WiFi Internet at Bangalore Railway Station

Life seems to be miserable without internet now a day with all gadgets surrounding us. Also, we can’t deny the fact that internet makes the life easier in all day to day activities from mobile recharge to purchasing grocery. To bridge the gap of waiting time for trains and to entertain passengers, railways has come with launching WiFi internet connections at railway stations. Initially the connection will be at selected stations and later to be extended in all stations and on trains.

RailTel, a government of India enterprise is providing broadband services at Railway station and also it is providing broadband internet services to the masses under the banner RailWire.

  
Anyone can register through this link providing mobile number. Automatic login screen pops as soon as it is connected to RailTel. If not open any link from browser.


I could experience the WiFi connection at Bangalore railway station on my phone. Connection speed is good. Registration and usage is simple and after 30 minutes free usage, recharge scratch cards has to be purchased from the WiFi help desk/counters at the cost of Rs. 35 per hour and Rs. 25 for half an hour. Additional usage cards can be purchased online itself.


Username and password will be provided through SMS

continue using Internet without any hassle for next 30 minutes free of cost


How to Open & Operate PPF account online through SBI Internet Banking

Public Provident Fund (PPF) account is the Tax Deduction at Source (TDS) and Income Tax exempted (under section 88 of IT Act) deposit scheme offered to general public. An individual in his/her own name or on behalf of a minor can open this account. Few nationalized banks, private sector banks and post office can open and maintain public provident fund accounts. But only few banks like State Bank of India (SBI) and ICICI banks offer facilities to open, maintain and operate PPF account through online banking. Don’t confuse Public Provident Fund (PPF) account with Employee Provident Fund (EPF) account, both are entirely different.

It is easy to open PPF account online through SBI Net banking. Once the application is made for PPF account online, visit the branch where you are having SB account with the printout of application of PPF account and a copy of identity proof and address proof as it is mandatory to have completed KYC for PPF accounts. Verifying documents bank will open the PPF account and issue separate passbook for PPF account.

from e-services tab, select New PPF account to get application form for PPF account. Default address of account will be taken same as your SB account address

take print out of submitted application form and submit it to the branch

you can view balance and other information of PPF account as you view other accounts

PPF account will be mapped in your SBI internet banking login within few hours. You can view and operate it online. You can transfer funds to PPF account using funds transfer to own account option from payments/transfer tab. 
You can transfer money to PPF account using Funds transfer to Own account option

How to see who likes your Facebook page

Having Facebook page for every event or brand is common now a days. But with the recent updates on Facebook page policy, it has become difficult to see who likes your Facebook page. It is not possible to easily see who likes your page from likes options as it only shows the count of number of people liking your people(as shown in picture).

Can't see who likes the page except the count of likes

Can't see who likes the page except the count of likes

To see who likes your page go to page likes on right side of screen you will see an option, Page Likes, click it and then select see all so that you can see all who likes your page. 

Can see all who likes your Facebook page

Even by this you can’t see all people liking your page as few set their privacy settings such that what they like will not be visible to others. If they are friends to you and if you login to Facebook page then you can see all who likes your page. 

Shri Vinayaka Temple, Idagunji, Honnavar

Shree Vinayaka temple, Idagunji is one of the popular temples of Karnataka attracting devotees all over the world. The temple is in Idagunji village and the legend dates back to the pre historic times. Idagunji is situated at a distance of fifteen kilometers from Honnavar, a small coastal town on the banks of Arabian Sea. On the Honavar - Bhatkal national highway before Mavinakatte (around 17 kms from Honnavar), there is a turn on left side with an arch of Idagunji temple. From the arch the temple is four kilometers away.

Lord Vinayaka's picture taken from temple website

Necessary things for performing rituals are available at temple office in the temple premise and also in the outside shops. Temple also has lodging facility at a very nominal rate but rooms are few and for better lodging facilities one can stay at Honnavar or Murudeshwara. Idagunji also has a sabha bhavana where marriages and functions can be arranged. Temple has arranged for free meals in the Mayura Bhojanalaya building everyday at free of cost.

Many people visit Idagunji with a belief that the God Vinayaka solves all kind of problems. Almost all people of this region visits this temple before proceeding for any celebration like marriage, house warming ceremony etc. in their family to take the blessings of Lord Vinayaka.

Visit the website, www.idagunjidevaru.com giving more information on temple, maintained by one of the devotees of Lord Vinayaka staying in USA.

Kanipakam Varasiddhi Vinayaka Temple

Kanipakam Vinayaka temple or Kanipakam Varasiddhi Vinayaka Swamy Temple is in the vicinity of Chittoor city. Even though the temple is very old, it came into light in the recent time attracting devotees from many places. Many on the way back from Tirupati will visit Kanipakam to get blessings of Lord Ganesha. Kanipakam has Manikanteshwara temple and Sri Varada Raja Swami Temple.

Kanipakam Varasiddhi Vinayaka Swamy Temple

Temple premises

Temple entrance

Temple legend says that Ganesha idol was first observed in a well and small in size. Over a period of time the size of idol is being increasing. The water of well is being given as theertham to the devotees and water in well overflows during rainy season. Temple timings is from morning 4:00AM to 9:30PM in the night, in between various special poojas can be performed by the devotees.

Temple Tank

Shiva in the adjacent park


different postures of Lord Ganesha



Temple tank in front of temple has Ganesha idol in middle and it adds beauty to the gopuram. The park adjacent to Manikanteshwara temple has Lord Shiva and different postures of Lord Ganesha. Frequent buses and shared auto rickshaws are available from Chittoor to Kanipakam.

New Way to get Quick Tatkal Ticket on IRCTC

Tatkal tickets are quite difficult to get online and most of the time the ticket reservation will not be done even though the money will be deducted from our bank account. IRCTC has provided light version with few links not getting loaded during the Tatkal time but still getting ticket is difficult. I got the error page as soon as I gave user name and password.

error page I got on www.irctc.co.in

Here is the work around to get the Tatkal tickets quickly. Recently IRCTC has introduced the new generation ticketing system which gets loaded quickly and has new interface. Even though it is meant to book only the e-ticket (not i-ticket also), we can book Tatkal ticket also with little tricks. I thought of testing it during Tatkal time and it worked fine.

new login page using the new link

new interface of e-ticketing system

Use this link www.nget.irctc.co.in to open the new ticketing system interface providing user name, password and captcha image shown. Provide the source and destination stations and day of travel as next day as you are looking for Tatkal ticket. Search the trains and once the list is displayed, select Tatkal and click on the class of train you are looking for. You can easily proceed with the link and book the tickets. Only drawback is the net banking facility of few major banks are not available through the net banking facility link.

select Tatkal as shown in red box instead of default selected General

Tatkal tickets availability

payment system

I could easily login during Tatkal hours on Friday and could even book a ticket. Hope the site works with the same speed in future too!

Belur Math and Dakshineshwar Kali Temple

We visited Belur math taking direct train from Howrah junction. The journey was of just twenty minutes and it is near to the entrance of Belur math. It is the main Monasetry of Ramakrsihna order It is really inspiring to see the museum nicely arranged museum, having collection of belongings and things used by Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Sharada Devi, Swami Vivekananda and other disciples. Apart from museum, Belur math campus is having temples of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Sharada Devi and Swami Vivekananda.

Entrance of Belur Math

Sri Ramakrishna vidya mandir

Sri Sharada Devi Temple

Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa temple

Even the campus has the Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda University, Quarters for the staff, Math office and also the guest houses. Museum will be closed on Mondays and few special days. Belur Math visiting hours is Morning 6:00AM to 11:30AM and evening 4:00PM to 7:00PM during the months of April to September and morning 6:30AM to 11:30AM and evening 3:30PM to 6:00PM during the months of October to March.

From Belur Math one can take boat service to reach Dakshineshwar to visit Kali Mandir situated on the banks of Hooghly River. 

way to boat service to Dakshineshwar

view of Belur Math from boat

view of Belur Math


Kali Mandir entrance 

Kali Mandir building 

Kali Mandir

Kali Mandir is famous for its association with Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. The temple premise has twelve identical Shivalinga and Radha-Krishna temple adjacent to Goddess Kali shrine.

Calcutta - Howrah and Victoria Memorial Hall

It was my first visit to Kolkata (also known as Calcutta). Having heard a lot about it and its contribution to Science I was thinking to visit this place at least once. The first thing I noticed coming out of Howrah railway station is Howrah Bridge connecting Howrah and Calcutta.

Howrah Bridge connecting Kolkata and Howrah


 



Also went for a ferry ride from Howrah to Calcutta - Babughat. It was a nice trip seeing the side by buildings. Visited nearby market but being Sunday most of the shops were closed except street vendors.



By afternoon went to explore Victoria Memorial Hall built in memory of Queen Victoria. One can witness the huge collection of things belonging to Historic times. Also, the information about all the Vice Roys’ ruled India for almost two hundred years can be found there.



Victoria Memorial

Procession depicted in Bronze


Victoria Memorial

Interior of Victoria Memorial Hall

outside view from Victoria Memorial Hall

Without much time to explore anything returned back with Rasgulla, special milk made sweet of West Bengal.