GVK ONE --- An year old mall synonymous with storing leading brands of the world was where we got away last weekend. This mall is a haven for International brand conscious people. Shops like Giordano,Pepe,United colors of Benetton,Mango,Bossini, Maybelline, Reebok, Austin and reed,Aldo,crossword,planetsport,Inhabit,wildcraft,shoppers stop,Mebaz are some I remember. We actually headed out to check out the groceries at the world famous grocery store Ruci & Idoni opened in this mall a month back.
After parking our car at the multilevel car parking (it spirals down to 6 levels), we had a great entry into the swanky mall when sharun won one of the promotional offers of a car brand. He won their version of bowling alley and was gifted an INOX (theatre with 6 screens situated on the 3rd floor) movie ticket which he lovingly gifted his father for his birthday.
The highlight of the mall is the marine aquarium which is at the centre of the atrium. Large, colorful fishes in a sea-bed scape were merrily floating around keeping the shoppers especially the children coming in giddy with excitement. The mini golf course inside the mall is another attraction.
But what I enjoyed the most was the 4D experience at Fun zone. The 15 minute movie watched through 3D glasses provides some scary and funny moments. I have experienced this earlier at Thrillarium(bangalore) and virtual reality(Madras).This one was different with vibrating and synchronized seat movements and lot of special effects like face blast, mist, air spray etc.,On the screen, when the snake opens its wide mouth and advances closer to you through the 3D glass you feel the air spray from its mouth. When the glacier on screen was melting and raising the ocean level, you feel the water gushing out of the screen and extra chilly. Infact, sometimes through the SFX i felt as though it was a real bomb blast. It was a heady cocktail of emotions, though what we choose was a movie based on global warming called SOS. I shudder to think what a horror movie would have been like. Definitely the horror movies are a no-no for the weak at heart. A good experience. We Stepped out of the theatre hungry. Now an outing is incomplete without eating out.
Food wise, the mall offers the world famous Hardrock café, Subway , KFC and a polynation food court. It has small kiosks for American corn, Hot dog, Hershey's icecream, cookie man (if I remember correctly), chocolate hut etc.,
Drove back home stocking(groceries)and gearing for the week ahead...
Friday, March 26, 2010
Saturday, March 20, 2010
The original twitterer -- sparrow
Today is world sparrow day. This day has been called by the Nature forever society and other wildlife trusts across the world.
This event is to celebrate and create awareness about the simple,small and cute grey,brown and white feathered bird which once perched on our ledges or on trees around our house.
As a child of the 70's and 80's, we have woken up to the constant twitter of this bird, some times cursing the bird and pulling the blanket to cover our ears. They co-existed with us on the ledges and on tree tops around us chirping and giving company to all of us around.
In the afternoons, when mom and her friends would chit- chat and clean the grains, the sparrows used to hop around them and feed on the grains strewn. It was a pastime for me and my friends to watch their nest building activity . These sparrows built their nests on the ledge outside our house, and so they were taking the soft down feathers, twigs, dry leaves etc there and dropping them on the way . The footsteps to our house were strewn with twigs, feathers and other dry leaves. Gradually the eggs laid in the nest hatched and all we could see were the wide open triangular red beaks of these birdlings, since the nests were at a height. The parent birds transferred the food from their beaks to their young ones. The chirping, hopping, fluttering of the wings beside my windows was aural and visual delight then . It was simple bird watch like these that made our childhood so magical and cherishable.
Sadly, these birds which are neither flamboyant/exotic are nowhere around today.One has to make an effort to see these little birds.
Today spacious independent houses with gardens and trees are giving way to concrete jungle/apartment complexes, old grain shops turning to a/c super markets ,organic manure giving way to chemical pesticides , air pollution in the form of CFC’s and waves of the cell phone tower( these waves are supposed to destroy the life in the eggs of sparrow), all of us using clean packeted grains have all contributed to the decline. The twitter of the sparrows have been replaced by online twitters.
The human race is facing two conflicting situations today, one is a bright one where we enjoy the benefits of state of art technology in our daily life. Thanks to genetic engineering, Information Technology, space shuttles, press button living, push button publishing etc., On the other hand is the grim scenario looming large with population explosion,Global warming, depletion of resources, pollution of the basic elements of nature, ecological degradation etc.,
Preservation and protection of our environment is one of the important responsibility of mankind today. Many large animals like tigers(just 1411 left) and small animals or birds are facing extinction. It’s time some awareness is created about ecological degradation.
Thanks to some responsible societies and trusts for taking conservation measures to protect this simple ‘chittu kuruvi’ (as called in tamil)/ gubbachi in kannada,goriya in hindi). Hope everyone of us become more responsible about our surroundings and live an environmentally healthy life and bequeath a healthy world to our future generations and also letting the house sparrow survive else gen next will see sparrows only on internet.
This event is to celebrate and create awareness about the simple,small and cute grey,brown and white feathered bird which once perched on our ledges or on trees around our house.
As a child of the 70's and 80's, we have woken up to the constant twitter of this bird, some times cursing the bird and pulling the blanket to cover our ears. They co-existed with us on the ledges and on tree tops around us chirping and giving company to all of us around.
In the afternoons, when mom and her friends would chit- chat and clean the grains, the sparrows used to hop around them and feed on the grains strewn. It was a pastime for me and my friends to watch their nest building activity . These sparrows built their nests on the ledge outside our house, and so they were taking the soft down feathers, twigs, dry leaves etc there and dropping them on the way . The footsteps to our house were strewn with twigs, feathers and other dry leaves. Gradually the eggs laid in the nest hatched and all we could see were the wide open triangular red beaks of these birdlings, since the nests were at a height. The parent birds transferred the food from their beaks to their young ones. The chirping, hopping, fluttering of the wings beside my windows was aural and visual delight then . It was simple bird watch like these that made our childhood so magical and cherishable.
Sadly, these birds which are neither flamboyant/exotic are nowhere around today.One has to make an effort to see these little birds.
Today spacious independent houses with gardens and trees are giving way to concrete jungle/apartment complexes, old grain shops turning to a/c super markets ,organic manure giving way to chemical pesticides , air pollution in the form of CFC’s and waves of the cell phone tower( these waves are supposed to destroy the life in the eggs of sparrow), all of us using clean packeted grains have all contributed to the decline. The twitter of the sparrows have been replaced by online twitters.
The human race is facing two conflicting situations today, one is a bright one where we enjoy the benefits of state of art technology in our daily life. Thanks to genetic engineering, Information Technology, space shuttles, press button living, push button publishing etc., On the other hand is the grim scenario looming large with population explosion,Global warming, depletion of resources, pollution of the basic elements of nature, ecological degradation etc.,
Preservation and protection of our environment is one of the important responsibility of mankind today. Many large animals like tigers(just 1411 left) and small animals or birds are facing extinction. It’s time some awareness is created about ecological degradation.
Thanks to some responsible societies and trusts for taking conservation measures to protect this simple ‘chittu kuruvi’ (as called in tamil)/ gubbachi in kannada,goriya in hindi). Hope everyone of us become more responsible about our surroundings and live an environmentally healthy life and bequeath a healthy world to our future generations and also letting the house sparrow survive else gen next will see sparrows only on internet.
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