Have you ever wondered who will take care of you when you are old? Have you ever wondered how old age care homes in other countries work? Bettercare is one such website which answers this and many such questions. It is a service which helps you find the best nursing homes available for caring for your elders.

The website itself is neatly designed and easy to read and understand. It has three major classifications – your care options which provide you a list of options for care homes available around your location, News and views which shares important news about care for the elderly, and a nifty and sweet forum for like minded people waiting for care or giving care to discuss the topic.

The first section deals with different types of care – care from home, rented residential care and finance based care options. It also contains links to charity organisations around you. The news and views section has news snippets, expert talks, and tips to lead a healthy life. The forum allows users to talk to each other, and the section also contains letters sent by visitors and nostalgic experiences shared on the site.

So if you are looking for inputs on nursing homes, go no further. BetterCare is the best example!

In earlier times watching movies was possible only on a TV or a standalone DVD player or perhaps a laptop which came with lots of associated peripherals. This not only increased complexity but also reduced the entertainment scale with such huge devices. For people on the move this was really bad until portable DVD players entered the scene.

Whats essential about portable DVD players is to keep track of its size, the disc formats supported, the outputs it provides so that it can be used with a variety of other devices, and the sound quality too to some extent. Having said that Digitalframez offers a trendy portable 10 inch DVD player. With most movies getting over between 2-3 hours, this player has about 4 hours of playtime which is a good thing. You could always end up one whole movie without battery fuss! And whats more it even charges off your cigarette charger in the car, making it worthwhile a gadget to possess for those long drives.

One another important thing to consider with a portable DVD player is the type of file formats it is capable of playing. In that respect the Digitalframez portable dvd player also is equipped to play divx files, and thats a huge boon considering that most DVDs are on divx format these days. It also plays photos, mp3 and other files! Armed with a TV tuner it makes it possible for a dual use mode, to watch either TV shows or DVD discs. At $239 its a steal.

I casually stepped into a bakery near my office to eat something since I was feeling extremely hungry. While I was having my snacks I could not help noticing this box of chocolates which seemed all familiar. Except that name that is. Jinnuo Cocher. Wait a minute, did i say Jinnuo Cocher? Yes of course. But thats not the name we all know it by do we? Look for yourself!

Presenting yet another FAKE of the original FERRERO ROCHER! It happens only in India!

Technorati Tags: Life in Bengaluru, Chocolates, Ferrero rocher, Fake, Cheap items, Sweets, Bengaluru, Blog, Bangalore, City life

Finally I got some time to write about the COBY CX 266, a model perhaps thats already outdated in days in the USA which i nevertheless procured at $45 from there. I ve purchased a billion radios till date. But I must say there is no one single radio that is giving me as much comfort as the coby baby that i currently have. I was expecting a flimsy radio when I first purchased it. Only when my friend gave it to be after it traveled from USA miles to Bengaluru, did I start appreciating the radio for what it is. My need was simple, I wanted a decent sounding radio supporting FM and having a remote control to operate it with. But what i actually got with the coby was much more than what I asked for!

It has a USB slot and an SD/MMC slot to pull in all the music from the associated devices and play it on the radio. I have not tried this feature yet, but I appreciate that its there! The entire radio is done out of proper wood and the construction quality shows well when you look at it. It just looks so sweet! The six buttons on the radio itself are quite flimsy but who cares, I use the ones on the remote instead! And then there is the aerial antenna which is hooked somewhere to my window for better reception. The big volume knob in white at the middle also serves as a push button on-off power switch for the radio and to increase or decrease the volume but turning a full 360 degrees free flow. I always love radios that welcome me by saying HELLO when you switch them on and BYE when you switch them off. Pretty neat! During the nights the backlighting on the radio is quite clearly readable too. With this the radio has features to auto switch on at a given time, auto switch off after a certain amount of time lasting a maximum of 90 minutes. The latter is a feature that is most welcome especially when you have slept off and your radio intelligently switches itself off without disturbing you! How really nice!! And in case you are those zomibies who dont wake up when the alarm rings (this ones got a radio alarm by the way), you also got a snooze button at your service to keep snoozing until its night time again !

Here a few more pictures and the manual is attached too! For 45$ this is a treat.

So the only things I dont really like about this radio:

– no recording option

– no line in for recording as well

Special thanks to my friend Mahesh, whom we fondly call MASH for this gift. A good night’s sleep is now never really far away!

Technorati Tags: Life in Bengaluru, Technology, Coby, Radio, Fm, Usb, Sd, Mmc, Remote control, Am, Aux, Subwoofer, Usa, Best buy, Cx 266, Bengaluru, Blog, Bangalore

Today i was glancing through the Deccan Herald newspaper, which quotes thus regarding the BIAL.

For the HAL Airport, the shift will be abrupt. The curtains will fall right after 8 pm on March 29, the deadline set for all landings to cease there. “All flights after 20.00 hours will land at Devanahalli

and

Despite demands to retain the HAL Airport at least for domestic flights, the new airport’s operationalisation would mean an end to the old aerodrome. It will be an absolute shutdown for HAL airport, and an absolute opening for the Bengaluru International Airport

For a tortured soul living in Koramangala, for the past 25 years of which the last 20 years have seen a spurt in the amount of flights nothing can be better than this news. Its like soothing a baby with sugar in the mouth or by singing a lullaby to a stressed out soul like me! Atleast 30 flights a day at a span of every half hour and a gazillion international flights wrecking my sleep daily upto 1am and a restart at 6am, my sleep was reduced to just 5 hours a day. Thanks to BIAL the tables are now reversed. While I would get my share of sleep peacefully its the travellers who would lose their sleep perenially travelling up and down to the new Airport !

The BIAL unvieled its new logo which is extremely synonymous with old Bengaluru – the garden city. Analysts of this new logo also noted that the new logo cautiously stays away from the wrecked IT image of Bengaluru.

So then what exactly does the airport look like as of now? You bet it looks awesome already and is awaiting to cater to the first set of travelers by March end! Good job BIAL!

Technorati Tags: Life in Bengaluru, Bengaluru, Bial, International airport, Images, Photos, Runway, Roads, Infrastructure, Flights, Domestic, Hal airport, Koramangala

The OASIS shopping center opened to public today the 30th of January 2008 in Koramangala. This perhaps kind of completes Koramangala into a fully transformed floating population hub as compared to the wild jungle it was exactly in 1983 when we first settled down here. Since 25 years, what a metamorphisis it has been! From a layout which had only one bus plying towards the city bus stand every three hours once to now being called the center of the city, its been quite a journey. So much so that the city’c center of gravity now has become Koramangala. Starting with cool parks, mundane post offices, one big school, missing bus services and being constantly harassed by small time RTO policemen in yesteryears, the locality has now seen a great transformation and amalgamation of different services including IT companies, ITES companies, call centers, petty shops, road side push cart shops, hundreds of Darshini’s, atleast two dozen good hotels, Pizza corners, hideouts, huts and what not, dhabas, multi cuisine hangouts, multiple petrol pumps, umpteen banks, arcades and shopping avenues, one 400 crore mall called the FORUM with multiple cinema screens, to tens of thousands of vehicles screaming at the top of your heads day in and out to hundreds of flights taking off on your roof everyday to spiralling rentals around the area – Koramangala has truly seen it all.

The Salarpuria owned OASIS mainly consists of the SPAR hypermarket (a full fledged shopping market), the LifeStyle store for all kinds of clothing accessories and POLYNATION – a one of a kind food court. Besides these there are software companies like NDS who also are put up there. And this building can accomodate many cars at its car parking facility at a time. Am I feeling lucky to reside here? Well until now no, but with the airport shifting out of here to Devanahalli, perhaps going forward in time, definitely yes! Thank you dad – I Owe it all to you!

So what are you waiting for? Visit the OASIS today !!

Technorati Tags: Life in Bengaluru, Koramangala, Bangalore, Bengaluru, Posh, Locality, BDA layout, Indiranagar, Inner ring road, Shopping mall, OASIS, Spar hypermarket, Polynation, PVR cinemas, Forum mall, Big bazaar, Sunday to monday, Banks, Petrol pumps, Nds, Software, Darshinis, Hotels, Hangouts, Coffee parlors, Pizza, Eatery

Pictures speak a thousand words, and as summer begins to set in, I caught this pleasant sunrise on my mobile camera just near ITPL. Good morning Bengaluru!

Technorati Tags: Life in Bengaluru, Bengaluru, Blog, Bangalore, Summer, Sunrise, Itpl, Cloudy, Pleasant, Weather

1. India made significant progress in the way a democracy is run by bringing in an extremely complex framework to handle this country as years go by. This is called the Constitution of India.
2. Our country made dynamic strides in education and literacy
3. Economic progress was extremely fast especially since the last 10 years thanks to economic reforms opening up during each government’s regime
4. Almost every industry in India is now comparable to a similar industry around the world in terms of its execution, its profits or its sheer leadership prowess
5. Health services improved dramatically over the past 50 years to a level where now our country is regarded as one of the best destination
6. The common man has grown richer now (though there is still a divide) thanks to technology, knowledge and exercising his rights better in a democracy such as ours
7. Companies are more customer oriented, more competitive and offer better services than ever before in this country
8. Infrastructure has seen the biggest leap since a decade and is going places today.
9. Tax collection has been at its highest since ever and we can now see it being used atleast partially in the right direction
10. We are beginning to see visionaries in every field however big or small it is. Entrepreneurs are now having a bright chance to show their mettle in todays empowered world
11. Women are being empowered more and more and reservations have been brought in towards education for those people who should be genuinely standing a chance to study well.
12. More and more people are turning spiritual knowing fully well that this is the only way to bring order to the country and to bust the stress we are putting ourselves into unwantedly.

The CONS

1. The education we have is being misused by us to lord above everyone else around us. This is beginning to create cracks and differences everywhere

2. Our basic sense of being polite to others is now thrown to the wind and we dont want to care about anyone other than ourselves and choose to be rude everywhere and to everyone

3. The rural-urban divide is either too noticeable or atleast being hyped to be so in demanding special rights to ourselves. This has also led to looting, arson, killings and all else for financial gain

4. The so called leaders and bureaucrats continue to swindle preciously earned and taxed money leaving genuinely needy people and the citizens in the lurch. It has infact become so pathetic that these people even put their hands on money meant to provide good food and education to the needy children of our country.

5. The complex constitution of India has made it possible to have several billion loopholes for every thing that we encounter that there is no one being accountable for any of their deeds today

6. The male domination is once again rearing its head in an ugly way in this decade in a country which is already suffering with this kind of image since years. Its evident how women are oppressed, how cases are not filed or go unnoticed or unheard and how justice takes years to provide a recourse.

7. The crime graph in almost every city is on the spiralling rise and this can be attributed to both inefficient security systems and change in human attitude in the society of the current context

8. Terror is gaining an edge over a civilized society and will one day lord over the rest of the good samaritans if left uncontrolled. Though we have enough ways to tackle this menace, we are idling on it to let it grow omniously and silently till one day we find a mammoth problem that has no solution

9. Stress related diseases on rising to a dangerous level and if we do not choose to remain stress free this country will see more people dying in the shorter term of a few decades from now falling to unnecessary problems of the body, mind and soul.

10. Financial planning is at an all time low among middle class people as there are many avenues to spend money on today and many people are failing to realize the strength that a secured financial life will provide for ourselves and our families

11. More and more families are turning nuclear and so are our values, upbringing and our levels of emotion and care. This is not a good sign as we will go towards a path where we begin to care lesser and lesser for the people around us in our family thereby diluting the essence of the family values to the fullest extent.

The list goes on, but so does time. And only time will be the healer to our problems. Every person at one stage in life will have to step down from the mantle of being an irresponsible person and choose to be a mature individual in life. The only question that then remains is at what age of the individual this happens? In my opinion, the sooner, the better.

Technorati Tags: Skills, India, Republic, 59th, Year, Constitution, Edcuation, Literacy, Britsh, Britain, Health, Wellness, Spirituality, Crime, Terror, Planning, Finance, Family values, Companies, Democracy

1. India made significant progress in the way a democracy is run by bringing in an extremely complex framework to handle this country as years go by. This is called the Constitution of India.
2. Our country made dynamic strides in education and literacy
3. Economic progress was extremely fast especially since the last 10 years thanks to economic reforms opening up during each government’s regime
4. Almost every industry in India is now comparable to a similar industry around the world in terms of its execution, its profits or its sheer leadership prowess
5. Health services improved dramatically over the past 50 years to a level where now our country is regarded as one of the best destination
6. The common man has grown richer now (though there is still a divide) thanks to technology, knowledge and exercising his rights better in a democracy such as ours
7. Companies are more customer oriented, more competitive and offer better services than ever before in this country
8. Infrastructure has seen the biggest leap since a decade and is going places today.
9. Tax collection has been at its highest since ever and we can now see it being used atleast partially in the right direction
10. We are beginning to see visionaries in every field however big or small it is. Entrepreneurs are now having a bright chance to show their mettle in todays empowered world
11. Women are being empowered more and more and reservations have been brought in towards education for those people who should be genuinely standing a chance to study well.
12. More and more people are turning spiritual knowing fully well that this is the only way to bring order to the country and to bust the stress we are putting ourselves into unwantedly.

The CONS

1. The education we have is being misused by us to lord above everyone else around us. This is beginning to create cracks and differences everywhere

2. Our basic sense of being polite to others is now thrown to the wind and we dont want to care about anyone other than ourselves and choose to be rude everywhere and to everyone

3. The rural-urban divide is either too noticeable or atleast being hyped to be so in demanding special rights to ourselves. This has also led to looting, arson, killings and all else for financial gain

4. The so called leaders and bureaucrats continue to swindle preciously earned and taxed money leaving genuinely needy people and the citizens in the lurch. It has infact become so pathetic that these people even put their hands on money meant to provide good food and education to the needy children of our country.

5. The complex constitution of India has made it possible to have several billion loopholes for every thing that we encounter that there is no one being accountable for any of their deeds today

6. The male domination is once again rearing its head in an ugly way in this decade in a country which is already suffering with this kind of image since years. Its evident how women are oppressed, how cases are not filed or go unnoticed or unheard and how justice takes years to provide a recourse.

7. The crime graph in almost every city is on the spiralling rise and this can be attributed to both inefficient security systems and change in human attitude in the society of the current context

8. Terror is gaining an edge over a civilized society and will one day lord over the rest of the good samaritans if left uncontrolled. Though we have enough ways to tackle this menace, we are idling on it to let it grow omniously and silently till one day we find a mammoth problem that has no solution

9. Stress related diseases on rising to a dangerous level and if we do not choose to remain stress free this country will see more people dying in the shorter term of a few decades from now falling to unnecessary problems of the body, mind and soul.

10. Financial planning is at an all time low among middle class people as there are many avenues to spend money on today and many people are failing to realize the strength that a secured financial life will provide for ourselves and our families

11. More and more families are turning nuclear and so are our values, upbringing and our levels of emotion and care. This is not a good sign as we will go towards a path where we begin to care lesser and lesser for the people around us in our family thereby diluting the essence of the family values to the fullest extent.

The list goes on, but so does time. And only time will be the healer to our problems. Every person at one stage in life will have to step down from the mantle of being an irresponsible person and choose to be a mature individual in life. The only question that then remains is at what age of the individual this happens? In my opinion, the sooner, the better.

Technorati Tags: Skills, India, Republic, 59th, Year, Constitution, Edcuation, Literacy, Britsh, Britain, Health, Wellness, Spirituality, Crime, Terror, Planning, Finance, Family values, Companies, Democracy

I was in my office cracking some really irritating codebase when my friend Raja just came into office after his holiday in Telegu Desam. Oops I meant to say Andhra Pradesham. He thrust a box full of tissue papers into my hand and asked me to take one. Being used to the hot and wet face tissues that are given on flights I was about to take one and wipe my face with it. Its only then that he told its to be eaten. Yes you heard it right – EATEN!!!!!! I was a bit dumfounded at that moment wondering why is he making donkeys out of everyone asking them to eat paper. Its the he told me that it was a box of sweets.

Called as Pootha Rekulu, this is a coastal andhrasweet, made of starch and powdered sugar. Andhra is known for its many flavours, sizes and types of sweets and this one brought a smile on my face. Its been a while since I saw or ate anything like this one. It was too good and required an entire 10-15 minutes to complete one such sweet!

So here’s a cheers to Raja, for his Pootha Rekulu Sweetulu made of paperu, brought to Bengaluru 🙂

Technorati Tags: Technology, Pootha rekulu, Andhra pradesh, Paper sweet, Coastal andhra, Sugar powder, Starch, Maida, Recipe