Get prepared for Mumbai Marathon 2014

Finishing a marathon is an accomplishment that less than 1% of people in Mumbai will achieve. If you have registered, be proud to be one of them.

Source: theguardian.com

If you have went through the upcoming Mumbai Marathon 2014 registration, then you have certainly thought of preparing for it. Because be it half marathon, full marathon or dream run, preparation is a must. Even a 6 km walk needs some effort for a person who workout regularly, although the homework required for them would be lesser. So if your schedule is set for early morning or during sunset hours, you have to follow few healthy guidelines to move in the proper direction for getting ready for the marathon rather than getting yourself injured just enough to skip the great event. Oh! by the way, Mumbai Marathon 2014 date is 19th January.

Here are a few tips which you shouldn’t miss:

• Ensure your stomach is not full before you go for the walk/jog
• To avoid injury, increase your time and distance gradually. Walking for 10km on day 1 is not an achievement.
• When you are not in mood/too busy/very sleepy etc etc, take a small step and cut short your training time but avoid skipping it completely.
• If at all you have missed out a day or two of workout, do not cover up for it. Instead go a level back and get your body prepared again for the workout.
• Choose a good jogging track or smooth road with least people on your path, so that you can look straight while you walk/jog and go on in a regular speed without dashing others and without hurting your foot. Being a Mumbaikar, it’s difficult to avoid but try to go for roads with least potholes.
• Do not walk to look good, walk for the goal with your own comfort.
• Wear a comfortable outfit so that you concentrate on your workout and not on what you are wearing.
• Breathe as deeply as possible while you are on your feet
• Let your hands be empty while you workout
• Have a short warmup exercise before and after the walk/jog. This relaxes your muscles.

How to save paper?

Source:rlandkabaena.blogspot.com 

Did you know that 17 trees make 1 ton of paper? So saving paper ultimately helps in saving trees. But do we really do our bit to save the green creatures in our environment? It would be easier by simply following 2 steps: Recycling and Using paper only if required.

Recycling is a small way for us to show to our world and community that we care. Recycling helps us give back to nature what we take from it. Did you know that up to 80% of waste generated in your workplace is recyclable paper? If not disposed correctly this paper is wasted and cannot be recycled. Proper segregation is the answer to ensuring this does not happen.

Ensure when you dispose waste paper you dispose it in the correct manner. This not only helps in keeping your environment clean and tidy but also reduces your carbon footprint, decreases pollution and also decreases the load on landfills.

Landfills are an increasingly pressing problem. Less and less land is available to deposit waste, but the volume of waste is forever increasing. As a result, segregating waste is not just of environmental importance, but of economic concern, too. Use the dedicated waste paper disposal units and increase the recovery of waste paper and reduce associated carbon emissions.

Use paper only if really required. Here’s how:

• Opt for electronic options for you telephone bills, credit cards and bank statements, invoices etc.

• Use the back of paper by making a notepad out of such papers which have empty backside.

Source:flickr.com/photos/amitvermaseo/7095470301/

• Go for free paper saving software like Printfriendly, PrintEco etc. These softwares makes it easier for you to remove unwanted content before printing your document. Also, before printing you could preview the document and optimize the font size to reduce the paper being used for printing.

• Adjust your printer settings such that it gets printed on both sides of the paper.

Source: thinkbeforeprinting.org

Update your email signature and include a note to remind your email receivers to not print your email unless it’s extremely necessary. In addition to preventing the email receiver from printing it, this signature might even bring in a realization to the email readers that paper wastage is an issue to be looked upon.

• School students need to use a lot of paper. So why not buy recycled paper for your school going kids.
• The least an organization can do to save paper is by emailing the payslips in PDF format to it’s employees, instead of printing them and distributing it.

Fixing street lights near Haji Ali Dargah

Setting up street lights on Lala Lajpatrai Marg, Worli
[Photo credits: Prashant Karkera]

Yes, we'll reach there...

Yeah, going in the right direction...

Just a bit closer...

Almost there...

Ohh the cables and wires...

Lets lift a bit...

And we are done :)

Adlabs Imagica Theme Park - Must go

When we checked the cost of tickets for Imagica, our answer was an immediate NO. But there was something that made us rethink on our decision – it’s an international standard theme park. Here comes my review for Adlabs Imagica - The Imagica experience is indeed for lifetime. Although the cost is shooted up and located quite far away from the city, but once you visit the amusement park, the money will all be worth the experience.

Imagica ticket bookings:
We booked our tickets on their website 1 day prior to our trip. Before booking the tickets we had done all the enquiry about the park and terms and conditions to visit the park. We also went through Adlabs Imagica reviews before shedding our pockets. Ticket booking can be done by phone or website. While booking tickets on the website, payment had to be done online. The cost was Rs. 1500 per person for the weekend and Rs. 1200 for weekdays.

Mumbai to Imagica
Being located in Khopoli, we had 2 options to reach there: By Neeta Bus and By CST to Khopoli Train. CST to Khopoli trains do not really have good frequency. There was just this 7am train which would reach Khopoli at around 10am. Wondering how to reach Imagica from Khopoli station? Well, Imagica provides free shuttle service from Khopoli station to Imagica at around 10.15am.

The 2nd option was much more luxurious and we opted for it i.e. air-conditioned Neeta bus. It has many pick-up points across Mumbai. We opted for the closest one. Imagica has partnered with Neeta Bus for travel. So travel tickets had to be booked while ticket booking. Pickup+Drop costs Rs. 500 per person. But Neeta bus also gave the option to book tickets at their office.

We reached our pickup point at 7.30am. The bus was to arrive at 7.40am. But the bus arrived at 8.45am. We expected huge traffic on our journey. And that’s exactly what happened. We reached Imagica at 12.30pm!

 Finally reached Adlabs Imagica:
Our 1-2 hours being wasted because of Neeta Bus, after entering the park, we immediately rushed towards washrooms to freshen up and then head towards the rides. At the entrance there were a few checks and we were given the map for the park and a yellow wrist band to wear. We don’t actually need to take the map as Imagica has offered a choice to save paper by creating an android app for Imagica. This android app provides the map.

Bandits of Robin Hood & Scream Machine
The 1st ride we opted was Bandits of Robin Hood. It was a simple roller coaster-like ride. It didn’t really amaze us much. This gave us the confidence to go for scream machine. This one looked quite exciting. The speed in which it rolls us is worth experiencing. Scream Machine Imagica was indeed of international standard and cannot be missed. We screamed till our throat actually stopped responding. Here are few photos of Scream machine: 

Scream Machine, Imagica

Swinging around

Legs wide open

Wohoo

Gold Rush Express

Gold Rush express & Dare to Drop
After the exciting scream machine, we went for gold rush express. Being a theme park, almost every ride here was based on a theme. Gold rush express was about the cowboys and pistols. Although this was just a theme, the ride experience was quite different. It drops you from the height of 66 feet and takes you speeding throughout the ride. 

 

  

Dare to Drop

The next one came D2D - Dare to Drop. This one is again a must try ride. We went for it twice. And both the experiences were surpising as you do not know when you would fall staright down. My heart almost popped out! 

I for India, Mr India, Wrath of the Gods & Cinema 360
After D2D we walked towards some theme rides which would not need much physical strain.. I for India, Mr. India, Wrath of the Gods were few of them. In I for India, you are taken for a tour of different places in India in a 4D theatre. The places were captured in a camera while travelling in a helicopter, so while viewing the movie, you actually feel like you are travelling in it. It added to our list of great experience. Some of the places toured in I for India are Ladakh, Kerala, Mumbai, Rajasthan & many more. Wrath of the Gods is another attraction where the importance of air, water and fire are illustrated in an amazing way. Mr India is adopted from the favorite-of-all movie of Anil Kapoor & Sridevi. It is shown in a 5D theatre - another experience not to be missed. Cinema 360 - Prince of dark water is a dome theatre with the story of a mermaid and a prince. The dome gives a 3D experience. 

Curse of Salimgarh
This one is the so called Bhoot Bangla - a seriously haunted ride. A man with blood on his face appears and then comes a lady with white face, black lips, red eyes, scattered hair and stares closely. Here, we are not scared by statues and skeletons, but by real people wearing masks. We screamed hoping the ghosts will runaway. But they seemed to enjoy! And scared us even more. A weak heart person is not advised to step in! 

Rajasauras River Adventure and Deep Space
Rajasauras River Adventure is another ride with roller coaster, Dinosaur and water. There would be dinosaurs coming your way and you’ll somehow escape from them and get wet towards the end of the ride. Deep space is a huge ride in the dark with roller coaster in an enclosed place. You will be turned upside down in the dark. 

Nitro
There was a huge roller coaster ride under test named Nitro. When we visited Imagica Nito was being tested. On enquiring about it we were told that it will take another month to get fully operational. And we sighed to have missed the chance :( 

Nitro

Nitro again..

Red Bonnet American Diner

Restaurants
We had our lunch at Roberto’s Food Coaster. It offered Chinese, Italian, Mexican and Indian. We opted for Indian Non-veg Thali. The food was not worth praising but enough to help us regain our energy we lost in the rides. In the evening we went for snacks at Red Bonnet American Diner. The burger, Coke, French fries were filling but again not worth praising. 

Back to Mumbai from Adlabs Imagica
While coming back we didn’t experience any difficulty. Neeta travels took us back to Mumbai with ease. We left the park at 8.30pm and reached Mumbai at 11.30pm. If you are looking for Adlabs Imagica reviews and yet to decide whether to visit, then just stop there and books your tickets for the park. 

Here a few more pics of the park...
 

Alibaba & 40 thieves

The View

Imagica capital

Another View

Mr India - Mogambo Khush Hua

View from the top

Yet another View

Panaromic View

Hmmm.. View :D

And the sun sets

Wow..

Colors of Imagica

The lights

Red Bonnet Tomato Sauce

I liked the girl in the frame, so clicked :D

What we liked the most about Adlabs Imagica is that after every round of ride, the ride operators clap for the people who enjoyed the ride and bid a good bye with "Hope you enjoyed the ride" :)
Do leave your comment if you have visited Imagica or planning to visit...

Useful websites

There are great websites which can be our daily utility tools while on work. But we are least informed about them.

What if you have a shortened URL and want to make sure about the URL befind it without actually opening it – unfurl.com

You are asked to create flowchart, wireframe, network diagram and your are all lost: lovelycharts.com

Take screenshot of an entire web page? Ctrlq.org/screenshots

A website you can dive into to get hundreds of such online tools: dailytekk.com

Here are a bunch of useful websites I found on Quora:
http://www.quora.com/Best-Of-X/What-is-the-best-web-site-very-few-people-know-about

Dan Brown - The Author of Symbols and Codes

Source: parade.com

The author of symbols and codes has come up with his new novel Inferno. All of us are well aware of the fact that he is the expert of symbols, codes, secrets and signs. Blending facts and fiction efficiently Dan brown has come up with books like - Digital Fortress, Deception Point, The Da Vinci Code, Angels and Demons, The Lost Symbol and now Inferno, all of which are dedicated to code and symbols. And one more part which is common in the later 4 novels is Robert Langdon.

Robert Langdon

He is a professor with immense knowledge about symbols and has an excellent problem solving mind. A swimmer by interest, Robert Langdon is scared of elevators as he suffers from Claustrophobia and wears a Mickey Mouse watch gifted by his parents. Some of the books written by this fictional character as said by the author in his books are Religious Iconology, Symbols of Lost Sacred Feminine, The Symbology of Secret Sects etc.

Films out of Dan Brown Thoughts

2 of his books – The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons have been adapted into films in the year 2006 and 2009 respectively. Both of them starred Tom Hanks. Although both the movies gained poor reviews, it was liked by many (especially me :) ) The next adaption would be of The Lost Symbol (waiting for it eagerly).

In an attempt to take his novel Inferno a step further, Dan brown will be publicly talking about it at Lincoln Center, New York.

Source: lincolncenter.org

Chocolate Cake Recipe made of Bourbon Biscuits

“Baking a cake needs hell lot of work” – This would not be your opinion anymore. Here’s a simple chocolate cake recipe which can be created with the minimal efforts and a packet of bourbon biscuits. The biscuits contain maida, choco powder and sugar, hence your ingredients list for the chocolate cake recipe gets shortened and measurement cups need not be used.

Source: bbc.co.uk

Find below the Bourbon Biscuit Chocolate Cake Recipe. Do read the tips at the bottom before you start preparing your yummy cake:

Bourbon Biscuit Chocolate Cake Recipe Ingredients:

• 2 packets of bourbon biscuits
•  1 cup milk
•  1 spoon baking powder
•  1 egg
•  Half tea spoon Oil
• Chocolate sauce
•  Icing cream (cone)

Bourbon Biscuit Chocolate Cake Recipe:

• Crush the bourbon biscuits finely in Grinder and beat the egg
•  Pour the milk and beaten egg into the crushed biscuits
• Beat the mixture well for several minutes
•  Add the baking powder and mix again
•  Grease the cake vessel with oil
•  Pour the cake mix and bake in the oven
• To check whether the cake is baked properly, take a knife and insert into the cake. If the cake comes out clean, then it is done with baking
•  Allow the cake to cool down for 5-10 minutes
•  Remove the cake from the vessel by inverting the vessel
• Put chocolate sauce all over the cake. Spread with blunt knife or spoon if necessary
• Refrigerate it for 30-40 minutes
• Decorate it with the icing cream (if you wish)

Tips for Bourbon Biscuit Chocolate Cake Recipe:

•   After crushing the biscuits do not forget to double check if it is finely crushed
•  Keep your milk measurement based on how creamy the cake mix becomes. Do not restrict to 1 cup as mentioned in the recipe. The cake mix should be creamy enough to spill from the spoon easily.
•   Preferably beat the mixture with a blender. Mixing with your hand could be tiring.
•  Greasing the vessel with oil is necessary so that the cake comes out of the vessel easily after inverting it
•  If you are baking the cake in the microwave oven, then be sure to use Borossil glass bowl or any microwave safe bowl.
•  As the cake mixture will expand while getting baked, pour the cake mixture according to the size of the bowl so that it has space to expand and doesn’t spill out of the bowl.

Here are some yummy chocolate cakes which you can make:

Source: cookisses.blogspot.in

Source: food.uk.msn.com

Source: berries.com