One of my colleagues, Ravish Verma, handed me a link to speech recognition code. The parent GitHub repo is here: https://github.com/Uberi/speech_recognition.git. I thought that it had a speech processing algorithm of its own. That was not the case. It turned out that it is a wrapper for four online engines (Google, Wit.ai, IBM and AT&T) that … [Read more…]
Meeting a friend, lunch in Delhi and heading back home The HRTC bus I took was really efficient. It covered the on-ticket distance of 370 kms in 8 hours time, including two breaks of 25 minutes and 15 minutes respectively. It dropped me at ISBT Kashmere Gate at 5:30 am. Delhi was still covered in … [Read more…]
I bid goodbye to Krishna (momentarily) I woke up at 7:30 am and clicked this photograph of Shimla from my hotel window. The Sun wasn’t out yet. However, the temperature wasn’t as brutal as in Kasol. Krishnavatar Gupta, a.k.a. Krishna, got ready pretty early. He wanted to utilise the daytime as best as possible. We … [Read more…]
Getting from Kasol to Shimla One reason why I wanted to get down to Shimla was because it is easier to get to Delhi rather than from Kullu or even Mandi. I would be catching a bus tomorrow. When I left Kasol at 8:00 am, it was freezing cold. Not to mention, the Sun had … [Read more…]
A walk to Manikaran Manikaran, a religious and transportation hub, is about five kilometres from where I am staying. The easiest way to reach there is to catch any Westward bound bus from Kasol. Instead of taking a bus, I decided to walk the entire road. This is the same road that leads to Baba … [Read more…]
A note about temperature Kasol has really less useable hours as compared to other places I have been to. Sunlight hits the valley at 9:00 am and goes behind the mountains by 2:30 pm. Any activity must be done within this available time. At night, temperatures fall to -3 or -4 degree Celsius. I had … [Read more…]
Spending some time around Manali Mall I had a few hours in Manali before I could catch a bus towards Kasol. I decided to make some good use of the time. I visited the Monastery at the Mall road. I also visited the pine forest (Van Vihar) from where I had returned yesterday due to … [Read more…]
My mobile ditched me (momentarily) It had snowed last night. There was a thin layer of snow on everything that was exposed. The vehicles used the ramp in front of the hotel to propel and ignite the engines. A local said that some of the worst cars are the Tata Diesel variants. They need external … [Read more…]
Hotel Sangam should be taken by ASI The building in which I was staying in Mandi is probably as old as the ancient artefacts around it. It is hard to figure that out from the upper floors. The paint-job conceals most of the visible defects. If I had realised this earlier, I wouldn’t have even … [Read more…]
My camera ditched me I was using a Sony Cybershot point-and-shoot (DSC-W630) to capture the images of this trip. That small form factor camera has been my companion in the last three trips, too. Me and my sister have been using it for the last three years. It was quite foggy today morning. The moment … [Read more…]