Merry Christmas

Christmas is a time when we visit our family and friends, eat amazing food and party like crazy. It's the time when there are candles,cakes and sweets everywhere. It's the time to forget our diets and put on some calories. Merry Christmas everyone! May it bring joy, peace and happiness in your life.Wishing you much happiness today and throughout the New Year. Cheers!

How to record your screen using VLC Player?

Today I'm gonna share some easy steps on how you can record your screen with VLC Player. VLC media player is a free and open source cross-platform multimedia player and framework that plays most multimedia files as well as DVDs, Audio CDs, and VCDs. Apart from playing video and audio files it has many features as well. Not many people know that you can use this simple player to record your screen as well. No extra software is required.

                                                          Image Source: Google

Step 1: Open VLC player. 
            If you have not installed it on your PC, you can download it  from here.

Step 2: Click on Media
            From the drop down menu choose Open capture device. 

Step 3:  A new window will appear in that particular window in the  capture mode select desktop.

Step 4: Desired frame rate for the capture set it as 30.00 f/s

Step 5:  At the end you will see Play with a small downward arrow next to it click on that and select  Convert.

Step 6: A new window for Convert will appear. In the Destination file section click on browse and save it to wherever you want to (eg: D:)

Step 7 : In the profile section select Video H.264+MP3(MP4).

Step 8: Click Start. Minimize VLC media player.Your screen will start recording. After finishing recording click Stop in VLC player.

Enjoy! :)

Kashmir

Kashmir is the northernmost state of India. Here you will find breathtaking valleys, huge hills, snow-clad mountains and cool mountain air. Main cities we visited were the capital of the state- Srinagar, Gulmarg ,Sonmarg and Pahalgam. Most of my vacations are planned during May or December, because that's when we get holidays. This vacation too was planned in the month of May. During May you will find snow only on the mountains unlike winter when snow is almost everywhere in the state. Here you will find many army men at every 300 meters on the roads due to the constant tension between the two nations-India and Pakistan. Also unlike other cities when we landed in Srinagar there was strict checking 3 to 4 times. Although it was a bit irritating i was very happy about it. Kashmir is always in the limelight most of the times not for good reasons. But it's a beautiful place to visit!

Mahabaleshwar

Mahabaleshwar is a famous hill station in Maharashtra, India. Here you will find soaring peaks, breathtaking valleys, lush flora and cool crisp mountain air. Mahabaleshwar means 'God of Great Power'. We visited this place in December. The weather was cool and we booked a hotel which had a view of ranges of mountains facing us. Near our hotel there was a temple not a famous one, but a small one probably for the locals nearby. We went for a walk with our cameras to click a few snaps. There were many trees surrounding the temple. On one such tree i saw a monkey with a baby monkey. The monkey was black faced usually known as Gray langurs. I wanted to click their picture but a man who was living nearby told us that they are not one of the friendliest breed and they can snatch away your camera as well. SNATCH AWAY MY CAMERA??!!?? No way! My camera is way too precious to be taken away by a monkey, so i decided not to take a picture. After about 5 minutes the monkey came down from the tree with it's baby on his /her back and ran away jumping through the huge wall. Just when i turned around i saw many other monkeys running from the first wall behind which probably there was a forest and they jumped to the next wall. I was amazed to see so many black-faced monkeys all at time. It was quite an adventurous day!

Places to visit
1) Venna Lake
It is one of the major tourist attractions. The lake is surrounded by trees on all sides. Here you can see huge numbers of tourists going for a boat ride. Near the Venna lake you can even opt for a horse ride.

2) Mahabaleshwar market
Here vendors sell fresh carrots, corn and super fresh strawberries. There is a fair like atmosphere near the venna lake and you can play various games and kids can enjoy on rides like the giant wheel and dare to drop.
When you actually visit the main market, you'll come across various eateries and chaats that are available. 2 things that you must have is the strawberry milkshake with has fresh strawberries at the top and the strawberry ice-cream. Mahabaleshwar is famous for strawberries and here you get the best strawberries in the world.  

3)Arthur's seat
It is named after a British officer Sir Arthur Malet who used to sit here and gaze at the savitri river. He lost his wife and kids in a tragic ferry accident.

4) Kate's Point
Kate's point is located to the east of Mahabaleshwar and is famous for its view of two reservoirs, Balakwadi and Dhom.

5) Wilson Point
It is the highest point in Mahabaleshwar. It offers a spectacular glance of hills and valleys in all directions.

6) Monkey Point
It is a natural sculpture of stones which look like 3 monkeys.

7) Lodwick Point 
General Peter Lodwick was the first Englishmen to set foot on the glorious hills of Mahabaleshwar.

8) Pratapgad fort
This is a fort which is about 20 km from mahabaleshwar, a must visit for history enthusiasts. The fort was captured by the Maratha warrior Shivaji Maharaj.  

How to reach:

By Air: Nearest airport is at Pune 120 km away.
By Rail: Satara
By Road: Mumbai-Mahabaleshwar expressway approx 4 hrs drive.

Nainital

Nainital is a hill station in Uttarakhand,India. It is situated in a valley and the lake is pear-shaped. Naini lake is situated in the heart of the city and it is because of this lake the place got it's name-Nainital.
We visited this place in the month of May and even during summer it was very cold. It was around 10 degrees Celsius during our visit. I come from a place where the climate is hot and humid most of the time so anything below 15 or even let's say 20 degrees is quite cold for me.We booked a hotel room which had a lake facing view which was really amazing.

History  

Okay so this place also has some history associated with it. The Lake is called Tri-Rishi-Sarovar. It's a story of 3 sages Atri,Pulastya and Pulaha who couldn't find enough water so they decided to dig a large hole and filled it with water from the holy lake Manasarovar in Tibit. It is also believed that it is one of the many religious sites where Sati fell on the earth while being carried by Lord Shiva. The spot where Sati's eyes fell came to be known as Nainital or lake of the eye. And the whole lake actually is in the shape of a human eye.

Places to visit

1) Nainital Lake 
You have come to Nainital so of course you have to go for a boat ride here at least once.
The lake is huge and the water is crystal clear. You'll find many ducks in the lake. I saw some tourists feeding some ducks pieces of bread. 

2) Naina Peak  
It is also known as the China peak. This peak is the highest point at Nainital.
3) Snow view
It is at an altitude of approx 2,270m . To reach here you can take a cable car. Again the view is just amazing from it.

Some other  places are Naina Devi temple, Echo cave gardens and the mall road at Nainital which you can visit! :)

Kausani

Kausani is another hill station we visited during our visit to Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh states. Other places that we visited were Corbett, Agra, Nainital and Mussorie. Comming back to Kausani is a small hill station as I said earlier. It's not very well known because it does not have a lot of tourist attractions like other surrounding places. Kausani is an ideal place if you want to relax and want some peace of mind.

First place that we visited was Anashakti Ashram where Mahatma Gandhi spent some days during his lifetime. The Ashram was filled with Gandhiji's photos and various things were written about the work that he had done.Then we visited a temple and near the temple there was a pond filled with thousands of fishes. There were some locals selling fish food so that tourists could feed the fishes.

In this temple there was a stone that only nine people can shift it otherwise it won't even move, well that was the story don't know how true it is. The stone was pretty big and i personally went and tried to move it but it was very heavy. It didn't even move an inch.

If you are an adventurous person and like to visit many places then you would be a little disappointed. If you want to relax and enjoy the climate then this place is for you! 

Happy Sunday! :)

Mussoorie

Mussoorie is a hill station which is situated at Uttarakhand. It was a nice road trip from Corbett to Mussoorie with cool air blowing across your face. On our way we saw huge mountains,steep valleys and lush greenery.

It was a long journey of about 3 hours so by the time we reached our destination we were quite tired. So we checked in our hotel and relaxed for some time. There were lot of monkeys around this place. We had gone out for sometime and when we returned to our hotel room, to our surprise we found 3 monkeys in our balcony. We left some clothes over there and had totally forgotten about it and in one of the jeans there was a lot of cash. One of the monkeys picked up the jeans probably in search of some food. Luckily he didn't run away with the jeans he left it there and jumped off and we took a sigh of relief! I put up a photo of that guy for you :p

Places i would recommend are Kempty Falls and Jharipani Falls.

The water was amazing over there with an equally amazing view. There are many more places you can explore like Mussoorie Lake, Lake Mist and Jwalaji Temple.

The nearest railway station:  Dehradun Railway station at a distance of 36kms.
The nearest airport:  Jolly Grant Airport at a distance of 60kms.