Weekend was butt achingly fantastic!!! Me and a friend of mine decided to go out biking for 3 days. Did some 650 odd kilometers in 3 days which included a stupid accident with the side of the road, where my bike got badly damaged but thankfully we both escaped almost un-scrached. Now the repairs is gonna cost me a bomb and I dont even have insurance!! But all in all it was simply fantastic. Places visited:
Day1:
Banglore->Ramnagar->Maddur->Shivanasamudra (Bluff falls for ye english lot)->Talkad (Awesome beachy looking place)->T-Narispura (Sangam of 3 rivers)->Mysore
stayed at mysore after a nice 270Km ride of which 100kms was just mud road!
Day2:
Mysore->Nanjangudu->Gundulpet->Bandipur(missed taking a turn to our actual destination)->Gundulpet(had to ride back about 15 KM of bad roads)->Gopalswami Betta(Wanted to see elephants but missed it)->Gundulpet->Nanjangud->Mysore
In total about 200Kms mostly good roads. Left early morning and reached the misty hills while it was still misty :-) so returned back home by afternoon. Hogged on good lunch and took a nap. Evening went to chamudi hills. In total abot 220 or so kms of riding.
The stupid accident was here on the chamundi hills!
Day3:
Mysore->Srirangapatnam->Cauvery Sangam (Cauvery splits into 2 before Srirangapatna and merges after it)->Srirangapatna->CoffeeDay on mysore Road->Banglore
Did not want to rip at 100KMPH as I usually do 'cause I was not sure how the bike was doing after accident. So came at a horrible snail's pace of 60KMPH! I dont ride so slow even in the CITY!!
Now nursing a sore butt and feeling like accomplishment achieved!!
Monday, December 25, 2006
Saturday, October 28, 2006
weekends, working
Today has been quite boring at office. We are compensating for some holiday and hence working on a Saturday. All my friends have called me since morning and asked me "where are u? working? I thought I'll meet you today" like ya rite, you didnt feel like meeting me for the past 1 month! And there is no work too since morning! I have been chatting or reading blogs or something like that...how terrible. I wanna go home! I wanna finish of the book I am reading for the past month! I wanna go shopping, I wanna do something else!!!
I wonder how people on bench feel, I mean if this is my state in a few days how must they be feeling for like months...
I wonder how people on bench feel, I mean if this is my state in a few days how must they be feeling for like months...
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Green Valley!
Misty mountain tops, lush greenery, a lone path, a railway track, endless number of high bridges and dark tunnels, this is Karnataka’s most favorite trek route. The Sakleshpur rain road trek, a must do for anyone who calls himself a trekker. I have wanted to do this since 2 years now. This last weekend, thanks to a good friend, I made it!
We started out Friday night almost close to midnight from Bangalore. The bus took us to Sakleshpur, the nearest town, in the wee hours of the morning. After a hot cuppa and packing some breakfast, we boarded another local bus that would drop us near Maranhalli, the starting point of our trek. We took a muddy slushy path in the forest, along scattered houses for about a kilometer to reach the first bridge. This railway bridge will be our actual starting point of the 16 KM trek on the railway track. We freshened up in the crystal clear stream water and finished up our breakfast. I rolled up my tracks to leech proof my legs by a liberal dose of amruthanjan, a strong balm of sorts. I was unfortunately too late, a little fella had already crawled up and latched on and was sucking my blood. My first leech bite!!! After 4 monsoon treks in the western ghats! Took a snap of my dark parasitic friend before salting him off. After armoring with the above said balm, we go on the bridge and set off on the track.
Took some snaps at the bridge. It was quite awesome standing on the bridge at such a height and no guard rails or such stuff. Started walking, measured steps on the sleepers, almost a catwalk. Little did I know that my walking habit would need re-training after the trek! A hundred meters and we encountered our first tunnel, a good 250 meters long one. Photos shoot time again! Picked up a rusty railway bolt as a memento and moved along. The bats had all flown off as the trains have started plying, this was a bit disappointing. As we started walking into the tunnel, it became pitch dark and we switched on a few torches. But after a few minutes of walking we decided to walk in the dark for the thrill of it. Reached the end of the tunnel and realized another tunnel starts off just a few meters away! The whole track is like this, full of numerous bridges and tunnels. It’s just fantastic!
The best tunnel was close to a kilometer long, which happened to be the longest one we had encountered in the whole trip. This has some wild turns in the middle and its pitch dark, quite a challenge. The only missing element was a loved one to smooch, feel up and maybe more! As we were walking along, we heard the following sounds: “It’s going left, completely left, left yaar, left, thud, ahha!” Our foreman, an enthu daredevil had miscalculated and instead of taking a right, he had taken a left and had fallen into a not so deep rain trench close to the tunnel wall and now he sports a nice mark on his head and nose!
The best bridge was a wooden bridge, a few decades old. The wooden sleepers have not yet been replaced by iron ones and as such it is quite worn out and broken at places. This took a lot of nerve and concentration to cross. It was quite long and had a fast flowing stream underneath a few hundred feet down. It was a thrilling experience!
Towards afternoon we took a break, had just another 3 KM to our destination. We took a small path leading to a waterfall. After a cold bath and good water massage, and lunch, I slept off on a rock, head resting on my friend’s lap. It had been a while since I slept on someone’s lap… A good half hour’s rest later I woke up to a grey sky and by the time we packed and hit the track, a drizzle had begun.
We reached the destination station, Yedakumeri at around 5.30. The station master had setup quarters and the workers had moved on. After a bit of negotiation, we managed to get a room to stay for in the night. It was a diesel generator room, thankfully not running, the floor was not swept for ages and the slight smell of diesel oil hung in the air. No complaints, adjust and survive is the motto. The cook there agreed to give us hot water but no food as they were low on supplies, so just had cuppo noodles and a shot of whiskey and some vodka to keep warm and then sat down with the station master for a chat till 10 and then we hit sack.
Our initial plans for the next day was to cut across the forest, walk up 5KM and reach a near by village and catch a bus from there. Due to heavy rains, the path had an overgrowth of vegetation and would be infested with leaches. So, we made and alternative plan and kept this as a last resort. The station master told us that a goods train would be passing by at some unknown hour in the night, and he told us he could stop it briefly but it was for us to convince the driver to give us a ride. In the mean while another group of software guys had also come along and the station master refused to give them shelter and they ended up sleeping in the open-aired waiting room. People skills training does not seem to be effective enough.
The next day round 3 we were woken up and the station master told us to hurry. The train was almost there and was chugging along slowly. We all hopped on to the train and soon it started to move with a harsh jerk to warn us of its “non-passenger-friendly” way. Somehow I feel that the station master had sort of convinced the driver to take us - over radio. Oh that was the first time I saw what GSM-R is used for. And along with us the other group also tagged along. We all huddled up like sheep in the small coach and the since it was dark outside and there is not electricity in goods wagons, the other team were using all their torches. After some time all switched off except this one guy, all dressed up like a cowboy but hardly had the courage. He kept it on till I finally got annoyed and asked him to switch it off.
What an experience it was! The dark, the rattling train, the tunnels and bridges, the greenery, the mist and the emerging twilight. We reached Subramanya, a temple town with busses connecting to Bangalore at around 7. From there we took a jeep to the bus-stand half hour away. The jeep was stuffed, that’s the best way to describe it. I was practically in the driver’s seat and he in turn was almost leaning out and driving! 4 people in the front and 6 in the back and the luggage! And the man is ripping across in the Ghats! Whao! We reached the bus stand, caught the first bus to Bangalore and after a gruesome 9 hour ride reached home at 6 in the evening. The first 3 hours was in the Ghats section and man was it awesome! One fabulous trip done and many more to go!
The snaps are here by the way.
We started out Friday night almost close to midnight from Bangalore. The bus took us to Sakleshpur, the nearest town, in the wee hours of the morning. After a hot cuppa and packing some breakfast, we boarded another local bus that would drop us near Maranhalli, the starting point of our trek. We took a muddy slushy path in the forest, along scattered houses for about a kilometer to reach the first bridge. This railway bridge will be our actual starting point of the 16 KM trek on the railway track. We freshened up in the crystal clear stream water and finished up our breakfast. I rolled up my tracks to leech proof my legs by a liberal dose of amruthanjan, a strong balm of sorts. I was unfortunately too late, a little fella had already crawled up and latched on and was sucking my blood. My first leech bite!!! After 4 monsoon treks in the western ghats! Took a snap of my dark parasitic friend before salting him off. After armoring with the above said balm, we go on the bridge and set off on the track.
Took some snaps at the bridge. It was quite awesome standing on the bridge at such a height and no guard rails or such stuff. Started walking, measured steps on the sleepers, almost a catwalk. Little did I know that my walking habit would need re-training after the trek! A hundred meters and we encountered our first tunnel, a good 250 meters long one. Photos shoot time again! Picked up a rusty railway bolt as a memento and moved along. The bats had all flown off as the trains have started plying, this was a bit disappointing. As we started walking into the tunnel, it became pitch dark and we switched on a few torches. But after a few minutes of walking we decided to walk in the dark for the thrill of it. Reached the end of the tunnel and realized another tunnel starts off just a few meters away! The whole track is like this, full of numerous bridges and tunnels. It’s just fantastic!
The best tunnel was close to a kilometer long, which happened to be the longest one we had encountered in the whole trip. This has some wild turns in the middle and its pitch dark, quite a challenge. The only missing element was a loved one to smooch, feel up and maybe more! As we were walking along, we heard the following sounds: “It’s going left, completely left, left yaar, left, thud, ahha!” Our foreman, an enthu daredevil had miscalculated and instead of taking a right, he had taken a left and had fallen into a not so deep rain trench close to the tunnel wall and now he sports a nice mark on his head and nose!
The best bridge was a wooden bridge, a few decades old. The wooden sleepers have not yet been replaced by iron ones and as such it is quite worn out and broken at places. This took a lot of nerve and concentration to cross. It was quite long and had a fast flowing stream underneath a few hundred feet down. It was a thrilling experience!
Towards afternoon we took a break, had just another 3 KM to our destination. We took a small path leading to a waterfall. After a cold bath and good water massage, and lunch, I slept off on a rock, head resting on my friend’s lap. It had been a while since I slept on someone’s lap… A good half hour’s rest later I woke up to a grey sky and by the time we packed and hit the track, a drizzle had begun.
We reached the destination station, Yedakumeri at around 5.30. The station master had setup quarters and the workers had moved on. After a bit of negotiation, we managed to get a room to stay for in the night. It was a diesel generator room, thankfully not running, the floor was not swept for ages and the slight smell of diesel oil hung in the air. No complaints, adjust and survive is the motto. The cook there agreed to give us hot water but no food as they were low on supplies, so just had cuppo noodles and a shot of whiskey and some vodka to keep warm and then sat down with the station master for a chat till 10 and then we hit sack.
Our initial plans for the next day was to cut across the forest, walk up 5KM and reach a near by village and catch a bus from there. Due to heavy rains, the path had an overgrowth of vegetation and would be infested with leaches. So, we made and alternative plan and kept this as a last resort. The station master told us that a goods train would be passing by at some unknown hour in the night, and he told us he could stop it briefly but it was for us to convince the driver to give us a ride. In the mean while another group of software guys had also come along and the station master refused to give them shelter and they ended up sleeping in the open-aired waiting room. People skills training does not seem to be effective enough.
The next day round 3 we were woken up and the station master told us to hurry. The train was almost there and was chugging along slowly. We all hopped on to the train and soon it started to move with a harsh jerk to warn us of its “non-passenger-friendly” way. Somehow I feel that the station master had sort of convinced the driver to take us - over radio. Oh that was the first time I saw what GSM-R is used for. And along with us the other group also tagged along. We all huddled up like sheep in the small coach and the since it was dark outside and there is not electricity in goods wagons, the other team were using all their torches. After some time all switched off except this one guy, all dressed up like a cowboy but hardly had the courage. He kept it on till I finally got annoyed and asked him to switch it off.
What an experience it was! The dark, the rattling train, the tunnels and bridges, the greenery, the mist and the emerging twilight. We reached Subramanya, a temple town with busses connecting to Bangalore at around 7. From there we took a jeep to the bus-stand half hour away. The jeep was stuffed, that’s the best way to describe it. I was practically in the driver’s seat and he in turn was almost leaning out and driving! 4 people in the front and 6 in the back and the luggage! And the man is ripping across in the Ghats! Whao! We reached the bus stand, caught the first bus to Bangalore and after a gruesome 9 hour ride reached home at 6 in the evening. The first 3 hours was in the Ghats section and man was it awesome! One fabulous trip done and many more to go!
The snaps are here by the way.
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Passport!
Today I saw this sign on the passport road.
If this is the state of the road leading to the passport then which way do we go with our passports? No wonder we have a lot of confused travellers! :)
If this is the state of the road leading to the passport then which way do we go with our passports? No wonder we have a lot of confused travellers! :)
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
Reservations in India.
Today's headlines scream out to the public that "Our Prime Minister's Grandsons are ill and have Dengue". I so hope and wish that as an eye opener one of the grand child must be treated by merit students and the other by reservation students exclusively. That will I hope show to the PM how he is playing with his citizens and give him an understanding between basic education for all and professional courses on which lives depend.
According to our history, a good King would treating his citizens as his children. But our nation is in such sick political hands. Let the PM disprove this by treating his children like all his other citizens!
Don'd blame me for wanting to be under a great able king than under such lousy sick politicians.
According to our history, a good King would treating his citizens as his children. But our nation is in such sick political hands. Let the PM disprove this by treating his children like all his other citizens!
Don'd blame me for wanting to be under a great able king than under such lousy sick politicians.
Friday, September 29, 2006
A language independent of regionalism
I am not sure if the word regionalism is a valid word but then I am too lazy to look it up and it serves the purpose here for me. Oflate I have been reading a lot of stuff about India and how we have sold ourselves to the western world and the struggles and fights of getting back our individuality and culture.
Despite all these, there is no real feeling of oneness amongst the countrymen. There are a million things that divide us and we are happy to fight to keep it up that way. Language is one such element. Living in banglore, this is one thing I keep hearing often, that we use english and all other languages except kannada. Quite true I agree, but things are changing. I myself am making an effort to use kannada. It's another matter, I was born to telgu speaking parents and can't speak telgu for nuts. I guess that's also a typical banglorean characterstic, where ever the origin, everyone born in banglore finds kannada as a comfortable language to speak in than the language that parents speak.
And getting back on track to a common language for Indians, I strongly feel that Sanskrit is one language that is not associated to any region. This would make a good common language if the government makes an effort to bring it about. Also, we as people wanting to be of one nation, should strongly promote this too, In terms of getting back our own identity as people of a nation, rather than the divided regions of India. Learning Sanskrit has been an elegant thing and I think its pretty cool too with all the complexities it has. I am not saying we throw away kannada or hindi or whatever the languages we speak, but across regions we must use Sanskrit than force others to learn our language, both as hosts and as visitors.
And similarly we must make an effort to make things common and Indian, respect others of the country than show them attitude. Humbleness and kindness has been our cherished values, lets go by it.
-My thoughts for a strong united India
Despite all these, there is no real feeling of oneness amongst the countrymen. There are a million things that divide us and we are happy to fight to keep it up that way. Language is one such element. Living in banglore, this is one thing I keep hearing often, that we use english and all other languages except kannada. Quite true I agree, but things are changing. I myself am making an effort to use kannada. It's another matter, I was born to telgu speaking parents and can't speak telgu for nuts. I guess that's also a typical banglorean characterstic, where ever the origin, everyone born in banglore finds kannada as a comfortable language to speak in than the language that parents speak.
And getting back on track to a common language for Indians, I strongly feel that Sanskrit is one language that is not associated to any region. This would make a good common language if the government makes an effort to bring it about. Also, we as people wanting to be of one nation, should strongly promote this too, In terms of getting back our own identity as people of a nation, rather than the divided regions of India. Learning Sanskrit has been an elegant thing and I think its pretty cool too with all the complexities it has. I am not saying we throw away kannada or hindi or whatever the languages we speak, but across regions we must use Sanskrit than force others to learn our language, both as hosts and as visitors.
And similarly we must make an effort to make things common and Indian, respect others of the country than show them attitude. Humbleness and kindness has been our cherished values, lets go by it.
-My thoughts for a strong united India
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
value added services
Sometimes when I go out of coverage area I wish I didnt have to loose my messages and if a internet is available around, It would be great if I could get it on my mail ID. This is actually simple, the software at the operator can be modified to recognise that a mobile is out of reach and instead of saving the message for further trying, it could be instead forwarded to the user's mail ID. Probably this could be done after a fixed intreval of retries may be 15 min to 1 hour configurable by the operator. Also a notification could be sent to the sender that the user is out of coverage area or something like that. Even better would be the user to be able to reply to that mail and an SMS reaching the sender. Pricing could be the same as normal SMS charges applied on the email. This would greatly increase the SMS usage even in roaming and could be quite profitable as a mass usage occurs.
a few teki thoughts once a while... :)
a few teki thoughts once a while... :)
coining a new word...
Every day while comming back from office I usually take the bylanes to avoid traffic. There is this one road where there is an apartment being build. The road is used as a store room for sand and gravel and some spills over to the ground and makes riding a nightmare. I have decided to call this situation as "Bikemare" :) and I usually have 2-3 bikemares on a good day!
Ride to Nandi hills
I had been wanting to go on a ride to Nandi hills on my bike for sometime now. This last weekend I decided I am going no matter what. I called a lot of people and after a series of refusals I called up my close friend and cribbed that I really wanted to go! He agreed with doubts about the time. I wanted to leave by 7 and he was not sure if the hills would be that great at 9. So after convincing my mom, we planned to leave at 4.30 in the morning instead.
On Sunday, I got up at 4, got ready really fast and met up with him at 4.45. Man, talk about craziness. It’s amazing to ride at this hour in the city but once we reached the highway, the ride got slow with my headlights not being powerful enough. We reached the foot hills at around 6 and started the climb up. The upper part of the hills was mist covered and as we rode up, it soon became completely foggy and misty and the ride got better! It was super cool, awesome. After taking some snaps on my mobile camera, we reached the top by 7.
We roamed around the place watching the neighboring misty hill tops and the landscape down below, went into coffee plantations and hidden trails hardly taken. We were having a lovely time just the two of us, away from the crowed parts. Soon the sun stared to clear the mist and the hill turned plain and simple. We decided to head back at about 9 and were back home at 11 in the morning. Despite the day light, the road had this eerie feeling that prevented me from zooming back home so I did a slow 60 kmph ride back with a feeling of achievement, after so long a wait.
On Sunday, I got up at 4, got ready really fast and met up with him at 4.45. Man, talk about craziness. It’s amazing to ride at this hour in the city but once we reached the highway, the ride got slow with my headlights not being powerful enough. We reached the foot hills at around 6 and started the climb up. The upper part of the hills was mist covered and as we rode up, it soon became completely foggy and misty and the ride got better! It was super cool, awesome. After taking some snaps on my mobile camera, we reached the top by 7.
We roamed around the place watching the neighboring misty hill tops and the landscape down below, went into coffee plantations and hidden trails hardly taken. We were having a lovely time just the two of us, away from the crowed parts. Soon the sun stared to clear the mist and the hill turned plain and simple. We decided to head back at about 9 and were back home at 11 in the morning. Despite the day light, the road had this eerie feeling that prevented me from zooming back home so I did a slow 60 kmph ride back with a feeling of achievement, after so long a wait.
Bangloreans!!
It’s very annoying when someone says something about Bangloreans. Every single person who comes to Bangalore has to crib about us; I don’t understand who gives them the right to criticize us. It’s our place and we live how we like to. Just because others come and settle here why should we should change ourselves to please them and make them feel at home. Give me a break; you want home, go back, why did you bother coming here. I find it very pitiable that they are such blind narrow minded people. You don’t go to Italy and say no one speaks Hindi here or that roads are narrow and such. When you go some where respect the people for what they are and not put them down and try to show you are superior. No one is, everyone is unique in their own way and no one is really superior as such. And don’t generalize because of just one person you see or interact with. I hit the roof when one of my favorite radio stations, radio Indigo, decided to do a poll on what people find irritating about Bangloreans. I don’t understand why they don’t have a poll on what Bangloreans find irritating about the outsiders. Is it because the content manager or the radio jockey is a non-Bangloreans who loves to put down people of the place she lives in? Grrr!!! A fuming Banglorean!
A visit to Shankar Mutt
Shankar mutt has been on of my most favorite places to visit. During the dussera time, goddess Saraswathi is decorated in various forms each day and also there is a concert in the evenings. Yesterday I was insisting that I wanted to go as there was a bit of turmoil in my mind about something that had happened. So at 9.30 after dinner, I and mom went to the place.
This is a haunt of mostly Brahmin crowd. It was really pleasant, everyone is organized and clean, wear decent clothes and come as a family unit. The concert was going on by a local resident and it was quite nice. A lot of kids were running around and playing but not disturbing the atmosphere. Overall it’s a soothing environment. After praying for the goddess and the acharya for their blessings, I sat there contemplating if what I had done was right. And ultimately, I felt it was a good thing - what I had done. With a feeling of renewed motivation and aim I headed back home with a decision to go there everyday till dussera end.
This is a haunt of mostly Brahmin crowd. It was really pleasant, everyone is organized and clean, wear decent clothes and come as a family unit. The concert was going on by a local resident and it was quite nice. A lot of kids were running around and playing but not disturbing the atmosphere. Overall it’s a soothing environment. After praying for the goddess and the acharya for their blessings, I sat there contemplating if what I had done was right. And ultimately, I felt it was a good thing - what I had done. With a feeling of renewed motivation and aim I headed back home with a decision to go there everyday till dussera end.
Thursday, September 14, 2006
Joy at Jog
It was a thursday evening, One of my friend was headed to Jogfalls. I told him that I wanted to come and soon we were planning to do a 2 day trip to Jogfalls and Agumbe. But for some reasons, we had to settle for just Jog falls.
We left on Friday night and reached Jog at 6 in the morning. There was a slight drizzle and what a MAGNIFICIENT sight it was. I instantly fell in love with "Rocket". The beauty of the water smashing and exploding is beyond explanations. The water level in the dam had risen quite a bit and hence all the gates were opened making the falls very "FULL". We could not see roarer from where we were standing, nor could we see the end of RAJA as the mist rising was so thick. THe wind changes directions often making the falls appear and disappear behind the mist.
We decided to climb down. A local shopkeeper warned us of slippery rocks. As we started climbing down, I could feel my joints groaning like rusted joints. After about 20 minutes of climbing, our path was taken over by a stream but we continued our descent with wet shoes. But, the wind changed directions and in an instant there was a heavy downpour. We carried on but soon it became an wirl wind and the entire path was water logged. Our rain jacket, umbrella and water proof bags was no match for the 'Jog Rain', so we named it cause this rain was the mist rising from Jog. It was artificial rain!
We started to climb up, escaped the rain envelop and with numerous pit stops and chocolates to make up for the depleting energy levels we climbed back up. The timing was just perfect as the crowd had just started the descent and we had had our privacy and peace being early birds.
After a second round of break fast, we sat there drying our clothes and socks, taking pictures and me soothing my aching legs. Then we decided to walk to the other side, closer to the falls near the Raja rock. We took off our shoes as it was like wearing lead boots and walked the 3 km to the other side barefoot. There is a bridge which not only connects the 2 ends of river back but also sort of seperated the calm sharavati on one side and the gurgling falls on the other.
We reached the other side and rushed to see the vertically down view of the Raja falls. We can also see roarer from this side. It is a completely guided falls gushing out from a sudden bend in the rock above. It makes quite a noise, almost a thunder clap at times. The raja rock is a projection right next to the Raja falls and looking down from this point the abyss of the falls is visible when the mist clears. Also due to it proximity to the falls you can see the water exploding to billions of drops and mist. This view is priceless and mindblowing. After multiple peeks from the edge, we try to feel satisified but then, this is one of those things thats so attractive that dissatisfaction is guarenteed. After some time we head back, have some scanty food and want to spend time at the river bank.
There was no way to reach the water front, so we go instead to a green field. The rains which were holding back till now started lashing its wet tongue at us! We surrendered to the leeches in the field and headed back to the bus stand just in time for the bus to Sagar, a near by town.
At Sagar, since we had a couple of hours to spend, we had dosas and coffee, roamed around the town. It's a beautiful little town with very good looking people with an amazing complexion. Finally we boarded the bus and fell asleep instantly. Woke up in between couple of time due to leg ache but went back to sleep after shifting a bit. Sunday morning, back in banglore to find my bangalore in a pleasent post rains mood...
We left on Friday night and reached Jog at 6 in the morning. There was a slight drizzle and what a MAGNIFICIENT sight it was. I instantly fell in love with "Rocket". The beauty of the water smashing and exploding is beyond explanations. The water level in the dam had risen quite a bit and hence all the gates were opened making the falls very "FULL". We could not see roarer from where we were standing, nor could we see the end of RAJA as the mist rising was so thick. THe wind changes directions often making the falls appear and disappear behind the mist.
We decided to climb down. A local shopkeeper warned us of slippery rocks. As we started climbing down, I could feel my joints groaning like rusted joints. After about 20 minutes of climbing, our path was taken over by a stream but we continued our descent with wet shoes. But, the wind changed directions and in an instant there was a heavy downpour. We carried on but soon it became an wirl wind and the entire path was water logged. Our rain jacket, umbrella and water proof bags was no match for the 'Jog Rain', so we named it cause this rain was the mist rising from Jog. It was artificial rain!
We started to climb up, escaped the rain envelop and with numerous pit stops and chocolates to make up for the depleting energy levels we climbed back up. The timing was just perfect as the crowd had just started the descent and we had had our privacy and peace being early birds.
After a second round of break fast, we sat there drying our clothes and socks, taking pictures and me soothing my aching legs. Then we decided to walk to the other side, closer to the falls near the Raja rock. We took off our shoes as it was like wearing lead boots and walked the 3 km to the other side barefoot. There is a bridge which not only connects the 2 ends of river back but also sort of seperated the calm sharavati on one side and the gurgling falls on the other.
We reached the other side and rushed to see the vertically down view of the Raja falls. We can also see roarer from this side. It is a completely guided falls gushing out from a sudden bend in the rock above. It makes quite a noise, almost a thunder clap at times. The raja rock is a projection right next to the Raja falls and looking down from this point the abyss of the falls is visible when the mist clears. Also due to it proximity to the falls you can see the water exploding to billions of drops and mist. This view is priceless and mindblowing. After multiple peeks from the edge, we try to feel satisified but then, this is one of those things thats so attractive that dissatisfaction is guarenteed. After some time we head back, have some scanty food and want to spend time at the river bank.
There was no way to reach the water front, so we go instead to a green field. The rains which were holding back till now started lashing its wet tongue at us! We surrendered to the leeches in the field and headed back to the bus stand just in time for the bus to Sagar, a near by town.
At Sagar, since we had a couple of hours to spend, we had dosas and coffee, roamed around the town. It's a beautiful little town with very good looking people with an amazing complexion. Finally we boarded the bus and fell asleep instantly. Woke up in between couple of time due to leg ache but went back to sleep after shifting a bit. Sunday morning, back in banglore to find my bangalore in a pleasent post rains mood...
Shivagange
THis weekend after a lot of past ditched plans, me and Chi decided to get our lazy butts to shivagange. It was a fantastic ride on tumkur road and I finally felt like having streached my bike's legs. Ofcorse, before we got to get on my bike and leave, my and her mom had a lot of gyan to impart AND sulk despite the knowledge transfer session. After a 'blasting' ride of 20 minutes we reached Dabaspet where we had to wait a good 40 minutes before the other couple came trotting along. Then on we took to the village road, and naturally the speed became an idle pace, the helmet came off, and the smell of fresh earth was so inviting, almost to the point of wanting to bury onself in it. We parked our bikes at the foot of the hills and started our climb. We went to the two temples on the way and as we we climbed upwards, my stength gave up and every thing went bright and blank. I had to rest awhile and let the blankness clear. When we looked up, it was a long climb and we decided to cut it short to about midway where there was is varalkal thirtha, a small temple with a water hole in it.
When we stopped next, near a small stall for some fresh lime and butter milk, we realised that we had gone beyond the point and that the top was almost near by. What we didnt realise though was that this was the best and most challenging part of the climb. With a dog for company we started off towards the rest of the climb. The inclination is almost 80 degrees and thankfully there is a iron railing all along. It was a thrilling climb till we reached the top. The top is like a plateau with a temple. THere is also a carved bull at one of the corners with just a few centimeters of space for us to go around it. After going around the basava (bull) we sat on the plateau with the wind in our face and enjoying the majestic view from the top and the dog keeping watch over the monkeys. Trust you me, these monkeys are a BIG threat. After an hour or so, we started our descent. The dog parted with us at the stall and in a few minutes we were attached by a monkey. Fortunately, another bunch of guys came along and its attention, rather attack, was shifted on them.
We came to varalkal thirtha. Its hidden in a deep cave and going around the god is quite an adventure with slipping and falling being a very likely possibility. Behind the god is this small deep hole into which you can reach down for water. The belief is that only the pure at heart can reach the water as the water level constantly varies. Well...only the 2 of us guys could reach it, and I shall let you make the conclusions. :-)
From the temple, a few minutes down hill and we were back on flat land. After a visit to a kolaku kola (dirty pond) nearby we headed back to banglore, bidding good by to our slower counterparts. We soon were zipping back home and in an hour or so were back.
One place down, many more to go...
When we stopped next, near a small stall for some fresh lime and butter milk, we realised that we had gone beyond the point and that the top was almost near by. What we didnt realise though was that this was the best and most challenging part of the climb. With a dog for company we started off towards the rest of the climb. The inclination is almost 80 degrees and thankfully there is a iron railing all along. It was a thrilling climb till we reached the top. The top is like a plateau with a temple. THere is also a carved bull at one of the corners with just a few centimeters of space for us to go around it. After going around the basava (bull) we sat on the plateau with the wind in our face and enjoying the majestic view from the top and the dog keeping watch over the monkeys. Trust you me, these monkeys are a BIG threat. After an hour or so, we started our descent. The dog parted with us at the stall and in a few minutes we were attached by a monkey. Fortunately, another bunch of guys came along and its attention, rather attack, was shifted on them.
We came to varalkal thirtha. Its hidden in a deep cave and going around the god is quite an adventure with slipping and falling being a very likely possibility. Behind the god is this small deep hole into which you can reach down for water. The belief is that only the pure at heart can reach the water as the water level constantly varies. Well...only the 2 of us guys could reach it, and I shall let you make the conclusions. :-)
From the temple, a few minutes down hill and we were back on flat land. After a visit to a kolaku kola (dirty pond) nearby we headed back to banglore, bidding good by to our slower counterparts. We soon were zipping back home and in an hour or so were back.
One place down, many more to go...
The flow of Internet radio
I had been wanting to buy world space for sometime now. The most important reason being the 24/7 western classical, jazz and trance excusive stations. It was a paradim shift for me when I was introduced to internet radio stations. Now I have dropped my worldspace plans and as the Internet serves one more of my needs, my support and belief in next generation networks becomes even more stronger. Lucky for me, I am part of the team bringing about this transformation.
Songs that move a nation
I was born at a time when there was no cable TV, there was a lone channel, Doordharshan, the government run national channel. As such, it was a channel with little ads, with the aim being not to make money but to provide entertainment at the same time enrich the nation, to bring it tgether and instill the flare for bringing the nation forward.
One of my favourite songs that was aired was "Milay sur mera thumhara", when our voices unite...It had some of the most popular stars of that time singing this one phrase, in various languages. It was a beautifully composed and presented song, built around this simple meaningful phrase. There are lots of such patriotic songs in all languages. These are songs that move a nation, which have an impact. In this time where our nation is sold by corrupt politicians, multi-nationals treating us as 'cheap labour' and our strong intilligent youth running away to other nations, the same who once took our freedom, will these songs have any impact? Do we need to play them more often than ads or do we make it commercial, re-mix it, strip it of emotions and make them in-comprehendable words and play it on Independence day and dance like drunk maniacs...or just bury them so that they rest in peace with their composers...
One of my favourite songs that was aired was "Milay sur mera thumhara", when our voices unite...It had some of the most popular stars of that time singing this one phrase, in various languages. It was a beautifully composed and presented song, built around this simple meaningful phrase. There are lots of such patriotic songs in all languages. These are songs that move a nation, which have an impact. In this time where our nation is sold by corrupt politicians, multi-nationals treating us as 'cheap labour' and our strong intilligent youth running away to other nations, the same who once took our freedom, will these songs have any impact? Do we need to play them more often than ads or do we make it commercial, re-mix it, strip it of emotions and make them in-comprehendable words and play it on Independence day and dance like drunk maniacs...or just bury them so that they rest in peace with their composers...
Bhai
Yesteray evening I managed to get out of office and also get someone to go to a movie with me. Both occuring together is quite a rarity. Went to Forum.
Oflate this place has become quite a pain to go to. The traffic outside, the people packed inside, the crowd outside the theater door, the security rules, the pain of keeping your helmet in some corner in the ground floor to go to a movie on the 4th floor, and leaving all "inflamable" things including smoke pack with the security, and paying an obscene amount of money for front row tickets with the speaker blaring away, the a/c being toooo cold, the booking of tickets some 10 days in advance...It's kind of becoming mindless. Sometimes, rather most times, I think in the name of progress and easy lifestyle, we are becoming less happy...
The movie was about following Gandhi's principles and all that. It was shot quite well with a different outlook and some day-to-day examples and all that. Would I follow it, no, I have never been a fan of Gandhi. But, it was nice to see a different prespective and a change in story narration.
This is the second movie where they are trying to get the people of India a message, a movie with not just sex and love but also a 'moral of the movie'. The striking thing was the use of radio as a means of reaching out to people in both the movies, the other movie being rang de basanti. FM has in a way takenover TV. But then, with the RJs in demand and a dirth of good ones, quality of the shows has come down significantly, and so has the language, with the aim of mass appeal and political appeal, a mix of english and local language usage which is quite jarring to hear at times is making radio not too appealing I feel. But, for now, we can re-write the song "Video killed the radio" to "FM is killing the video".
Oflate this place has become quite a pain to go to. The traffic outside, the people packed inside, the crowd outside the theater door, the security rules, the pain of keeping your helmet in some corner in the ground floor to go to a movie on the 4th floor, and leaving all "inflamable" things including smoke pack with the security, and paying an obscene amount of money for front row tickets with the speaker blaring away, the a/c being toooo cold, the booking of tickets some 10 days in advance...It's kind of becoming mindless. Sometimes, rather most times, I think in the name of progress and easy lifestyle, we are becoming less happy...
The movie was about following Gandhi's principles and all that. It was shot quite well with a different outlook and some day-to-day examples and all that. Would I follow it, no, I have never been a fan of Gandhi. But, it was nice to see a different prespective and a change in story narration.
This is the second movie where they are trying to get the people of India a message, a movie with not just sex and love but also a 'moral of the movie'. The striking thing was the use of radio as a means of reaching out to people in both the movies, the other movie being rang de basanti. FM has in a way takenover TV. But then, with the RJs in demand and a dirth of good ones, quality of the shows has come down significantly, and so has the language, with the aim of mass appeal and political appeal, a mix of english and local language usage which is quite jarring to hear at times is making radio not too appealing I feel. But, for now, we can re-write the song "Video killed the radio" to "FM is killing the video".
I hate crows!
My office parking is pretty sad. There is no sheltered parking, and what makes matters worse is this other small company in the same campus has spent a bit of money and got shelter for the employee's vehicles. It's just too alluring for us and I usually tend to park my bike there, I do care about my bke's color fading and even more about the fuel evapourating under direct sun. Yestarday the security guard turned me away from there with a very kind word to tell my company to provide shelter if I needed one.
And yes, you guessed it right, the stuppid crows had a field day practicing to shoot shit - on my bike. I almost had a heartattack seeing my bike last evening. Today as I was cleaning my bike, I was telling my mom, how I wished all the non-veg people started to eat crows instead of chicken and help us bikers...
And yes, you guessed it right, the stuppid crows had a field day practicing to shoot shit - on my bike. I almost had a heartattack seeing my bike last evening. Today as I was cleaning my bike, I was telling my mom, how I wished all the non-veg people started to eat crows instead of chicken and help us bikers...
Monday, September 11, 2006
fast track
Oflate I seem to be doing nothing much but still I am out of time to do anything. I love to read, to write, to sing, to play the violin, to pray, to make love, to meet my sweet heart, to get up early in the morning, to concentrate, to stay fit, to look good, to travel, to organise and a lot of other things. I just can't seem to find a heart to do anything. Today I make a resolution to take control of life and get it in order. This page will now on see how I am growing along with the usual thoughts on every day things that happen with me...
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
Thursday, July 27, 2006
Sometimes, I wish my fingers were doing something else…
All I do everyday for a living is sit and type something mundane, boring and utterly craft less. I wish I was giving my fingers something else to do.
Probably hold a brush and use it to give fine strokes, delicate lines, confident sketches, and create a lovely painting…
Maybe hold a chisel and tap with a hammer, sometimes hard, sometimes soft and at times almost a feather touch, and create a magnificent sculpture…
Or hold a bow and strum the strings, with long pure notes, short crisp strokes an amalgamation of harmonies, and create a soothing melody…
Perhaps hold a pen and carve on paper, emotional poems, meaningful stories or blissful soul rendering songs, and create a masterpiece of literature…
If nothing else, hold the flowers born of this Earth which, I dug deep to reach her womb, planted seeds of her own creation, and nursed them to bloom…
I wish my fingers were doing anything else but typing on this keyboard!!!
Probably hold a brush and use it to give fine strokes, delicate lines, confident sketches, and create a lovely painting…
Maybe hold a chisel and tap with a hammer, sometimes hard, sometimes soft and at times almost a feather touch, and create a magnificent sculpture…
Or hold a bow and strum the strings, with long pure notes, short crisp strokes an amalgamation of harmonies, and create a soothing melody…
Perhaps hold a pen and carve on paper, emotional poems, meaningful stories or blissful soul rendering songs, and create a masterpiece of literature…
If nothing else, hold the flowers born of this Earth which, I dug deep to reach her womb, planted seeds of her own creation, and nursed them to bloom…
I wish my fingers were doing anything else but typing on this keyboard!!!
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Garden of Mine...
Of late my garden has gone to the weeds, courtesy, the lazy me. But then, my garden has natural plants, developed by nature herself, which unlike the puny artificially developed advanced technology plants, don’t have much of a problem growing amongst weeds.
Today evening I went home and opened my bedroom window to let in some fresh air. Along with the fresh air came this wonderful fragrance that instantly filled my mind and I was elevated to a different level altogether. The source of this eternal fragrance, an eternal flower, said to have been brought down to earth from the heaven by Krishna for his wife Subhadra. The tale also says that the plant leant into the neighbor’s compound and all the flowers would fall into the neighbor’s compound, (where none other than the lovely Radha lived). My tree was also kind of like that a few years back but then thankfully now it has corrected itself and the blooms are on our side of the compound.
As I sit now at my comp, in my room, with the lovely smell pervading my room, I remember the day I walked into a classmate’s room 6 years back, a room filled with this all pervading divine essence of “Parijatha Pushpa”. The next day I got a small plant for my garden in hopes of my room becoming heaven. Now it is. Mother Nature has been kind to me. This is my thanks to her.
Thursday, January 05, 2006
Rangashanakar...atlast...
This was my first Kannada play and the second play I am attending in my life, the first one being an English play by pritam - a wonderful play about an actor - anyways this was also my first time at rangashankara. (I know I am terrible, only 1 play in my 23 years of existence is not a pardonable sin! Hopefully I can make up for all the losses). The theater doors were shut at sharp 7.30 and everyone had switched off their mobiles. That’s one thing I like about the theater, they enforce you to be punctual and non-distubant (mobiles force you to, I can understand). The play was a comedy, about a pauper fooling his landlord into giving him money. It was a nice hour long play but the best part was the clever usage of English in Kannada sounding tones. Its amazing how late T.P.Kilasam was able to conceive such marvelous plays. Well...as they say all good things come to an end (I thought all things come to an end…) and the play ended too. And I came back home at 9, no hassles with auto drivers or such things. What can I say, working inside the city and having your own vehicle has its advantages... :). Ok folks, play has ended now time for me to say good bye...till my next blog, c u...
my comp is here! finally!
Got my comp finally today. After a wait of almost 2 days, my comp was delivered at 5 in the evening, Next step setup and all that. Well I have to go at 6, have a play to attend! I don’t want to be late!! Thankfully, my system admin came soon and really really quickly configured my comp! So I managed to get out at 6.05, rushed through traffic on the way picking up my sister and reached rangashankara (the name of the theater) at 5 minutes to 7. Only to realise that the play was at 7.30! Well... got a cuppa of coffee met a lot of my sister's gang of girls... (Well I don't want to call them "Married and almost aunts" ;)). And we enter the staging area and I am conveniently put in the middle of the women folk! Thankfully the theater is really strict about maintaining silence and all that. Thank god for small mercies I was spared the torture of gossip! Ok enough cribbing lets move on to the play...
At the end of all this... I have a great comp, brand new Dell with 17" TFT monitor, 3.8Giz P4, 80GB Harddisk, 2GB RAM ( I know its almost better than a server ) DVD drive and a 1Gbps LAN :) ofcorse the ultra fast 24 hour net access is a boon but then no messenger or blog sites... :(
At the end of all this... I have a great comp, brand new Dell with 17" TFT monitor, 3.8Giz P4, 80GB Harddisk, 2GB RAM ( I know its almost better than a server ) DVD drive and a 1Gbps LAN :) ofcorse the ultra fast 24 hour net access is a boon but then no messenger or blog sites... :(
First team meeting with the new team
Well the focus of the meeting was to discuss productivity. It was a really nice meeting involving a lot of discussion on what each term is, (well, not to be rude of anything but as an impartial statement, now I have a boss who makes us talk instead of just talking himself and asking us to talk too…) analysis involving the entire software development cycle. Not just for the project but also in terms of features, bugs and its rectification, effects of reviews and a lot of factors other factors was well explained. So instead of pure numbers, we got to see what could be done to improvise on the software quality, a good learning experience...
A new day has come...
New day of the year, a new office, well what can I say, I am feeling lucky! :) A great way to start the New Year. As I take my bike out there is this overwhelming sense of finally getting to take my bike to office. Once I get to office it’s a slow work filling out forms and all that. Nothing eventful. Lunch was good though and since I am no longer under mom's pressure to eat crazy amounts of rice, I can feed on veggies and chapattis :). Post lunch I met my manager, a very sweet Kannada Brahmin guy, total banglorean. Simply adore him. Here is some one who does not each cake as it may have egg and who gets up at 5.30 everyday! ( In the morning! ) Simply simply good. Not to overlook the fact that he is really well dressed and very much in shape! That apart, met my team, mostly banglorean; a very small team too all huddled up in 3 cubicles next to each other. Felt instantly at home! The day was a quite one with not much to do. Left at 5 and home in fifteen minutes! Simply too good! Well... that was day one
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