By B.S. Narayanaswamy, Valuation Consultant, Bengaluru [Continued from yesterday] Our next stop was Sitka town which is the seat of Alaska University and its ethnic capital. The Alaskans are very proud of their State and culture which was evident all along. Sitka enjoys a fair weather and good rainfall. The Russians, Alaskans and Americans lead…
Alaska: Stranger than fiction – 1
August 12, 2018By B.S. Narayanaswamy, Valuation Consultant, Bengaluru Stranger than Fiction’ is an appropriate phrase for Alaska, a State of The United States of America. Alaska was bought by the USA from Russia for paltry sum of 72 lakh dollars in 1867. While Russia is about 5 kms from Alaska, the nearest American soil of Washington State is…
American “Experience”: Glamping adventure and climbing delicate arches
March 1, 2018By N.K.A. Ballal, Retd. Sr. Vice-President, ITDC Recently, I received an invitation from one Mr. Reddy for the inauguration of a “glamping” site at Mysuru. Impressive website. What is glamping? Simple, it is “glamorous camping.” Camping in style. Well, I am happy some entrepreneur has at last thought of this idea, which is quite common…
American Dreams – 5: “Black Friday,” the day America “shops”
January 18, 2018By N.K.A. Ballal, Retd. Sr. Vice-President, ITDC [Continued from Jan. 11] The second festival which we had the privilege to watch during our brief stay in the US was ‘The Thanksgiving’ similar to our Pongal or Sankranti. It is celebrated on the 4th Thursday in the month of November. In 1863, in the midst of…
American Dreams – 4: Halloween is not complete without pumpkins!
January 11, 2018By N.K.A. Ballal, Retd. Sr. Vice-President, ITDC [Continued from Jan. 4] I was always under a wrong impression that we Indians believed in bhootha, pretha, superstitions, ghosts etc., but I was in for a surprise on this US visit. Westerners too believe on all the above as much as we do and the only difference…
American Dreams – 3
January 4, 2018By N.K.A. Ballal, Retd. Sr. Vice-President, ITDC [Continued from Dec. 28] I travelled about 2,500 miles by road across the US. No humps and unbelievable, only one pothole, and that too in a car park. I was curious to know as to how these roads are maintained so well in spite of such a heavy…
American Dreams – 2
December 28, 2017By N.K.A. Ballal, Retd. Sr. Vice-President, ITDC [Continued from Dec. 21] Once I met a doctor at a social gathering and asked him the reason for this over reaction and frightening of the patients. What he told me was amazing. If a patient is told of 10 complications and if by chance he or she gets…
It is good to be in UP 15 days, 2,500 kms and 12 places
December 25, 2017By R. Chandra Prakash Commonly aired opinions about Uttar Pradesh (UP) have been that its cities and towns are dusty and dirty. With 828 persons per square kilometre, it happens to be a State with one of the highest density of population in India. UP is also considered a “cow belt”. ‘Jugaad’ is not an…
American Dreams – 1
December 21, 2017By N.K.A. Ballal, Retd. Sr. Vice-President, ITDC It is exactly five months now. The time I have put pen on paper, literally. Tried it in the US where I had gone for a holiday but failed miserably. There is a folk story of Vikramaditya’s throne which reads like this: A simple and illiterate cowherd saw…
EGYPT: An enigma inside a riddle – 2
March 25, 2017Tracing the glorious Egyptian Civilisation. By B.S. Narayanaswamy [Continued from yesterday] It all started with Great Napolean conquering Egypt in 1799 and made it a French Colony. His army could find a stone (now called Rosetta stone) with strange etchings of three languages at a place called Rashid, 15 kms from Alexandria. This paved the…
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