Ever heard of hitching a ride in an air craft?

Well two innovative hitch hikers actually did it. They hitched a ride in an airline. Two members of the Vilinius Hitch-Hiking Club, Lithuania, made history on March 19, 2008 by being the first to air-hitch. In this photo you may see VHHC's members Augustas Kligys and Katja Lachman beside "hitched" aircraft. They members hitched a ride ride from Iquitos to Lima in Peru. Members of the VHHC have been hitchhiking in South America for the first time in VHHC's history. It was the 5th continent on the club's account. So far no one has hitchhiked in Australia and Antartica. I am pretty sure some members are already planning to hitch rides in these continents down under and create history in travelling.


Best Lithuanian Traveller of the Year 2007
Winners of best Lithuanian traveller of the year 2007 contest were announced on March 20, 2008 and guess what. Most of the awardees are HITCH-HIKERS! The first prize winner is a member and former vice-president of VHHC, Augustas Kligys. Currently on the road travelling with Katja Lachman in South America. This traveller was already elected as the best traveller of VHHC in 1997 and traveller of the decade (1996-2006) of the club based on the number of kilometres, covered hitchhiking.

I believe a similar award must be instituted in India too, but should include several categories such as most peaks summitted in Himalayas, most distance trekked, most kilometers travelled on motorcycle etc. The format and methodology of selecting people for the award can be arrived at once a core group comes together to manage and sponsor the award.

Money found in drainage

Ever heard of money being found in drains? Well it is unbelieveable but true and it happened in Israel where a sewage treatment plant workers found about 7,000 shekels currency all in 200 shekel bills. The bills stank of sewage but who cares, money is money and the find became national news and even attracted global media coverage.

Reading about the incident on Dallas Morning News I wondered who the money belonged to. Whether it belonged to an individual who lost it or some criminal who flushed it down the drain to avoid capture. But 7,000 shekels is a lot of money, about US$2,000 to be precise. A sum that could probably create livelihoods for few people in sub-Saharan Africa or even in India.

I wonder how people just throw money like that. It only shows absolute contempt for money. Hope whoever flushed it down the drain is regretting the action.

Surgical Weight-loss programmes

One of the biggest challenges people are facing in America is obesity. Increasingly sedentary jobs, travelling by cars everywhere and not much of activity options unless one consciously does it is making people fat. Once overweight people are finding it very difficult to take up diet or exercise programmes which will potentially disrupt their lifestyle and are difficult to keep up. How many of us can actually give up eating sweet to lose weight? It is difficult.

With obesity throwing up a great healthcare challenge researchers have come up with several methods of surgical weight loss. One of the most flexible and reversible weight-loss survery is through the lapband System. What is this lapband system? and what is so special about it?

Well there are numerous surgical weight-loss procedures but one that gives users the most comfort and ease is the lapband
system. One of the leading weight-loss surgical centers has designed this method keeping the comfort and ease of end-users in mind. JourneyLite surgical center has evolved innovative methods and procedures to make your weight-loss stress free and easy. Small things like roomier gowns, wider hallways, armless chairs, restrooms supporting railings, a soothing environment among many other features have been incorporated to provide ultimate comfort as you lose weight.

The lapband system is one of the systems that have worked where diet and exercise have failed and Journeylite is the pioneers in this new system of reversible weight-loss surgeries. There are several options you could avail of at the center. If you are still unsure, you could attend a free seminar and then decide.

If you are one of those who has tried everything to lose weight and not succeeded, it is time you tried Lapband. Journeylite assures you that you will not regret the step.

Rainy day after sunny day!

I wonder what's happening to the weather in this city. Ten days ago it snowed, enough to cover up homes and cars and make roads slippery. Then it turned bright and sunny and up until yesterday it was fantastic weather. I was roaming around attired in just a jeans and a T-shirt. But today, it has been a completely sun-less day. I didn't see a ray of sunlight the entire day, it was cloudy and punctuated by incessant rains.

The rains were accompanied by heavy gusty winds, lightning and thunder. This is one city where I haven't seen proper weather in the past few months of living here. My friend Jo Ann Holt was supposed to attend the board meeting of Dallas Press Club and she writes to me saying the rains floodded downtown area and the meeting was cancelled. Strange, indeed the ways of weather in Dallas area. I shall wait and watch out for better weather in the coming days of spring and summer.

Since I was holed up at home most of the day because of the rains I didn't shoot any pictures or meet any interesting people. Will hopefully post something interesting tomorrow, till then, bye.

Movie Review: Definitely Maybe

I would say this is one of the most immaturely made movies I have ever watched in my life. The movie starts off with Will Hayes (Ryan Reynolds), a successful Manhattan-based advertising executive and father of 10-year-old Maya (Abigail Breslin) in the midst of divorce proceedings. The only sunshine of his life is the two days every week he spends with his daughter.

One day as he goes to pick up his daughter from school, she has just had a sex education class and starts questioning him about his past life. She is not content with him just glossing over the story but wants to know ever little detail and she wants to know it NOW. Seeing no other alternative, Hayes relents and starts his narrative, which continues through the movie.

The rest of the movie is about how he started off as a young idealistic politician, who moves to New York from Wisconsin to work for the presidential campaign of none other than Bill Clinton. Narrating his memoirs to his daughter, Will relives his past life as a small towner learning to be street smart in a big city and related an account of his romantic relationships with three very different women.

In a bid to be subtle, Will changes the identities of the women in the story and tells Maya to guess who her mother was. Is she Will's college sweetheart Emily (Elizabeth Banks)? Is she his best friend and confidante, April (Isla Fisher)? Or is she the free-spirited but ambitious journalist Summer (Rachel Weisz)? In the movie 10-year-old Maya displays maturity beyond her age and puts together pieces of her dad's romantic puzzle and finally helps him to understand who his true love is. The movie doesn’t stop at that, Maya makes Will go to his true love and confess to her and then the movie ends on a happy note. They lived happily ever after….

In my opinion, Definitely, Maybe isn't a particularly good movie. It is stupid for anyone to expect a 10-year-old to display such maturity as the character Maya. Come on which sex education class for 10-year-olds teaches them about ‘penis’, ‘intercourse’, ‘slut’ etc? And which parent would confide in their 10-year-old the sordid details of their past? These details are what makes this movie a total disaster, despite good and convincing performances by the entire team and above average screenplay and direction.

Direction: Adam Brooks
Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Abigail Breslin, Rachel Weisz, Elizabeth Banks, Isla Fisher and others

My experiments with poetry

I have been essentially a prose person and had not really attempted serious poetry. But my association with poetry groups and reading of anthologies made me feel like attempting one. And appended below is the result. Your comments are invited.

The essence of a woman

The world says
Difficult it is
To understand a woman,
She is so full of contradiction;

The world says a woman is full of
Vanity, jealousy, greed and ego
Her mind full of unsatiated desires
for wealth, comfort, luxury and lavish lifestyles.

The woman charms
and makes you swoon
she has the skills and tricks
to lure, seduce, attack and conquer
to make or break homes and nations.

But I believe that a woman is
A large bowl full of love
Overflowing with compassion,
Love, caring and giving

For my mother, sister, friend and wife
Are all women who have enriched my life!
With hearts full of sweetness,
Voice so soothing and delicate
Face full of smiles that make troubles melt

Giving till it hurts is what women do,
Only to get hurt and accused
Of ulterior motives and wrong intentions
The kindness and tender feelings
That only a woman can give
Are usually unrecognized

Payday loans for emergencies

One of the best ways to get a short-term loan in the US is through Payday loans. Thanks to advancement in technology and internet consumers now much greater access to the financial services industry. And in case of emergencies consumers know that they can avail payday loans with lot less hassle and documentation. Moreover in case of financial emergencies it is difficult to raise loans from national banks. Given the present recession kind of scenario and rising gas prices, opting for a cash advance loan is one of the most popular way to tide over a financial emergency.

There are numerous lenders who provide payday cash advances and each operate on different terms and interest rates. If one is well aware of which lender is best to fulfill their immediate and short-term financial needs, it is easier to go to that lender. In a bid to make this information available easily My Payday Cash Advance Loans.com has launched an online directory of payday cash advance lenders. The online directory enables users to search for loan services in their local area.

For example since I live in Texas, I opted to look up information on Texas payday loans. In Texas cash advance loans have been legalised only since 2000 and the companies which extend these loans have to be registered with the government. Moreover the law demands disclosure of terms, fees and other details of loans.

I believe this is a great facility for people in the salaried classes who lead lives paycheck to paycheck. In cities like Carrollton in the DFW metroplex where a majority of residents belong to the middle classes availability of Carrollton payday loans is a boon to the residents. Addresses of over 10 lenders are provided on the website with their lending terms. The website also provides debt help advise, articles about payday loans and numerous other services. It is good to take a look and be informed.

Snow in Texas

Those of you who have read my earlier blogs will remember my rants and complaints about erratic and crazy weather in Texas. Well the weather continues to be erratic and there has been no changes except that days are getting warmer and sunnier. I don't need to wear a heavy jacket everywhere I go, in fact some days are so warm that I can head outdoors in just a thin T-shirt. But then like I said Texas weather is erratic and suddenly out of the blue the first week of March we had snow. Yes! you heard it right, it snowed in Dallas area in March first week.

View of the green belt and homes behind our apartment.

I am pretty it was not a freak snow fall because we had snow fall twice, the second greater than the first. I was wondering what the hell it is, in Bangalore, summer would have set in by now and people would be reaching out for Air conditioners and heading out for holidays in the hills. But here it is snowing and children wearing mittons, ear muffs and heavy woollen jackets are creating snowmen and playing snow ball throwing matches. I took this opportunity to shoot a few pictures of snow in Dallas area. Look around and enjoy and if you have something to say, don't hesitate to leave a comment.

This SUV was almost completely covered by snow, not quite submerged but enough snow to cause inconvenience.

The apartment lawn and buildings completely covered by a carpet of snow.

Feeling curious I visited the iron horses in Plano again and guess what, they were grazing on snow-covered grass... or should I say "grass flavoured ice-cream".