Anjuna beach....My favorite spot in Goa

Anjuna Beach....
Located about 18kms from Panaji and situated in Bardez taluka, the Anjuna Beach is the part of a 30 km extended beach coastline along the west coast of Goa by the Arabian sea....

The Village of Anjuna, a five square mile area is nestled between the Arabian Sea and the Hill overlooking the beach. The beach is famous for its stunning natural beauty with swaying palms trees and soft powered white sands. The beach is marked by an unusual rocky formation overlying a cove of white sand and black rock that juts out into the Sea. This area was known as the Jewel of Anjuna and called "Ozran".

Anjuna Beach is also an ideal place for full-moon parties at late evenings....held especially during Christmas and New Year. Tourists love enjoying the blissful atmosphere of the luminous full-moon casting a spell and the soft foamy waves kissing their feet.

At the north of the Anjuna, is its famous flea market, held on Wednesdays, where small cafes, bars and Kashmiri handicrafts ( i have bought some...) stalls are lined. This area offers pleasurable shopping experience with quality products at reasonable prizes.

Bathing and Swimming is generally safer at Anjuna than at most of the nearby resorts, especially at the more serene southern end of the beach where a rocky headland keeps the sea calm. At this place sun -starved European tourists laze around bathing in the pleasant sun.

And later....some chicken and beer after swimming on a lazy sunday....while I stayed at Alto Porvorim, close to Calangute...another lovely beach... we will discuss some other time....

Whose gas is it anyway?

THE bitter feud between India’s Ambani brothers, Mukesh and Anil, has reached a new low...

Earlier this month one of Anil’s companies, Reliance Natural Resources, placed advertisements on the front pages of Indian newspapers, accusing the government of siding with his older brother over Mukesh’s attempts to raise the price of gas from a big field. The government’s actions could lead to “super normal profits” for Mukesh’s Reliance Industries, the ads claimed, and a 50% rise in power bills. Reliance Industries hit back, describing Anil’s media campaign as “malicious, mischievous, baseless and ill-informed”.

The row centres on the pricing of natural gas from one of India’s biggest fields, in the Krishna Godavari basin in the Bay of Bengal. In 2005 the brothers agreed that Reliance Industries, which controls the field, would sell gas from its D-6 lease (short for Dhirubhai-6, after the Ambanis’ late father) to Reliance Natural Resources for 17 years at $2.34 per million British thermal units. In 2007 the government stepped in, invoking its right under the lease to vet sales contracts, raising the price to $4.20.

The oil minister, Murli Deora, meanwhile, has said that the gas belongs to neither brother but to India. ... but Murli  Deora , it has been reported is very close to the Ambani family for many years. And what I cannot understand is ...only management of companies have been sorted and not the profits of the group! In fact, the Reliance group profits are equally shared by the Ambani brothers...some earmarked for the sisters too! Whose gas is it anyway? Why can't the government decide? Why should Anil & Mukesh fight over natural resources that do not belong to them but only leased to one of them....

What is so unique about Ayn Rand Novels?

Ayn Rand novels have long been reported as life-changing experiences. Why? What is so different about these novels? Why have they been having such a profound effect on readers ( young ones especially! ) for 50 years, in the case of Atlas Shrugged, and more than 60 years, in the case of The Fountainhead?

I can very well recall the her characters were so inspiring when i read her novels, but so are the characters in many other novels and films—admirable characters who overcome difficulties, believe in themselves, refuse to give up. What makes her characters so different?

Was it idealism, objectiveness or the tussle between altruism and selfishness?

What is so special about Ayn Rand???

Was Jinnah Secular?

The news of Jaswant Singh being expelled from primary membership of BJP quite unceremoniously....was not expected!

Jinnah, according to me, had split personalities. Earlier a champion of Hindu-Muslim unity and a hardcore nationalist leader, he changed his policies due to political compulsions.Jinnah was liberal, western educated intellectual but one can't certainly deny his role in partition. It was under his pressure that Cabinet Mission endorsed Lahore Mission of 1940, which asserted that Hindus and Muslims are two nations and can't live in harmony.

It was due to the ego-clash between Nehru and Jinnah. Both were, at the time, eyeing the top job of independent India. Since Mahatma had obviously a soft corner for Nehru, Jinnah felt insecure and ended up seeking Pakistan. There is no doubt that Jinnah wanted to Pakistan to follow western liberal secularist model, as much as Nehru wanted India to. But, post independence, Nehru got sufficient time to build India the way he wanted. Jinnah’s early death left his dreams unfulfilled.

Does anyone remember Tom Cruise in the movie "Cocktail" ?

I saw this movie in 1988 in US and for the first time i came across an actor who was so likeable on screen. quite short! ( huh!) but very charming and intelligent. I could see this movie again too.. the story of Cocktail goes like this....

After leaving the Army, Brian Flanagan ( Tom Cruise) tries to get a marketing job in New York. But without a college degree, this was not possible. He then decides to start studying for a business degree at the local City College and gets a part time job as a bartender. He realizes that its not that easy, but when his new boss Douglas Coughlin (actor: Bryan Brown ) teaches him the secrets of the bar trade and they become the most famous bartenders in town. Both Brian and Doug Coughlin want their own top class cocktail bars someday and Brian's Cocktail Bar is to be called 'Cocktails & Dreams', and in order to get the necessary money to open it, Brian travels to Jamaica to work as a bartender at a resort Tiki Bar, and the pay is good. There he meets Jordan Mooney ( very indianish look..acted by Elisabeth Shue)...a young and pretty, up and coming American artist on vacation with her girlfriend from New York, staying at the Island resort. Jordan and Brian spend some quality time together and fall in love. But when Brian takes a challenge from his old buddy, Doug Coughlin to sleep with an older woman, who is also staying at the resort... Jordan, herself the daughter of wealthy parents back in New York, leaves the Island overnight, after seeing Brian and the older woman together ... Will Jordan ever forgive Brian and will they get back together? It is a very different comedy/ romance story....if you see it you will enjoy it for sure..

Tom Cruise has starred in many successful movies like Top Gun, Rain Man, Mission: Impossible among many others. I recollect seeing him in 'Endless love' with brooke shields ...he was looking so young at that time...saw in bombay during college days..

Do you think Dr Abdul Kalam being frisked by US Airliner right?

 Why am I so upset with a drill that I should normally be supporting? Why should I be against a move that is basically aimed at passenger safety? Isn’t it the airline’s right to ensure proper security check for the safety of its own passengers?

Sure, but there are certain protocols that are recognised, followed and respected the world over, and one would have imagined the US airline would do so too. Kalam is by no stretch of imagination an ordinary person. He was not only the President of India, but also the most liked and loved one. And he certainly didn’t pose any threat to anyone.

Also, just as one finds fault with the frisking of the services chiefs, one can find even bigger fault with frisking of someone who was, till not too long ago, the Supreme Commander of the Indian defence forces.

It is not possible that the asinine security officials of the airline did not know who Kalam is. Even if one were to assume that the security officials, who reportedly said “no one is exempted”, did not know of Kalam, how could they ignore the presence of sundry officials who were hovering around Kalam to ensure that he was seen off respectfully? And even if they couldn’t see, how dare they force their diktat after being told specifically who the person in question was?

If there is suspicion that the person may endanger others, please frisk, detain, punish, or do anything else that is necessary. But you cannot be bull-headed about it. There is immense merit and justification in protocols and rules, but they cannot be at the cost of practicality. What Continental Airline did in case of Kalam was not just a breach of protocol, but it turned practicality on its head. Imagine Indian security officials insisting that Hillary will not be allowed to leave India till she is frisked by a  woman constable.