Karnataka Trip - Part 1

Music : On the Go Playlist from my Ipod

Starting with Dilemma – Kelly Rowland feat., Nelly.

[Yes I listen to stuff other than Classic Rock :-p]

Its been a while since I posted.

Yes, I know, I am a genius :-D

Even TheGirl has kind of given up asking when I will post next.

In any case, it’s been a good few months J

Among other things, have completed an almost 2000 km road trip on Trin [my Pulsar 180, full name Trinayan J] in Karnataka.

Its almost 2:15 AM on a Sunday morning and I am typing this in total darkness except for the laptop screen. Dad has seen foit to leave his new laptop in my room and I am using this to my full advantage. If only he had got his wireless net setup as well I would post this directly and not be bothering with Word. And I currently see that I am stuck using word with Courier New font at 12 point, which is a major hangover from wark L

Is irritating to type with this on my lap cos of the way the pad keeps moving the cursor above becos of my gut L

Ok, back to where we were.

Life has become very nice for sometime now.

Some stuff was revealed. Some acceptances have happened.

TheGirl and I have done a bit of early morning walking together as well J Taken her around Fort St.George as well J

Road trip was great. Thumper, B, Scam, Das and self went on it. Thumper’s T’bird, Shyam’s 350 and My Trin were the bikes.

Early morning on the 15^th after some confusion and lack of sleep we left for Karnataka.

To start with Thumper was irritated about frequent stops all through the ride :-P

We were supposed to leave at around 5AM after fuelling at the Shell opposite my apartment. Scam and Das turned up there pretty early on and were ready to go and I was there at 5 AM as well. Th and B however turned up only around 6 AM. We finally left around 6:15 AM and hit the Golden Quad road to Blore pretty soon.

Ate breakfast at Arusuvai Arasu and then went on ahead. Somewhere midway we stopped for a break. Stood in front of a parked truck cos of lack of shade. Took few pictures, including that of a goat wandering nearby. Started back off on the road. The road is rather brilliant, with practically no traffic in the day time, straight and smooth. Which of course is also a major issue. Not the smoothness. The straight and empty. It leads to a lot of sleepiness. Now on my bike, I had luggage strapped on the back. I also had my backpack on the tank like a tank bag. On the top pocket, I had a couple of stick of the new Polo Cinnamon [ not as good as altoids, but decent nevertheless] , and a bottle of Orbit sugar free. Had to keep popping one of both once in a while to keep awake :-P

A bullets rhythmic thumping can put one to sleep rather effectively :-P We were in a triangular formation with me on the left rear. Two bullets were thumping around rhythmically, and boy did I feel sleepy! I nearly kept riding into the dirt on the left more than once, before I broke formation and raced ahead. The route has some brilliant scenery though.

[The Guys – L to R – Das, Scam, B and P, Scam’s bike and some lorry]

Long story short, we kept breaking more often than we thought necessary and got into Blore around 2 PM. Ended up at Woodys in Jayanagar for lunch. Horrid place. Discussed for a bit, met Himan from college, who turned up to say hi, and a friend of B’s who came as well. There were these hifaultin’, foreign accent English speeking types who turned up and cribbed to us about the amount of space we were taking up, which we as expected, just ignored.

Around 4 PM we started, riding on the Mysore Bangalore Highway, with Madikeri as the destination. Sunset on the road was brilliant. Had a clichéd but nice shot of a temple silhouetted in the sunset, but couldn’t take the shot as we were already behind schedule and riding hard to catch up. Finally got a few shots near a petrol pump.

The higway was brilliant, much better than the road to Blore, mainly cos it was just as smooth, but was a lot more curvier :-P Took a right turn off the road after sometime to get on the State Highway [66 I think] to Madikeri. Here the road turned very bad, and my cold started getting worse. I already had a cold from two days of long hours and one night of very little sleep for getting lotsa work done to get time off for the trip. Around 10:30 PM, we were still about 50 KM from Madikeri, and at the outskirts of a town called Kushal Nagar. There we found a shop run by some sympathetic people from TamilNadu :-P They advised us that the Ghat section was better not tackled at night and for us to stay in Kushal nagar was the better option. I was also not feeling too optimistic about our prospects for getting there on time, so we opted to stay in a hotel in K nagar. Slept very soundly till about 10 AM the next day.

During the ride to Blore, was listening to some music I hadn’t heard in quite a long time. Old faves like Culture Beat’s Crying in the rain. Does anyone remember them now? This includes the nut who showed them to me and used to listen to Mr.Vain quite a bit. You know who you are :-)

Is now 3 Am, and I think my plans for the day are effectively changed :-P Will now go sleep for a bit and blog more later...

And now it is the next day. I am in Tam and using the laptop there. From what my dad has told me, this is mine, for all intents and purposes :-P

Next day night now.

Woke up around 9 AM the next day. Promptly ingested the mornings crocin dose after some essential activity. [Come On, Come In – Velvet Revolver] Finally got a bit ready [read, bathed and ready for breakfast]. The one decent place was shut for a puja, so we ended up at a hole in the wall, one where the dosa and idli alike were too salty and bad, and the chutney looked a lot like just white powder which had been mixed with some chilli and water. Tried another place, but had a bad time there as well. Finally settled for a bakery and gorged there [brilliant honey cakes!] B was trying to eat when two kids turned up, and asked, so he gave them the cake. Then the next, a mother and her baby came. B gave them his next cake, took another piece for himself and we left pronto before more people turned up.

[Scenes from our hotel balcony when I woke]

Then we set off for Madikeri and then to Manglaore. The road to Madikeri from Kushal nagar was decent. Wish we had more time though. We went past Dubare Elephant camp. If we had more time, would have spent a night and day there. Place is supposed to be brilliant. Finally reached a fork in the road which took us to Abbey falls. The road down to the falls was a decent ghat strech. Got to the falls. Y this time I started wheezing a bit and took an Asthalin. Which of course I haven’t in a while, but that story later. :-P .

On the way to the falls, there was this beautiful viewpoint. Spent almost and hour taking pics there.

[P and B en route to Abbey]

[Self, minus haircut and shave, with a fully loaded Trin]

To be continued...

Turning Heads

Exhibit A - Wearing all ColorPlus T shirt and all, very nicely rounded, nice figure, etc., [ stopping the flow, as it would go on forever otherwise]. Discussing something very seriously with..
Exhibit B - Fat, wearing old, faded Adidas T shirt, wanting to change topic being discussed seriously.

B puts hand on A's nice, well shaped, pretty head, turns the head to the right and says, "Nice Tree", showing A a tree which looks nice.

B concurs with emotion "Yah".

A then laughs and a little while later remarks on how easy it was to change to topic.
And gets pinched :-P

God, Grant me the Serenity,
To accept the things I cannot change,
The Courage, to change the things I can,
And the Wisdom, to know the DIFFERENCE.

Sunset, Adayar Bridge, 20 May 2007 , 18:21:46,

Late Night Rides, Old Friends, Heat, Powercuts.......

Today was fucking hot. Rode to Tam around 7 PM. Trinayan got rather hot and was growling more than usual when pushed past 6k revs. Got to the hospital, hung out with my uncle and then went on home. When I got home, I felt Trin's fuel tank and got a nice surprise. It was hot :-(

Left after about an hour and as I was at Pallavaram signal, it began raining. Not real sharp showers and all, but a nice drizzle to cool things down. Stopped at around the airport. Was lovely riding in the rain. And the spectacular lightning strikes that I saw on the way from around Chromepet added to the beauty of the night. Trin cooled down a bit and I had the heart to push again :-P

Its so much fun to ride in the rain. The smell of the earth is still the same, in spite of all the pollution. No exhaust fumes, not even from dying, unmaintained diesel engines can kill the smell. And I was tired out of my mind, now I am awake and writing this, a lot less tired.

Its been awhile. Laziness for a bit. A lot of work. Running behind everything, going slightly insane. Change of domains within the team, and staying for 12+ hours everyday to finish work after a long time. Its painful to be in Ambattur. In Vad, I could pop out for personal work and work as late as I liked without worrying about getting home, which was only a five minute walk away.

Ka had come down a few months back for one of his brothers wedding. Another got married last month, so he's still here, waiting to go back to UK. The bro's wedding was in Arakkonam. Went through the Bangalore highway and then through Takkolam. Brilliant road, curvy, smooth, empty except for a few places. Rode hard and fast to there and back. Had Vella (Scientist) , a college type, pillioning with me. Scam and Tortoise on the T's 150. Vella, as usual clucking his disapproval and any other conversation from behind. And keeping account of each whack and insult to take out on us later :-P

Ka still is here. Trying to get rid of his corns now, which had started with an ear infection :-P

Spending very little time with TheGirl these days :-( Both of us at work leaves us with only a few hours a week together :-(

One weekend though, got to goto Dakshin Chitra with her and the Tortoise. He so totally cracks her up. Starts humming and she starts laughing :-P Maybe I got immune cos of the time I've known him and spent with him, pillion.

The city, in the middle of the night, while in the passenger seat of a dying Honda City, in black and white..



Dakshin Chitra was nice :-)









End of Lunch :-P



Went to ECR a few times, changed a tyre on a car in the middle of the night once..



The things you find on the beach :-P


Muttukadu, Sunset..



Met an old firend yesterday after years. Brer B was one of the toppers in school. He finished and then went away to become a priest. Spent some time catching up with him yesterday. He has come down on a 15 day break. Was nice to reconnect with old school friends, remember shit. Might goto school tomorrow to play bball even with some old mates :-)

Was bloody bugged/pissed day before night.

The whole city was lit up with extra tubelighting for the Chief Ministers fiftieth year as legislator.

I wont even go near the part where people say that he hasnt actually completed 50 years.

The celebrate this momentous event, his family had a feud between his sons.
And three innocent people dide.

The city was lit with close to a lakh tubelights, causing several powercuts. Serial lights draped with scant regard for private property.

A few thousand cutouts and posters. Each would have easily cost about a lakh.

Ten lakh people bussed in for the event along with the Prime Minister, who,most probably, flew in on the taxpayers money.

The teeming masses who were brought here would have had transport, food and booze supplied to them free, or else they would not have come.

Because of these, half the city was shut from Friday afternoon. Companies shut down half day because of the expected problems due to the family feud.

The thing is, the whole thing would have cost crores. Lots of crores.

If he was really doing service to the people, why not spend the money on them?

http://www.4to40.com/recordbook/index.asp?id=254&category=human is what this reminds me of.

So that they could not be caught similary, the whole show was put up and removed in three days. Magnificent planning and execution.

In the end, with such organising capability, so much money, the state would have benifitted, no, the people would have benefitted, those who really need the money.

I'm no saint, but I dont waste stuff like this.

Instead of all this, he could have fed hungry poor people.

He could have created shelter for the homeless.

He could have used the same organising skills of his party members for helping people out, doing good, but no.

In the end, he will still be remembered fondly. For if anyone remembers him otherwise, they will be beaten up and shit like that.

Such is our world.






Music : Maroon 5 's new album
REM - Being the Begin.

Photo on Top : Me, by TheGirl

Tagged!

Tagged by J

Here goes :-)

1. One thing you are very much afraid of?
My Temper

2. Two incidents you can never forget in your life?

One is a chat
Another is a yes.

3.Three books you would love reading again and again?

Carpe Jugulum - Terry Pratchett
The 5 books in the Hitchhikers Guide To the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

Makes 6 :-P

4. Four women who are most beautiful?
4. Arti (My Baby Neice)
3. Megha (My New Baby Neice)
2. Aditi (My Baby Sista!)
1. TheGirl (My Baby, period)


5.Five of you favorite food items?

1. ****** (I *am* a hungry baby :-P)!
2. Vendakka Fry wihtout too much oil
3. Oreo Shake at Mocha
4. Idli anywhere as long as it is soft and the sambar and chutney are good.
5. Actually just ****** totally :-)

6.Six words you use very often oral/written?

Slightly
Yeah Right
hmmm...
mhhh...
:-)

In no particular order...

7.Seven things you like about yourself?

ME! :-D
(Except for certain neuroses :p)

8. Eight film personalities who are your all time favorites?

Jack Nicholson
Cuba Gooding Junior
Vijaykanth ( No one can make "comedy" movies like him :P)
Harrison Ford (Indiana Jones and Star Wars)
Rowan Atkinson ( See Blackadder to know why)
Derek Fowlds
Paul Edington
Nigel Hawthorne

9.Nine movies you wont mind watching again and again?

Happy Feet
All Carry On Movies
All the Star Wars Movies
All the Indiana Jones Movies
Men Of Honor
Goodfellas
Scent of a Woman
And lots of others I dont rememeber roght now..

10.Ten songs you would like to listen to everyday?
The Cuppy Cake Song
A Hundred Years - Five For Fighting
Lullaby - Shwan Mullins
Dani California - Red Hot Chilli Peppers
By-Tor and the Snow Dog - Rush
Heavy Fuel - Dire Straits
Brothers in Arms - Dire Straits
Walking in Memphis - Bruce Springsteen
Through Glass - Stone Sour
All Along The Watchtower - Bob Dylan
And More...

Tagging :

TheGirl
oopsmommy
Anyone else who reads this blog and wants to pick it up! :-)

Cowji on the beach.

Group of cows on a day out on the beach.
Photog'd by Self and TheGirl
Title inspired by : http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106408/

No actual cows were harmed in the making of this blog.
Nor were they forced to do anything.
We just followed them onto the beach as they go in and then went off :-P

Catamaran

Was on the beach with TheGirl today and we saw a catamaran being beaten up by the waves, getting broken and then getting fixed.
Photo Blog Below :-)

Garbage.

The city is finally waking up.
Following image is of a dustbin in Beasant Nagar.
Also seen.Playboy and Cooptex cobranded Dustbins made out of rabbits.
Said Rabbits have been cut and gutted and then put up on Thiruvanmiyur beach, for people to throw their garbage into them. Seem to need the above note on them too, as quite a few miss.
Ended with the sunset at Kotturpuram bridge.
Taken a bit too late to be seen in full glory, but nice none the less :-)


Watching : Major League and The History of the World Part 1.
Listening : Free Bird by Lynrd Skynrd...Amazing Solo...
Reading : Basic BGP Configuration :P