Taking a bite of (Big) Apple - I PAD 2 - 25.04.2011

I had to cancel the web order two times due to the long delivery times. But our colleague Raj insisted I would definitely get. Yes, yesterday night just thought of reserving the Ipad 2, and  I was one of those lucky guys, able to reserve and pick today. Apple product I have not used so far. A good opporutnity to explore the apple products (of course a taking a bite of big apple). Just started checking and its amazing.... I believe, apple's innovation has been the front runner for their positioning of number 1 in music enterntainment industry. Another catch, if you buy apple, you have to buy their products only example quick player, apps for Ipad2 many things. Thats the game of business. For an end user, experience and value for money counts.... thats I am counting on....

Its was raining when we went to apple shop around 1.00pm and half day working hours, a large turn out of people is seen in front of apple store. One of the largest retail stores....

Here are few pics of my first apple product buy....

First the apple store, on george street (a big street and most of the business houses and shopping activitiy takes place) ...

(source : http://www.google.com/)

Myself standing in the que.... (shot by Raj) and finally getting the electronic appliance :-)

Love,

Guru

Visit to Bluemountains....24.04.2011

Today we went to Blue mountans.....

The Blue Mountains is a mountainous region in New South Wales, Australia. It borders on Sydney's metropolitan area, its foothills starting approximately 50 kilometres west of the state capital.^[1] The area begins on the west side of the Nepean River and extends westward as far as Coxs River.^[2]
Consisting mainly of a sandstone plateau, the area is dissected by gorges up to 760 metres deep. The highest point of the range is 1,190 metres above sea level^[where?]. A large part of the Blue Mountains is incorporated into the Greater Blue Mountains Area World Heritage Site, consisting of seven national park areas and a conservation reserve.

Few pics from the trip...

3 sisters....

Jimmy, the tour guide...............

Am I looking not cute? You are definitely....

Its autumn season here in Australia.......

Guru, Jaya, Mini and Raj...

Love,
Guru

Its raining here in Sydney... 23.04.2011

A dull weather and drizlling... over here in Sydney.... siting in the balcony and sipping hot cup of coffee... recollecting old moments..... what a feeling... great....

Just went out for a stroll...... few pics directly from the street...............

TS Eliot in the Waste Land, describes the April Month...

APRIL is the cruellest month, breeding  
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing  
Memory and desire, stirring  
Dull roots with spring rain.  
Winter kept us warm, covering         
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding  
A little life with dried tubers.  
Summer surprised us, coming over the Starnbergersee  
With a shower of rain; we stopped in the colonnade,  
And went on in sunlight, into the Hofgarten,  
And drank coffee, and talked for an hour.  
Bin gar keine Russin, stamm' aus Litauen, echt deutsch.  
And when we were children, staying at the archduke's,  
My cousin's, he took me out on a sled,  
And I was frightened. He said, Marie,  
Marie, hold on tight. And down we went.  
In the mountains, there you feel free.  
I read, much of the night, and go south in the winter.  
 
What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow  
Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man,  
You cannot say, or guess, for you know only  
A heap of broken images, where the sun beats,  
And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,  
And the dry stone no sound of water. Only  
There is shadow under this red rock,  
(Come in under the shadow of this red rock),  
And I will show you something different from either  
Your shadow at morning striding behind you  
Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;  
I will show you fear in a handful of dust.

Enjoying the rain.............

Love,
Guru

Be yourself.... (undated)

and nothing more.....

Love,
Guru

Back to my (lost) interests....22.04.2011

From today onwards we have hoildays upto 26.04.2011. Its difficult to plan where to go ??? Really.  I got up early today around 5 o clock in the morning and started to think what is the best way to start the day and I picked up few of my interests.


Number one....
Teachings from Ramana Maharshi. Ever since I went to Tiruvanamalai, I am inspired by Ramana's teaching about the inquiry into the self and potential that we are all created with.

Fate and Free Will
Free will and destiny are ever existent. Destiny is the result of past action; it concerns the body. Let the body act as may suit it. Why are you concerned about it? Why do you pay attention to it? Free will and destiny last as long as the body lasts. But jnana transcends both. The Self is beyond knowledge and ignorance. Whatever happens, happens as the result of one's past actions, of divine will and of other factors.
There are only two ways to conquer destiny or be independent of it. One is to enquire for whom is this destiny and discover that only the ego is bound by destiny and not the Self and that the ego is non-existent.
The other way is to kill the ego by completely surrendering to the Lord, by realizing one's helplessness and saying all the time, 'Not I, but Thou, oh Lord' and giving up all sense of 'I' and ‘mine’, and leaving it to the Lord to do what he likes with you. Complete effacement of the ego is necessary to conquer destiny, whether you achieve this effacement through Self-enquiry or bhakti marga.

-------

Q&A with Ramana, liked....

Questioner: How are we to treat others?

Ramana Maharshi: There are no others.

Coming on to the next was poetry that I like most, believe it or not, when you get into the world of poetry, its sucha wonderful area, you lose yourself.... it happened to me as well.....

Today's poetry that touched my heart.... is (highligted the lines -liked)

TS Eliot's  Choruses from The Rock (1934)

O perpetual revolution of configured stars,
O perpetual recurrence of determined seasons,
O world of spring and autumn, birth and dying!
The endless cycle of idea and action,Endless invention, endless experiment,
Brings knowledge of motion, but not of stillness;
Knowledge of speech, but not of silence;
Knowledge of words, and ignorance of The Word.
All our knowledge brings us nearer to our ignorance,
All our ignorance brings us nearer to death,
But nearness to death no nearer to God.
Where is the Life we have lost in living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?The cycles of Heaven in twenty centuries
Brings us farther from God and nearer to the Dust.

Another poem from Four Quartlets by the same Poet...The Dry Salvages (1941)

The moments of happiness — not the sense of well-being,
Fruition, fulfilment, security or affecton,
Or even a very good dinner, but the sudden illumination —
We had the experience but missed the meaning,
And approach to the meaning restores the experienceIn a different form, beyond any meaning
We can assign to happiness. I have said before
That the past experience revived in the meaning
Is not the experience of one life only
But of many generations — not forgetting
Something that is probably quite ineffable

The list goes.... what a poet TS Eliot is ...... such a genius....

Before I publish this... I got the following one.....

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time

Love,
Guru

She is beautiful..... Leeton to Sydney 21.04.2011

Nature is natural and she is beautiful... breathtaking views.... everything is perfectly arranged and managed....

few pics from on board - Leeton to Sydney 21.04.2011.

Love,
Guru

Showers & Rainbow - 20.04.2011

Just recollected the following rhyme...

Rain rain go away,
Come again another day.
Little Johnny (WE) wants to play;
Rain, rain, go to Spain...
Never show your face again!

In Leeton, we had showers and later on a beautiful rainbow.

Not knowing what is rainbow and how it causes, I did google to find out the amazing facts behind, what causes rainbow and certain science facts.... check out with this link http://www.myuniversalfacts.com/2006/04/how-rainbows-are-formed-what-causes.html

Few pics...

Raj in the Toraga.... Brilliant driving :-)

Few live pics of the rainbow.....

Toraga on the move.................................. shutter speed...........(xlent)....

Love,

Guru

Plant/Mill visit 18.04.2011

Today, visited SunRice Storage Plant in Leeton... Few pics of the same...

Love,
G

Week end trip to Waga Waga 17.04.2011

Today we drove to a place called Waga Waga (waga means crow), around 130 kms from Leeton...

Wagga Wagga (pronounced /ˈwɒɡəˈwɒɡə/^[4] WOG-ə WOG-ə, informally called Wagga) is a city in New South Wales, Australia. Straddling the Murrumbidgee River, and with an urban population of 46,735 people,^[1] Wagga Wagga is the state's largest inland city,^[5] as well as an important agricultural, military, and transport hub of Australia. The city is located midway between the two largest cities in Australia, Sydney and Melbourne, and is the major regional centre for the Riverina and South West Slopes regions.
The central business district is focused around the commercial and recreational grid bounded by Best and Tarcutta Streets and the Murrumbidgee River and the Sturt Highway. The main shopping street of Wagga is Baylis Street which becomes Fitzmaurice Street at the northern end. The city is located in an alluvial valley and much of the city has a problem with urban salinity.
The original inhabitants of the Wagga Wagga region were the Wiradjuri people. In 1829, Charles Sturt became the first European explorer to visit the future site of the city. Squatters arrived soon after, leading to conflict with the indigenous inhabitants. The town, positioned on the site of a ford across the Murrumbidgee, was surveyed and gazetted as a village in 1849 and the town grew quickly after. In 1870, the town was gazetted as a municipality.
During the negotiations leading to the federation of the Australian colonies, Wagga Wagga was considered as a potential capital for the new nation. During World War I the town was the starting point for the Kangaroo recruitment march. The Great Depression and the resulting hardship saw Wagga Wagga become the centre of a secession movement for the Riverina region. Wagga Wagga became a garrison town during World War II with the establishment of a military base at Kapooka and Royal Australian Air Force bases at Forest Hill and Uranquinty. After the war, Wagga Wagga was proclaimed as a city in 1946 and new suburbs were developed to the south of the city. In 1982 the city was amalgamated with the neighbouring Kyeamba and Mitchell Shires to form the City of Wagga Wagga local government area.
Wagga Wagga is the seat of a Roman Catholic diocese, with its principal church being St Michael's Cathedral.

Some pics during the trip...

Baylis street, Waga Waga

This Thursday we are flying back to Sydney for easter holidays...

More pics in next post...

Love,

Guru

Visit to Griffith 16.04.2011

Today we drove to Griffith, a 45 minutes drive from Leeton.  Further, visited Cocoparra National Park,
We took the curd rice prepared by our colleague Raj and had a good time ....

About Cocoparra National Park visit...
Cocoparra National Park is located 25 kilometres northwest of Griffith, in the Riverina region of south western New South Wales.^[1] It includes a prominent range of hills such as Bingar Mountain, 455 metres above sea level and Brogden Mountain, 390 metres above sea level, in an otherwise largely flat landscape. Adjoining the national park to the north is Cocoparra Nature Reserve. The national park was gazetted in 1969 and has an area of 8358 hectares. The nature reserve was dedicated in 1963 with an area of 4647 hectares (Cocoparra National Park Plan of Management 1995).
The climate is semi arid. The vegetation communities reflect this, with wattles, orchids, ironbark and blue-tinged cypress pines.^[1]
The geology comprises Upper Devonian sandstones, siltsones and conglomerates.
There are a number of day use (picnic) areas in the park and a campground at Woolshed Flat.

Few pics...

Love,
Guru

Evening Drive to Narrandera 15.04.2011

Today evening we drove to a place called Narrendera.

 Narrandera is a River Town with a rich heritage. Captain Charles Sturt, the famous explorer, is credited with being the first white man to observe the area that later was to become known as Narrandera. However Sturt, who passed through the district on 12 December 1829, was not the first explorer to cast eyes on the Murrumbidgee River. The upper Murrumbidgee, the "Big Water", was first discovered in April 1821, by Charles Throsby. The name Narrandera is probably derived from Wiradjuri nharrang, meaning "frill-necked lizard".^[3]

A great experience....

Sydney-Leeton 10.04.2011 - 15.04.2011

During the week ends we had been to a place called China Town. You feel you are in Beijing. One thing I noticed is China has been criticized for manufacturing poor products, but you would see people over here buying those goods :-(. I feel, China is making its mark which ever country you take.

Sydney Tower - Where you can see 360 degree view of the city...

Currently we are in a place called Leeton, Leeton is a town in the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. Leeton is situated approximately 550 km west of Sydney and 450 km north of Melbourne in the productive Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area.^[2] Leeton is administered by Leeton Shire. Leeton's current urban population is 6,828^[1] and as of 2001, Leeton ranked as the 19th fastest growing Local Government Area in New South Wales. Leeton is situated in one of the most productive farming regions in the state, with citrus, rice, grapes and wheat farms found throughout the Leeton Shire. Leeton is Australia's Rice Capital as it is home to the SunRice headquarters.^[3] Other industry includes Berri Juices, Rockdale Beef and Murrumbidgee Irrigation.

Capturing a bird in the early morning.....

Guest house where myself and my other colleague Raj is staying...

The car that we are driving.....

Early morning capture of beautiful sky...... Clean and neat...

More in next post.....

Love,
Guru