Incredible India! Rajasthan, Ranthambore

 Ranthambor Fort : The history of Sawai  Madhopur revolves around the Ranthambore fort. Surrounded by Vindhyas and Aravalis, amidst vast and arid denuded tracts of Rajasthan,  the Great Ranthambore . No one knows when this fort was built. The strength and inaccessibility of the fort was a challenge to the ambitions of the rulers of the ancient and medieval India, particularly those of Delhi and Agra. The eminent ruler of the fort who ruled around 1296AD was Rao Hamir.  History relates that none of the rulers had a peaceful spell inspite of its strong geographical strength.

The Ranthambore fort, is said to have got its name from two adjoining hills - Rann and Thambore. It lies on the Thambore hill, overlooking the Rann and offers some breathtaking views of the National Sanctuary Park.

The fort of Ranthambore, is about 12 kms from Sawai Madhopur The walls of the fort are about 7 kilometers in length and include an area of nearly 4 square kilometers. All around the fort, one can see many old ruins, including palaces, temples, cenotaphs, step-wells and houses.The Ranthambore fort is surrounded by massive stonewalls which are strengthened by towers and bastions. The stone for the masonry was mined from inside the fort and the mines were later turned into ponds for water storage.

The main approach to the fort lies through a narrow valley, which had four fortified gateways. Of these, only the first gate - Misradhara gate, is still standing. There are many ruins inside the fort, Hammir's Court, Badal Mahal, Dhula Mahal and Phansi Ghar being the most prominent of them. The fort also has many cenotaphs, temples and gates.

Ranthambore Ganesh Temple: The Ganesh Temple, which lies very close to the main entry gate to the Fort, attracts a steady flow of pilgrims, mainly from the rural hinterland. During the annual Ganesh festival, tens of thousands of pilgrims visit the temple, from all over the country and seek blessings from the Lord for happiness and prosperity. One interesting aspect is the mail that is sent to Lord Ganesha consisting mainly of wedding invitations. People send prayers, invitations and thanksgiving by way of postal mails. It is said that  in 1299 AD, there was a war between King Hamir and Alauddin Khilji. During the time of war they filled their godowns with food and all the necessary things in Ranthambhore Fort, where the king resided. Since the war lasted for several years, the stock in godowns was over. One night when King Hamir, who was a great devotee to God Ganesh, was sleeping, he dreamt that Lord Ganesh came to him and said that by next day morning all the problems and shortage would be over. In the morning an idol of Lord Ganesh with three eyes (Trinetra) appeared, embossed from one of the fort’s wall. Miraculously the war was over and the godowns were full. In 1300 AD King Hamir built a temple of Lord Ganesh and placed Riddhi Siddhi, his wife and two sons Shub Labh along with the idol of Ganesh. His vehicle mushak (mouse) is also placed there.

Ganesh Chaturthi Fair is the largest fair of Sawai Madhopur. It is organised on Bhadav Shukla   Chaturthi (Bhadrapad Sudi Chaturthi ) at Ganesh Temple , Ranthambhore Fort. This is very popular fair in Rajasthan. Every year 3-4 lacs devotees participate in this fair. This fair is organised for three days.  

HOW TO REACH
By Air: The nearest airport to Ranthambore is Jaipur sanganer airport (140 km from Ramthambore), which has daily flights to and from Mumbai, Delhi and Goa. It is also well connected with Udaipur, Jodhpur, Bangalore, Jaisalmer, Ahmedabad, Aurangabad and Calcutta.
By Train:The nearest railway station to Ranthambore is Sawai Madhopur, which falls on Delhi-Mumbai route and hence some of the major trains stop here on their way.
By Road:Ranthambore has bus services to and from Sawai Madhopur, which is well connected with all the major cities of Rajasthan, but they may not be very comfortable. Rajasthan tourism buses are little better but the best option is to hire a four-wheeler.

Thanks to all the different sources who have given information regarding Ramthambore in the internet!

My Diary Entry - Workshop on Social Media Usage

Saturday, 5^th April 2014: I happened to attend the “Social media training” by Mr Raghunath Ramaswamy – a veteran in the staffing and recruitment industry (www.spectrumconsultingindia.com, http://in.linkedin.com/pub/raghunath-ramaswamy/2/216/341). It was a power-packed one day workshop on the usage of social media tools with emphasis on Linked In and Blogging.

Although I was skeptical in the beginning, I was persuaded by Raghu to attend this workshop. Of course, I have used Linked In quite some time back; but I am not an avid enthusiast of these tools (surprising that I work in a technology company!), my fear being the amount of time we get hooked on to the net.

It was a bit of lazy start with a motley crowd of Recruiters from staffing companies, manufacturing and consulting. Before long, we were completely hooked into the power of such tools at one’s hand. With his vast knowledge, network and experience, we were privy to some of the techniques to be used.

We got to watch a few interesting videos.

#1. The power of media in marketing – E.g. Wheel washing powder’s remarkable success in rural Bihar and UP where internet penetration is low. The company effectively used “missed call” technique to increase its sales. Enjoy the humour and campaign at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlGcd_5fyzI

#2. Mr Gary Vaynerchuck – He has consciously cultivated 1M followers in Twitter and has made a killing using online social media. He started a video podcast - Wine Library TV featuring wine reviews and advice on wine appreciation. This became very popular and had appx. 100,000 followers.  In March 2009, Vaynerchuk signed a 10-book deal with HarperStudio for over $1 Million. His first book was “Crush It! Why Now is the Time to Cash in on your Passion” in Oct 2009. The deal is groundbreaking in the publishing world as one of the first attempts to successfully use a low-advance/high royalty business model. What is unique about this book ? The book encourages people to determine what truly makes them happy and pursue monetizing around it on the internet. It argues that because of recent social and technological trends the cost of producing content has been driven low enough that passion, knowledge, and effort, which the book calls "sweat equity", are now all one needs to build a brand and business.Crush It was also among the first books released on the Vook platform. He has been commissioned to write many books. I watched his interview to CNN where he emphasized the “we care” attitude that must manifest during your online interactions in social media and the ability to “listen” makes a significant difference. You can watch his interview with CNN at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNM9kA1bSHk  An amazing person indeed!

#3. In this video, I was introduced to the “power” of online giants to filter out the information around us and decide on what they think we need! An eye-opener to me was the fact that two different people end up getting totally different search results on the same search topic. Watch the video on “Filter Bubble” at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8ofWFx525s

Also, the quality of interaction with the trainer and other participants like Mr Shekar Rangarajan (http://in.linkedin.com/in/thoughtcatalyst) - a former IT professional and a “Transformational Change Consultant”  proved to be the icing on the cake.

Thanks Raghu and Shekar Sir

What's the Good Word - Ponzi Scheme ?

 I came across a new word “Ponzi Scheme”.  I decided to find out. Here is what it I found..…

 A Ponzi scheme is an investment scam that pays existing investors out of money invested by new investors, giving the appearance of earnings and profits where there are none.  After some time, the fraudster disappears leaving the investors high and dry. Not all such schemes are easy to detect.

This is named after Carlo Ponzi in the US in 1920s. He was an Italian immigrant to the Unites States. At that time there was a practice that whenever someone sent a mail overseas, they would also buy international reply coupons that facilitated reply from the recipient. Ponzi would buy reply coupons in a different country where they tended to be cheap and then sell them in the US. The difference in the price was the profit made. He started off saying the investors would get 50% return in 90 days.  It didn’t turn out as easy as he thought. There were far more costs involved in conducting business overseas and dispatch of the coupons. The costs soared high and Ponzi kept the bad news to himself. More and more investors poured in handing him all their life’s savings. He paid off the initial investors with the new money that kept pouring in and pocketed some for him.  As the early investors could get real returns, there was no suspicion. In fact, it only generated a chain of investors flocking to him. No one complained.

Ponzi started living lavishly. He was not clever enough. People began to wonder how he bought and sold. Eventually, he was busted. But he was not the first (nor going to be the last) to carry out such a scam. Possibly, he stood out because of the money (millions) he made and the vast number of people swindled.

Here’s  Charles Ponzi  (in)famous quote !

"Even if they never got anything for it, it was cheap at that price. Without malice aforethought I had given them the best show that was ever staged in their territory since the landing of the Pilgrims! It was easily worth fifteen million bucks to watch me put the thing over."

My Diary Entry - Yoga - A way of life !

Wednesday, 19th March 2014 :  at office we had our power packed day of various trainings. One of the key events was a de-stressing session with Yoga. The introduction and training was provided by Ms Sunita Nair of Krishnamachari Yoga Mandiram. It was a one-hour session and it was worth every minute. Starting with an introduction, she demonstrated various breathing and relaxation techniques. My team and I felt that we should take up Yoga definitely given the life-style we have.