Snippets from Corpus Christi trip

After every trip I usually log a travel log about the trip. Since this time the trip was pretty local and we visited standard Texas attractions I will only post snippets.  

A brief history of the trip : we started on Saturday morning and spent most of the day at Seaworld San Antonio. In the evening we headed to Corpus Christi and spent the night. On Sunday we spent the day at Mustang Island state park. In the night we took a stroll on bay front road. On Monday we toured USS Lexington warship and visited Texas State Aquarium. 

• When you book a hotel room through Hotwire, they do not guarantee the room type, for ex: I had asked for a room with 2 queen beds but because the hotel was so completely booked due to a conference and all I ended up getting a room with 1 king size bed. 
• I got pulled over by the highway patrol on the way to Corpus Christi not because I was speeding but one of my license plate lights were out. I didn't get a ticket but a warning (not a verbal one but a printed one).
• Sea world still has shows with the killer whales but I could see that they weren't pushing the whales as they used to do before. I guess it is good both for the whales and the humans. 
• If you ever visit seaworld SA don't forget to do the lori bird feeding, it is a unique experience  of holding a small cup of nectar in hand and having the bird sit on your hand while sucking the nectar. 
• Seaworld SA does not host the Clydesdale horses anymore, instead they have couple of Texas longhorns and couple more uniquely Texan animals. 
• If in corpus christi you decide to tour the aquarium and the warship on the same day, I suggest you do the aquarium first. 
• In the aquarium I suggest not to miss the wild flight show. It is a truly unique and a great show. 
• Driving from Corpus Christi to Austin, if it is spring time and you are a bit adventurous, try the scenic route along highway 181 and highway 123. We truly were in for a surprise when we saw lush wild flowers all along the way. Google says it takes close to 4 and half hours if you take this route, but we managed to do it in less than 3 and half hours. Keep in mind you need a good GPS and a truly alert mind if you decide to take this route. 
• I have been to corpus twice so far and I think mustang Island state park is a better beach than corpus christi beach. 
• The sand in mustang island state park is so fine that it is guaranteed to fill in to all nooks and holes of the car.      

Mesmerizing concert by ustaad Zakir Hussain

Last September when the founder of the IFA announced at the end of Manna-Dey's concert that ustaad Zakir Hussain will be coming to Austin, I grew very exited and made up my mind not to miss the concert at any cost. Then the India trip happened and  my parents decided to make a US trip and so on and I almost lost track of the concert. It was not till a couple of weeks ago when a friend of mine said he picked up his tickets, it again dawned on me and I hurried to get my tickets. I aimed for the lowest level for the tickets only to find out its all sold out and was forced to be bumped up to one level higher.

The concert started with a 3 men Bengali folk art team playing their version of drums. They played really well but I personally felt it went a tad too long. Once ustaad entered the stage he simply took over the show. Rest of the first half of the concert was dominated by ustaad and his younger brother Taufiq Qureshi, who has an amazing talent to modulate breath. The one most people would definitely remember was Taufiq's performance of husband and wife fight. 


The way ustaad described the language of tabala was truly remarkable. He described a train, a canon and quite a few other things in the language of Tabala. Words just can't do justice for the performance. I am usually the kind who would look at the watch every now and then but during the first half of the concert (7:30PM-9:00PM) I didn't even think of my watch. A combination of Taufiq and ustaad's performance was truly mind boggling. During the first half it appeared as though the whole room was in a state of trance. 

The second half started with subtle music of violin, the artists were great but I couldn't appreciate it much. I think I have a mental block for Indian classical music with violin. The second half gained momentum when ustaad and one other guy on mridangam joined the violin duo. There was one more artist playing another percussion instrument (I don't know what it is called), he was also wonderful. The concert ended with an amazing performance with all the nine artists on stage. In the end the artists got the well deserved standing ovation from the audience. 


One thought came to me during the concert, the speed at which ustaad's hand moved and generated such fine and wonderful music, can I move my hand at 25% the speed let alone generate any pleasing sound in the process.   

They truly were masters of percussion. It was worth every single penny and probably more. It was a memorable event. When I told my mom that we are going to a concert on Thursday of the previous week she was indifferent but after the concert she felt she would have missed something if she hadn't gone. We all were truly mesmerized. 

This was my 2nd concert of ustaad in Austin and I loved both of them. Thank you IFA for bringing such a memorable event to Austin. 

      

The day March 6th turned out to  be special both for me and the IFA. IFA was celebrating the 15th anniversary and we were celebrating my parents 35th wedding anniversary.  

The technology of spirutuality

A beautiful talk by Bawa aka Kurshed Batliwala. I have been following his blog for quite a while, but never heard him or watched a video from him. This is the first video I watched and it is truly inspirational. I like his presentation skills, organization of thoughts, the simplicity of his speech and the quotes themselves. 

It is a series of 7 videos on youtube and here is the link to part-1 of the video. Watch all the 7 and don't stop in the middle, it is pretty lively and entertaining. 

A must see for everyone even though the talk is targeted towards YES+ category.   

I thought of just a google reader share but realized this video series deserve a wider publicity than just the reader. 

Agra

Last part of my India travel log. 


Agra is the home for world famous Tajmahal, I was pretty skeptical of the place before I went there but after seeing the place in person, I agree the place has a charm of its own. There are two other buildings in the same complex as TajMahal, one of them is a mosque and the other  one was under renovation. It is one of the well preserved archeological monuments of the country.The security arrangement for TajMahal had some weird rules, they wouldn't allow you take your tripod with the camera or a charger with the cell phone. 

It was here I witnessed the looting of foreign nationals, the government charges them 10 times the money for entrance fee and the guy who takes care of shoes for them was also doing the same. 

Inside is also well preserved as the outside, tombs of both Shahjahan and Mumtaz Mahal are next to each other (united at death). The semiprecious stones used to decorate the walls inside are still intact and haven't been looted, needless to say photography is not allowed inside the Mahal. Even if they did I am sure I wouldn't have gotten anything nice considering the crowd inside the place. 

One thing I didn't know was the existence of Agra fort, this one is much better than the ones in Jaipur. It was first captured by Babar from the Lodi's (who had captured it from Rajputana and who in turn had captured from others) and has remained under Mughal control from then on. On the outside it is built with redstone and the interiors are partly white marble. It was surprising to know that the fort was the center of Mogul empire, for I always believed Delhi to be the center of Mughal empire. It had a treasury and even housed a mint inside it. The fort was naturally protected by the river yamuna whose waters were used to surround the fort in case of a siege. 

Just like Amer Fort, Agra fort had the section where the king met the ministers and a section where king met with the people and finally the inner section with a garden like the one in the below pic where queens used to live. 

The fort has a beautiful view of Taj Mahal. It was the official abode of most Mughal emperors and was once home for the famous Kohinoor diamond. It supposedly was here that emperor Jehangir declared himself as the king even before Akbar died and this is where Aurangazeb imprisoned his father Shahjahan during his last days. Looking at Taj Mahal from the fort made me think, "Is this what Shahjahan saw during his final days", may be a more clearer view as there wasn't any pollution in the air during those days. Only part of the fort is accessible to visitors as mode of the fort is under renovation.

I didn't like UP as much as I liked Rajasthan for the roads were pretty bad and infrastructure hasn't been developed much. 

Dent Works Austin

One of our cars has the tendency to attract trouble every now and then. Not that it is a rogue car or one of the hottest cars in the parking lot. It is a good and plain old Camry, its not even red in color. But for some or the other reason other cars and people either love it too much or hate it too much and keep denting it. I am not talking of door dings, but bigger ones. The ironic part it always happens in our parking lot. 

First time it happened, we were pretty pissed off and asked body shops for quotes and the quotes were pretty unreasonable. Then I did a google search and found this place called Dent Works, it is a paint less dent repair shop. I have been to body shops but never to a paint less dent repair shop and I was pretty skeptical. We took it in for an inspection and the owner said "Yes he can get it fixed ". I thought in my head this means it will look better than what it is looking now but to my surprise he had fixed it so well it was impossible to say that the car had a dent. The area of the dent appeared flawless. The best part we got the car the same day and at a fraction of the cost of what we would have paid the body shop.  


Recently when it happened again we didn't think twice and took our car to the same place and got it fixed. I truly recommend this shop for dent repairs.  


Actually, reading all the things available on the web regarding paint less dent repair, it is one of the easiest and best ways to get the body damage fixed. It keeps the paint intact and no repainting or color matching required. But the trick is to find the right technician to do it and also not all dents can be repaired this way.