Sanchit's Blog

I was talking to owner of a big travel agency in Sri Lanka for affiliation. It soon turned into a sentimental pitch about their hatred against India. I am doing my bit to voice their opinion - this is the least I can do! Context: Janaka - owner of Sri Lanka reputed travel agency I was talking to him first time and was on Skype.  My Skype handle was "TravelTriangle Affiliates". Please excuse the grammar. [12:26:22] Janaka: hello [12:26:32] TravelTriangle Affiliates: Morning Mr Janaka [12:26:38] Janaka: we do not do business with Indians as a policy sorry [12:27:14] TravelTriangle Affiliates: well, you only approached us. Mr Mohammed from your company did. [12:27:29] TravelTriangle Affiliates: I will let you decide [12:28:34] Janaka: he is no more with us and we do not do further business with Indians as a result of what is going on between us and we do not tolerate the insult from your bad politcs too [12:29:06] Janaka: there is nothing to do with your bus...

This summer, I came to India again for 3 months and of the most random things, I joined Yoga classes held at Chilla Sports Complex, New Delhi. My motivation to join was to know Yoga and also to exercise in the morning. In some sense Yoga appealed to me as a daily stress buster as well. Gyming, swimming, etc definitely exert stress and I wanted to try something different. I go in the morning 7-8am where our amazing Yoga instructor, Shailendra ji, mentor us as we twist and turn our body :) Our schedule mostly starts with Pranayam (breathing, meditation focused) and progresses to heavy exercises ( Chakrasana , Parvatasana, etc.). In the end is my favorite one - YogaNidra  - a systematic meditation that meets physical, neurological and subconscious needs which relaxes the body immensely. YogaNidra Posture In YogaNindra, Shailendra ji, tells us to lie down in Shavasana and then he recites a script which mainly focuses on various body parts for 10 minutes. Here is the essence:...

My  horrible experience with British Airways customer care and UK transit visa policies (just a blab): Experience with UK transit visa policies I was refrained from boarding Flight no BA 207  from  Washington DC, USA to New Delhi, India via Heahthrow (UK) on 31st May, 2013.  The reason cited for denial was: "I have an extended greencard stamp on my passport which is not accepted by UK Govt as an exemption of Transit Visa. All US valid visas otherwise are accepted." Extended greencard stamp was  issued to me by US Govt  which acts as a valid greencard in US for all purposes .  I have been flying with British Airways for last 3-4 years for the same sector but this problem just appeared this time due to the extension of greencard . UK is clearly a minority in this issue as other countries  accept the above as a valid greencard document and this requirement should have been highlighted  in the international airticket to appra...

Cowboys! for a day I have always been fascinated by different lifestyles that people have. Till recently, I have not seen a lot of lifestyles. Sure people have different jobs and different routine life, but it starts and ends with going to office, coming back and spending time with family. I am not talking about a student or a college hostel life, because in the end they also thrive to follow the same routine. People do have variations in job, but almost all of them have similar lifestyle and same complaints - long working hours, no passion for work, insufficient salaries, etc. I feel people are mostly lost in their routine life and forget their passion and their individuality in the process. Farm House in a forest I met Jess and Lita in Charlottesville - they are an amazing pair. They are both very affectionate and have seen a few more years than us. Lita mentioned she has a horse and since then I was very excited to try my hands on horse riding - and pose like a cow...

I recently purchased a telescope ( AstroMaster 70AZ ) from Amazon and gifted it to my wife ( Juhi Ranjan ) on her birthday. After days of waiting of a clear sky, we finally got our chance on 14th March, 13. We had already adjusted our viewfinder in the daylight by focusing on objects, such as cars, at a distance of around 400 meters from our house. It was an amazing feeling to see distant objects in a clear and crisp manner. We also had skymap  installed on our mobile to locate various planetary bodies at night. We have a considerably big backyard and if there are no clouds we can have a visual treat to stars and most of the constellations. We live in Charlottesville and air is pretty clean here. Once we clear novice level, we can also reach out to McCormick Observatory  which is a mile away from our house, but is located on a hill and gives a much better view of sky.  Image Source At night around 9pm, in chilling cold we took our telescope out. ...