaches and had some memorable experiences.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /><br /><br />25-Dec-08 (Christmas day): Arambol, Vagator, Anjuna and Baga beaches; Chapora fort (DCH fort), Mapusa city (about 170 kms)</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Arambol Beach</span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjGRv47thDZdiHvdrPLO1p6vJrZQGQPbPbdwzq-80tcmxDhq3JFaF7uyc9mdCPXfzDbZx1DG7T8TOP1gfH1NxgYdLg7LrTnmtT1muyWsoxq8N8T3V_ByDrcrLljy3js3Hhux5dVqEz6qI/s1600-h/Arambol+Beach+-+Beauty+2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjGRv47thDZdiHvdrPLO1p6vJrZQGQPbPbdwzq-80tcmxDhq3JFaF7uyc9mdCPXfzDbZx1DG7T8TOP1gfH1NxgYdLg7LrTnmtT1muyWsoxq8N8T3V_ByDrcrLljy3js3Hhux5dVqEz6qI/s200/Arambol+Beach+-+Beauty+2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5286609894346095458" border="0" /></a>On 25-Dec, we started early at 9 AM for Arambol beach and it was almost 80 km from our resort and it took 2:15 hours to reach Arambol. It was worth spending this much time in travel. Arambol is a beautiful beach with few people mostly foreigners. The slope of beach is very less hence you can go little far in the sea. Waves are very calm hence it’s quite safe with 3 year old baby. We all did bathing for more than an hour and sat in one of the shack, had lunch and enjoyed the sun & sea. This beach is very clean, calm and no water sports hence less crowded. If one wants to be with nature in peace, must visit this beach. We started from Arambol at 2:15 PM and asked for directions to Chapora fort.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Chapora Fort, Mapusa City</span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkSIQzr1esZFa1bSZuvUk5p6_hedQ_FDCKXBkiDFpUxXqa74PxYqo7Qi-73oPSvXB_8bLpbAtATABbkTxiWp4jDwYWpJrldZXi4klnf9k4hE1oXLzy9WGXL_5FOqfCiUi1vnec72kE7Fg/s1600-h/Chapora+Fort+-+Family+without+me.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkSIQzr1esZFa1bSZuvUk5p6_hedQ_FDCKXBkiDFpUxXqa74PxYqo7Qi-73oPSvXB_8bLpbAtATABbkTxiWp4jDwYWpJrldZXi4klnf9k4hE1oXLzy9WGXL_5FOqfCiUi1vnec72kE7Fg/s200/Chapora+Fort+-+Family+without+me.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5286612038750709618" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI9w8U5I53qfxym5SVirLtsAPRkT7AiX_kXDpXn7qVPAn1eX1lWnsRq3cnJJI0hcw986VeHLq3smGa8NtyskSq1Wr93KEwvHEw2BDBWldp1FQEjo_OdJQZpJTVi8EUdXH6M5S-BT3e8R0/s1600-h/Chapora+Fort+-+Upper+View.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI9w8U5I53qfxym5SVirLtsAPRkT7AiX_kXDpXn7qVPAn1eX1lWnsRq3cnJJI0hcw986VeHLq3smGa8NtyskSq1Wr93KEwvHEw2BDBWldp1FQEjo_OdJQZpJTVi8EUdXH6M5S-BT3e8R0/s200/Chapora+Fort+-+Upper+View.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5286612193577620322" border="0" /></a> Chapora fort is also known as DCH fort after 'Dil Chahta Hai' movie was shot here. A single road from Mapusa city goes to Chapora fort. We had to ask for directions many times as we did not want to waste time by going in wrong direction. We reached Chapora fort at 3:10 PM and me and my wife thought of staying down after seeing the steep incline but we lifted our spirits and went uphill. My 3 year old son “Saatwik” came with us without asking for “Godi” (he calls it Godi whenever he is tired and wants to be picked and rested in our arms which makes our climbing more difficult). We went up to the place where DCH scenes were shot and saw very beautiful scenic beauty from top. We did some photography which we were already doing all the way. One can see Chapora River dropping in the sea from the top which is amazing. Also one can see Morjim, Chapora and Vagator beaches from different directions of the fort which makes it another memorable experience. We left Chapora fort at 4:15 PM as we had to see other 3 famous beaches.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;"><br />Vagator, Anjuna and Baga beaches</span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdPPDoVCzfZ-Ltwy3a7y3s5nhqemid7t6YV4AHg9QWs5779YkH-2-b6ahGNmiyISqgEu7z_8JK1s7fOtEYXm_wCTnx0C065EPh112nK_9O6bCytgaYPMcRqfBSpKLgQh8wkDhQng6IKDg/s1600-h/Vagator+beach.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdPPDoVCzfZ-Ltwy3a7y3s5nhqemid7t6YV4AHg9QWs5779YkH-2-b6ahGNmiyISqgEu7z_8JK1s7fOtEYXm_wCTnx0C065EPh112nK_9O6bCytgaYPMcRqfBSpKLgQh8wkDhQng6IKDg/s200/Vagator+beach.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5286611372085800850" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_z_JfpG1rFQ946khVYk-awsMV23ZSBQ_fA7uN0zuC9GUzAsBGALUowej2x4PF4w2OS-Br09niKACAF-ENYkyaBysitqjxX3_8VXMgecPSVHw30RoP79w8eqZL3VnPqPBdiypze_xcdYk/s1600-h/Baga+Beach+-+Smiling+Richa.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_z_JfpG1rFQ946khVYk-awsMV23ZSBQ_fA7uN0zuC9GUzAsBGALUowej2x4PF4w2OS-Br09niKACAF-ENYkyaBysitqjxX3_8VXMgecPSVHw30RoP79w8eqZL3VnPqPBdiypze_xcdYk/s200/Baga+Beach+-+Smiling+Richa.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5286611678668761746" border="0" /></a>We reached Vagator beach in about 15 min and saw it from the top. We did not have the time to go down and play with sea water; also we had already played with water at Arambol for quite long. The sun was on its way to set and going to fall in the seawater (sunset as described by my son). We stayed for about 20 min and moved to Anjuna beach. Anjuna beach is quite rocky (rocky terrain instead of plain sand) hence we stayed again at top and sun had come more near to sea. Ladies did some shopping and we had sugarcane juice as it was hot even at this time. We left Anjuna beach in about 20 min and went to Baga beach. We reached Baga beach in another half an hour or less and ultimately we dropped the sun in seawater. We did some photography with sunset. Baga beach was very crowded with Indian tourists and local population probably because it was Christmas day. Baga beach also has all kinds of water sports. We had already done water sports at Calangute hence we did not look forward to it. We started from Baga at about 6:45 PM and came back to resort at about 9:15 PM after having dinner break on the way.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">26-Dec-08: Benaulim (Dolphin ride), Tattoos, Panaji, Miramar, Dona Paula, Cruise (about 80 Kms)</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Dolphin ride</span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9olMqROCGujs3fRQFh5AegTI7M_1-0DxgskQ0a7YJ878t2H5w8i8FTO_ekyAQkzRBwJI1xsnB2Mo8IC5u12FlEDiVClDjgX6QHmCF0z3_pPvk-Le4m266RIH2Nq4tF7o_RpobtDhiql8/s1600-h/Dolphin+Ride+-+Family+in+Boat.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9olMqROCGujs3fRQFh5AegTI7M_1-0DxgskQ0a7YJ878t2H5w8i8FTO_ekyAQkzRBwJI1xsnB2Mo8IC5u12FlEDiVClDjgX6QHmCF0z3_pPvk-Le4m266RIH2Nq4tF7o_RpobtDhiql8/s200/Dolphin+Ride+-+Family+in+Boat.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5286612471498774898" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv0pbIDZ2Hcl1E7eOfE1Uc3j8qsGE8xcPN8TZzapVlJUKTyM7LzWM5ou5ooZhyphenhyphenzmkyQobm6MTGnkIs9mOLtydSh9bSIO6u9V7w9sISKz6AnYdPLZ9EuEjxtscFC-Daiizx3332bitwBnE/s1600-h/Dolphin+Ride+-++Jumping+Dolphins,+rarest+scene.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv0pbIDZ2Hcl1E7eOfE1Uc3j8qsGE8xcPN8TZzapVlJUKTyM7LzWM5ou5ooZhyphenhyphenzmkyQobm6MTGnkIs9mOLtydSh9bSIO6u9V7w9sISKz6AnYdPLZ9EuEjxtscFC-Daiizx3332bitwBnE/s200/Dolphin+Ride+-++Jumping+Dolphins,+rarest+scene.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5286651813009240722" border="0" /></a>We missed dolphin ride at Calangute and Colva beaches on our first day as one can see Dolphins in the morning only (say before 11:00 AM). Hence we thought of watching dolphins at Benaulim early morning. We went to Benaulim beach at about 8:30 AM by car to save time and negotiated for dolphin ride. Boat took us little deep in the sea where 4-5 dolphins were playing. One needs to keep looking continuously in all directions as dolphins make sudden appearances. We were lucky to see dolphins and followed them for some time. Many other boats had tourists and all were making noise hence might be, dolphins were scared and were not coming out regularly. We could see 4 or 5 jumps of dolphins, one had to be very sharp and alert with camera to capture jumping dolphins. Fisherman told us that usually baby dolphins take more jumps than adult dolphins, may be, because kids are more playful than adults. We were in the sea for about 30 min watching dolphins.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Tattoos</span><br />Every one of us was very excited with tattoos and almost each and every foreigner had tattoos on different parts of body and few Indians also had them. This raised the curiosity level of everyone and same time, one vendor came with various options of tattoos. My wife and other relatives negotiated with him for mass discount and I think that they got good deal while I sat comfortably in one of the shacks (restaurants on beaches), under the umbrella on the wooden beach chairs, ordered for breakfast and watched sea waves. Each one of them chose their design and tattoo person carefully crafted them. It took about an hour to craft tattoos on their arms (including my son who is still showing his tattoo) and we all took breakfast. We left Benaulim at about 1:30 PM.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Panaji, Miramar and Dona Paula beaches</span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGe_QGqjeH2KLx4T8nn2EqKkhAVkqWs1y5tZ97kjf1rVpWkBZ0nh14HCHL2Z1jzXdGQKaHaQham_2egrJzX1gfpNrvsZL-mm_BHGHLgwvJSUk1oz_KyOXPmU_AiRVnf3BCcmKocV6SDLQ/s1600-h/Dona+Paula+Beach+-++Tattoos+in+Ooder.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGe_QGqjeH2KLx4T8nn2EqKkhAVkqWs1y5tZ97kjf1rVpWkBZ0nh14HCHL2Z1jzXdGQKaHaQham_2egrJzX1gfpNrvsZL-mm_BHGHLgwvJSUk1oz_KyOXPmU_AiRVnf3BCcmKocV6SDLQ/s200/Dona+Paula+Beach+-++Tattoos+in+Ooder.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5286614298754943746" border="0" /></a>At 2:15 PM, we left for Panaji and made few rounds in Panaji and drove along Miramar beach to go to Dona Paula. We did not feel like getting down to visit Miramar beach as it was looking similar. We did some purchasing at Dona Paula beach and purchased few T-Shirts, shorts, Capri’s etc. Dona Paula has a good view of sea from constructed tower like building. At this place, two of Goa's famous rivers meet the Arabian Sea and from top of the building one can have a fine view of the Marmagao Harbor. We also purchased Cashewnuts from one of the wholesale shop near Dona Paula beach and its size and taste is really good. We left Dona Paula at 4:30 PM and went for Cruise.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Cruise</span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi13uVs8Ag5HXJcX8rje6q098c9lVY1Bl9TDXD3HFdyIZqO7ZCM9zSANBtX2uJ3MbQBc6xb7eYkOWb82vN1-qWzmqzcj8VsGl3hcntIjPU4uq64BL4d__ZlQMAddbxFYi65-RV-bie9eqI/s1600-h/Cruises+raring+to+go.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi13uVs8Ag5HXJcX8rje6q098c9lVY1Bl9TDXD3HFdyIZqO7ZCM9zSANBtX2uJ3MbQBc6xb7eYkOWb82vN1-qWzmqzcj8VsGl3hcntIjPU4uq64BL4d__ZlQMAddbxFYi65-RV-bie9eqI/s200/Cruises+raring+to+go.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5286614729418753714" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMEobo1dSzM6beyNx5Irh46JwN0kdljnPCISEJhlsD4iRsC7vEJYVhWzSgTy7Yt0Ih0G7IpYosCgWhWkns4Dp4K6B17EYey-QgYKf_GEqzpyxZgIEpkg-X8KLasacxSBTKyiJuOCPxMQ4/s1600-h/Cruise+-+Folk+Dance.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMEobo1dSzM6beyNx5Irh46JwN0kdljnPCISEJhlsD4iRsC7vEJYVhWzSgTy7Yt0Ih0G7IpYosCgWhWkns4Dp4K6B17EYey-QgYKf_GEqzpyxZgIEpkg-X8KLasacxSBTKyiJuOCPxMQ4/s200/Cruise+-+Folk+Dance.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5286614902048061106" border="0" /></a>We were told that cruise starts at 6 PM and there are many kinds of cruise, like Casino Pride (500 Rs per person), Paradise (150 Rs/Person), Swastik (150 Rs/Person) and after little thinking, we choose Swastik although felt that Paradise might have been better. Swastik stands on other side of Mandovi River and one Govt sponsored boat takes you on other side free of cost hence we took that. It was nice experience on this boat as one can have their bikes, scooters, cars, jeeps, etc boarded on this boat to cross the Mandovi River. We were quite early hence could take front seats on the top of the Cruise. Cruise had about 200 people and started at about 6:05 PM and took us for one round in the river. Cruise had dance programs performed by Goan artistes and special dance songs for kids, couples, bachelors. Cruise also had facility to have snacks, disco theques etc. My son danced a lot and it was difficult to bring him down from the stage. I and my wife joined the couple dance and my other relatives joined bachelor dance sequences. It was a nice experience.<br /><br />We started back to our resort at 7:30 PM, had dinner on the way and reached at 9:30 PM in our rooms. We were quite tired but had to start packing because we wanted to start early on 27-Dec so that we can visit Palolem beach (my favorite), Karwar, Devimane Ghats and Jog falls. As usual drivers (me and my brother-in-law slept early) but we could not wake up before 4:45 AM and at last, could start only at 6:30 AM from our resort.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">27-Dec-08, Return Route</span><br /><br />Margao (6:30 AM, 0 km) – NH17 – Palolem beach (or Cancona, 8 AM, 40 Kms) – Karwar (10:30 AM, 82 Kms) – Ankola – NH17 – Mirjan (1:30 PM, 140 Kms) – SH2 – Sirsi (Devimane Ghats, 2 PM, 200 Kms)) – SH93 – Siddapura – Jog Falls (3:30 PM, 260 Kms) – NH206 – Talguppa – Sagar – Shivamogga (6:10 PM, 355 Kms) – Bhadravati – Tarikere – Birur – Arsikere (10:15 PM, 475 Kms) – Tiptur – NH206 – Tumkur (12:00 AM, 560 Kms) – NH4 – Nelmangala – Bangalore (Suncity Apts, Near Sarjapur Junction; 1:30 AM, 640 Kms)<br /><br />As mentioned earlier, we planned to visit Konkan way and Palolem beach is my favorite hence we first went to Palolem beach as we couldn’t see it while coming as we missed the turn to Sirsi from Haveri.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Palolem Beach, Karwar</span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheNsEfzDXIwFh0MVD4kPl-HTkQhlb6iuIiNkllKDhPWR7HQ1YzUT4PUlimwuz_BtayqccLROOlCjBnizG8b1WXKL6x-VTw-BCxrG6tuxQq94ympX5LUEq1ythZcHOCD42Pu7qH4VWg0lw/s1600-h/Palolem+Beach+-+Richa+walking+with+Saatwik.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheNsEfzDXIwFh0MVD4kPl-HTkQhlb6iuIiNkllKDhPWR7HQ1YzUT4PUlimwuz_BtayqccLROOlCjBnizG8b1WXKL6x-VTw-BCxrG6tuxQq94ympX5LUEq1ythZcHOCD42Pu7qH4VWg0lw/s200/Palolem+Beach+-+Richa+walking+with+Saatwik.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5286615230377273154" border="0" /></a>This is one of the beautiful beaches surrounded by small hills and coconut trees. Beach is very clean, tidy, less slope and less crowded. It has huts/cottages on the side of beach where one can be with the sea always.<br /><br />We stayed here for more than an hour or so and took a walk in the sea water and did some photography. Than, we left for Karwar and it was a pleasure to drive next to sea. On the way, we saw Kali Bridge where Kali River meets the sea. It is another wonderful sight and we halted there for some photography. We reached Karwar at 10:30 AM and visited Rabindranath Tagore beach for few minutes. After watching Goa beaches, you do not seem to like other beaches much.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Devimane Ghats, Brunch, Road condition</span><br />It was getting late for breakfast and we searched for good restaurant but we could not get it till Ankola and even that also did not have many options as we were in the middle of breakfast and lunch. We halted for about an hour and asked for directions to Sirsi. Till Mirjan, you are on and off with sea and once you go towards Sirsi, you are in the Devimane Ghats, dense forest, and the best scenic beauty nature can offer you. Journey became more pleasurable than thoughts to reach the destination. We drove slowly till Sirsi until we realized that we are really getting late. Meanwhile, we did a quick poll on whether we want to visit Jog Falls or not and answer was Yes as you do not come such distance very often. We turned to Siddapura from Sirsi and got petrol filled in Siddapura and moved to Jog Falls.<br /><br />Roads till Siddapura are quite good and one finds few bad patches between Ankola and Mirjan. After Siddapura, the roads are under construction and its kind of OK roads till Jog Falls. We reached jog falls at 3:30 PM and stayed there for about 30 min as we wanted to reach home before midnight.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Jog Falls</span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitnSoQn7HTziLWiRI814_bJYoFcjYTjiaW6sVdOZoN1UvCQnP6GeRChOZSAKiXLC2_8nDK3jQPttQ_qAy1ReHj9XqJ40rVa30fXyQcOJinTKfJJ1lOC4evozR7PHQGL1MCDswqoGzAsrQ/s1600-h/Jog+Falls.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitnSoQn7HTziLWiRI814_bJYoFcjYTjiaW6sVdOZoN1UvCQnP6GeRChOZSAKiXLC2_8nDK3jQPttQ_qAy1ReHj9XqJ40rVa30fXyQcOJinTKfJJ1lOC4evozR7PHQGL1MCDswqoGzAsrQ/s200/Jog+Falls.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5286615938502090594" border="0" /></a>Jog Falls, created by the Sharavathi River falling from a height of 253 meters (829 ft) is the highest plunge waterfall in India. Mighty jog falls have 4 or 5 major falls adjacent to each other. Falls are named Rani, Rocket, Raja, Roarer and Mandovi. At this time, the water was very less and falls were quite thin but still the sight was memorable. There were quite good number of people who had come to see mighty jog falls.<br /><br />From jog falls till Shimoga, roads are very good and we wanted to reach Shimoga in daylight which we could. Roads are under construction in Shimoga hence we had take diversion and came back to Bangalore route.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Damage to car on highway in night</span><br />Once it is night, we had to manage our speed as most of the vehicles come with high beam. In fact, we also had to put our car on high beam at times due to the darkness, curvy roads and sudden potholes. Despite all these, I damaged my car as front left tyre went in a deep pothole at the speed of 70 Kms/hr. It was about 9:30 PM and we were near to Arsikere when Rim of tyre bent and car was not at all drivable. We tried to stop vehicles on highway to seek help but nobody stopped. We couldn’t figure out for first 10 min that what has happened until we carefully examined the front left tyre with all mobiles lights. Mobiles lights really helped us and gave us one more reason that why you should keep your mobiles always with you whether you have network or not. My brother-in-law took the luggage out of backside of the car; we got stepney, jack out and started changing the wheel. It took about 30 min to complete all these and thankfully with the grace of God, we were back on roads.<br /><br />We drove even more slowly as we understood that we are on the highway, in the night, at unknown places, with sudden potholes, and vehicles with high beams. We stopped at Arsikere for dinner and we could manage one roadside restaurant as we were really hungry. After half an hour, we started moving towards Bangalore and wanted to reach home ASAP.<br /><br />From Arsikere till Tumkur, roads are largely good and from Tumkur onwards, you are on user fee roads hence no problem at all. We found some truck traffic near Nelmangala otherwise journey was smooth. At last, we parked our car at 1:30 AM on 28-Dec-08.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Reference Links:</span><br /><br />Link #1: <a href="http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route-travel-queries/29949-bangalore-goa-route.html">http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route-travel-queries/29949-bangalore-goa-route.html</a><br /><br />Link #2: <a href="http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route-travel-queries/28983-bangalore-goa-back-2.html">http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route-travel-queries/28983-bangalore-goa-back-2.html</a><br /><br />Link #3: <a href="http://maps.google.com/">http://maps.google.com/</a><br /><br />Link #4: <a href="http://maps.live.com/">http://maps.live.com/</a><br /><br />Link #5: <a href="http://www.coxandkings.com/live/destination/destination_goa.html">http://www.coxandkings.com/live/destination/destination_goa.html</a><br /><br /><br />- Hariprakash<br /><p></p>Hariprakash Agrawalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07364277749776152154noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8957254965927240369.post-44838943929662035102008-12-31T15:00:00.003+05:302009-02-25T12:34:43.463+05:30Points to remember in self driven long journeyIf you are planning for a self driven long journey than you may like to keep in mind these points:<br /><ol><li><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" >Condition of car: Have petrol tank full (you do not get petrol pumps for long distance especially extra mile/premium or speed), Tyre pressure checked (including stepney), wheel balancing, water level in radiator etc</span></li><li><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" >Have car papers ready, like, RC book, insurance, emission certificate, driving license etc. If you are crossing state than it will be checked on border and you might need to bribe if you do not have any such documents, also it wastes time and deteriorates mood.</span></li><li><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" >First aid kit: Band-aid, Soframycin, brufane, combiflame, savlon, Eno pouches, cotton, Move spray etc</span></li></ol>This article has been shifted to website <a href="http://vicharpravah.com/">http://vicharpravah.com</a> (Let thoughts flow...) under link <a href="http://vicharpravah.com/index.php/useful-thoughts/13-travel/9-points-to-remember-in-self-driven-long-journey.html">http://vicharpravah.com/index.php/useful-thoughts/13-travel/9-points-to-remember-in-self-driven-long-journey.html</a><br /><br /><br /><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:100%;" >- Hariprakash</span>Hariprakash Agrawalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07364277749776152154noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8957254965927240369.post-8696874073972461352008-12-07T12:48:00.020+05:302009-02-25T12:26:41.667+05:30Terrorism: What can we commoner do?Whole world have been affected by terrorism from quite long time and even if we are not directly hit, we are mentally evacuated and have reached to a point from where it seems difficult to understand this phenomena and tolerate it further. We need to weed out the root cause of terrorism instead only addressing symptoms, like, catching few terrorists, punishing them and forgetting it till next tragedy happens. It is not only the responsibility of few politicians, army men or bureaucrats but also the responsibility of each and every individual. It is a systemic problem and needs an active participation from everyone. Whole society must choose to grow as peaceful, loving, sacrificing society and handle the matter maturely. <span style="font-style: italic;">Wars do not eliminate terrorism; it only transfers the responsibility of terrorism to next generation</span>. In short, we commoner need to rise up and do something about it.<br /><br />The article on Terrorism have been shifted to website <a href="http://vicharpravah.com">http://vicharpravah.com</a> (Let thoughts flow...) under link <a href="http://vicharpravah.com/index.php/common-man.html">http://vicharpravah.com/index.php/common-man.html</a><br /><br /><span>Welcome to the non-violent, peaceful, prosperous, loving, happy world!!!</span><br /><br />- HariprakashHariprakash Agrawalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07364277749776152154noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8957254965927240369.post-38011628756045190662008-12-05T11:47:00.006+05:302009-02-25T12:21:59.673+05:30Great QuotesSome of the great quotations which I liked and collected over time from various sources:<br /><br />All the quotations have been shifted to website <a href="http://vicharpravah.com">http://vicharpravah.com</a> (Let thoughts flow...) under link <a href="http://vicharpravah.com/index.php/useful-thoughts/12-motivational/10-great-quotes.html">http://vicharpravah.com/index.php/useful-thoughts/12-motivational/10-great-quotes.html</a><br /><br />Have The Best Time,<br />HariprakashHariprakash Agrawalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07364277749776152154noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8957254965927240369.post-23436114362192977962007-06-20T19:09:00.008+05:302009-02-25T12:31:20.187+05:30Success Sucksess...Is Success Everything? This question is bothering me for few years now and I’m not able to decide. I have talked to many individuals on this from various backgrounds and they all share different opinion. This is the very reason that I thought to write this article and seek opinions.<br /><br />In my view, Success is about achieving your set expectations and celebrating it. I get this feeling that without success, life would have no meaning. Why would one live on earth if he/she doesnt want to taste success?<br /><br />On the other hand, do we really need to be successful to be happy? Does success keep one in peace? When we define success, are we only talking about materialistic achievements? How come each individual have its own success level?<br /><br />Many questions like above keep bothering me and I would be interested in seeking an answer or opinions. There is no right or wrong answers to these questions, but each one of us can have different point of view.<br /><br />The article on 'Success Sucksess' have been shifted to website <a href="http://vicharpravah.com/">http://vicharpravah.com</a> (Let thoughts flow...) under link <a href="http://vicharpravah.com/index.php/useful-thoughts/12-motivational/11-success-sucksess.html">http://vicharpravah.com/index.php/useful-thoughts/12-motivational/11-success-sucksess.html</a><br /><br /><br />Have The Best Time,<br />Hariprakash<script src="http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type="text/javascript">br</script><br /><script type="text/javascript"><br />_uacct = "UA-2135607-1";<br />urchinTracker();<br /></script>Hariprakash Agrawalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07364277749776152154noreply@blogger.com1