Asanti Sana Kenya

Just back from trip to Kenya. It was beautiful. Although I went there on work our Africa boss made sure we went out for a safari one day. And we went to Nakuru National Park. Its around 175 kms from Nairobi and the drive was brilliant. We had to go through the Great Rift Valley. I didnt know but apparently the valley starts from Lebanon and ends in Mozambique. On the way we also saw some dormant volcanoes and some craters formed millions of years ago.

I am just posting lots of photos and writing a line below it.

In Giraffe National Park. They take the cereals from your hand and you can click photos.

At times I got scared, because of the quick movement of their heads.
There was this small bird sucking nectar from flowers in the park. It was as small as a match box.
Lazy Tortoise

Entering the Rift Valley.

Pretty Bird. There are around 400 species of birds in Nakuru National Park. On a lucky day you can find 100.

Ugandan Crane

Proud Bird. Showing off !!!

Flamingos. Millions of them !!!

Hadada Ibis Couple !!!

Some bird I never saw ever in my life. Don't know name also.

Hadada on top of tree. Its called Hadada because when it flies it makes noise like Ha-da-da.

Pelicans. They walk funny !!!

A bird on Zebra, crossing.

Chameleon.

Baby Zebra :-) Looks so cool !!!

Leopard on the prowl.

Leopard has an antelope in his mouth !!! Bloody scary. It was 20 feet away from us.

Pretty Flowers !!

Giraffe's family !!

Lion has the look. "CUT THE CRAP, WHERE IS MY FOOD?"

Another Species of Bird
Rhinos!!!

One of the Pelicans was such a show off. It came out of water and then cleaned its feathers and then flew all across the Park. Few of the pictures are here.

Elegant !!!

The bird had a wingspan of around 2 meters. It was just huge.

While we were walking aroundn the park our guide showed us a tree and it had mud all around the bark , around 3 feet high. He told us this was done by the wild boars.

What they do is they rub their body in mud because they have small small insects on their body all the time. When they rub their body on the ground mud sticks to their back and they basically creat a coat kind of thing around their body, now the insects cant breath and they die. Hence they dont feel the insects biting or moving around their body. What they then do is rub their body on some tree in the evening and remove the mud. We could then relate the 3 foot high mud on trees.

The most scray part, was yet to come. He said "This kind of mud if you find on trees at a height of 5 ft or 6 ft, you should run for you lives. Because you are in the territory of rhinos and buffaloes. This kind of mud rubbing on trees done by pigs, is also done by wild buffalos and rhinos. And if they have babies with them they would surely attack" That guy scared the shit out of us.

Kenya was very very enchanting I would say.

Just some carp GK

Every year there is something called as Six Nation Cup for Rugby. Like Champion's Trophy in Hockey. Now in that six nations cup England and Scotland play the Calcutta Cup.
Weird!!! Two European countries fighting over a Bhodro Lok's land and the Bhodro Lok doesn't even know about it.
B.t.w the English might win this edition of the world cup.
Just GK.

Respect !!!

Well firstly congrats to the hockey, cricket, teams and also to Pankaj Advani and Vishy Anand, but let the hockey players have some sense. What they were doing few days back was utterly stupid and uncalled for. Hunger Strike????? I think thats bullshit.
Is it for money?? I dont think so, the players earn enough from the . Its for respect?? I think the hockey team is decent and its not great. Its decent and it is getting decent recognition. Winning the Asia Cup was great but lets not start comparing the Asia Cup win and 20-20 world cup victory.
There haven't been great achievements of either hockey or cricket and then the hockey players should get inspired with the achievement of the cricket players. Also all the hockey players earn enough from the leagues they play in Spain, Great Britain, Germany and Netherlands. Not to forget the richest Hockey league in the world is in India.
Hockey across the globe doesn't have any money. Its not a glamor sport like football, tennis or cricket. So the hockey players should just move on and concentrate on the next assignment. They have to still qualify for the Olympics.
The Australian Hockey league has a sponsor for $AUS 50K for last 4 years. They didn't complain they just played hockey. Won the Olympics gold and the silver in world cup. Most of the players in the Australian Hockey team are carpenters , butchers, bus drivers, work in hotels, etc, they play hockey because they just love the sport. The Indian team plays only for money?? they have got a lot of love from the fans when the won the tournament in Chennai few days back. I think whats missing is the recognition from every state government. The hockey team should at least qualify for the semi finals in Bejing Olympics next year and then say "We demand respect??" and surely they will get respect.
Didnt the Indian government give love and respect to Raghavendra Singh rathore when he came back with silver medal from Athens Olympics? Lets hope for the best and lets hope that the hockey team comes back with great medals in future olympics and world cups and champion's trophy.

Oh What a Match. We are the Champions !!!!

I am toooooo excited I dont know what to write. Just going crazyyyyy. But very sad. India won the Hockey Asia Cup and the Cricket World Cup and I wasn't in India.
I have copied few photos from some websites. Oh man what excitement. finally we have won the world up.
I am feeling very bad for the four great batsmen, Dravid, ganguly, Sachin and Laxman. They have nothing to prove but "THEY DON'T HAVE THE BLOODY NAME ON A WORLD CUP!!!" Sorry Giants but this time lets just stand and applaud the great Indian team.
Chak de Indiaaaaaaaaa !!!

We are the Champs !!!

Oh what a great Photo. Great Great Great !!!

Our captain with the World Cup

Ha Ha Ha Ha Madnessss !!!

And the usual parda dalo aur match dekho going on in India. We are crazy Fans !!!

Misbah-Ul-Haq's Scoop. Oh man you are god. You were awesome through out the tournament. You played just one silly shot I would say. thats it. Awesome. Cricket Pakistan deserves a great applaud for the great performance and specially Misbah, Afridi and Gul. These were the three great players and they were always good through out the World Cup. Sorry dudes but the world cup is our this time. Better luck next time.

Madnessssss within the Indian team and Misbah can't believe what he had done. No issues Misbah you were the best batsmen today. He was great. Didn't take a single and then hit Bhajji for 2 sixers in the next 3 balls.

:-) Just a very happy team. Congrats Indian cricket !!! Thats all !!!
Congrats to every Indian. Phew !!!! Finally we are world champions in something !!!

V...

I am sooooo excited

India Pakistan Finals. Of a World Cup tournament. Don't care if it is hockey or the smallest form of Cricket, I am so excited and so scared.
I might have a heart attack. I have oily sweaty palms. I was talking to my friend on Gtalk, while watching the match on TV. Both of us were excited and when Yuvi was hitting sixers at will against Australia, we just kept sending messages, "OOOOOOohh Shit !!!", "SIXXXXXXX", "Chakkkkkkk", maza aa gaya match dekh ke.
I hope we play well. I am happy even if Pakistan wins, but just didn't want the Goraaaaas to win the World Cup. Thats it !!!
the security at my client's place is from Pakistan and he said , "Sir ji Aaab hoga Mukabla. Dekhte hain kaun jeet ta hai. Hum aap ke Yuvraj Ko Nahi chalne deenge"
Man I am so scared !!! Biting nails as usual while thinking about sports.
Chalo sota hoon.
V...

Olympics Qualifiers. Phew !!!

The teams already qualified for 2008 Beijing Olympics are:

For Men

Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Korea, Netherlands, Pakistan, South Africa, Spain.

For Women

Argentina, Australia, China, Germany, Great Britain, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, South Africa.

FIH is going to organize three tournaments with 18 teams and the champions of each of the tournaments will qualify for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. India is placed in an easier group, Thanks to our Asia Cup triumph. We need to defeat Great Britain to win the tournament, rest all look like a walk in the park. We have defeated Great Britain twice in the Champion's Challenge tournament in June, this year.

There will be three tournaments for Men, New Zealand, Chile and Japan. India plays in Chile. I didn't know Chile even had a had an Astro Turf, what talk about having a Hockey team.

North Shore City, Auckland, New Zealand – 02/10 February 2008

Argentina, Cuba, France, Ireland, New Zealand and Trinidad & Tobago. This is going to be tough for Argentina and New Zealand. Going to be fun in this tournament. :-)

Santiago, Chile – 01/09 March 2008

Austria, Bangladesh, Chile, Egypt, Great Britain and India. Austria, Bangladesh, Chile and Egypt would be really easy based on our recent form. Great Britain would be little difficult. We should play few tournaments before we go to Chile in March next year.

Kakamigahara, Japan – 05/13 April 2008

Czech Republic, Germany, Japan, Malaysia, Poland, Switzerland

The reserve nations for the tournaments (in order) are: (1) Netherlands Antilles (2) USA (3) Mexico

Women:

Baku, Azerbaijan – 12/20 April 2008

Azerbaijan, Belarus, Chile, Kenya, Spain and Ukraine

Kazan, Russia – 19/27 April 2008

Belgium, Chinese Taipei, India, Netherlands Antilles, Russia and USA. India can win this tournamnt if we in against USA and Belgium.

Victoria, Canada – 26 April/04 May 2008

Canada, Cuba, Ireland, Italy, Korea and Malaysia

The reserve nations for these tournaments (in order) are: (1) France, (2) Uruguay and (3) Barbados.

Lets keep the fingers crossed and lets hope we qualify for 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Cheerssssssss... Chakkkkkk De Indiaaaaaaaaaaaa !!!

V...

Beautiful Buildings

Abu Dhabi is in desert and its a small place, like maximum diameter of the city would be 10 kilometers. What they are doing is bringing all the sand and then reclaiming the sea, to make the city bigger. making some islands in the sea, some cool way to expand but towards the sea away from the desert. They are making beautiful buildings like we have in Bombay around Nariman Point. They have created a long stretch of road like the queen's necklace in Bombay.

Along the Corniche Road - 1

Along the Corniche Road - 2

Along the Corniche Road - 3

Along the Corniche Road - 4

With Bhargav