I intended the title to be misleading. I am talking about the Fall season here in the US. I just happened to be here on company money again, which is really cool. One thing I am beginning to envy here is the splendid colours that turn up even in the most bland places during this beautiful season. Trees turn light green, then yellow, and then red! Ha. It almost half the number of colours in the spectrum. Then finally they fall off, which is not exactly pretty, but after all those colours, its OK.
Unfortunately, not many of the americans appreciate the beauty of it, looks like. Especially in a small town like Champaign, folks seem to be more bothered about the television than the colours of nature. Typically American, I should say.
This is incidentally my third business class trip to the US. We are lucky enough to fly business class even without reaching senior management! Motorola does treat us pretty well.
More international flights into bangalore is definitely good news. I hear BA, NW and KLM and beginning their service. Besides, now there is a direct flight of American Airlines to begin from chicago all the way to New Delhi, non stop.
This is just an update because I have nothing else to do right now.
Thursday, October 27, 2005
Tuesday, May 17, 2005
Run for Life
I missed the Bangalore marathon!
I am still gathering myself up to believe that this fantastic event went out of my scheme of things. I am not to be blamed entirely. The more I look at this state (karnataka) and how it does things, the more I appreciate Bihar. I mean, the announcement for an event that requires massive and intense preperation came in just a month before. How on earth do they think they could make the numbers?
As with anything in Bangalore, much hype was around... they were expecting 30000 to turn up. Had it not been for the celebration run, no one would have given the thing a second look. I know the jargon spewing, brand conscious morons of this city - for them sun rises at 10 am and running at 6 am will be unimaginable. I was suprised that only about 200 people ran the full marathon! No wonder, I never find the actual figure of the folks who ran the full marathon anywhere - it is such a dismal figure. The organisers are to be blamed for it partly. A marathon in the midst of summer!
I think Bangalore is definitely not the place for a marathon or any high energy events. The people are fundamentally lazy - in fact, lazy will be a major euphemism. They are slothful, pig like. A marathon in such a city? haha.
All said and done, I intend to run the full marathon next year. No joke. The whole idea attracts me because I think it is fundamentally stupid. I mean, running 42.195 km for no reason at all! No sane man would do it - but then, no sane man enjoys life either. Sane people have only contributed to bureaucracy (if you call it sane) - the (half) insane ones brought the revolutions...
Sanity comes in between life and oneself.
I am still gathering myself up to believe that this fantastic event went out of my scheme of things. I am not to be blamed entirely. The more I look at this state (karnataka) and how it does things, the more I appreciate Bihar. I mean, the announcement for an event that requires massive and intense preperation came in just a month before. How on earth do they think they could make the numbers?
As with anything in Bangalore, much hype was around... they were expecting 30000 to turn up. Had it not been for the celebration run, no one would have given the thing a second look. I know the jargon spewing, brand conscious morons of this city - for them sun rises at 10 am and running at 6 am will be unimaginable. I was suprised that only about 200 people ran the full marathon! No wonder, I never find the actual figure of the folks who ran the full marathon anywhere - it is such a dismal figure. The organisers are to be blamed for it partly. A marathon in the midst of summer!
I think Bangalore is definitely not the place for a marathon or any high energy events. The people are fundamentally lazy - in fact, lazy will be a major euphemism. They are slothful, pig like. A marathon in such a city? haha.
All said and done, I intend to run the full marathon next year. No joke. The whole idea attracts me because I think it is fundamentally stupid. I mean, running 42.195 km for no reason at all! No sane man would do it - but then, no sane man enjoys life either. Sane people have only contributed to bureaucracy (if you call it sane) - the (half) insane ones brought the revolutions...
Sanity comes in between life and oneself.
Tuesday, April 12, 2005
Cycles of life
I intended the title to be misleading... :) Wanted to sound very philosophical about something very earthy. This is about the cycle trip I had on Sunday, 10th of April. Me, Shreekumar (yes, the same guy who drove from Chennai to Calcutta!) and Harsha decided that we were not having enough adventures in life. So armed with headlights, tail lights, GPS, digital cams, sunscreens, soaps, our helmets and of course, a lot of enthusiasm, we set out from near Silk Board at about 4:30 AM in the morning.
I found it unpleasant driving in the dark, that too early in the morning when I should have been sleeping. After about 20 km or so, the mood caught up. We drove into hosur just after sun rise and had a few cups of tea at a tea stall by the side of the highway. We set the motto for the drive - "sunrise at hosur, sunset at salem". Hosur is a town in Tamilnadu, at about the same altitude as bangalore. I could see long distance buses aiming towards Bangalore, coming from all over tamilnadu and kerala. There were early cars, most of them with tamilnadu and kerala number plates shooting out of bangalore, to escape the day time heat. Looking at them I realised they will reach cochin earlier than I would reach salem... :) But then, I was a stud who was cycling and thereby helping to the cause of a green earth, not wasting precious fossil fuels.
After the morning tea, the journey from hosur to krishnagiri looked promising, for we had tailwind and the route was a major descend of about 1500 feet in about 50 km, to Krishnagiri. I had earlier suffered this route, trying to catch it on the wrong direction. :) This time the stars were in my favour. I started storming on the pedals at 6:45, and was there at Krishnagiri at 8:28. In between, my speedo actually showed 58km per hour... It should have been slightly over 60, since my speedo reads a bit less. The GPS was with Sree and Harsha, hence I had no way of checking since I was pedalling ahead of them.
After Krishnagiri and locating Harsha, we went ahead and took a break at Kaveripatnam, about 10 km away. From there, the drive to Dharmapuri was bad.. heat was catching up. At Dharmapuri I found I had a lead of 13 km over my folks - something uncomfortable because I had to wait there in the blistering heat. Thats when Harsha decided he is going back. Shreekumar caught up with me in about an hour, after taking the GPS from harsha. The tamilnadu heat was indeed intense. We cycled less than a km and took a good lunch break.
The thought of going ahead in that kind of heat was a bit formidable. But Shreekumar's spirit was awesome. He said if he reaches Salem, it will be on his bike, irrrespective of what time it is. It was very clear to us that at that pace, we wont reach Salem by sunset. Those of you who have not been to Tamilnadu in that kind of weather will have no idea what that heat can be... The fact that Shreekumar was riding a mountain bike added to his woes bigtime. He could not speed up the way I could. I was driving the sleek road bike - the Hero Hawk, commonly available in India.
From Dharmapuri we started again, applying oddles of sunscreen on our hands, face and neck. After a few km Shree took an "exhausted" break.. at a small roadside shop. We had some water from there and waited for 10-15 minutes. Slowly but surely, the heat was showing signs of subsiding. That looked good. It was only 3:10 PM though.
From there, we ambled along to Thoppur ghat. A scenic and pleasant stretch, wonderful to drive, with four lane roads. It was all the more wonderful because it was downhill drive for us. We again took a break there, had coffeee at a roadside tea stall. Tea never cost anything more than 2 rs per cup. In Bangalore, it would be nothing short of 3-5 rs per cup.
When you cycle, you tend to understand the land and terrain pretty well. You will know for sure which direction the wind blows, the slightest increase or decrease in altitude et al... after all you are the engine!
After thoppur ghat, with the milestone showing 42 km to salem, life looked good. Temperature must have come to about 28 C and it was really pleasant with some decent tailwind. After a slight uphill I kept pedalling on... Shreekumar, exhausted that he was, fell back by a few good kms. I halted at the small town of Omalur, waiting for Shreekumar. After about 40 minutes of wait, he arrived and we had some cool drinks.
Now the last stretch was ahead of us... tired, but not defeated, we continued. The sun had already gone down. Obviously our slogan, framed 12 hours ago did not hold good. After about 45 minutes of pedalling and a halt to ask for the way to the salem bus stand, at 7:15 we inched into the Salem bus stand. The 200 km journey was over, the GPS proudly displaying the total distance as exactly 200 km.
We tried to travel back in volvo buses, but the time was over... hence had to rely on local private buses plying on bangalore salem route. I was sure another nightmare was in the making... we had dinner, preparing us mentally for the tougher ride back home in the bus. Shreekumar happily took the responsibility of taking the cycles onto the top of the bus. :) At 9 the bus left Salem.
The rest is history. I had broken my distance record...
I found it unpleasant driving in the dark, that too early in the morning when I should have been sleeping. After about 20 km or so, the mood caught up. We drove into hosur just after sun rise and had a few cups of tea at a tea stall by the side of the highway. We set the motto for the drive - "sunrise at hosur, sunset at salem". Hosur is a town in Tamilnadu, at about the same altitude as bangalore. I could see long distance buses aiming towards Bangalore, coming from all over tamilnadu and kerala. There were early cars, most of them with tamilnadu and kerala number plates shooting out of bangalore, to escape the day time heat. Looking at them I realised they will reach cochin earlier than I would reach salem... :) But then, I was a stud who was cycling and thereby helping to the cause of a green earth, not wasting precious fossil fuels.
After the morning tea, the journey from hosur to krishnagiri looked promising, for we had tailwind and the route was a major descend of about 1500 feet in about 50 km, to Krishnagiri. I had earlier suffered this route, trying to catch it on the wrong direction. :) This time the stars were in my favour. I started storming on the pedals at 6:45, and was there at Krishnagiri at 8:28. In between, my speedo actually showed 58km per hour... It should have been slightly over 60, since my speedo reads a bit less. The GPS was with Sree and Harsha, hence I had no way of checking since I was pedalling ahead of them.
After Krishnagiri and locating Harsha, we went ahead and took a break at Kaveripatnam, about 10 km away. From there, the drive to Dharmapuri was bad.. heat was catching up. At Dharmapuri I found I had a lead of 13 km over my folks - something uncomfortable because I had to wait there in the blistering heat. Thats when Harsha decided he is going back. Shreekumar caught up with me in about an hour, after taking the GPS from harsha. The tamilnadu heat was indeed intense. We cycled less than a km and took a good lunch break.
The thought of going ahead in that kind of heat was a bit formidable. But Shreekumar's spirit was awesome. He said if he reaches Salem, it will be on his bike, irrrespective of what time it is. It was very clear to us that at that pace, we wont reach Salem by sunset. Those of you who have not been to Tamilnadu in that kind of weather will have no idea what that heat can be... The fact that Shreekumar was riding a mountain bike added to his woes bigtime. He could not speed up the way I could. I was driving the sleek road bike - the Hero Hawk, commonly available in India.
From Dharmapuri we started again, applying oddles of sunscreen on our hands, face and neck. After a few km Shree took an "exhausted" break.. at a small roadside shop. We had some water from there and waited for 10-15 minutes. Slowly but surely, the heat was showing signs of subsiding. That looked good. It was only 3:10 PM though.
From there, we ambled along to Thoppur ghat. A scenic and pleasant stretch, wonderful to drive, with four lane roads. It was all the more wonderful because it was downhill drive for us. We again took a break there, had coffeee at a roadside tea stall. Tea never cost anything more than 2 rs per cup. In Bangalore, it would be nothing short of 3-5 rs per cup.
When you cycle, you tend to understand the land and terrain pretty well. You will know for sure which direction the wind blows, the slightest increase or decrease in altitude et al... after all you are the engine!
After thoppur ghat, with the milestone showing 42 km to salem, life looked good. Temperature must have come to about 28 C and it was really pleasant with some decent tailwind. After a slight uphill I kept pedalling on... Shreekumar, exhausted that he was, fell back by a few good kms. I halted at the small town of Omalur, waiting for Shreekumar. After about 40 minutes of wait, he arrived and we had some cool drinks.
Now the last stretch was ahead of us... tired, but not defeated, we continued. The sun had already gone down. Obviously our slogan, framed 12 hours ago did not hold good. After about 45 minutes of pedalling and a halt to ask for the way to the salem bus stand, at 7:15 we inched into the Salem bus stand. The 200 km journey was over, the GPS proudly displaying the total distance as exactly 200 km.
We tried to travel back in volvo buses, but the time was over... hence had to rely on local private buses plying on bangalore salem route. I was sure another nightmare was in the making... we had dinner, preparing us mentally for the tougher ride back home in the bus. Shreekumar happily took the responsibility of taking the cycles onto the top of the bus. :) At 9 the bus left Salem.
The rest is history. I had broken my distance record...
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