Wednesday, September 09, 2009

Swine Flu & the Media

I am not thinking about Swine flu these days. Well, the situation was very different 3 weeks back, thanks largely to the extra attention paid by the media to this pandemic. I still remember my childhood days when the elder males in the house used to religiously listen to the news on All India Radio or sit in front of TV for DD news in the evening to be in tune with the latest. As we know, the world has changed a lot since then. There are innumerable 24X7 TV news channels and it is interesting to note how they influence our psyche these days.

Swine Flu was the hot topic on all news channels and was on the front pages on all national newspapers. The coverage was important but if the media had taken a balanced approach and also focussed on some positives then some of the panic could have been avoided. The reports were mainly around number of positive cases & deaths but there was hardly any information on the number of recoveries. A statement reported in media from our health minister on 33% of Indian population getting affected by this virus did not help either. Surprisingly there was very little on the preventive & precautionary measures which is what media should have focussed on big time. All this led to a huge panic and everyone rushing to the limited test centers to get tested even for mildest of symptoms. People (including me) completely stopped going to crowded places, kids were not sent to schools, travel plans were cancelled and so on.

Not much has changed since then in terms of the situation. Swine Flu continues to be a big problem around the world. India now has around 140 officially reported H1N1 casualties with a few reported very day. More than 5000 people have been infected in India alone and mind you, this is the official number. Around 3500 people have died all over the world so far because of this deadly virus. Situation does not seem to be getting better. However, many people (including me) have come to terms with this and the panic has greatly come down. Well, it maybe the inherent compromising human nature but a significantly lower coverage of this flu in media has also greatly helped. As I mentioned, it is interesting to note the role of media in everyday life.

Having said that, let us all hope & pray that the most complex machines we all have (our bodies) come to our rescue and humans develop the required immunity to counter this huge threat that this pandemic has posed.

:PM

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Monday, July 20, 2009

Skandagiri | Night Trek

A google search on Skandagiri will tell you that it is not as unknown as you may think. You will find numerous blogs & pictures on Skandagiri trekking experiences. In fact, based on what I personally saw, I guess every weekend an average of 30 people must be trekking their way to the top of the hill. For starters, Skandagiri is around 60 km from Bangalore and is located along the same range as Nandi Hills. Reaching Skandagiri is not so straight forward and I could not find detailed directions to this place on any site. So let me startight away add some value by providing detailed directions to the place.

Directions:
Drive from Bangalore towards Bangalore International Airport (BIA) on NH7 (aka Bellary Road). After crossing the BIA, you will be on Chikkaballapura road. Follow the same road until you find a Visweswaraih statue on to your Left. Take a left at this place and keep going on this smaller road. Take a right turn at the City Municipal Council (there are two parallel lanes on your right; take the 1st one). Keep going for few hundred meters on this small lane and later take a left turn at the junction. Keep going on this road for almost a km till you see an arc with Papagni Mutt written in Kannada on left. You need to take a left here on this small lane and then take a right on the dead end which will take you to Papagni Mutt (aka Omkara Jyoti Ashrama) through Kalawara village, which is at the basement of Skandagiri. You are likely to spot some villagers just before the Mutt offering their services as Guides and I would recommend hiring one of them for a smooth trek.

The Trek:
I will just say that the trek is awesome. There are 2 routes - one is relatively easy (~ 8 km) and the second one is steep & tougher (~5 km). I liked the latter. We took the tougher one while going up and the longer one while coming down. We started at around 2 am and reached the top at around 4:30 am. It was quite cold at the top - very misty & windy. The mist never cleared and hence we could not witness the much hyped sunrise. That is an incentive to go there again. We started back at around 8 am and reached the base at around 10 am. For folks who want to visit this place - it is better to carry a jacket and some snacks + water. Torch is a must if you plan to trek during the night. You do get tea, Maggi & omelette on top (not very hygenic though). If you go in a non-rainy season, there are ample spots for you to setup your tents and spend the night. That is what I hope to do next.

Verdict:
Must-visit for trekking enthusiasts







Sunday, July 19, 2009

A lot has happened ..

A lot has happened since I shared my Leh experience. What comes first to my mind clearly is the financial crisis that became much more visible marked by shutting down of businesses and significant decline in economic activity. Then there were the unfortunate 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai killing over 170 people. Obama was sworn-in as the first African-American US president while at home Congress staged a strong comeback and Dr Manmohan Singh was sworn in for a second term. Indians seemed to lack energy & will to win at the T20 world cup while the super cool Federer claimed a record 15th grand slam title. Eventful last few months ...

As for me, I went to Coorg again with family & friends and trekked the heck out of that place. Stayed at the same place which I had recommended on this blog (practice what you preach!). We finally also checked out the Innovative Flim City in Bangalore. The place met my expectations and mine were not too high ;-) You can easily spend one full day and some of the attractions are actually quite good. We all liked the Haunted Mansion, Ripley's, the 4-D movie show and the Mirror Maze.

I also got a chance to spend a weekend in Goa in April with my office colleagues. It was good to see that many cruise casinos have come up in the last few years thereby giving you more options. It was a fun trip overall and the icing on the cake was the 5 figure amount I won at one of the Casinos. Another outing worth mentioning is the night trek to Skandgiri with office colleagues. It was fantastic and I would write in detail about it once I have some pics to post as well.

Last but not the least, we also managed to spend a little over a week in London in June. The trip was a prefect mix of sight seeing and meeting up with family & friends. Both my wife & I loved the place and we liked the city much better than almost all the US cities we have visited in the past. We will surely be there again.

Will be back with details on the recent night trek ...