Top Telugu Thriller movies

I believe thriller movies are a perfect mixture of what a new age movie audience want in a movie. It has suspense elements, can add romance or comedy elements , a racing screenplay and effective sound and all these add to a even awesome movie experience.

Telugu movies are no less than any other industry in Thriller genre.This is the list of top 10 thriller movies i like. For universal appeal, i have excluded gore and horror from the list.Also, there are movies like Athadu ( My top most favorite movie) and Gentleman (Nani ) which can be classified into thrillers too. They are also not part of the list as i will be listing pure thriller movies with less of other noise.

One Nenokkadine – This is a movie i cant even be on seat after its interval block. Just some bad marketing has set very bad expectations on this movie and it flopped. It is a master piece for Mahesh Babu and Sukumar . Extraordinary performance by Mahesh Babu (oscar range as i can say) and multi layered screenplay woven so perfectly by Sukumar that some felt too complicated to get out of it.  In Trivikram words ” Prekshakula Staayini penchina cinema “.  I wrote a separate blog post on this movie when i watched it .  1 Nenokkadine – View and Review

Neno_thumb.jpg

Next in my list is Khakhee ( Hero : Karthi and original Tamil movie name is : Theeran Adhigaaram Ondru ) .  It is a real life cop story chasing criminals and in my view is the only cop movie done right.

Next is the new movie “Evaru” , by Adivi Sesh, the new age master of thriller screenplays , the story is taken from a French movie, but i think the Telugu version is much better than French one and is mindblowing . If you have not watched it, please hop on to nearest OTT app ( Available on prime as of now) . And do not miss it.

“Drushyam ” , the movie has been remade in multiple languages , is my next favorite. A family drama converted into a thriller intelligently by the even more intelligent and calm poised hero is an excellent writing and Thanks to Malayalam movie for this.

One recent thriller movie i super liked is “Agent sai Srinivas Athreya” , the super talented Naveen polishetty has all the qualities to be the next star of Telugu cinema , acts as a quirky detective and uncovers a mindboggling series of deaths .

I will be doing injustice to each of these films if i rank them in any order. My next lineup of movies are “Aithe” , which showcased how talented is ChandraSekhar yeleti and his next movie ” Anukokunda Oka Roju” .

“Kshanam” , the movie which propelled Telugu cinema into new age thrillers , “KshanaKshanam”, the jewel of RamGopal Varma, “Ave Kallu “, the brilliant one from SuperStar Krishna .  ( And yes, i am starting this list with Mahesh Babu movie and ending with SuperStar Krishna movie 😛 )

Please drop in comments on the movies you love in this genre.

Reccos for Newborn Kids shopping #NewParent

Every parent wants to get the best and give the best to their kids. As a dad to a one year old buy, we as parents faced some dilemma on buying some of the items for my kid. Will it be good, will it meet expectations , will it be worth it and so on.

First thing, Kids toys and kids usables are a huge market. Most of the offline stores have them at higher price and the same thing can be bought online. So, if you are a parent and wanting to buy something for your newborn, this might help you in deciding to proceed with your online purchase or not.

Right from which soap to use , which body lotion to use and which toy to buy  and even how to have a Jungle party theme, I hope this will help the new parents J

Coming to wellness, we used Himalaya products. Buy the ones with bigger quantity , you will need it and the cost/quantity is less for large quantities.  Cetaphil Baby lotion is must for a new born skin. GoodKnight mosquito repellant fabric roll on works perfectly as described. The odour may be hard though for some time.  Philips feeding bottles are good and strong enough to use them rough and tough.

The best purchase I made for my kid is this playmat , which was durable and ensured that the kid had a playarea.It also helped for crawling practice initially as the floor tiles are difficult for kids for learning.  Some great toys I bought online and were awesome are

  1. Dancing duck
  2. Multicolour Stacking rings with smiley
  3. Giggles Icecream teether
  4. Banana Bristles Toothbrush teether
  5. 5 in 1 Booster seat

Party : (Jungle Theme birthday Party)

We celebrated our kids birthday party at our home and bought almost every decorative item online. We followed a sort of Jungle theme and this animal balloons with stick were better than expected. These pack of 2 silver foil and blue foil curtains saved us a lot compared to buying it offline.  One more decorative item which my kid loved was this animal banner and these swirl hangings  . These party props are also a hit with the kids who came to the party.

 

Bonus : This Buddha figurine is a small one and adds a cute asthetic look to your shelf.

 

Happy parenting J

My Review of Mi TV

I recently bought a 49 inch Mi TV in one of the Amazon Sale . It effectively costed me around 27k .

In comparison to other brands , it feels good to be in the price range below 30k for a nearly 50 inch television in Indian Market. The other choice I considered was VU smart TV which probably lost at my purchase decision was its brand name and service Centre availability and warranty . Mi TV offers 1 year additional warranty for panel. So , this is the best Smart TV available in India ( with some drawbacks which i will discuss below) below 30k in 50 inch range. Go for it.

But when compared with the Smart TV i used while i used in US, this feels ripoff. I had a Roku- enabled Insignia 39 inch bought for some 170 dollars 3 years back ( comes around 12 thousand INR ) . That feels way better than this Mi TV.

1. The boot time is like our mobile phone getting switched on . Its basically the AndroidTV OS which was customized by Mi . Not sure if its the issue with Mi or Android OS , but i can see many unnecesaary processes running in the backend like phone, Addressbook etc.

2. Remote doesn’t have a MUTE button. I am literally surprised what they were thinking while designing the remote. Remote connects via Bluetooth. Its a good thing and bad thing. You can operate it without pointing to the TV and drawback is also the same thing, it gets operated without pointing it and accidental remote usage is highly possible.

3. To change any settings , other TVs doesnt go to a new screen . You may want to change some contrasts or brightness, and you have to go back to home screen to change them . This might be the issue with Android TV OS.

4. It gets stuck with heavy usage of apps like hotstar and Youtube. It doesnt happen with my Roku Smart TV.

How to Get Rich without being Lucky – Naval Ravikant

Recently i came across a TweetStorm of Naval Ravikant, a famous venture capitalist in Silicon Valley. He has a different knack of putting human behaviour and economics in an impressive yet hard hitting way. This is just a collection of his tweet storm. Full credits to him. Some may not make sense at the current level you are in, however, whenever you are low, this is one thing YOU MUST READ.

1. Seek wealth, not money or status. Wealth is having assets that earn while you sleep. Money is how we transfer time and wealth. Status is your place in the social hierarchy.
2. Understand that ethical wealth creation is possible. If you secretly despise wealth, it will elude you.
3. Ignore people playing status games. They gain status by attacking people playing wealth creation games.
4. You’re not going to get rich renting out your time. You must own equity – a piece of a business – to gain your financial freedom.
5. You will get rich by giving society what it wants but does not yet know how to get. At scale.
6. Pick an industry where you can play long term games with long term people.
7. The Internet has massively broadened the possible space of careers. Most people haven’t figured this out yet.
8. Play iterated games. All the returns in life, whether in wealth, relationships, or knowledge, come from compound interest.
9. Pick business partners with high intelligence, energy, and, above all, integrity.
10. Don’t partner with cynics and pessimists. Their beliefs are self-fulfilling.
11. Learn to sell. Learn to build. If you can do both, you will be unstoppable.
12. Arm yourself with specific knowledge, accountability, and leverage.
13. Specific knowledge is the knowledge that you cannot be trained for. If society can train you, it can train someone else, and replace you.
14. Specific knowledge is found by pursuing your genuine curiosity and passion rather than whatever is hot right now.
15. Building specific knowledge will feel like play to you but will look like work to others.
16. When specific knowledge is taught, it’s through apprenticeships, not schools.
17. Specific knowledge is often highly technical or creative. It cannot be outsourced or automated.
18. Embrace accountability, and take business risks under your own name. Society will reward you with responsibility, equity, and leverage.
19. The most accountable people have singular, public, and risky brands: Oprah, Trump, Kanye, Elon.
20. Fortunes require leverage. Business leverage comes from capital, people, and products with no marginal cost of replication (code and media).
21. Capital means money. To raise money, apply your specific knowledge, with accountability, and show resulting good judgment.
22. Labor means people working for you. It’s the oldest and most fought-over form of leverage. Labor leverage will impress your parents, but don’t waste your life chasing it.
23. Capital and labor are permissioned leverage. Everyone is chasing capital, but someone has to give it to you. Everyone is trying to lead, but someone has to follow you.
24. Code and media are permissionless leverage. They’re the leverage behind the newly rich. You can create software and media that works for you while you sleep.
25. An army of robots is freely available – it’s just packed in data centers for heat and space efficiency. Use it.
26. If you can’t code, write books and blogs, record videos and podcasts.
27. Leverage is a force multiplier for your judgement.
28. Judgement requires experience but can be built faster by learning foundational skills.
29. There is no skill called “business.” Avoid business magazines and business classes.
30. Study microeconomics, game theory, psychology, persuasion, ethics, mathematics, and computers.
31. Reading is faster than listening. Doing is faster than watching.
32. You should be too busy to “do coffee,” while still keeping an uncluttered calendar.
33. Set and enforce an aspirational personal hourly rate. If fixing a problem will save less than your hourly rate, ignore it. If outsourcing a task will cost less than your hourly rate, outsource it.
34. Work as hard as you can. Even though who you work with and what you work on are more important than how hard you work.
35. Become the best in the world at what you do. Keep redefining what you do until this is true.
36. There are no get rich quick schemes. That’s just someone else getting rich off you.
37. Apply specific knowledge, with leverage, and eventually, you will get what you deserve.
38. When you’re finally wealthy, you’ll realize that it wasn’t what you were seeking in the first place. But that’s for another day.

Torch bearer Pawan Kalyan !!

This is an edit i created by mixing different videos. Video credits belong to respective creators.

There is this one dialogue in the new Telugu movie ” Aravinda Sametha Veera Raghava ” directed by Trivikram Srinivas and Tarak as the protagonist which enlightens about the societal changes that come every generation. There will an idea or a person which will be a TORCHBEARER and change the course of history. That 4-5 minutes sequence is the most impactful cinematic movement in Telugu cinema in this year in my Opinion.

If you would like to download this video and others which were created in this process :

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B5_DdEoK2v33LV9yUUNoU2kzeUk?usp=sharing

A small edit i did adding bits and pieces from various videos .

This Independence Day , Be the change you wish to see !!!

#SundayRandomThoughts #3minread

Hope everyone have filed their annual taxes and did it with thoughts ranging from sighs to rants. Unfortunately, we middle class salaried ppl , dont have much time to think of getting our hard earned taxes worth of minimal services, and to atleast get our small local issues resolved.

Lets resolve this Independence week to raise a local civic grievance whenever we can . It hardly takes 5 mins on a weekend and given the raising e-governance and increasing accountability of govt servants , its easier than ever to raise and solve our locality or city issues. (Atleast in Hyderabad, they respond to twitter or call complaint) .

To my credit, i did get my colony pending road laid, got rainwater stagnation issue in my lane cleared, followed up with authorities to remove some major bottlenecks of my office commute, got two dangerous manholes repaired and so on , in last some months with almost ZERO effort. Reference: https://twitter.com/i/moments/1027954111889661952

We are anyways paying for their salaries , lets also give them some fruitful work 🙂 . And while doing so , ensure to be polite And thank them once done. Afterall , those are just employees like us and fellow humans. 🙂

#JaiHind #BeTheChangeYouWishToSee 🇮🇳

Top Telugu movies for non -Telugu viewers which are on Amazon Prime Now

Earlier i had created a blog post in 2011 informing some of the movies which would be interesting for non-Telugu audience . I would update that list soon but for now,

It can be accessed at https://vams.wordpress.com/2011/01/23/welcome-to-tollywood/

Adding to that list, i am sharing some more which are actually now on Amazon Prime. These are recommended considering the expectations and sensibilities of Pan India Audience. Also, the movies which had some interesting story lines.

  • Bharath Ane Nenu (2018) , Starring Mahesh Babu, Kiara Advani, Prakash Raj.

To make good on a promise he made to his mother, a university graduate returns to India and becomes disillusioned by the government corruption he encounters . He becomes the Chief Minister and tries to bring the change.

  • Bhaagamathie (2018)  , Starring Anushka Shetty

Law enforcement officials imprison IAS officer Chanchala Reddy in a haunted house, where she becomes possessed. The Background music is spine chilling and scary to hell. The ending is interesting.

  • Raja the Great (2017) – Starring Ravi Teja, Mehreen

Raja, a person with visual impairment, is skilled and sets out on a mission to rescue a girl, Lucky, the pampered daughter of a sincere police officer.

If you are looking for fun timepass , this is it. The original Rowdy Rathore Raviteja entertains once again.

  • 1: Nenokkadine (2014) – Starring Mahesh Babu

A rock star, who suffers from a mental disorder due to his bitter past, is convinced that his parents were murdered by three men. Taking the support of a journalist, he sets out to find the evil men.

Personally, the best interval block i have seen in Telugu movies.

  • Ekkadiki Pothavu Chinnavada ( 2016) –  Starring Nikhil, Avika Gor

The name of the movie translates to “Where will you go my boy ” , but its a supernatural thriller with some hilarious comedy.  Arjun, a young man, falls in love with Nithya. However, things complicate when he discovers she is possessed by an evil spirit

prime

 

  • Gaganam(2011) – Starring Nagarjuna, Prakash raj

When terrorists hijack a plane from Chennai, NSG commando Ravi is entrusted with the rescue operations. Soon, the terrorists land the plane, which include a minister and a top actor, at Tirupati.

A good thriller with good climax.

  • Prathinidhi (2014) – Starring Nara Rohit

A mysterious figure, who calls himself as ‘The Common Man’, kidnaps the Chief Minister of the state and threatens to murder him unless his demands are met.

A gripping thriller with some thought provoking dialogues.

  • Ninnu Kori (2017) – Starring Nani

Pallavi invites Uma, her ex-boyfriend, to stay with her and her husband to convince him that she is happy in her marriage. Uma tries to create a rift between the couple, hoping to win Pallavi back.

This is a reversal of Hum dil de chuke Sanam. But entertaining for most of the part.

  • Raju Gari Gadhi2 (2017) – Starring Nagarjuna , Samantha.

Three friends decide to invest in a resort and run a business. When they learn that a series of paranormal activities takes

place, they seek help from a renowned mentalist.Extraordinary background music.

  • Theeran Adhigaaram Ondru (2018) – Starring Karthi, Rakul Preet Singh

Ofcourse this is not a Telugu film, but a Tamil one. One of the finest cop thriller i have seen. Theeran Thirumaran, an honest police officer, gets transferred multiple times. His life becomes difficult after he investigates the case of criminals who loot and ruthlessly murder people.

 

India’s impending water crisis -2020 – A cursory look at NITI Aayog study

India is suffering from the worst water crisis in its history and millions of lives and livelihoods are under threat. Currently, 600 million Indians face  high to extreme  water stress and about  two lakh people die every  year  due  to  inadequate  access  to  safe  water.  The  crisis  is only  going  to  get  worse.  By 2030, the country’s water demand is projected to be twice the available supply, implying severe water scarcity for hundreds of millions of people and an eventual ~6% loss in the country’s GDP.
 This was noted by none other than the NITI AAYOG of India.
What does NITI Aayog say on Water crisis in India ?
Below are more bits from their extensive report published recently. Every word is taken from that report.
  • 70% of our  water is contaminated;  India is currently  ranked  120 among 122 countries in the water quality index.
  • 40 % of the population will have no access to drinking water by 2030.
    21 cities, including New Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad will run out of groundwater by 2020, affecting 100 million people.
  • More worryingly, the low performers on the Water Index are home to ~50% of the country’s population, thereby highlighting the significant water risk faced by the country.
  • The low performers are, worryingly, comprised of the populous northern states of UP, Bihar, Rajasthan, Haryana, and others, and are home to over 600 million people.
  • Maharashtra has the highest number of large dams in the country (2,354), but only 18% of the state is irrigated, indicating a wide gap between irrigation potential created and irrigation potential actually utilized.
  • While  urban  water  access  is  high  on  average,  significant  gaps remain  across  the  country, and  waste water treatment remains stuck at the national average of ~33%.
  • Almost  none  of  the  states  have  built  the  infrastructure  required  to  recharge  groundwater  in  over exploited and critical units, thereby highlighting a key constraint in the recharging process.
  • 52% of India’s agricultural area remains dependent on rainfall; the future expansion of irrigation needs to  be  focused  on  last mile  efficiency.
  • Going forward, states need to increase investments in waste water treatment to both meet the growing demand  due  to  rapid  urbanization  and  enable  reuse  of  water.
  • On average,~40% of the urban households in the country pay for water, but this value varies widely across  states.In  eight  out  of  22  of  the  reporting  NonHimalayan  states,  more  than  50%  of  urban households  pay  for  the  water  supply.  However,  in  several  populous  states  such  as  UP  and  Bihar,  a negligible proportion of households pay for water. Similar variation takes place across North-Eastern and Himalayan states as well, ranging from 90% in Uttarakhand to 0% in Assam.

Water-Crisis

Some successful happenings :

Gujarat’s  rural  water  supply  programme,  led  by  the  state’s  Water  and  Sanitation  Management Organisation  (WASMO),  aims  to  supply  the  village  community  with  adequate,  regular  and  safe  water through   household- level   tap   water   connectivity,   including   households   of people from   backward communities.
Gujarat has achieved a 100% score in the ‘Rural drinking water’ of the Water Index, implying that it provides clean water to all of its ~35 million rural residents.

Madhya Pradesh’s ‘Bhagirath Krishak Abhiyan’ began in 2006 in the Dewas district through the efforts of a  local  IAS  officer  and  is  focused  on  the  restoration  of  farm
ponds  to  boost  irrigation  potential.  The programme  has  resulted  in  the  construction  of  thousands  of  farm  ponds  to  boost  irrigation  potential,
through the efforts of local farmers, government officers, and financial institutions such as NABARD.

Andhra Pradesh’s online water dashboard :For groundwater, this means that all units have been mapped and recharge infrastructure created where required, and levels are being monitored in real-time, with interventions such as a ban on extraction being implemented as per need .This  data  and  monitoring  system  has  helped  Andhra  Pradesh  achieve an 80% score on the ‘Source augmentation (Groundwater)’ of the Index,the  highest  in  the  country.  The  state  has  mapped 100% of its critical and over-exploited units and constructed recharge infrastructure across 96% of these, in addition to having created a regulatory framework for managing groundwater.

What Govts should do :

Governments  need  to allow  local  bodies  to  implement, maintain,  and  price  local  drinking  water  supply.  This  ensures  a  strong  incentive  structure
where the people most affected by the supply are the ones responsible for its maintenance and sustainability.

States need to create robust water data systems with real-time  monitoring  capabilities  to  ensure  that  the  data  can  be  used  to target  policy interventions and enable innovation in the broader water ecosystem.

Community efforts for the creation of water conservation   infrastructure   need   to   be   supported   through   the   provision  of   adequate financing; banks such as NABARD and RRBs are well placed to lend for these efforts given their past association with farmers.

Coming to Telugu states,
Andhra Pradesh:

Water index score has decreased a bit from 68.5 to 66.0
Things going well :
Groundwater restoration: All over-exploited wells in the state have been mapped and have recharging data.
Participatory irrigation : 70 % of irrigated area is maintained by WUA’s .
Data: The state has setup a state of the art , online public platform for water data , including GIS mapping and daily updates.

Things to improve :
Drinking water in rural areas : More than a third of rural habitats do not have full access to drinking water.
waste water treatment : the state treats only 26% of its urban waste water due to low installed capacity.
Urban water pricing : More than 50% of urban households are charged nothing for water , leading to overuse.

Telangana :

Water Index score has improved from 45.2 to 49.8
Things going well:
Surface and groundwater restoration :The state has restored 70% of the irrigation potential of identified bodies and 90% of critical wells have improved.
Urban water: 80% of urban households have access, with 75% of them charged for the supply.

Things to improve :
on-farm use :The state has not begun the process of power feeder segregation , is one of the few states to not charge for borewell electricity,and has negligible micro-irrigation coverage.
Rural drinking water : Only 55% of rural habitations have been fully covered, and there has been no improvement in water quality.

Link to NITI Aayog report :

Privacy of Facebook !!!

Yes, Facebook can be used to influence elections and electoral results.

If i own a facebook page, i can literally ensure a post of my page reaches someone who was born in Gujarat , is now of 22-25 years old, lived in Bangalore currently living in Hyderabad Jubliee hills area ,part of some Congress fb group and also liked Modi, who is looking for some personal loan and looking to buy an apartment, likes Game of Thrones and also likes Night King , likes travelling but only visits Piligrim places, likes Mukesh Ambani but not Adani , shops for more of physical fitness items and attends Marathons.

Imagine that this data can be used by someone living in a far off place, creates a page, posts something and pays for ads in dollars or dirhams and influence a customer behaviour in India. When politics comes into it, this can get real ugly.

Everything you do on internet is tracked by 80+ ad companies via their cookies or track algorithms and your ad settings are defined by companies like Facebook and Google. Facebook App even analyses your voice conversations. There is also a famous pic of Mark Zuckerberg with his laptop mic and webcam sealed.

Looks at these if you want to be amazed about yourself 🙂

Google :https://www.google.com/settings/ads

Facebook : Your interests tab of https://www.facebook.com/ads/preferences/

The recent issue with Cambridge Analytica was this data was shared/retrieved by them when facebook did not have good enough self regulations. This was used to create ad campaigns and influence people. Google is a bit better in this privacy self regulations.

If you want to look at what all data facebook and google have on you in detail, Guardian has a brilliant writing at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/mar/28/all-the-data-facebook-google-has-on-you-privacy

What we can only do is not get influenced by such social media posts and use our brain for a second before making a crucial decision or leaning towards a political ideology.

Chapter 4 – Love in the time of Hampi

Chapter 1:  The Beginning

Chapter 2  : The Prequel

Chapter 3: The journey begins

Hampi and the group of moments at this place is an UNESCO World Heritage site. It is said to be holding a population of 5 lakhs during 15th century which made its second largest populated city recorded in the history at that time. Hampi is an anglicized name of the city which was earlier called as Pampa Kshetra , named after Pampa, the old name of river TungaBhadra, on whose banks this mighty city is built.

Hampi excavations revealed presence of mankind in this place from First century AD. Hampi was chosen as the city of Vijayanagara kingdom as it had torrential TungaBhadra river on the North and defensible hills on other three sides. The ruins of Hampi were discovered by Colonel Mackenzie in 1800 , an army officer in British East India Company and fought against Tipu Sultan . He then surveyed the entire Mysore region of then British India and later even became the first Surveyor General of India. He was an explorer and artifact collector. In fact, much of his collection has helped recreate Indian History and is stored in London’s British Library.

Coming to folklore , two local Chieftains, Hakka & Bukka,who are the founders of Vijayanagara Empire,  reported to their Guru an unusual sight they saw during a hunting expedition. A Hare chased by their Hound suddenly turns courageous and start chasing the Hound. Sri Vidyaranya, The Guru, tells them that the place is very special and asks them to establish their local Capital at this place. The seed of an Empire was sown with the guru’s blessings.
Vijayanagara Empire was founded by Hari Hara and his brother Bukka Raya in 13th century. Later on, kings from Sangama Dynasty ,Saluva Dynasty, Tuluva Dynasty and Aravidu Dynasty have ruled the empire with Hampi as its capital until the empire was razed by Sultanates of Bijapur and Golkonda. Hari Hara and Bukka Raya are said to be some officials in Kakatiya kingdom and then they joined Hoysalas and then created their own empire.

Krishna, the driver guide for the gang ended this long 5 min monologue in a highly proficient accent of English and all five students have been dumbstruck. They even didnt listen to their college lectures with so much attention . Everyone were silent for a minute and Asha wanted to break silence and said  ” Guys what are the plans for lunch ” and Krishna gave an option ” Madam, you can get lunch at Kamalapura town, which is like 10 mins  . I can take a detour and we can go to Hazara Rama temple later after lunch ” .
Everyone discussed for a bit and decided none of them are so hungry but can take a lunch break . Arjun waited until the conversation stopped and acted as if he suddenly remembered something and gave Asha another Diary milk chocolate from his backpack and gave mime expressions that she can have it while they get to the restaurant for lunch. Vardhaan and Sid had a good giggle on this sight.

The restaurant was more like a dhaba under the trees and they ordered the plate meals which is the only food item they served during lunch times.The food was not so great but since all were tired with the heat finished the meal and ended with a big glass of butter milk. All six started towards Hazari Rama temple complex and the nearby Royal Enclosure. Hazara Rama temple has strips of Ramayana etched over its walls . The temple ruins are well maintained and Krishna, their guide and auto driver informed that this was a private temple for royalty in those days and was most important temple for the kings. The nearby Royal enclosures were the buildings where the royalty used to stay.

The royal enclosure had some huge structural ruins which looked like the court of the king and a celebratory arena . There was a pool or well in between and one can see an elaborate water supply system to the other buildings.  Sid , Vardhaan and Arjun climbed the elevated arena or platform where the king used to watch the celebrations and were having a birds eye view of Hampi ruins. Asha and Aamukta initially decided to stay on ground but after the boys climbed and were having fun, they decided to climb and see what the deal is all about.

Aamukta asked Asha nonchalantly ” Why are you ignoring Arjun . If you dont like him, why cant you just say No to him ” . Asha smiled  ” Not sure Amy , i came to this trip hoping he comes and we can chat sometime and see what to do. Things seem like going good but very dead slow ” .  Arjun was looking at them even though he is just making some random noises from the top of the platform.  Aamukta signalled a thumbsup to Arjun while Asha was not looking and Arjun started screaming “wohooo”  but this noise was lost as other boys too started screaming “wohooo” .

They took some photos from the top of that platform and sun suddenly started coming out from the clouds. Meanwhile , Krishna, the charioteer for the group was describing to some foreigners about this place. Lot of foreigners hire bicycles and roam around the ruined city holding the maps in hand. As soon as our group came to the Auto , Krishna said goodbye to them and gave them his visiting card.  Sid saw this and asked ” Bhayya, i have not seen an Autowallah giving visiting card to someone. Do you have other businesses besides this”. Krishna ” I do own a couple of lodges here in Hampi. If you are asking about why i gave a visiting card, thats for one of the lodge i own. Those foreigners are getting some friends who will be in Hampi this week and their current Lodge is already full itseems. I asked them to go to my Lodge and show them this visiting card ” .
They started their Auto and started to their next destination , Underground Shiva temple. The temple is lower than ground level and there is water all year round in the temple premises. The group had to pull up their trousers and venture onto crossing the rock steps that are overlaid on water . Asha is not interested to venture into water and did a namaskar to God from temple outside.   Arjun who was ready to go into the temple didnt go seeing Asha is not interested.
Arjun started small talk with Asha ” Hey, so how is uncle doing now ? He had been operated last year right ! ”
Asha ” He is doing fine ” . Arjun ” So, what are your plans after Engineering”
Asha ” Didnt think a lot as of now . Probably will try for MS . My brother is doing MS in US and wants me to come to US as well “.Arjun “Then, marry an NRI , right ? ”
Asha got angry and gave an angry stare. Arjun wanted to divert the topic and said ” Just Kidding. I too want to go to US for MS. Will go for GRE coaching after this trip ” .
Then there was some awkward silence between the two and both started fiddling their mobile phones.  Asha looked a bit frustated that there is no signal in Hampi and exclaimed ” This Airtel doesnt have signal here” . Arjun ” Dont blame only Airtel , my Vodafone, Vardhaan’s Idea , none of them have signal here. I know there will not be mobile signal and brought my mom’s BSNL Sim . Let me try adding that SIM to my phone . I will switchon the hotspot for you “.
Asha was happy with this ” Achaa, let me know once you start preparing for GRE. We both can plan and move ahead” .Arjun smiled but he was literally dancing hearing this from Asha.