RandomLogic

Race is on

2011-11-02T23:21:00.002+05:30

While most of my fellow Indians are recovering from a possible overdose of the "Who let the Dogs out"? song in their beds on a fine Sunday morning, a bunch of folks wearing tight to very tight spandex clothing are getting ready to put out a spectacular show on ORR, probably one of the best that this desolate road could ever see. It's the HCCC5 race day and this time it's team road race.

For too long I avoided the thought of racing because of various reasons. Finally decided to give it a try and see how it goes. This involved three types of conditioning: Mind, body and the soul (the bike). Convincing myself to participate in the race and to overcome the fear of crashing and fear of loosing was a bit of mind game. Staying in good physical condition is another important aspect. With TFN in mind I started working out regularly. So, I am relatively in good shape. The only thing left is the bike and two days before the race I got it fixed at The Bike Affair shop.

On all the weekend rides I used to start without eating anything. This time I read some articles and this must be a crazy idea but bought a chocolate milk shake the night before and store it in the fridge and woke up at 2AM and gulped it down like a mind controlled zombie. The idea here is to have surplus energy sources within stomachs distance and make sure that my stomach is not depleting me of the required energy by trying to digest it while racing. Hence the ungodly hour. Woke up at 4:30AM again and got ready and drove to the race venue. My guide about racing is Sreekanth. So, I told him about my intentions to participate in HCCC5 and he gladly accepted me into "Origin Racing" team.

It's a pretty simple course. 40KM is the whole distance with a U-turn at 20KM. Within minutes everyone assembled at the start point and so it started. The moment I was so excited about is here. Since it's a race there is no point of saving some energy. I had to go all in. Within 5KM into the race I saw the first attack by our team mate Sreedhar. Marvelous sight. It was the birds flying from the tree after a loud sound or something. All the fastest riders of the club set off from there and the distance between me and them kept on increasing. I kept on moving forward trying to catchup with one guy at a time. It takes time and since it was my first time I didn't know much about drafting or I could have saved more energy. Finally I found a group that is more or less at my pace which consists of Gokul, Sandeep, Krishna & Maninder. I kept on checking my HR in between and it was slowly settling down to good numbers after some 30KM into the race. Before I knew the end point was in sight. I saw a bunch of cars and people standing and before I could even realize that it was the finish line, Gokul sprinted away. I completed the 40KM in 1hr13min15sec (official time). As per my garmin I took 1hr11min44sec and came 15th in the group. It was fun and quite an experience.

Garmin data: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/125126951

Wordless

2011-07-06T01:41:00.000+05:30

In the process of developing "old ears on young body", which I also call as nonstop music listening, I came across some of these gems which convey millions of things without having to say a word.

Shampoo Suicide by Broken Social Scene.

From my most favorite band and the favorite album "You Forgot It In People", this song is simply mesmerizing. Though many lyrics sites contain some "vocabulary" I was never really able to correlate those words to the sounds which sound more like "witches whispering some VooDoo spells". Popular reference to this song is from the movie Half Nelson starring Ryan Gosling.

Bustelo by Ratatat

Interesting name for a band. This one is from their self titled album and is mostly instrumental. Only regret is that this one is very short. Before we start to realize what tricks this one is playing with our senses this track gets over :)

Intro by The XX

This happens to be the intro to the self titled album from Brit band The XX. Read somewhere that most of the vocals and sounds on this album sound dreamy and low because these guys recorded the album in someones basement and tried to avoid any complaints from neighbors.

Meet Me In the Basement by Broken Social Scene

A charged up track by BSS from their most recent album. Video embedded is by a fan and is pretty interesting.

Latika's Theme by A.R.Rahman

From the Oscar winning movie and the music director comes this soulful version. Rahman is always amazing for the variety of instruments he uses and the sounds he could get with them. Listening to this track is just like watching a hot chocolate fudge melt in front of you on the other side of a glass wall. We really want to have it all for ourselves but we can't.

Just Look Up by Joe Satriani

From the guru of guitar and "The Teacher" comes this soul bending guitar heavy instrumental. Joe Satriani and Daviid Gilmour have the ability to convey emotions through their guitars.

Overture 1928 by Dream Theater

I believe that we are all part of The Matrix without any of us realizing it. I can't come up with any other perfectly logical explanation as to how John Petrucci and Mike Portnoy can play like this. Just like pre-programmed machines without missing a single note or beat.

La Salida de Lima by Gustavo Santolalla

From the movie based on the most read diary (Get a life if Bridget Jones strikes your mind) of one of the the most iconic, rebellious and legendary figure "Che Guevara" . Gustavo Santaolalla won Oscar for his work in this movie. All other tracks from this movie "The Motorcycle Diaries" are equally good.

Sit back ... relax ... and enjoy!!

I alone

2011-07-04T15:56:00.002+05:30

Pedal up and pedal down that's as simple as it gets. That summarizes any ride in the twitter era with in the character limit imposed. But this Saturday i ended up performing the sacred ritual for 150KM. I have no intentions of contributing to the six billion + population but just in case the judgement day occurs and I had to bear the tag of Adam-II then I need to do this "get off the bum and give it a break routine" to control the temperature in critical areas of the body for the sole reason of building a human army to fight against the Skynet and the T-1000 series.

On all these long rides the primary thumb rule is "listen to your body". When it seeks a break stop and stretch! When it's in good shape push yourself! When it's hungry feed yourself. If we plan rides properly and take food and breaks at regular intervals then the human body works just like a machine and can produce amazing results. But, I was wronged. I thought I could do it all , everything and all by myself. Though it was a group ride I missed Sunil & Murali at the BHEL road as I slept at 1:30AM the other night and woke up at 4:30AM, which was a perfect example of butterfly effect that dates back to some of the actions performed some months ago at work. Being unfamiliar with the route I loaded it on Garmin on started tracking after some 10Km in to the ride and rolled on. Road was very scenic and green. Weather is pleasant and lots of clouds yet no rains (sounds like trouble for our agrarian economy). I was cruising comfortably in 25-30KMPH bracket (funda here is not to spend all you got too early). After some 60K into the ride I felt the need for a small break. Stopped at a small tea stall in a village. I don't see the shop owner but couple of old people sitting and drinking their tea and eating something. One of them looked at me with that empty stare and we played the "who blinks first" for a while and I asked him for the shop owner but he was still hell bent on winning the game and continued with the empty and "I see you" kind of stare. Creepy I though and zoomed off. The first official break comes after another 10KM on an empty road. Some almonds + dates and water. Started riding again and saw no signs of the Edupayala temple, our destination, even after 90KM into the ride. Finally a kid showed me a shortcut and it was kind of a bad road for the road bike. After another another 10K I reached a small road that turns left with a board saying 7KM to the temple. Here is where the speedometer starts feeling the effect of gravity. I couldn't go beyond 10KMPH as the road was too bumpy.

Reached the temple, spoke to Sunil on phone to realize that that they have left the place after spending some 45 min there. I had pooris for breakfast and filled water bottle and started back. It's all uphill from here. Now the theory of body as a perfect machine comes into play. With little sleep the previous night and having ridden 100KM the mind plays all sorts of games here.

I am moving slowly ... is the pressure low in the back tyre? .. looks like it, but I am not carrying the mini pump.

Sound of something falling, nothing that I could recognize! May be a stone.

Palms pain a little, let me stop and stretch a bit

My back hurts, let me lie down for a while.

I feel some sort of pain in my left knee ... may be it's the cleats or am I pushing too hard??

It took me a while a to realize what's going on. I am alone. All alone unlike before. Now is the difficult part of riding alone and climbing all the way back to Hyderabad with the mind playing all sorts of games. In a group it's always different. There are many other things, conversations to keep one's mind occupied. But now, every little detail goes through a detailed analysis in mind and finally it gets magnified on and on. Finally I gave up. After riding 150KM I took an auto and came back to Hyderabad. Once in a while I should be riding alone to see where "I" stand. Interesting ride that gave me a chance to introspect lots of things.

Here is the elevation profile of the route from Hyderabad to Edupayala

Change

2011-04-24T14:13:00.004+05:30

Not a fan boy here but well, the word "change" reminds us all the remarkable and trademark campaign of Pres. Obama. But long before we knew about elections and democracy the concept behind the word change was put in practice by a great man. It's by far the most valuable and great example of "change" known to mankind. Attaining perfect enlightenment from being a prince by the greatest spiritual leader and Supreme Buddha of our age Lord Gautam Buddha was the perfect change.

What sounded like music to ears once often brings out the expressions like "what's that noise?" now-a-days. It may not always be a direct result of lack of interest in that particular theme but things around us have changed forcing us to re look at old things with a newer perspective or sometimes look at completely different themes that were once thought as irrelevant. It is this simple and trivial thing that led me to this random notes. Well, as pointed out by a friend of mine "We are no longer young". As long as we are young at heart and "keep the doors of perception open" change is always welcome and is progressive.

Status quo/equilibrium needs to be disturbed very often for high metabolism species like me.

I couldn't keep my gait straight
I was a contemporary dancer of cyclist sorts
Always Eager to show off my "shocks"
Dirt and the mud had their say on me for the "trails" I choose
I was falling in love with all of it

This too shall pass and change is the only constant I have known

I fell for the gush of wind on my face
those long and empty roads couldn't deter me
coz for too long I chased my fellow "roadies"
on a heavier MTB carrying an even heavier me!

Introducing (feeble way) my new road bike.

Tales from the West

2011-03-23T16:16:00.000+05:30

Episode#1

"Stupid Fu***rs go and stand there".
......
Was that for us?
.... Ya, I think so.
What did we do to deserve that?
....umm ... Ikkada anthe (here it's like this usually)

She turned back again and I was like the other counter is occupied. Again she uttered something similar to the first line. "Thanks, and same to you" was my response with a smile. She murmured something but I didn't care.

God, I love this place. It's full of life topped with human emotions of all sorts that are being expressed at will. This was my first encounter with "locales" in SFO. I would be proud to sport that I "heart" SFO logo on a big white tee. I loved the every moment I spent in this city. I was on a trip to Castro Valley from Sunnyvale with a friend of mine and I insisted that instead of taking the car we go by local transport. We took the caltrain to Milbrae and switched to BART from there. While I was in queue to buy the tickets the old lady in front me got all charged up the very moment she held the vending machines panel. May be there was something attached to it that made her go crazy all of a sudden. When it was my turn I made sure to check who it was standing behind me in the queue. In case he or she is a WWE player or something like that I am in for some serious trouble. Lucky enough for me, the hidden anger burst trigger mechanism attached to the vending machine didn't work for me.

We were on the train and came a station and some were boarding the train and some were getting off. All of a sudden one gentle man showed us one of his fingers. hmm..... He wasn't wearing any nail polish nor was it the ballot day to pose like the Bachchans, Is he some sort of hand model or a wedding ring model or something? May be it's a BART thing in SFO. I thought of doing the same but realized that others on the train would mistake me for Wolverine or some other character with long nails as I didn't cut them for over a month now.

Episode#2

Wind from Pacific is chilly. Heck with the sweater, I want to feel the weather. Unfortunately I don't have the body nor the hair like this dude. Else I would have removed my tee. Ok, lost in the "beauty and masculinity" of Golden gate bridge I was walking slowly.

Then came the "pchhhhhhhh" (really loud smooch) sound. Right next to me were two gentlemen posing for a picture in each others arms. A passionate picture I would say. This sort of PDA happened to be a first for me. I am not against people of any sexual orientation. Everyone has their right to be like they want and PDA of any sorts between any type of couples should be treated the same before one raises some objection.

By the way this place isn't called the Gay capital of the world for no reason.
I love SFO for it gives it's people the freedom of expression.

Episode#3

Trust me I won't let you fall from the bike. There I was trying the bike frame size with my both legs on the pedals and being supported by a lean, fragile and beautiful female employee in a bike shop. Somehow I trusted "her" and sat on the bike. This part of the story includes me hunting for the right bike for the right price in the whole of bay area. I climbed the mountains, walked the streets and stared at the endless options of bikes of various colors, sizes and shapes in the streets of California like a soldier on a mission until I saw this beauty

Many people told me that when you meet the right person you will know that he/she is "the one" for you. Well I instantly knew and felt that we were destined to be together by divine intervention of all sorts when I saw this bike. Cutting the BS, it was the right bike at the right price that fits my budget. Rode few miles which I conquered on foot earlier (the route from caltrain station at Atherton to Go Ride bicycles on El Camino Real) with the help of this awesome app named MapDroyd for which all that I need was an android based phone with GPS option. I can pre load the maps that I can use to navigate offline. It's fairly simple, load the maps in some wi-fi connection and when there is a need to navigate just open the app and press "My location" and it gives us the exact location on the map and from there it's all mere mortal navigation skills that come to the rescue. Helpful app for tourists!

So, coming back to the bike thingy, I was in CA, beautiful weather, good roads with bike lanes and the picture of Terminator (ex-governor) in mind, was ready to clock some serious miles until I came back to my senses realizing that folks here drive on the opposite side of the road at amazing speeds in cars bigger than the size of some countries in the world. No cycling here for me :(

Fairly disappointed came to back to the hotel and spent some nights with the shiny and virgin metal beauty sharing some space confined by four walls under the same roof. I guess the time spent together would help me "understand" my partner better. Man, I sound like some 7 year old girl jumping with joy after receiving her first barbie!. I boxed this bike and brought this to India on a plane. HBC, wait for me.

Episode#4

Time as per my native time zone I don't know. As per the transit stop time zone no clue either. What about the local time zone? I think it's 7PM. A plane full of kids crying as if it was the end of the world and delayed by three hours with no sleep the night before that's what it would feel like I suppose. Here I am in Chicago airport. Intimidating, look at this big big and really big airport. From the roof I can do that bungee jumping stuff. May be this is what USA is all about. Everything super sized. Interesting I thought.

These are some of my experiences from my month long trip to USA.

Storytellers

2011-02-11T12:30:00.001+05:30

Some people know how to tell stories and make them really interesting. Check VH1 Storytellers to see what I mean. It's good way to catch these artists in their candid mood and share their mind and their inspiration behind few songs. Here is a link to an episode by "The Smashing Pumpkins". One of the greatest alternative rock bands of all time and their last show with all original band lineup.

Frightened Rabbit

2011-02-07T22:36:00.000+05:30

Recently got a chance to feast my ears to some of work by the band named "Frightened Rabbit". It's an indie rock band from Scotland and I got a chance to listen to two of their albums; The Midnight Organ Fight and The Winter of Mixed Drinks . I was quite impressed by their lyrics and music they created. Creative side of people always beats my rather absurd but content conclusion of saying that "nothing can beat this". I am happy to be wronged again and again.

Usually tune and expression of some sort of emotion through lyrics are the two things that I look for in music. When you listen to something like "Shampoo Suicide" by Broken Social Scene the lyrics are barely audible if there are any but it's the music that does a perfect 10/10 job. This song is just like sailing that part of river which looks calm outside but underneath carries strong currents. So, coming to the link between the rabbits and this post, try My Backwards Walk, tune is fantabulous and to top that are the lyrics. I would rather say that all the songs by these guys are just like poetry in the form of music. An interesting point is the usage of strong language (I don't listen to hip-hop). I was talking to my fellow planetarian at the usual ungodly hour of the day on my lonely but short walk to home from office about this song. He enjoys some what similar music but except for the fact that his time machine crashed in the 70's and 80's impairing him to explore and enjoy the stuff called classics. Expression was as strong as it is now in those days also but the language was more subdued compared to now.

In this song the singer talks about him trying to forget someone but fails to do so. There are multiple references to that failure part in this song. Take for instance these lines

i'm working on erasing you
just don't have the proper tools

...or

i'm working hard on walking out
shoes keep sticking to the ground
my clothes won't let me close the door
these trousers seem to love your floor

...or

you're the shit and i'm knee-deep in it .

Amazing work. These are simple lines that we might easily come across in our daily life. Using these to express some complex phase is what makes it more interesting. Other songs from this album are equally good.

Sagar calling

2010-08-23T01:05:00.007+05:30

XX: Are you from Hyderabad Bicycling Club?
Me: Yes!
XX: Where are you headed to?
Me: Nagarjuna Sagar
……
XX: That’s difficult!
Me: We will see ;) See you at around 2PM near Sagar…

That was the brief conversation that I had with one of the GHAC members who were going to Nagarjuna Sagar on motorbikes.

Well, It's another ride but this time I graduated from metric system to English System. This turned out to be my longest ride so far. Preparing for this mentally sounded like a difficult task rather than completing it. Loaded with nutri bars, energy drinks (non-alcoholic) and electrolyte I woke up at 4AM even though both the alarms I set failed due to technical reasons. I woke up around the same time the day before for unknown reasons, though my friend says that it’s the problem with my serotonin and dopamine levels which shoot up very easily, and cleaned my bike at 5AM in the morning, which is a highly improbabilistic event good enough to drive Zaphod Beeblebrox’s infinite improbability drive machine for infinite amount of time. Took a bath and cooked a small magi and started at around 4:45AM from home and reached iMax in 10minutes. That was a good warm up and met Maninder on the way. Krishna, Deenanath and Srujan were already waiting at the venue and Sridevi and Sunil joined a bit later. Krishna who came to see us off couldn’t resist the temptation and finally decided to join us. All of us dumped our bags in the two cars and it took us some unpleasant 40mins to cross city limits. The roads were full of dust and so bumpy that I had to unlock from front suspension. Weather was kind to us till the first 80Kms and we stopped at around 9:30AM for breakfast at a small joint. Initial plan was to stop at some temple for breakfast which was supposed to be at some 10K from an intermediate point but after riding for some 15K Srujan and I realized that we have to ride for another 30K to reach. Srujan and I were starving by the time we reached the place and many thanks to Sridevi for the delicious Upma. I wish there was more of it for it was so tasty and also it’s my favorite dish. This break was a good one and we got a glimpse of one of the “64 kalas” from Krishna Sir and some inverse gyaan from Maninder about pre and ride day diet.
We started at 10AM and I loaded my pockets with 4 nutri bars and a bottle of energy drink. After some 20K we stopped for a brief while at the temple and as per some guy that we met there the road from there onwards for another 60K is a pretty easy and downhill task and all we gotta do is just sit and relax sort of thing without even pedaling. Well, with that in mind I kept on going scaling those small constant inclines for the next 60K in the typical mid day heat of this part of India. I stopped for every 10K and the last 10K was the most difficult part of the ride. I ran out of water, salts and even energy. I almost collapsed in the last 5K but luckily found a small water pit and just put my head into to bring the temperature down. From here we had to climb a small mountain worth some 5K. At this point Maninder and Sunil were ahead of me by some 20mins and Krishna at some 5mins distance. I found it really difficult to keep moving ahead and stopped after riding 158K. There I found our support vehicle and just dumped my bike into it and joined rest of the group at a hotel. After lunch all of us started back to Hyderabad in two vehicles and we reached KBR park at around 7:30PM. I rode another 3K and reached home.

That summarizes my first 100mile in a day and I took 8hr 12min at an average speed of 19.6kmph and clocked a 51kmph max speed. This ride put my physical and mental limits to test and I am sure that I crossed some of those preset barriers. Though a good bike matters (I was riding my cannondale F7 with slicks) "It was never about the bike"

Here is the route map with some interesting details from Sunil "The Superman's" GPS.

“Cycle fast and recycle the past!!” ~~Anon

My century ride!

2010-07-18T12:36:00.009+05:30

Finally I crossed the century mark in a day on my bike. Took me 6hr 6min to cover 110Km in two sessions. Started from KBR park and completed 3 loops around hussain sagar lake and came back to home. Had lunch and after an hour started again, but this time went towards express highway. Just with one water bottle and no companion I found it difficult to keep going but there was no option to quit either in the middle of a no entry no exit highway. Because of the recent showers and the drizzle in the morning I was fully covered with mud as I don't have fenders on my bike. Got into a duel with an auto rikshaw on tankbund road and I could outpace that guy for over a kilo meter, and yeah somebody said something about MTBs and speed :). Touched 53KMPH on a slightly downhill road.

Realized that wind always seem to go against me irrespective of the direction I am going. I should have worn those padded shorts gifted by a friend for I can't feel my bum even after 12 hours. On my way back for most of the time I was riding in standing position.

Finally it feels good to say that I achieved something that eluded me for so long and now I could comfortably say that "100 is a number, just a number".

Off-road biking

2010-06-16T17:13:00.004+05:30

Sound of your tyre slipping on sand on a turn ... your brain calls for you to slow down but your heart asks you to put in all that you got. That's right. I am talking about off road biking and I was on one couple of weeks ago. I pedaled for some 55K just to do that 5K bit of off road thing. I sure loved it and wanna do it again, again and again.

I was on this ride with HBC and this happened to be my first long distance one after a crash that costed me four stitches on my chin, couple of bruises and "still healing" right wrist. By now I learned to do most of the things with my left hand and may be this is a blessing in disguise to make another attempt to improve my "impossible to read" hand writing. I joined Ram and Rich on my way back from RAF station to Cantonment and the three of us were riding very fast in a file with me in the middle. We were spaced by couple of milliseconds and hoping that the guy in front of me won't apply brakes. These trails were used by farmers mostly and they are very narrow with bushes on both sides.

The thing with off road biking is that for most of the time I am off the saddle and my hands absorb all the shock that the road has to offer. One way to avoid getting hurt is to slightly bend ones hands so that the muscles take the shock instead of bones. Though my bike has a 100mm fork it wasn't of great use or may i need to adjust the preload tension. I switched to a new set of thin tyres for this ride thinking that it would be a complete city ride. Except for occasional slips on the turns these worked completely fine. These tyres doesn't instill enough confidence when I try to make my bike jump over some small rocks or speed breakers and alike. One gotta do this to understand why I do this :).

First ride with HBC

2010-02-15T18:17:00.002+05:30

A sudden burst of music from the speakers woke me up at 5 in this not so cold Saturday morning. I guess it was "The Sacred and Profane" by "The Smashing Pumpkins". I was careful enough to select the play list that would for sure wake me up while setting the alarm last night. My cousin, who kindly agreed to drop me at Kothaguda junction by 6AM, was not sure if setting the alarm on iPod to play songs instead of that annoying usual buzz is a good idea!

I got ready in 10 mins and started cooking a Chhotu Maggi for myself. Woke up my cousin and we were on the road with my bicycle in his car by 5:40AM. My baggage for the day includes a Helmet, two Snicker bars, hand gloves and a bottle of water (500ml). May be that should get me through the task that stands tall in front of me. We reached Kothaguda junction by 6:05AM and luckily I was the second person to reach the spot and soon two other riders joined us. Group leader briefed us about the route and within five minutes we started riding. I thought I could have a muffin but that sounded too heavy after the first bite and like somebody said "finish it or else we will feed it to the dogs" a street dog happily finished it in seconds.

This is my first ride with Hyderabad Bicycle Club (A bunch of like minded folks working their asses off on their bicycles!). It's a first for another rider named Rajesh, who like me bought a new bicycle just two weeks ago. Well, In my case I upgraded to a new bicycle. We were joined by Sunil Menon at Miyapur and while chatting with him (on the move) I swallowed in a big fly that was coming my way (It was still dark and hazy). Before I could figure out it's taste my brains involuntary reaction spit that out :( After Patancheru toll gate the roads were pretty much lightly occupied with us folks moving in a single file. I never thought that I would be riding like this. For a moment I felt that "I am part of those teeth gritting, heavily sweating elite cyclists". Hehe before I could come out of this dream I saw Sunil and folks sprinting and almost racing with an auto rickshaw. I am way off from the ability, skill and strength to perform such feats!! Within seconds I was alone on the road with Rajesh following me at a distance.

We reached Kandi and were guided by a curious onlooker to take a left turn saying that "chaar aur log is taraf gaye (four others went this way)". The road from here passes through many villages and we reached a Y junction without any signs or directions. Luckily we found a person speeding on his motorbike and guide us to Shankarpalli through ordnance Factory. We reached Shankarpalli by 9AM or so with a total ride time of 2hr40min covering 49.54Km with a max speed of 40.5K and an average speed of 18.5Km. Rajesh suggested that we should stop there for breakfast and we were back on the road by 9:30AM.

Hours of work in air conditioned offices makes me feel that summer has already started (may be it is in Hyderabad Avg. high temperature in Feb is 30-35C). The sight of empty roads with light greenery on both sides makes us feel good with an exception that the road seems to be going up! Yeah it's a grueling (not the Lance Armstrong kind of grueling but hard enough for us folks) ~25KM uphill from here till Gandipet. We stopped for every 40 mins or so for a water break or for a stretch and kept pushing through the hot weather. At times we even decided to get on the next empty auto or truck we could find but for some reason we didn't!

We covered the next 31Km (we entered the Express Highway from Gandipet and joined the Kondapur road near Gachibowli) in 2hr10min and I finished my two chocolate bars and two more liters of water on the way and had two idlies for breakfast. By the time I could find an auto to carry me and my bike back to home it was 1PM and I reached house in the next 30 minutes only to find that there was a power cut. Slept for another 30 mins and had a heavy lunch with my cousin.

Here is the route map for the trip.
View Larger Map

Next time I plan to start early and complete a 100KM with better timing and till then the motto is "Just Ride".

My New Ride

2010-02-03T00:24:00.008+05:30

Few days ago in an attempt to understand my bikes problems better I was trying to listen to the engine make some noises, moan, roar and whatever audible thing that it can generate keenly. I found some anomalies and asked

.....Can't you be more smoother?

there was a small pause and then it said ...."Try being me, an Engine".

Fair enough. To understand the perspective of others we often have to step into others shoes. But how can this be possible on this mother earth? Then came this great quote to my mind, or say it was the inspiration behind my figment of imagination. "The bicycle is a curious vehicle. Its passenger is its engine. ~John Howard". Well, I upgraded to a Cannondale F7 today and rode back 12kms in 46mins from the shop at 9:30PM. It's an awesome and familiar feeling. When I said that "I upgraded", I already own a Hero Octane which is two years old and soon i will be selling it off to a friend. Moreover I haven't been running since 5 months and not sure if I can be back to my normal pace soon because of various reasons. So a little (and a costly) motivation is needed to get back to shape. Along with the bicycle I got a tail lamp for safety during night rides, a bottle cage, gloves and a side stand along with a good quality lock. On my 12Km ride the chain slipped twice and i think that it needs some tuning.

Here is a snap of my new found love ....

My dearest sister wanted to go on a small ride on my bike and I was glad to know that she liked it very much and to the extent that even she decided to buy one!

So my time to get off my bum and ride some calories is here again!!

A trip to remember...

2009-12-13T23:04:00.014+05:30

Someone sometime back told me that experience is what we gain when we don't get what we want. It's true that we are always on the lookout for something ...

This time I was on my bike thinking of experiencing something very unique and great. We (vineets and I) planned to cover a great deal of southern India on bike. I was waiting for this very moment eagerly for months. Checking and double checking the same route that I drew connecting some green spots (national parks) in Karnataka and Kerala again and again. We wanted this trip to be as random as possible to the point that we just had an idea of the destination in mind and nothing else on the way. This was supposed to be a 1200+Km route with many hills and forests to be covered over a period of 5 days. I got everything from sunscreen, antiseptic cream (considering the love of many insects towards me) and band-aid to bike spares, compact foot operated air pump and many more. Spent a great deal of time in search of the right gear as we planned to travel light and wise. In the process some shop keepers were curious enough to know the reason behind the weird specifications that I gave for particular items and were genuinely impressed by the goal and offered the products at discounted price.

The initial plan was to cover the entire range of western ghats starting from somewhere below Goa and drive till Trivandrum and be back to Hyderabad via Bangalore but we decided to drop the plan as Vineets "can't" drive a bike which forces us to use my 6 month old bullet on rainy, curvaceous and ghat roads of west coast, which is a big NO for me. I tried to take inputs from couple of friends about the route but was largely unsuccessful for reasons unknown even after offering some dinners and treats :(

Finally the day I was waiting for came and I met Ashok and Rama for dinner the day before and reached home by 10PM and started packing my bags. Nobody at home have a clue about my trip as I kept them in the dark till this very moment for reasons well known. Got up at 4:30AM and couldn't dare to go for my usual routine of a shower with cold water considering the temperature. I was on my bike at 5:55AM and there I saw my mom looking at me suspiciously from the front door. I told them that I had a train to catch and the bike thing that I was on at that very moment doesn't fit the equation. I had two bags and a small cover with air pump in it. I tied one bag and the cover with a rope to the bike and yeah... all great journeys start with a small step or a kick start in this case. First halt came within 15 mins from the starting point and I almost scared everyone on the road with a screeching sound of my bikes brakes applied really hard when I realized that one of the bags was falling off. I made a genuine attempt of locking the things down by making the knot really complex.

Within minutes I found myself on the roads empty express highway with fog limiting my visibility to 50 meters. It took me one hour to travel the first 50kms and from there I was racing against time with speeds over 90kmph comfortably. The roads were pretty much empty till Kurnool, a town some 220Km from Hyderabad which I reached in 3 hours. But the ride till 8AM was crazy. I couldn't control my legs shivering from the cold wind coming from the open fields. I stopped for a brief 15 mins at Kurnool for breakfast and the plan was to stop at Ananthapur for lunch at my old friends place and Bangalore for dinner with a friend. From Kurnool the roads were narrow and bumpy till Dhone. I reached a small village named pyapili at which the road turns into a two lane one with lot of traffic and suddenly I found myself on the ground in a split second with the 180KG Royal Enfield on right leg and a feeling of something heavy passing over a nails, which turned out to be the front tyre of some truck which struck me to the ground. I am still unable to recollect the exact set of events that took place for it all just happened in a split second. All I could remember was someone saying something about my really torn off torn old jeans which revealed right leg from knee to foot minus the skin and a torn jacket with a sprained and bruised back. I found myself shaking violently and trying to place all my bags properly on the bike again that's when some one in the crowd took me to a hospital nearby where the doc punctured my left hand with a TT injection and the right with an antibiotic and did the basic dressing required to cover the wound. It took me two hours to get out of the place with a fixed handle and broken tail lamp. The pain wasn't so bad, may be it was the painkillers or the adrenaline or my mad rush to make it to the next stage of planned trip with a dinner at the EOD. With my tail lamp and rear indicators gone I found it really difficult to drive through the crazy traffic heading towards Bangalore and I also skipped my lunch and settled down to two bars of chocolate.

I reached outskirts of Bangalore by 7:30PM and was at my friends place by 8:30PM. These guys were obviously panicked and shelved the plans for the trip temporarily or until the doc says that I am perfectly alright. What followed is the dinner and ice cream. Next days visit to the hospital was interesting, for I had to go through some really painful sessions of dressing and cleaning the wound which made me literally shake uncontrollably with pain and atleast one point during the whole session I thought that I would burst into tears. This forced "me" to reconsider my plans to continue with the trip from Friday as planned. Now I am spending my vacation Bangalore and met couple of folks from my school/college and previous work place. Things are interesting so far and I hope to ride back to Hyderabad on my bike atleast this weekend as opposed to the plan to staying here for two weeks.

This wasn't the experience I was looking for but I anticipated that something like this would happen based upon my jinxed past. I met with some or the other minor/major accident on every trip/trek that I went on in the recent past and when I met with this accident the first thing that came to my mind was "It's done".

So once again revisiting the golden lines: Experience is what we gain when we don't get what we want.

Love it is .....

2009-10-24T19:38:00.004+05:30

When I met her for the first time I wasn't very sure what to take from that very moment. For that matter it was all kind of blank for me. Many have told many things about this situation. But I thought that I would be able to survive without any experience of being in a relation before. Anyway I have been thinking about this very scene for a while and decided to go ahead irrespective of whatever happens. She was standing at some corner in a group of likes and I think she didn't even care to notice me. hmmm .... Like many even I did try to ask myself several times if what I was doing is right. Ya, there were moments i got jittery and flaky in this relationship but there is always scope for improvement and the question is will I be able to do all this without hurting her?

In the beginning it was all these dopamine and serotonin levels in my head messing with my ability to think rationally. Like every other case time took its own pace and I came to my senses with her in this relationship. I think at times I pissed her off or wasn't able to meet her expectations. People say that love doesn't know borders and doesn't expect anything blah blah ... but that's not practical. At times I was at the receiving end and sometimes there were others openly trying to flirt with my love while I was just standing there passively with million thoughts in my mind. But all of this doesn't matter at this very moment to me. I failed to live up to her expectations and take good care of her. There are rough patches and we have our own ways of getting over these and finally we parted for few days so that she can have her share of time to reconsider things. Today evening I was anxiously waiting for her at this very place we separated and man I couldn't believe my eyes. What I am looking at? Just like the first time I saw her, she was there standing tall with a bright and shiny smile but this time carrying the image of me in her eyes. I am going bonkers and feel like I am on top of the world. We took the road that was often traveled and this time none of us were afraid of the times that are ahead and "we" can take care of everything together. She smelt good, sounded good and looked good and most of all we looked good together.

Yes, I am back on my Thunderbird after the scheduled maintenance and am really crazy at this very moment looking at this beauty. The night is long and I know that we have to spend this one together on some lonesome highway!!

New Sounds

2009-10-12T13:41:00.009+05:30

While Apple and Palm are battling it out about “to fake it or not to fake it” I am busy screwing my ears with the data on my iPod. In the last two years I have tried out lot of new music styles and bands with inputs from various friends of mine and so thought that I should publish another playlist. Most of these songs are by relatively not so famous indie rock bands that prefer having a greater control on their music than some corporate houses. Starting with the list …..

Stars and Sons - You Forgot It In People – Broken Social Scene

I like this song so much that I wish I have an infinite loop of this song running in the background in my life. I could go on listening to this entire album for days and days and still find the music very fresh and young the very next day. People joke around saying that one in every 10 Canadians is a member of BSS.

Incinerate – Rather Ripped – Sonic Youth

Original version(Embedding Disabled)
I mentioned about this song Guitar sounds so addictive and vibrant here. At one point of time Nirvana used to fill the slots during the shows of these guys and later on Nirvana proved to be much bigger success.

Cause=Time - You Forgot It In People – Broken Social Scene

Another awesome number from BSS and this has some social element in it this time. Most of the lyrics of BSS songs don’t make much sense for they are so dreamy and abrupt but still they sound relevant at times.

Wild Gardens - Dancing With Daggers – Magneta Lane

This is another Canadian Indie rock band and an all female one. Apart from this I don’t know much about these “guys”. Yeah their music rocks!!

The Sound of Settling – Transatlanticism – Death Cab For Cutie

An indie rock band from U.S of A and one of the commercially successful ones out there. Their music is very melodic and feels good on ears.

I'll Bring The Sun - Idols Of Exile - Jason Collett

This guy also plays for BSS and runs his own group. Music sounds like a mix of pop, country and alternative rock.

Over And Over Again (Lost and Found) - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

Another indie rock from US and their sounds are very innovative and catchy. It’s hard to make out what this guy is singing but it hardly matters when one listens to the song.

Way Out - Show Your Bones - Yeah Yeah Yeahs

I like this song for the singer’s voice. She sounds very energetic and lively. Voices like these make me sing along at times :)

Stuck For The Summer – Isolator (EP) – Two Hours Traffic

One more Canadian Indie rock band and it’s a grey area for me too. I haven’t tried much of their music. In terms of music availability in India it’s all controlled by the major recording labels and it’s extremely difficult to see any of the records that I have mentioned so far in stores.

If You Were For Me – If You Were For Me - Rose Cousins

I think she is the non Jazz version of Norah Jones. Beautiful music and no complaints!!

In The Aeroplane Over The Sea – In The Aeroplane Over The Sea – Neutral Milk Hotel

One of the most successful Indie rock albums of its times and this song is a tribute to Anne Frank.

Apart from these regular songs I came across these mashups (mixture of 2 or more different songs)

Supermassive Mandy - DJ Sunderland – Supermassive Blackhole (Muse) + Oh Mandy (The Spinto Band)

It’s an amazing mixture of two different songs. This song changed my whole outlook towards mashups! Interestingly this song sounds better than the two originals …

I've Told Every Little Pumpkin – Mashed In Plastic - The David Lynch Mashup Album – 1979 (The Smashing Pumpkins) + I’ve Told Every Little Star (Linda Scott)

The Smashing Pumpkins is my all time favorite alternative rock band and not so surprisingly most of their work still sounds relevant or fresh. I am excited to know that they are working on their new album. The second song in this album is li’l known to me before and Lindas voice is simply mesmerizing and hypnotic.

Trip to Ananthagiri Hills

2009-08-26T17:37:00.010+05:30

What would a day with 15 complete unknowns turn into? If I were to answer this before 22nd of this month I would have said something like “Very unlikely to happen. I can’t think of the situations unless we were stranded on an island or taking part in some reality show”. .. well that’s the phunny side of me answering. But my new found roomie “Mr. Rama” made this happen and in a more exciting way than I imagined this to be.

One fine day Rama decided that he should enlighten some of the folks, in this dry land of Hyderabad to whom the idea of a lake is hijacked by the stink hole called Hussain Sagar, with his kayaking skills. So, he started off with a plan to kayak at a faraway place called Ramappa lake which is represented by a small blue dot on google maps representing the fact that water is/was there. But many folks from this group weren’t so upbeat as this takes half a day to travel and many of them had to return the same day because of the festival next day. Finally folks came up with this place called AnanthaGiri Hills which is at some 80Km distance from Hyderabad just some 12-18 hours before the start time. Amazingly lot of people turned up even with such a short notice. So Rama and I decided to carry some biscuits to eat and that’s pretty much the plan for the trip along with clothes.
View Larger Map

We started off at 6:30 in the morning and picked up Danika, Raman “the Organizer” and Preeti on the way. Many a times I faced this question “You sure about that bike? We still have plenty of space in the car? What if it rains? Etc etc”. But only a biker and a dog which sticks its head out of car window knows the answer to this question “why on the bike”? At around 7:30 we met other members of the group at Mehdipatnam and from there it’s just one big straight road (kind of). Initially I was a bit worried that I may not be able to catch up with the cars considering the facts that my bike is still new and I am trying not to cross 90kmph on Indian roads at least. There were 4 cars carrying 3 kayaks and throughout the journey I could find myself trying to keep up with at least one of the cars. I was constantly driving in the band of 80-90kmph and I love the experience.
To my amazement I find this side of the country pretty green. Probably it’s so because it rained just few days ago and imagine driving on a road with almost zero onward traffic and lush green fields on both sides of the road on a cloudy day!! As mentioned earlier the dog and the biker are the “Lucky Ones”. We stopped at Vikarabad for breakfast and I had idly along with coffee. The menu included Idly, dosa, and upma and many backed out of the last one just by looking at the shape that was served. It was some greasy white lump in a plate and the hotel people were selling it as Upma to folks.

Next stop is at our trek point which is just 10kms away from where we had breakfast. The road that leads to this place is also worth mentioning. There were lots of curves along with ups and downs. I like this kind of roads very much. The flyover that takes us from Begumpet to Nagarjuna circle in Hyderabad is one such example. As soon as I hit that one I try to drive at 80-90 always with some 40kmph speed limit sign staring at me. This is my first trek experience in and around Hyderabad. The weather was kind of humid but it was manageable. We climbed down from a small hill and reached the top of the next one. Lazed around for some time and came back without realizing that it was the same path that some of us took while climbing up. For a moment we thought that we were lost. I changed to shorts and man was that a mistake? There were lot of these bushes and insects at many places. I had few bruises but nothing bad. I think this Anoop guy had a big rash sort of thing developed on his arm because of a caterpillar that crawled. Rama stayed back with Danika and Preeti though. On top of the mountain some folks were displaying their inherent skills by climbing trees. Don't bother about the image next to this paragraph. That's supposed to be my creative side explaining the trek.

We went back to visit a temple which is some 5Kms away. From here we traveled to a small lake called Kotapally lake (which Rama claims that is named after him). It’s a small drinking water lake/reservoir sort of thing. Rama, Danika and Milind brought their kayaks and the first two were inflatable. What Milind got is a single seater pro stuff and he got all the gear including the suit to wear. Rama and I set out on a small round where he was explaining about direction control and force etc. I was wearing the life jacket as I can’t swim. Few of the team members were trying to highjack the kayaks in the name of “Pirates of Kotapally Lake” which was funny. Unfortunately I sprained my leg in the trek and to add to the misery I stepped on a broken glass inside the water and cut my leg. After some break I went on one more round of kayaking and this time it’s with Anoop who also can’t swim like me. Both of us were first timers at this. After sailing some 300-400 mts we reached a point where it became unmanageable for us to control the direction of the kayak because of the wind flowing in the opposite direction and I think we took some 40 mins to complete this trip. In the meantime Milind was explaining some pro stuff that he learned to other folks on his kayak. There was this routine called “Wet exit” where a person would try to free himself from the kayak in case it turns upside down. To me it looked like murder/suicide experiment. Tie a guy inside that and tumble the kayak and wait for him to escape. This may not be that important in a lake but in flowing water it would be very important. Anyway I am not the right person to comment about it.

Around five or so we started heading back and stopped at one place for tea. This time Rama accompanied me on my bike. Usually I wouldn’t bother about small potholes unless they are deep and wide. It’s Rama's turn to keep on cursing me for not slowing down whenever there is one.

That’s pretty much about the trip and I am eagerly looking forward to do anything like this.

Turn The Page

2009-05-27T15:51:00.022+05:30

.... enough of this flirting in this big and busy city. I say let's get serious outside? She replied with a bright shiny smile. No one is complaining ever since.

I am talking about my "Thunderbird" Motorcycle by Royal Enfield. Do I like it? Hell, I am in love with it ever since I lay my hands on this beauty. Was eagerly waiting to unleash the raw power of this machine. Hence decided to go on a trip to Srisailam on bike with couple of folks from work. But, everybody ditched in the last minute. I was hell bent on making this trip a solo affair despite of the 250Km distance that I have to cover to reach the place. But thanks to Kiran I changed the destination to Nagarjuna Sagar Hydroelectric Dam which is at some 160Km distance from Hyderabad. Both Srisailam and Nagarjuna Sagar have a Hydroelectric dam on river Krishna and at one place we have a Hindu temple and at the other we have Buddhist monuments.

View Larger Map

We planned to leave early on Saturday morning to avoid mid days heat. Temperatures reach 40+c easily in this part of the country. Packed my bag with biscuits and some other miscellaneous stuff to eat. Kiran reached my house on Friday night. I woke up at 4AM and got ready in 30 minutes and woke up Kiran. When you get up so early in the morning it takes some time to gain your senses and the best and fastest way to do that is to stand in the shower. Sudden rush of the cold water on your head is one hell of a feeling. We hit the road by 5AM and my usual daily alarm (set to 5AM in my mobile) started by the time we were about some 2KM from my house.

Kiran with the map in his hand is the guide for the day. We needed the direction to get out of the city and it took some 50-70 mins to cross DilsukhNagar and enter the Sagar Highway. There is this crazy road half constructed and with traffic coming ahead of us in the same lane. After some 20Kms or so we reached the actual highway with two lanes and without a divider. There were many of these buses rushing towards the city and those guys don't give a damn about two wheelers and I tried to play bluff sometimes and it worked.

Before entering a small town called Ibrahimpatnam we crossed a small dried up lake, which on the first look I thought was a farm land. Took some couple of snaps and started again. Kiran was getting restless about the speed of the bike. I was driving in the constant band of 55-65 KMPH. My bike is still pretty new and I covered some 1.5K Km so far. We are hungry by the time it was 7AM and we stopped at some roadside tea stall. There was nothing to eat and we settled down with a cup of hot tea and few biscuits that we brought along with us. We saw some temple being constructed on top of a small hill next to the highway and decided to visit that. This was fun because of the mud road that leads us to the top and also happens to be my first experience of this kind. View from the top of the mountain is awesome. Spent couple of minutes there before joining the road again.

We reached Nagarjuna Sagar by 9AM and had some heavy breakfast (applies to me) at the AP tourism restaurant. We found that a small gate behind the restaurant was open and we sneaked in. Climbed down some 1Km distance and we reached the reservoir water bed. This place looked really awesome with all those naturally eroded stones. Climbing all that distance wasn't an easy task and started again to visit the dam. Due to recent terrorist activities dam was off civilian limits. We stopped on the transport bridge which is exactly opposite to the dam and took few snaps.

We thought of joining the boat ride to Nagarjuna Hill where all the Buddhist monuments were placed but missed the boat by 5 minutes. The trips start at 9AM, 10:30AM and 1:30PM. We thought of visiting the nearby waterfalls named "Ethipotala falls" and be back by 1PM. This place is at some 15KM distance from Sagar Dam. By this time I emptied two some bottles of water and had few juices. It was getting really hot. There is some illuminated show during the night near the falls. We climbed down another small hill to reach the base of the falls. As per the local guide water from near by mountains accumulated during the rain forms a small stream and joins the river Krishna and this is alive throughout the year. Water is dirty for some reason and stinking badly. We rested in the stench for some team and again started for Sagar. We reached sagar at around 12:30PM and had few juices and lassi in a restaurant.

The boat ride started at 2PM and it is some 30 mins ride to the mountain. I never realized that Buddhism was so popular and so wide spread in India, especially in Andhra Pradesh. I read about it in books but watching all the monuments found from the excavation made during the reservoir construction is a different experience. It was during Sri Adi SankaraCharya's time Hinduism increased its influence at the expense of Buddhism and Jainism in India. We started from the Nagarjuna Hill (named after a southern Indian Master of Mahayana Buddhism) at around 5PM and it started to drizzle slowly. By the time we were halfway in the reservoir the wind grew stronger and so did the rain. After some point it became difficult for the captain to manage the boat with so much wind blowing. He immediately sailed the boat to the nearby small hill and waited there till the rain stopped. While I was trying to calculate the probability of me drowning to death few kids on the boat were discussing about Titanic movie. Perfect!!

We started from Sagar at around 7PM after one round of lassi at the same restaurant again. After we traveled some 10KM Kiran realized that he dropped the glasses somewhere which were mine. But I was in mood to go back looking for them. Taking small breaks for every 1 hour we reached Hyderabad in roughly 3 hours. From city outskirts it took lot of time for us driving through all the chaotic city traffic. I dropped Kiran at his place and reached my house by 12:30AM.

Covered some 410KMs in a day and it was a nice experience. My bike was full of dirt and I didn't wash it till now. No worries about it. I am sure that we (me and my bike) can come to terms about this.

... and about the title of this blog, it is from the first complete rock album that I've listened to. It's by Metallica from their cover album Garage Inc. Original song is by Bob Seger and talks about the social ups and downs of a rock star on the road. It's the first song that comes to my mind whenever I think of a "The Trip". No post is complete without the companion and here is mine ...

2009-05-15T10:42:00.001+05:30

What's happen'in'g

Well, apart from the usual junk TV shows about poll results and prediction pundits giving their gyaan weather is mostly sultry and depressing. For the best of both worlds I filled all my TV channels with non-news related shows with Movies and Music followed by cartoons topping the list. IPL is a big no-no for me. Sharukh Khan comes to my mind when I talk about IPL. Heard that recently he underwent a shoulder surgery. Of course why wouldn't he, after all these years of stretching his arms wide open and twisting/tilting his neck in the name of acting. I bet the next thing to go under the knife would be his neck. I believe that this guy is a mistake in Bollywood and Swadesh and Chak-de are few blunders in his career. Otherwise rest everything else fits the junk movie category perfectly. Imagine this fellow doing the role of Luke Kenny in Rock On. In the last concert that Luke plays S.Khan would be spitting out blood on the keyboard and stretching his arms wide open occasionally with eyes filled with water/tears then our heroine or someone would rush to him to wipe off the stains but this guy would be saying "heyeyeyey na-a-a-a-a" in his trademark style.

Our meteorological department announced that monsoon will be hitting AP this year by end of May (1 month earlier).Good and great news for me. I can't wait to run/jog in the rain in the KBR National Park or ride by bullet in the rain. That would be awesome, me thinks. I always wanted to do that but somehow it never worked out. Once I kept on playing in the rain like a mad boy in my school during after hours but my dad came looking for me and found me riding the bicycle in loops in the empty ground in rain. What happened next was a different story.

One advantage from running in the rain is that you can skip the bath and also one can't differentiate your sweat from rain drops. Music would be a good company but I personally prefer not to carry my iPod while running. One reason is that excess baggage is always not preferred and also to hear the music properly I end up increasing the volume there by screwing my ears. Perfect ending to a long jog in the rain would be a Dark chocolate temptation coupled with hot chocolate sauce !!Yummy!!.

Till then I wait for the rain and I strongly advice all readers not to waste their time replying about my SRK comments. I think it's not worth my time or yours ;)

2009-03-11T13:34:00.001+05:30

Young India

If not now then when and if not us then who?

Recently I attended a youth interaction meeting organized by one of the political parties in Hyderabad. Unlike the regular ones where truck loads of people will be hoarded in with incentives like Liquor, Food and Money this one was with full of volunteers who are young and energetic. Before I go into details about why I was inclined towards the "dirty politics" lets go through few FACTS.

- 74% of Indian population is under the age of 35-40 years.
- There are 12 MPs in parliament who fall in that age group.
- All of them happened to be the kin and clan of some leader already in politics.
- Two of the MPs are women. One is Priya Dutt as Sanjay Dutt can't contest in polls due to the criminal charges he is facing and Supriya Sule, daughter of Sharad Pawar as she doesn't have any "brothers".

So all this 74% hard working, young and tax paying (some of them) junta is represented only by a humiliating 2.2% MPs in entire parliament. Fantastic!!! The prime ministerial candidates of both leading parties is above 75. Older than the young and independent India they represent.

What is important for a young nation? Job creation, education and health care. In the boom time of economy china has created almost 11crore jobs and lost some 2crore due to recession where as India could create only 2crore jobs which are declining day by day. So what is my hard earned tax money doing? Of course when our main political parties are busy in wooing the voters by giving them anything and everything free how can one expect anything positive from them.

In the previous budget Govt. of India announced farm loan waiver package for most of the drought hit regions which amounts to 60000 crores. It will be a relief to farmers who are in trouble but how is this thing going to help anyone in long term apart from votes? Just by waiving off their loans doesn't ensure that the same condition isn't going to reoccur in future. For a country where almost 60% of the population is employed by agriculture and accounting to only 18% of GDP we have only a couple of agricultural clinics helping farmers on improving the productivity of the crops and on other issues. Compare the number of people working in agricultural areas to that of engineering or Medicine. Still many of the farmers depend on rain fall than the irrigation channels. One direct example is the reaction of the stock market to the monsoon schedule in India. Not only agriculture, just name the field and any man can pinpoint the pitfalls and short comings. But all of us would hesitate be part of any functionaries which have direct impact on all these things.

Just the announcement of election schedule is enough to lift India out of recession considering the amount of black money floating in the market. Some parties are asking for a "fee" of Rs. 5 Crores for a MLA ticket in state assembly and the candidate has to spend again some truck loads of money on liquor, gifts etc schemes to attract voters. This expenditure is treated as an investment which can be recovered from people through various means once he wins. This has become a vicious circle and it becomes extremely difficult and in many cases almost impossible for any one to win without being part of this system.

Here comes the meeting that I attended. It was organized by Loksatta (Peoples Power). This used to be an NGO headed by Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan (ex-IAS) officer which was instrumental in
- Empowering the people with the RTI act
- Key driving factor behind many electoral reforms such as
- Giving 100% tax exemption to funds donated by people
- Making the process of applying for voter id card easy through post-office
..... many others to mention.

For more details please visit:
- wiki: Lok Satta
- Wiki: Jaya Prakash Narayan

Many goals of this party are: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lok_Satta#Goals

With proven track record of Dr. JP as a NGO head and as a functionary of government earlier I couldn't find any other reason not to be part of this movement. Often one is faced by the question such as "Will my vote be of any use to them as there would be very few who would vote for such parties?" etc.

We don't vote for winning parties but we empower some party to lead us. I decided to contribute to the party by donating some money and spending some of my time in party activities in the coming month. Donations can be made here http://www.loksatta.org/Contribute.php

2008-12-09T17:02:00.003+05:30

My Favorite songs

Thought of sharing my interests though the blog. I already publish my listening patterns through the last.fm Scrobbler here.

Good thing about this app is that it can be integrated with any music player on your computer and this site can even recommend similar artists and people with similar tastes.

My Overall Top Artists: Complete Chart

My Weekly Top Tracks: Complete Chart

2008-12-09T15:54:00.001+05:30

iPod troubles

Recently my companion which I named so passionately as "Second Skin" aka my iPod died. For no apparent reason it refused to boot up. And thanks to my trust on Apple Inc, I don't have a back up. I must be real dumb to do that. But there is no point in discussing about things that I could have done to avoid such mishaps when we don't have any solution to the problem yet. What I meant to say is that it is easy to analyze a situation and suggest a problem rather than to anticipate issues and take remedies. yeah this applies to my previous article as well.

Coming back to the problem mine was a 30GB photo/color version which I bought with my hard earned money and I am so proud of it. I am so passionate about music that I used to collect different songs and albums since my B.Tech days. Whenever I come across some good band or song I used to study more about that band on internet and try more of their stuff and some from the similar ones. This way I kept on increasing my collection and later I changed my policies which include buying albums. If I liked some album and it's available in any of the stores (few times I checked in US too through my friends who were traveling) I would buy it. If not then there are many other ways that we better not talk about here. I placed requests for many albums at many stores and kept on checking for them without fail only to be disappointed at a later date. Few such albums are "Siamese Dreams" and "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness" by "The Smashing Pumpkins" which I got from US of A with the help of vineets.

I was preparing for a two day trip and in the morning that I was to travel found that iPod isn't working. It stopped at some particular song and it wasn't responding whatever I try like restarting or plugging in to the power socket etc. I could hear some clicking sound as if the disk was struck at some point and tried to shake the iPod (some dumb idea that struck my mind). Aagh two days passed and no success and when I am back to Hyderabad I spent almost a day searching and reading various forums about this issue and I could find many users who reported about this problem.

When I checked Apples site they gave the address of two authorized service point in Hyderabad. The technician at that office said that he would charge some Rs 280/- to diagnose the problem and I agreed readily. He just connected my iPod to his PC and it was not recognized by it. Just like the way I described the problem to him. He comes back to me saying that it's an internal problem and his diagnosis is over. WTF!!. Usually I would like to sit calmly and watch, trying to make my own analysis and understanding about the things that are going around. But when someone tries to give any BS I would be pissed off easily. It was my time to take charge of the situation. I literally harassed him for good 15 minutes trying to understand what he meant by internal problem. I mean this could be anything. May the battery is dead or the hard disk has gone beyond irreparable damage or the display went bad or say it's an issue with the peripherals. He has no clue about it. And there goes another 15 minutes me "trying" to understand what he meant by diagnosis. He came up with some junk offer like I could get the old iPod exchanged for a new one with some ridiculous discount and all the data will be lost.

Frustrated I came to back to my searching and finally found one solution and few videos on youTube. I opened my iPod and cleaned few connections which were full of dust particles and connected everything again. Amazingly everything is back to normal and now there are no "internal problems". Also found that there is hidden diagnostic mode using which we can run few built-in tests trying to identify the problem part and in my case it was with the hard drive. Looks like the reader got stuck at some point trying to read some bad sector. What I did by opening and and refreshing the connections was something like a master reset for the processor I suppose. Anyway now the first thing would be to back up the data and format the iPod. After this I copied all the data as it was before including the iPod_control folder. This way I could get all my ratings and play counts restored. As long as we don't make any changes to the song database this method should work fine unless there are some DB problems previously.

Anyway now I would need a bigger disk as the free space is only ~3GB and all I would need is a bigger disk of same size which can be replaced easily. Anyway If you have tried any of the above said things and some thing went wrong don't blame for it.

My idea behind taking the risk of opening the iPod is that the status of it can't get any worse than it was now. Also if your iPod is under warranty opening it nullifies it.

2008-12-03T13:24:00.002+05:30

Terror Tales (continued)

Much has been aired, talked and read about the "War In Mumbai". I would like to emphasize the fact that it's a war in Mumbai rather than a war on Mumbai. When we have our efficient government busy playing the blame game with Pakistan rather than trying to get to the root of the problem and making any effort to make organizational changes to whole security scenario, this war can happen in any city and we will just be sitting in our living rooms and watching the "exclusive coverages".

I hate to see these junk entertainment channels running under the logo of 24x7 news promoting false sense of pride. When majority of our population struggles to meet it's daily needs nobody would sit idle at home because there was an attack some where. His life must move on. For this very reason we have given the responsibility of our security to our able governments and it's leadership. As a result we have WARs. How insensitive can one be to call his struggle as the spirit of a city? Why run all those silly slogans in news channels saying "Salute the spirit of XXXXX", "City back on it's feet" etc. One needs to understand the difference between choice and compulsion. Anyone in that situation still fears for his life and of his families safety but he will be "compelled" to go out and do his job and it's not by choice.

I would appreciate the foreign elements involved in this for one reason. Their goal is/was to spread the violence to all parts of India since evolution and they are fairly successful at that. What used to be a problem in Kashmir has spread all across.

I have come across these articles on net and they are worth a read.

>> When cowards run the state, the nation bleeds
>> Isolate terror, do not secularize it

These articles may sound like the propaganda of right wing but they do have a point which is logical.

2008-11-03T23:11:00.001+05:30

Winter Is Back .......

I love the chilly, foggy and single (latest edition to the list) days. Usually one can't enjoy a hot cup of Bournvita or Horlicks in the night any other season. I miss those days in Noida standing in the balcony and enjoying my drink and most of the times discussing anything and everything that comes to my mind with Vineet. Not to forget the long walk in the park behind our apartment. Awesome feeling!!!!

One may say the same about summer or any other season but imagine those days in Delhi or any place in India without electricity. In the night we get the bonus package named mosquitoes. Thanks to my four years at RECK, I have learnt to lead a happy life without depending on electricity much in winter. For the matters related to Life, The universe and everything else electric heaters we(a)re banned in our hostel. Except for the initial hesitation and the sudden rush of blood to head taking a shower in cold water is kind of OK. One gets the feeling of achieving something difficult if not impossible.

Now-a-days I am again back to my hot cup affair. This time enjoying it all alone and at my own pace. Thanks to Jersey Creamline Dairy, they print manufacturing date on the packet. Otherwise it's impossible to select the oldest milk packet from a tray full of them in the fridge. Hehe.. I just stack them and invite my friends from work to have cornflakes with me or strawberry milk shake whenever I think that there is no room.

Also, I get to have bread omlette even at the oddest possible hours in the night just like the good ol' RECK days. I miss the company of my friends but loneliness isn't bad either. I have my iPod and some thoughts to keep me occupied all the time.

2008-10-30T17:52:00.002+05:30

Sounds of Happiness

Which song comes to your mind when you are HAPPY. If you can give a straight and simple answer to that question then it's good. But in my case I would repeat few words of wisdom from my friend Asok in his typical style "Sajja, Do you know how difficult it is to get a straight answer from you"?. We would not be analyzing that answering problem for now but let's listen to my happy mood. I have thought about this for a while and as expected I couldn't get a single answer. Good for me that I can publish another play list. The kind of song that I choose depends upon my level of happiness and also it is a function of emotions that are dominant at that time. In simple words, one can be happy for many reasons and each reason evokes a set of emotions.

Imagine a situation where you just woke up on a cold winter day and it's raining outside and you have a hot steaming cup of coffee to enjoy the situation I would listen to these kind of songs. I will just mention the song, artist name and album name with few exceptions.

De usuahia a la quiaca - The Motorcycle Diaries OST - Gustavo Santaolalla
From the award winning music director who also scored music for the movie "Broke back Mountain"

Feelin' The Same Way - Come Away With Me - Norah Jones

The Sacred and Profane - MACHINA/The Machines of God - The Smashing Pumpkins

Original song is much much much better than this and this is the closest match i can find for it on youtube :(

Happy to be thinking about someone special or say thinking about the special one makes you happy then here are the songs for the moment

Save Tonight - Desireless - Eagle-Eye Cherry

Tum Se Hi - Jab We Met - Mohit Chauhan

Full of raw energy and ready to jump with joy and bang your head worshiping the souls who created this piece of music ...

Rocket - Siamese Dream - Smashing Pumpkins

Cherub Rock - Siamese Dream - Smashing Pumpkins

Zombie - No Need to Argue - The Cranberries

Incinerate - Rather Ripped - Sonic Youth

Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nevermind - Nirvana

Driven - Different Stages - Rush

Immigrant Song - Led Zeppelin III - Led Zeppelin

Fixxer - ReLoad - Metallica

VI. Solitary Shell - Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence _ Dream Theater

Or while exercising some random pattern of leg and hand movements and trying to define this bizarre act as dancing

Sinbad The Sailor - Rock On - Farhan Akhtar

They Don't Care About Us - History - Michael Jackson

I'm Shipping Up To Boston - The Departed OST - Dropkick Murphys

Cannonball - Last Splash - The Breeders

It's A Long Way To The Top - School of Rock OST

Dani California - Stadium Arcadium - Red Hot Chili Peppers

Going to work on a Friday morning and in a mood to sing along.

Chikbuk Chikbuk Raile - Gentleman - A.R.Rahman

Nada Nada - Avial - Avial

Butterfly - The Gift of Game - Crazy Town

Astronomy - Garage Inc. - Metallica

Anyway this list is not limited to only these and I tried to pen down everything that came to my mind at this time. If none of these excite you in the same way I mentioned then probably you need to hear it again.

2008-08-25T14:52:00.001+05:30

So I ran...

"The Road" (not the award winning novel by Cormac McCarthy) comes free. So run!!! Remember the ad campaign by Rbk?? If you are a Hyderabadi the Road is definitely free for you. Of course one needs to be a Hurdles champion to use the footpaths which are more than couple of feet high and doesn't run for more than 50 mts in a stretch. Practice walking or running on them regularly and may be we can have the ratio of golds increased to 1 billion to 2 in London and "be proud" of it. And these footpaths help you improve your lung capacity too. One has to hold their breath at multiple points to avoid the foul smell from drainage or "hell I care" peoples choice urinals.So what's with this running all of a sudden?

I happened to see this poster few days ago at a store near my office about Half Marathon/Full Marathon organized by Hyderabad 10K foundation and it says "organized by runners for runners". Hmmm.. let me think what are the stakes involved? It's on August 16th so I have a Sunday to recover and obviously the road is free. may be I had to carry a water bottle or the organizers would make ample arrangements no idea. BUt what will I do running alone for 21KM (I am sane enough to opt out of the 42KM feet). I need a partner and I did ping few of my buddies and most of them were busy with plans to enjoy on this long weekend and many of my colleagues were busy trying to avoid making a rock after 6 months of work and it's the smallest silicon of them all. How about Kiran aka "babai" who is up for risks and challenges (well you have to advertise sometimes to attract people) and he agreed to it.

With three weeks time to go for the big event I have ample time to prepare. I had it planned very well as usual and only execution was left. Well this choice between rock and working silicon is costly all the times and it demands most of your time (the blame game) and I hoped on nothing but my usual 750Mts walk to office. I participated in a 32KM cycle race earlier and learnt few lessons from that. Important being hydrating oneself or atleast avoid getting dehydrated and take food high on carbs before you hit road and never start with empty stomach. I could avoid coffee and tea for a day, sleep early and cook Maggi for me and KiranDY at 5AM in the morning. We are late to the game as usual with KiranDY around as he didn't register for the race the day before and joined the party 15mins late.

I must say that the arrangements were excellent and all the roads were blocked by the traffic police when runners are around and the roads were marked properly. A signboard for every kilometer with distance covered so far and a water stall for every 2KM offering sugar cubes, electrolyte water, mini water bottles and oranges + biscuits. The funda here is not to drink at a go but sip the water often so that you won't feel full and refill the liquids properly. Even though we loose 5% of the required fluids in our body we start feeling as if we lost some 30% or more of it. So sipping regularly helps fill that gap.

For the first few KMs we saw only a few people walking at leisure and I started jogging from 1Km mark onwards I think. I had to ditch KiranDY after 2KM or so and move on alone for reasons related to comfortable moving pace hehehe.... Having vineet as my roomie for 3 years I was also bitten by the book bug and also with a liking towards cycling I bought "It's Not About the Bike" by Lance Armstrong and one of the points he mentions there is "Not to Charge Early". I believe most of the runners were like me there except for the army people who would have come to attempt it thinking "let's give it a shot" and I could see many of them walking without energy even before we hit the half way mark because of charging early. I made sure to carry a bottle of water at every post and drank one cup with glucose. I avoided the sugar cubes for the first few miles because of calorie consciousness and started picking 3 each from 10KM onward. The route was scenic and was through that part of the city which I have never been to before (##Map).

We started from KBR park covering Hitec city 2nd phase crossing the iconic round building and through the million $$$ lands of Gachibowli, KondaPur etc. I came to know later that KiranDY thought of dropping near Hitec City but failed to do so, thanks to the traffic police whi diverted all the traffic successfully, as he couldn't find an auto to ride back and was cursing me throughout for ditching him and moving on. The last 8KMs or was a beautiful green stretch leading to Gachibowli Stadium.

I was running low on energy and enthu to finish the race till I saw a 60+ old man running continuously at a slow pace where as I was walking for sometime and jogging for a while. To move forward I have set some runners much ahead of me as my intermediate targets and tried to cross them and once I could do that I walked for a while and again another target. This thing worked well till the last 3KMs and even the closest target would look like something impossible to cross and all the funda of relativity comes into picture.

I got the company of a cardiac specialist for the last 2KMs with whom I played this target race for couple of times in this run. We had to run for a KM or so inside the stadium and were greeted by the empty parking lot on a Saturday morning and we dream of "medals" in Olympics. As expected the stadium was empty and many participants completed the race by then and even a 14Yr old girl completed the race beating me with amazing pace.

First was an army guy with a timing of 1Hr10Min and even the full Marathon was dominated by army people who clocked 2Hr30Min or so to complete it where as I took 2Hr45Min to complete 21KMs. There was a box full of food waiting for us to finish and a bus to help us reach the starting point. I couldn't call it a day yet as I have few runs to fire helping our rocky battle against technology. After an hour I had my third breakfast of the day. I couldn't help my hunger and slept like a log till 4PM in the evening from 11AM. I took almost two days to recover from the muscle pains and claim full active life back. But it was worth it. One gets to post an exciting picture on their Orkut/Facebook accounts and post a blog if possible and all free of cost :). And one also receives the medal and certificate to proudly display from a bevy of beauties at the finish line. Keep running.....

Forgot to mention the after effects (thanks to ram for this) after this run I somehow get the "feeling" that my jeans started becoming loose all of a sudden :)

Now definitely some can start running...

2008-08-04T21:01:00.001+05:30

Rain, rain on my face ....

... I love the rain and thankfully this one doesn't smell like ash and diesel as it's not the first shower Hyderabad has tasted in this season. I don't see children making paper boats but roads are flooded so badly (thanks to the pathetic drainage system and encroachment of land) that you have to use real boats to travel. Anyway our government officials promise every time after the season that all precautions were taken, which were meant only for them I suppose.

There are many things that the city of 400 ++ years history offers to it's junta. One such things is Biryani. This word has become synonymous to Hyderabad and there are songs made on this too. Apart from Biryani there are is this addictive drink called "Irani Chai" only available in "Irani Cafes" which are easy to identify from the old and crowded look they wear. Unlike the hip joints like CCD and Barista which are famous for coffee and other things these cafes are frequented by the local junta and are easy on pocket too. Blame it on inflation which caused the price of chai to reach the 5 Rs/- mark from it's 2, 3 etc days.

What's so special about it? Irani chai is orange in color and comes in two varieties normal and "karha chamach ki chai" which goes by it's literal meaning that you can make a spoon stand in the cup which is rich and thick with sugar. Apart from this this tastes like burnt stuff which is unique and simply mesmerizing. With the chai one can have biscuits known as "Osmania biscuits" and this combination is perfect and can give Britannia run for it's money if marketed well. I am not sure how they prepare this one but am planning to post a video about this sometime soon.

There are few things specific to these cafes from operations point of view. The person who serves tea here buys certain cups of tea from the owner for some rate and resells it to the customers with added profit. I am not sure if this is the only form of earning here or he gets a salary as such but you can see these guys making sound with coins or token in their pockets all the time.

So, coming to our rainy weather, wear a cap or jacket and go out in the rain in search of a cafe. For me it's just 5 minutes away from home. A hot and steaming cup of tea waits for you always and it's my time to go out as it's raining and my mouth is watering ..........

2008-05-13T18:51:00.002+05:30

Unconventional Wonders

Pinch of guitar, spoon of Bass and and handful of Drums make recipe for most of the ROCK songs. How about adding some more instruments to the recipe and creating a handful of new recipes? That what I was looking for these days. Songs with non-conventional instruments, call it experimenting or creativity but it tastes real good. Here are few such items on the menu.

The very best song I have listened so far also happens to be from my favorite band. These guys use Sitar which sounds little classic but awesome.
- Home by Dream Theater

Next item is from the Indian Rock Band which is based on kidnappings in Kashmir. Again a fusion of indian classical music.
- But It Rained by Parikrama

I know very little about this band. Happened to listen to this number accidentally on TV. Combines traditional chinese harp known as Guzheng and the artist playing that is Zeng Zhen.
- Hong Kong by Gorillaz

One of the best alternative rock bands from the 90's and my favorite. Specialty about this song is the layering technique. It includes around 40 guitar tracks layered on top of another to create a powerful sound.
- Soma by The Smashing Pumpkins

Another one from an indian rock band. Fusion of various instruments like tabla. I don't remember exactly but guess that these lyrics are some verses from Arabic??
- Khandisa by Indian Ocean

I liked this whole album though it didn't strike a note with the critics very well. This band happens to be the first hard metal one that I've listened to. This was a live show with symphony.
- Nothing Else Matters by Metallica

This song was ripped from Rolling Stones "The Last Time" which was ripped from a song with same name by The Staples Singers. These guys share majority of their royalties for this song with Rolling Stones. use of violin in this one is really good.
- Bittersweet Symphony by The Verve

This song was made with custom tweaked guitars and most of their numbers follow the same trend. Nirvana used to open for these guys in 90's and their bass guitarist is 55 year old female. Still many people know very little about this band and consider this to be noise. Video of this song is bizarre and frankly speaking songs like this doesn't need a video.
- Incinerate by Sonic Youth

--- be back with a different list next time.

2008-04-17T16:10:00.001+05:30

Different Angles

Take a weird look at this weird place and you will find lot of weird people and even normal people doing weird things. Crazy music with some crazy talk is what we are on for the day. My weird angle might be normal to some humans. I appreciate their exposure levels to weirdness.

I found some element of surprise in few numbers. I never thought that song writing could be so simple or so complicated and sound so silly going through many of these. Compiling a list is difficult as I narrowed down my search to interesting tunes with weird lyrics or weird sounding good music.

Enough of the weird talk!!

Topping the list is the slow and sick sounding number by Third Eye Blind. Lyrics sound funny.
- Slow Motion by Third Eye Blind

This one's a pervert song. This songs video was banned by MTV in 2002. A man expressing his love about a girl to her dad in a pervert way.
- Hey Mister by Custom

Ironically Layne Staley (@Alice In Chains) and Kurt Cobain died on the same date of the year as per forensic reports and some speculated that this song is about Cobain's suicide shot.
- Hey Man, Nice Shot by Filter

From the band which created the song that ruled the Modern Rock Charts for years and over shadowed many of their other good numbers. Many rumored that Kurt is gay because of this one. It doesn't matter anyway.
- Rape Me by Nirvana

Thought that this guy must be a astrophysics graduate etc. Expressing his feelings with heavenly bodies is really creative. Or may be some aliens used his mind to promote space tourism etc. Just a weird thought! what do you guys have to say about this?
- Drops of Jupiter by Train

One may be compelled to give a shot at song writing after listening to this. Suzanne made her lyrics sound so simple that it just sounds like a conversation. As if she is reading her blog with a musical backdrop. Creative, surprising and equally refreshing.
-Tom's Diner by Suzanne Vega

A boyfriend who likes someones girlfriend. Is the guy looking like a girl or the girl looking manly? But this is a good one that topped the charts sometime ago.
-Somebody Told Me by The Killers

Music sounds little weird and in no way I mean bad. It's creative but got some crazy feel. I am talking about the starting tarzaan song like voice. Sounds very classy here and good to sing along.
- Immigrant Song by Led Zeppelin

These guys are known for their satirical lyrics and got a loyal fan base. Good song and there is nothing to hate from them.
-Everything About You by Ugly Kid Joe

I hope that I made a successful weird attempt. Do send your weird comments.

2008-03-25T14:31:00.002+05:30

psy-kill

So, from when onwards you are going to use it as a clothe stand?

Still I can't understand why one would pay so much for such a thing?

You gone crazy and nuts ... etc etc were the comments I received when I bought a "cycle". I should call it "The Man Machine". Yeah it makes a perfect combination of a man and machine. Very soon it became one of my priced possession and a means of transport. Of course this can't take me to every damn place on the earth but to many places in the vicinity of 5-10kms of my home assuming that it doesn't force me to take a bath, which shows my commitment to "The Save Water and Drink Beer" campaign. If not beer make it milk or a fruit juice.

One fine day the thought of owning some sort of cycle came to my mind and after a quick look at the models available in a local store at Noida I zeroed in on "Hero Octane 26T". This didn't take much time as the options available for a 6' guy are very minimal. Let me say few words about my "bike". It comes with 21 gears, fitted with full suspension and disc breaks (many asked me, why the hell do you need disc breaks for a cycle?) and full alloy body. It's shiny and it's light weight. Except for the saddle which became a pain in the a#@ everything else is fine and fantastic.

The best time to ride the cycle is in the night and the company of my iPod makes it a perfect combination. Imagine the road with very little traffic and people wearing all sorts of woolen linen and you are the only one sweating and wearing shorts. Over the time roaming alone in the night at odd hours didn't sound like a safe idea after few incidents and I soon started riding with some 20 bucks of change in my pocket and nothing else. Funda is that this change will help either to make a phone call or to carry back the punctured cycle in a rickshaw. Of course there were some moments of occasional pun intended Q's like "Who would try to rob you Sajja"? and "Even if they do they will be pissed off to see only 20 rs/- and beat the hell out of you" by Vineets. There are few things which I like the most while going out for a ride and trying them is worthwhile.

- Try to make the cycle jump over the speed breakers and shocks help here a lot. All you have to do is pick up some speed and try to lift the handle at the beginning of the bump.
- Another favorite act is to race with other vehicles at the traffic signals and how ever short the victory lap may be it's worth it and addictive.
- Best thing is to ride the cycle in rain. Just wear a cap and check the breaks. It's lot of fun.

I tried few long rides (20-30kms) and unfortunately those were during the summer and my usual gear consists of chocolates, cap, sunblock and most importantly water. I equipped the bike with a Cateye cyclocomputer and I can check my speed, distance, avg. speed, max. speed and few other functions. Again thanks to Vineets here who got this from US of Amerika.

I relocated to Hyderabad few months ago and all sorts of mess happened here. I got my cycle transported in the worst ever possible conditions by Agarwal Transports and I had to put up lot of fight to get that fixed by those guys and it was not satisfactory experience anyway. Fortunately I am staying in an area where the company of film stars, MLAs, MPs and ex-chief ministers takes care of the security issue. But, all the roads including the footpaths are occupied by motorists and their senseless honking draws occasional pointed fingers from me. "F%$# the rules and all I need is a gap to fit my bike and move forward" seems to be the motto of motorists here and I am sick of it. I moved from flat terrain of Noida to hilly roads of Hyderabad and I have to get off my bum quite often to get going.

I hope I inspired few souls to try cycling and few even declared to cover Hyderabad inch-by-inch on "The Man Machine"

Happy Cycling!!!

A Brief History of ...

2008-03-17T23:11:00.002+05:30

Dire Straits in the living room and me in the kitchen. I love my bachelor days. But I was "reminded" that this is not my kind of music. Hmmmm!!

May be I am in for one of those quite evenings and I was enjoying the moment "cooking" Maggi with eggs. Then What's my kind of music that I was talking about earlier?? Digging out past collections and thinking about those old time favorites turned out to be quite interesting. It is kind of funny to know how my tastes have changed over the period.

I could remember the days when we used to buy booklets with lyrics of A.R. Rahman's songs for one rupee and used to sing them. Recently I read an article saying that Rahman sold almost 100 million albums including cassettes and CDs. In the era of Doordarshan there wasn't much choice like MTV, Channel V and VH1. Next comes the time of Boy bands (Backstreet Boys, No Doubt etc) and a slight exposure to rock in the name of Bryan Adams. I think it was the O.S.T from the movie Robin hood by Bryan Adams which caught my eye.

Joining RECK brought lot of changes and I was exposed to lot of things (1) (2) (3) .

First complete album that I listened to was "Garage Inc. by Metallica" and Turn the Page became an instant favorite. Experimentation is worthy with lots suggestions from my friends. Ugly Kid Joe, Iron Maiden were my favorites and I think it's "natural" to fall in love with hard rock when you are high on testosterone.

These experiments went on and on and so is my knowledge about bands like Aerosmith, Goo Goo Dolls, Pink Floyd and my all time favorite Nirvana. It was then I realized that a pinch of rebellion spirit with anger, unspent energy and a can of frustration can bring out wonders like "Smeels Like Teen Spirit". All this time I was biased against female artists (I didn't know about any rock bands) and one of the main reasons is the mainstream junk like Britney Spears, Spice girls etc etc. My first compilation was a CD with some 100-120 songs which I gifted to someone who struck some unexplainable feelings in my body part connected to "arteria coronaria". Of course it took ages for me to do such things.

After graduation I've got enough time to dig out databases of world wide web for music that interests me. Searching for top play lists and trying the songs and if interested try more about the band. This was my routine for almost 6 months and my collection grew further. I listened to a song called "Zombie" from an album on my cousins car and that became my first female favorite rock band. Call it "Colonial hatred" or whatever I never used to like anything that associated with the British, but overtime most of my favorite bands turned out to be English like Oasis, The Verve, Led Zeppelin etc. After joining time I started enjoying long hours at work with music playing on my PC. Then came a portable solution called iPod and whatever may happen I have to buy one. I thought 30GB would be enough but soon my collection expanded and I too developed a policy of buying music if it's available on the shelves. I have spent lot of money and time searching for albums that I liked. I would rip them the next day and copy it to my iPod. I became somewhat protective about my music collection and didn't share that with many. It's OK if anyone wants to listen to it but copying the whole list is a big NO NO for me. There are exclusions like the people who are the source of some unexplainable feelings as explained above.

I got to know about bands like Dream Theater which is my favorite and one of the most successful progressive rock band. Alternative bands like The Smashing Pumpkins, Third Eye Blind, Peral Jam, Alice In Chains (ironically Layne Staley died on the same day as Kurt Cobain and both because of drug addiction), The Fray, Green Day, Hoobastank, LifeHouse, Matchbox Twenty, Nine Inch Nails, Our Lady Peace, Radiohead, Red Hot Chili Peppers, U2 and 3 Doors Down. Some amazing artists like Norah Jones, Miles Davis and Jack Johnson mesmerize at times. Focus has shifted from raw energy and heavy metal bands to soft, melodic and tones that sound pain and deep emotions and all the while it's about something which you can easily connect to. This connecting phenomena has led to creation of several play lists symbolic of varied moods.

Anyway till date I have collected 3424 songs occupying approximately 20GB and I am proud of it.

February Playlist

2008-02-11T12:26:00.003+05:30

Different Notes

Love is in the air.

If not in the air maybe it's in the e-air. Whatever it is, it's the season of roses and low calorie chocolates.

So, Why not a list of songs for the season from your own & famous "in-house" and "in the car" DJ with his magic wand named "Second Skin".

Here is my top ten list:

1) I Love You by Saigon Kick from the album Water.

The very famous (??) band of 90's riding the metal wave and to my knowledge the most famous Metal rock with a dose of love.

2) Dil Se Re by A.R. Rahman from the film Dil se

A for A.R. Rahman is the mantra for us when it comes to music with desi touch.

3) Hey There Delilah by Plain White T's from the album All that We needed

Acoustic number to be played for the most number of times on radio in the US of Amrika

4) Your Guardian Angel by The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus from the album Your Guardian Angel

Another rock number and one of my personal favorites from the band with a crazy name.

5) Secret Garden by Bruce Springsteen from the OST Jerry Maguire

A list on romantic songs without this number from BOSS is incomplete.

6) You're Beautiful by James Blunt from the album Back to Bedlam

From the first British officer to enter the Kosovan capital. I am not sure if they teach Guitar during training camps.

7) Linger by Cranberries from the album Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We?

From one of my favorite female rock stars and according to Dolores this song is about her first serious kiss. Also this song is the bands first major hit.

8) Save Tonight by Eagle-Eye Cherry from the album Desireless

A jazzy number with an interesting video.

9) Come Away with Me by Norah Jones from the album Come Away With Me

Norah with a voice like ... I can't find any closer match. I am sure no one would be able to resist the offer though.

10) Deep Inside of You by Third Eye Blind from Blue

From the "bayish" band with many other refreshing numbers.

There are many more and you may see them in my lists yet to come. Feedback is always welcome.

To boost sales/hits I am coming out with this bonus track ... lol

One of my recent favorites:

**** Hanging By A Moment by Lifehouse from the album No Name Face

Speed of Music

2005-09-30T14:17:00.003+05:30

Technology always makes wonders. It keeps everybody amused most of the times. I can recollect one of Einstein's theory saying that it is impossible to achieve speed of light on earth as it would require an infinite amount of push to be applied on a body and it is impossible to produce that on earth. People accepted it and it's a well proven fact.

My recent adventures and experience with my new found love defies all those theories. Call me materialistic but it's the wonder that a small 1/2 inch slim wonder can do to you. And one might be wondering what all that Einstein theory has to do with it?. Yes! just at the touch of a finger I can cruise through generations and generations of music and musicians at lightning speed. One more tender touch, I cross the dimensions of time and space. By this time most of those creatures who browse all those gizmo related pages might have guessed what I am talking about. Yes! It is iPod. I am in love with 'MY' iPod.