Freedom@Freedom Park

This was the first time I went to India against corruption movement here in Bangalore led by Anna Hazare.Last time Anna went on fast in April,I was procastinating on which day to go and show my support, but Anna won his war before I could make up my mind. It was a wonderful experience here at Freedom Park in Bangalore.Today being Sunday people from all walks of life were there to say united we stand against corruption; kids aged 4 to grand pa's and mom's, all were there. This movement started when the nation was unearthing scams after scams. People were totally annoyed at the volume of public money that has been siphoned off by our elected corrupt officials in WHITE.
The mood in freedom park was that of annoyance, but clam expressions. People were allowed to come to stage and sing songs, read poems, enact skits and express thier views. The public who were coming in like an army of ants all excited and shouting slogans, there seem no end to humanity. Most of them were carrying the tri colour or banners and posters. I think the best events that I witnessed here was song by Vasu Dixit of Swarathma band and unfurling of 2532 sq ft of the national flag, now beleive me that got the crowd excited.
With all said and done,debate is still on with the methods employed by Anna,that he is black mailer, his methods are not just and so on and so forth. But the cuase is more just,that is what I think. And the methods are merely to get attention of parliment. The youth of this country has woken up and Anna,has become a demi god of anti corruption. A American student from Ohio said "the social cause that the people of this country are crusading against is inspiring" . Infact international press has quoted "after Gandhi, now is the time under anna and his team that democracy is tested". Well one thing that I said to my self is not pay bribe no matter what. Hope to visit once more to freedom park.

Life @ Hoody,Biligadde

Six year ago when I was moving to this new house in Hoody I was damn happy, it was like geting the first bar of chocolate. It was always a bliss to be home even with no one around. Initially we were four guys living in this two bed room house. things were crazy, there used to be no noise, except for my TV showing Star Movies, HBO and MTV; my favourite channels to kill time. A lot of things have happened in this tenure. Our first bike trip to Ooty, my first travel to Singapore, my Bullet and subsequent love with it. the beauty of the place was to be at peace, no disturbances at all. Although I used to hate the mosquitoes in the intial years thanks to the tributary of river Sharavati in Bangalore and the fuking street dogs. Man i have had sleepless nights because of them and it would be a night mare in the summers with power cuts. There have been innumerable trips with friends on bike and in taxis. I hated the taxi rides as I was the only one travelling from this part of the city so first pick up meaning an early wake up and ride to the sleepy jarhead's homes and last drop meaning i was dead in the middle of the night. but it was fun, the trip would outclass everything else. Food was something that I have had in all proportions in different places. The Bhagini dinner, Kadamba breakfast, Green Leaf Tea, bakery Tea, Sindabad Buffet, Radha Buffet, Savannah Buffet, Sports Bar, Shiv Shakthi Bar and Restaurant, Urban Legend, Tie Uncle Bow Uncle from Bageecha, Dosa Camp, Dhanyavad, Delhi Kitchen,Srinidhi Sagar, Chef Baker, the Bajji Stall oh yeah Keshav's Tea Stall. I think that covers most of what I have had in this part of the city. The best times in all respects was in ITPL while I was working for Delphi, man what times. Cannot forget the football games we used to play there in the evening after office. It was something to look forward to after a days work. But once we moved out of ITPL, it was somewhat bland in Kalyani Platina. But the football ritual was maintained in AECS grounds. That place is still rocking. And i did loose some unwanted fat, feels good. Sudden escapades to have a drink with the gang was the most dreadful one. He will come, he wont come, whos got bike, what time we got to drink, ok come one we are getting late, Mallya is waiting for us.Ha ha ha ha and after drinking till our souls are disturebed some one will get an idea to climb Skandagiri hill or go to Maddu Coffee Day; grrrr just when I wanted to crash land on my bed. Well another thing that happend to me was Marathons, in totality I have ran 7 seven marthons of which one is a half marathon. It was wonderful experience and a painful one month training. Then there was a shocker from Harsha, "I don't think I can live withou her"....head turning, seeing Sun in the night, birds chirpping. He he he yeah he found the love of his life :-). Oh yeah how can I forget these two; potyy on Old Madarad Road ( there a Metro station coming at the same site) and getting caught after drinking and driving on Old Airport Road. Well these two things top everything else. Now when I am moving out of this place feel nostalgic and there is a certain amount of resistance to get out of comfort zone. Ok now most of you must be wondering why did I blog this? I am BORED!!

Kannur

The last time I went out on my bike…emmm…was in 2009 to Hampi. After that wonderful trip there were no long rides. We did one to Antharagange in Oct 2010, but that was nothing; the distance would be like commuting to office from city centre for two days. I was desperate for a trip as this first week of Nov were lined up holidays and the weather would just great where ever you want to go. A lot of places were in mind MM Hills, Ooty, Goa etc. There were chances that I would have to ride alone no company and I was all ready for that too. Sandy was not clear if he would be able to come or not, eventually he did. And in the last moment a colleague of mine, Harwant was willing to ride with us where ever we went. So were three guys on two Bullets and a Pulsar. The other Bullet, Thunderbird belonged to Harwant. We were slated to start on 30 Oct, Sat afternoon; but thanks to persistent intervention from out manager both me and Harwant were in the office to fix some issue. We decided to leave Bangalore early on Sun morning. Oh by the way we are going to Kerala, Thalasseri and adjoining areas. We left Bangalore and reached Mysore for breakfast. The weather was really good, cloudy with occasional burst of sunlight. The breakfast at Mylari was too good. All of us gulped down three dosa’s. We were sitting outside under the exhaust fan and suddenly as the exhaust fan started to blow faster all the oil with water started spraying on us. To watch it it looked like some slimy aliens black in colour were holed up in that fan and now they have decided to attack us. It was only us that they were interested in.
Well after escaping the attack we headed towards Hunsur and Gonikoppa. Our first day was planned to end in Thalasseri or Mahe. The deviation from Hunsur to Gonikoppa had some bad roads and some really good road especially in the Coorg district. As we entered Kerala we were hungry and wanted to have lunch, but there were no hotels on the highway where you could stop and eat. We reached Irrity around 3:00PM and were searching for a hotel. The main road has all shops for buying vegetables, banana, clothes, jewelry and what not but not one hotel in sight. While we were searching dark black clouds were hovering above the town and in a fraction of seconds it started raining. We just parked our bike on the road side and ran into a bakery. We realized that there was not way this rain was going to stop soon and decided to eat in the bakery what ever is there. Communicating with the owner was a thing. I landed up eating some beef dish which was understood as chicken. We hogged like hell in that bakery. We spent almost an hour waiting there and finally decided that we will stay in this town. We searched for a hotel in the drizzling rain and halted in a hotel called Falcon Plaza/Rose Restaurant. The receptionist was excited to have customers and was telling that the owner is from Gulf who will come today and that and this and all. It looked like we were the only guys lodging in that place. The place was ok. We changed into dry clothes and went hunting for soda, water and snacks to go along with VAT69. We were supposed to find the reason for naming it as VAT69 and we still don’t know. We got some tasty tapioca chips, yummy. After having couple of drinks we went to the hardly occupied restaurant and had our dinner and called it a day.
The next day we woke up early and headed towards Kannur. Sandy’s friend gave some information that going to Kannur will be better than to Thalasseri as there are more places to be seen and better accommodation is also available. On the way we had breakfast in a local hotel, man good dosa and amazing chutney. We reached Kannur sooner than expected thanks to some good roads. We lodged our self in Mascot Beach Resort on Baby Beach. What a name na, actually there is no beach on the hotel front. The hotel is just located on the sea shore. We dumped out luggage and headed towards Kasargod to visit Bekal Fort. It is about 80Km north of Kannur on NH-17. The highway road was bad at places and really bad for the last 20Kms to Bekal Fort. Our asses were crying out loud in pain. Bekal fort is also facing the sea, in the past it was used for trading with Portuguese and many empires have ruled in this region. We also spent some time on the beach with the fort in the background. By the time we were finished in the fort the weather had finished us and we were hungry. There was a restaurant next to the fort and we hogged there. Surprisingly the cost of fish was too much in this place. Being on a coastal region we would not expect the price to be sky high. Oh it was also raining here, well not heavily. By the time we left Bekal Fort the rain had stopped and we were happy. We wanted to cover the distance fast as dawn was approaching fast and clouds were also accumulating. Man we had to go through the same ass whooping roads. At some places it had rained heavily. As we neared Kannur it became dark and heavy vehicles started their journey. Sandy ripped through this traffic and we lost Harwant. There was a 30min delay and we realized later that there was a communication gap between us. When we reached the hotel, we were drenched and cold. All of us took a hot water bath and man it was so refreshing. Then we deep dived into food and took a walk on the sea shore and crashed for the day.
The next day we went to Payyambalam beach as soon as we woke up. Played football there and Harwant took a dip in the sea. From there we came back to the hotel to play in the pool before getting ready. We all got ready, had breakfast and headed to Muzhapilangad beach. This is a drive in beach so we can take our bikes on the beach and ride it. This was the best part of the trip, riding carelessly on the beach. We had some nice snaps taken on the beach. From here we headed to Thalasseri, enroute to Waynad/Manathavady. In Thalasseri we went to Thalasseri Fort, not a great place and not a big fort too. Again the coastal weather was finishing us, we stopped at a cool bar and I hogged at ice cream while the others had juice. As we started to go towards Manathavady, the weather also started to change slowly and we were feeling better. We reached Manathavady for lunch and the ride on the hills amidst the tea estates was really good. We had lunch in a local hotel called Hotel Rolex. Nice ghee rice. We had initially thought of staying here for the day, but after reaching the place we felt that we should continue and decided to ride to H.D Kote through the Nagarahole Forest. Ha ha what a ride, amazing road but lot of humps. All along the route you can see elephant crossing symbol. We also spotted a lonely tusker chomping on to grass. It had its tusker intact. As we rode along the forest we saw Langur, Deer’s and a Peacock. When we reached H.D. Kote it was almost evening and there was unwillingness to ride further. We searched for a hotel to stay for the day and man what a place. There are not hotels but dingy lodges. We decided to head to Mysore which was just 50Kms. We went straight to Bopy’s and crashed for the night. Harwant had to leave early next day, we both had a heavy breakfast in GTR and then we headed to Melkote. There is a temple here and fort on a hill top. But the timing was bad, when we reached we had only half an hour to spare before they closed down the place. So we visited the temple and had Pulliogre as recommended by our friend HP. After that we headed straight back to Bangalore. I was feeling really sad that the trip has come to an end so soon. Yeh dil mange more!!

Ride to the Past

The curtains were up on 20 Dec and the show was completed on 29 Dec. But guys dont feel bad about not malking it to the show. It was one hell of a ride and we had a blast, well our ass also blasted thanx to some wonderful roads in our trip. I am sure you have seen the round trip map in my earlier post and here I will be elaborating on the daily events that you all have missed :-D.

A big thanx to Reddy who took a big foot back in the n-th hour and decided not to come for the trip and AK for being as busy as he can be. Well the two (Sandy a.k.a Sandeep a.k.a 401 a.k.a Mudde a.k.a Potty Machine (Christened this trip)) of us made amerry :-D. For me this was a long awaited trip as I wanted to see Hampi, Badami and other places that will come to picture as you read on. Simply put I had never been to these places and even if I had I was too young to remember their names. Sandy was riding on his aged and trusted Pulsar and me on my Basanti Bullet. The previous fortnight was sepnt in doing some detailing on the routes, places to visit, what to carry and what not and some shopping. Our bikes were pepped up to be in theri bestest shapes and man it was an expensive service that I had ever got done :-(; but then she is my darling muahahahah.
For the record
Distance covered:1700Km
Duration of the trip: 10 days
Cost: Rs6600.00
Experience: Priceless (U dont get scars on Ur ass everyday)

Day01 (20 Dec 2009) Hoody - Anil Kumble Circle - Yeshwanthpur - NH4 - Tumkur - Chitradurga
Geting up for a bike ride has been a pain. I just cant handle the excitement previous night. But never the less the feel of riding on a highway conquers all the loss in sleep. So we met up in Anil Kumble Circle behind the Biblical Society and took some snaps and headed strainght to NH4. Bloody geting out of Bangalore is a pain on this road. So much development that sometimes I have heard people telling about jams all the way upto Tumkur. But we were the early birds and before the traffic could build up, we crossed major stretch of NH4 and reached the toll gate from where all you have to do is cruise. We stopped at Kamath which has opened newly on the left side of the highway as we rode through. I must say it was the sadest breakfast I ever had in a Kamath resturant. Here we met a guy who was driving a Maruti800 to Mumbai along with his friends and his dog Basanti ;-). Strange but true; reason he was relocating to Mumbai and he did not want to fly Basanti as dogs are sedated for the flight and they are not known to take this well. Well so we cruised on after our disastrous breakfast. I was desperate to have lunch in a dhaba, I like the food in dhabas on the highways. But the dhabas on the highway were not inviting. We checked a couple of them and they were all DANGEROUS. A little on the highway; well maintained 4 lane, flyover on towns/villages. Most of the time my legs were on the crash gaurd instead of resting on the foot rest. As we approached Chitradurga we were able to see lots of windmills, they are using them for power generation and the terrain also changed, turned out to be a little rocky and hilly. Sandy was well versed with his childhood memories about the town and went inside the city in search of a hotel, damn there were no decent hotels in the city. Finally after lot of searching we landed up in a cheap hotel next to NH4. It was ok for our needs to sleep and go, but the night was nightmare. Lots of mosquitoes and the fan was of no use. We had lunch and slept for an hour. Then we went to Chitradurga fort. The fort belonged to the Nayaks of Vijaynagara empire. It is famous for two things mainly Onake Obavva and the fact that it was difficult to conquer this fort because of its design and geographical location. It is interesting to see how the fort was built in those in this rocy terrain and they were using simple methods for construction and living, like rain harvesting which has gained importance now a days. Onnake Obavva is an attraction here, at this small loop hole on the structure of the fort when the enemy soldiers were trying to sneek in Obavva beat the shit of the enemy with her Onake while her husband was having his meal. She kept on doing this till her husband had his meal and returned to gaurd the fort. Kill Bill of her days. After clicking photos inside the fort we headed back to the town in search of some hang out place to kill time. But the town had none and we landed up roaming out on the rods like fools. We had some hot baji's and tea and headed to Sandy relative's hotel to say Hi. Here we were treated to Masala dosa, puri and tea. I was like burpp not any more please. They were like Sandy we know your capacity eat eat. I was like a Guinea pig. After that when we came out of the hotel WTF, my front tire had flat. The locals said that cop had let the air as my bike was too close to the road. Ass hole. I had tough time searching for air in the town. At the end we were tired and retired to our hotel room to be greeted by blood sucking mosquitoes quien quien. We could hardly sleep, but manage to zzzzz for a good amount of time.

Day02 (21 Dec 2009) Chitradurga - Kudligi - Hosapet - Hampi

When we woke up in the morning my eyes were all foggy. I wanted to sleep more but then the road was calline me ba ba ba. Well geting hot water in the hotel was an excersie. I had to waste 2 buckets of water to get hot water. The bath was really refrershing, wish there was a bath tub :-D. All this time Sandy was snoring with mosquitoes. Then he also got ready and we saddled up for another day. We thought we will have breakfast here only as out way on NH13 there were no big towns to get a decent breakfast. We had idli which was OK and moved on with the hope that we will get some thing good to eat. The first impressions of the road was bad, we thought let us go further it mite improve. I had to stop twice to readjust the tent on my bike. The traffic was also heavy on this road. The roads were like pot holes here and pot hole there and pot holes every where. I had fastened my camera bag on the pillion seat and while riding it slipped and fell. I did not take notice of it and the truck driver who was in the opposite lane started shouting. When I turned back fuk my camera was lying in the middle of the road. I was glad that there was no other truk rite behind me else my Nikon D40 would have gone krack krank plunk. Then I made sure that the bag would be fatened properly and rode on. Oh my what roads. We stopped for tea in a dhaba and it was really good. Then again we stopped for food in a highway hotel and man here I realised that Idli's can be screwed up. In South India Idli is a common food and simple to make. But this guy had a talent to screw it up. Damn we could not eat that also; insted had egg rice, which he did not screw. Here we met a German who was on his way to Bangalore from Hampi. He said he also has a bike and loves touring on it. The cab driver was cursing the roads. Somehow we managed to reach Hospet. The approach to the city is horrible. The whole path for about 10-15Kms is ruled by mining trucks and the colour of trees and any vegetation living or dead is RED. Then we saw Thungabhadara Reservoir. Man so huge and the water was inviting, shades of blue and green. It was a pleasant site. The T.B Dam is in the same vicinity. We got into the city and headed straight to Hampi. The city looked like a mess lots of people and vehicles all over the road. There are many options available to stay here but we had other things in mind. Hampi is about 15Km from Hospet. We reached Hampi and wanted to cross the river, Thungabhadra. People cross the rivers on boat or coracle. Yes you have to load you bike into them and cross it. We took like two hours to search for a place to stay. I had seen about a place Mowgli Guest House on the net and wanted to stay there. We did not get a room and finally landed up in Goutami guest house. He gave us a cottage for Rs250. The crossing the river, sitting on ur bike was freaky. Geting the bike down to the river bank and back was also fun. I could see that my shocks was utilised fully. We crashed in the room, freshend up and went to the restaurant that was in the same complex. The restaurant is nice a very different look, they have laid table in bricks and marble stone a little above the ground and on either side of it he had put beds. Vola what else you need, have beer, sleep, eat and watch TV. It was very relaxing. Then while eating we talked to the care taker and he suggested that we go to Anjineya Betta (Monkey Hill) and Sanapur reservoir. By the way the food is good and priced like here in Bangalore. Then we went to the hill first, a small ride and a small climb about 500+ steps. When you go to the top there is a temple of Anjineya and lots of monkeys. There were lot of foreingers here and all were waiting for sunset. The view from here is amazing. You can see entire Hampi from here, all in ruins and lots of rocks. We had a nice time till sun set and came down the hill. Then we went to Sanapur reservoir which is in the opposite direction of the hill. A huge reservoir with lots of water located admist rocky hills. Bad part was there was no sun light. We went back to the guest house and to our suprise there was a movie scheduled Dargeling Limited. We crashed on the bed in the restaurant. This palce is actually an Island like Sri Rangaptna and mostly foreigners live here. This is the only place in Hampi where you get beer and maye grass also. After drinking and eating and tiring ourselves we slept like a log.
Day03 (22 Dec 2009) Hampi

We had nice undisturbed sleep in Hampi. The next day we had a steaming hot water bath and went in search of idli and dosa. We had to cross the river to get South Indian breakfast, and crossing the river and climbing the bike was fun. We found a road side eatery for breakfast and it was delicious. We hogged like we had never food for ages. The first place we went to was Virupaaksha Temple. Beautiful carvings and paintings. There was a place in the temple where the shadow of the gopura was falling on the wall and it was invereted. intersting, there was no lens to do that but still and also you can magnify the image by playing with the light beam. We then decided to hire a guide for Rs500 for the entire day or rather to cover the importnat places in Hampi. So the guide Mr. Gopinath took us back into the temple and explained in detail what who and why. Then we went to our next destination Saasvikaalu Ganesha and Kadalekaalu Ganesha. Both are temples of Lord Ganesh but there is no puja performed as the idols are broken. Then we stopped by Krishna Temple and Market. Next was Laxshmi Narasimha temple. It is a huge idol of Narasimha sitting in cross legged fashion with Lakshmi in his lap. But Lakshmi was missing as it was destroyed. I was wondering who did it, then our guide told that it was Mohd. Ghazni & Deccan Sultante who did it. Infact the state of Hampi today is because of them, there were a lot of carvings in stone and wood that were broken or burnt down by them. Then king Krishnadevaraya wanted to live and harmony and let Muslims and Buddhists to live in his kingdom, but Muslims wanted to know the kingdom to destroy it and when they had enough information before leaving the kingdom they destroted a lot of property and finally invaded. So then we went to Zanana enclosure, here there is Queens Palace and Elephant Stable , Queens bath and other monuments. Queens palace is an amazin place. A lite pink color and supposed to be cool in summer. It is said that it can be so cold here in summer that an AC will feel ashamed about its performance. Then we went to Hazararamam Mandir, Pan Supari Bazar, Stepped Tank (latest excavation), Public swimming pool, Mahanavami Dibba and the final stop was at Vithalla Temple. Famous sculpture of Stone Chariot and the musical pillars are here in this temple complex. It is real the pillars make sounds from a musical instrument. Our guide made sounds from a pillar that was of a tabla. We are not allowed to climb actuall hall where the pillars are there as it is destroyed beyond repair. But the place is worth seeing and experiencing. After this we came back to Hampi and a loooonnggg meal and walked along Hampi Bazar which is opposite to Virupaksha temple. in the market we got bells that are fastened around domestic cows and bulls. One of the bell is donning my Basanti as on today....gllunk glunk. Then we crossed the river and went again to the Sanapur reservoir. It was one hell of a ride, suitable to do time trial. There was on particular turn that haunted me, it was dark and a there was a hard left to be taken; if u are not alert I bet that you will sway away from the road and fall straight into the canal....scary. We spent time near the reservoir and came back to our room and started packing and preparing for the next day. We raked a lot of time planing on the route to Badami and Sandy also did some office work in this tussle; corporate slave :-).

Day04 (23 Dec 2009) Hampi - Sanapur - Hutgeri Cross - Koppal - Kuknur - Gajendgragad - Belur - Badami
We got up early and headed towards Badami. The route was chalked out last night after talking to lolcals in Hampi. The ride till Hutgeri Cross was wonderful; early morning riding through paddy fields and unknown villages. It was just too good. From Hutgeri Cross it is NH286. Man o man u should have seen the traffic jam of trucks and trucks and only trucks; as I remember it was about 3Kms and the colour of the highway was RED; mining lorries. Koppal was targeted for breakfast and man what a breakfast we had there, shit load of it. I was so full that the rest of the journey was uncomfortable for me. From Koppal we headed to Kuknur and then to Ron. On the way we asked a guy how to go to Ron as we need to go to Badami; this guy gave us the best route to reach Badami. Away from the NH and traveling on non-highways it was ust too good. I would bet that this country side was no boring. All kinds of things to see fields, people and fodder animals. We stopped atleast twice for tea before reaching Badami. Once we were there it was mission HOTEL for us. Another hour or so spent in finding room; we even asked in Inspection Bunglows but they were not interested in entertaining us. At the end we settled in a hotel near the bus stand, freshened up had snacks and then headed to Badami Caves. There are 4 caves carved somewhere in the 8th century by the Chalukyas. Two of these caves are dedicated to Vishnu , one each for Shiva and Budhha. There are wonderful carving in the caves like Natraja with 18 hands depicting the 81 poses in Bharatantyam, bull and elephans sharing their heads et.al. Most appealing is the colour of the stones; colour of almonds (badami). Very soothing to the eyes. The Chalukyas carved each of these caves from top to down and begining from the most interior part of each cave. From here on the caves we could see Bhoothnath temple on a lake front. There are couple of shots taken here for the bollywood hit Guru. We went to Bhoothnath temple from there and took some nice snaps of the temple and sunet. At sun set the Badadmi Caves were looking wonderful. Then we came back to the market area in search of tea and bajii's (cha and mirchi in local language). I must say the baji's that we stareted eating now had a profound effect on our ass hole :-). Scented HOT air was spread all over we went. We went back to the room relaxed for some time and went to have dinner. At dinner we gulped down some beer and had dinner. Sandy went for the kill of 8 bajii's at a shot and the rest is history. Bed was calling us ba ba and then zzzzzzzz.

Day05(24 Dec 2009) Banashankari - Mahakoota - Pattadkal - Aihole

The next day we went to Banashankari temple famous for Banashankari devi. It was a normal temple that you would see in Bangalore but there was Chitranna and Pulliogare. Chitranna nange Pulliogare for Sandy as he onlt saw her ;-). Because of Chitranna we landed up going around temple three times; neverthless worthy :-D . Our next destination was Mahakoota; our guide at Badami insited that we go there otherwise the trip would be worth less. Mahakoota is basically Shiva temple and there are a lot of Shiva statues and Linga. There was a school excursion here also happily enjoying their bath in kalyani. We did not spend much time here and had a pit stop for tea and bajji. I was reluctant to have bajji for the hot air effect but then I had to give in to temptation. Next we rode to Pattadkal, the road was not good and while negotiating a road hump we landed by loosing back brake of Pulsar. the brake rod was broken into two pieces. We decided we will continue our journey and sandy skillfully rode with only the front brakes. Pattadkal was impressive with its monuments in Dravidian and Aryan style and spread across a reasonable area. The guide did a pretty good job of telling us about the sculpture and also the recent floods that forced the villagers to come on to the temple premises and live for about 2 weeks till the water receded. Pattadkal is on the banks of river Mala Prabha and it was not flooded....intereseting.Next we went to Aihole the oldest of the ruins in time. The ride was pretty good and when we went there we could not identify which one was a monumnet and which one was a house. people had converted some of the monuments to their homes and if you look at the names of the monuments that exist now the bear the names of the people who lived there earlier. We had some amzing curd in a earthen pot, too good thick and tasty. To be precise Aihole was R&D centre, Pattadkal was Tech Centre, Badami was their launch platform and Hampi turned out to be a concept. At the end of the day we realised that the brakes had to be fixed yet and rushed back to Badami. We got that done and had to satisfy our hunger. We went to a hotel and had some snacks for lunch. Then all we had to do is pack up for the day and dinner. Dinner was at a khan-huli; serving jowar roti.
Day06 (25 Dec 2009) Badami - Kulgeri - Nargund - Navalgund - Dharward - Dandeli

Our day started with some tea and serach for petrol. The bunks were not yet open in the city. We just rode on our pre-planed route. The ride was good, small road coutry side and no traffic until we reached NH. Initially for some distance it was horrible then it was just cruize madi. We had our breakfast in Nargund and it was good. We did not go to Hubli but took an intermediate road to Dharward. 30Kms of pure ass blasting road, I was desperate to hit the city limits and it never seemed to come. Once we were in Dharward it was nice, the roads are big, city is clean and there was not much traffic. We stopped at bunk filled our babies and ourselves with some ice cream. Then after a long break we headed towards Dandeli. The geography changed slowly to forest and the ride was geting better and better. All the way till Dandeli we were just burning the road with our presence. Dandeli is a very small town, less options to stay here. We were hunting for a place to stay and one of the locals suggested us to go to a guest house near the river Kali, you might get lucky. And so we did, although he was runing full he agreed to let us pitch in the tent and we were excited about it. It would be the first time we will be doing that and it was fun when we did it later in the night with torch light. We had a heavy lunch and decided to go to Syntheri Rock. It is about 35Km from Dandeli and the road was totally fuked up. I was dead afraid that I might get a flat in those condition but did not. On this route there was lot of dust that I exposed myself to and the next thing I knew is achoo. It was coming non-stop, damn. Synteri rocks is a huge rock of granite where the river is flowing and the water has cut the rock and it now looks like a cliff. Nothing awsome about it. I was wondering if we were better off in our tent drinking. We headed back to Dandeli so that we can use all the sun light avaialable for the ride in the bad part of the road. We zoomed into Dandeli got a torch and came back to pitch the tent. Then we got some HRD and drank. We applied odomos and slept, suddenly in the tent it turned out to be a oven. We were sweating. I had not changed into night dress, was still in my riding gears. I had a feeling that if I change the cold could worsen. But we slept well, in the morning I did the honours out in the open and what a feeling aaaa. We undid our tent packed up and started for the next destation.

Day07(26 Dec 2009) Dandeli - Joida - Anashi - Karwar - Gokarna

Morning was foggy and cold. I opted to use the nature as my bathroom for everything :-).Hmmmm splendid. The ride was ok till breakfast but after that it was horrible till Anashi. Worst roads and our ass had a signature embedded. From there on till Karwar it was NFS; too good roads and we were racing down the hills. The weather also changed from cool to humid as we got down the hill and approaced Karwar. Karwar to Gokarna was on NH17, some sections of the highway was horrible and not to mention the killer traffic and trucks. Once we reached Gokarna it was clear that it has to be a shack on the beach no hotel; in the worst case we will pitch our tents and spend the night. Sandy went down the beach searching for room and I was gaurding our ladies. There was a huge rush of people to go to the beach and the approach road was clogged. In the mean two Britishers who were touring India on a Bullet purchased for Rs20,000 came back with their rear wheel. Theie bike was parked next to mine. The bearing of the bike had gone for a toss and they went back to get that fixed. It was fun talking to them and helped them to fix the rear wheel, although I was not able to help them to get the chain tightened. By then Sandy came back and we got a kinda of arrangement with the chack guy to get us some place to sleep and use their loo. I was glad and we got the bikes down the hill to the shack. When we went there he suggested giving a half complete hut to us, so that we can keep the bags and sleep for the night there. We readily agreed. The hut was a HUT nothing inside just a door to get in and out. We dumped everything, changed and went to the resturant. We were thirsty for beer and gulped down a few of them. there were some guys playing football on the beach, very inviting and hoped they played till we finished. But our luck ran out soon. Next thing I wanted to take a dip in the ocean and wash away all the filth from the last two days ride. Luckily no sea animals died :-), Sandy had his reasons to be a spectator. After that we some how manage to get the ball and kicked around. There were some jerks who wanted to play themselves and not invite us. It was sunset time, so we got a spot on a rock, got a bottle of beer and enjoyed the scenary. Now is bath time and odomos time :-D. Both of us were fresh and sat down for dinner. I ordered a red shiffer and devoured it completely, it was a huge piece of meat, yummy. After an elaborate meal we went on a long walk on the beach and retired in our hut. Initially we did not feel anything inside but as the night passed on man there were so many mosquitoes, odomos failed miserably. Somewhere around 01:00AM someone gave tortoise and after that was lit, we could sleep well. I was desperate for more sleep when I got up in the morning.
Day08(27 Dec 2009) Gokarna - Kundapur on Killer NH17

This was the most undecisive and scary journey that we had in the entire trip. We did not know exaclty where we will end our trip for the day. We had thought we will ride on upto Manipal or some place after Agumbe for that day, but it turned out that we stopped at Kundapura. The ride was horrible on this day because of the weather & traffic. I got whisked twice on the highway by some crazy drivers. The only good part was there was some streatch where we were next to the coast line. In Kudapur on that day we saw Marvanthe beach, Kundapur beach and Sidhi Vinayak Temple. The Kundapur beach wsa horrible. All the filth from the beach was geting washed back on to the shores. Filt like waste food, batteries, empyt bottles and tube light chokes. It was like nature saying take it back in your face. The best thing on this day was the accomodation. It was a brand new hotel and we got a good deal.

Day09 (28 Dec 2009) Kundapur - Agumbe - Sringeri -Balehonoor - Chikamagalur

This was by far the best ride. The entire stretch was really good. Cant crib about anything on this day.The ride on Agumbhe ghats was good except for the sudden no road on hair pin turns. The view from the top of the ghats was also good. I think it would have been even better if we had come early in the morning or for the sunset.Most of the time we were riding in the forest area, in ghat sections and coffee plantations. It was a pure delight to zip through these sections. The lunch at Balehonoor in a local bar and restaurant was simply good. The taste just beat the looks from outside. When we reached Chikamagalur it was almost evening and we lodged ourself in a decent place called Rest Inn. In the evening we went to Coffee Day hoping agianst all odds to see some chicks and had tea and biji's in a road side cart. For dinner we went to an old glory hotel called Planters Inn. We saw two beautiful bikes one was an Indian and the other was BSA motor bike. At what a sight.....We signed off our trip with some Vodka, a toast to our bikes, for a hassel free trip and to ASI (Archeological Survey of India): These guys have done a wonderful job in maintaining and restoring all the historic monuments that we have been in this trip.
Day10 (29 Dec 2009) Chikamagalur - Halebidu - Kunigal - Magadi - B2B

Nothing much on this ride as we were heading back home and not feeling good about it. Worth mentioning is the sad breakfast in Halebidu, me just missing hitting a bullock cart on the highway, Sandy missing the promised dhaba food and the cheapest lunch in Magadi (Rs24). Back in our home I had fun caressing the scars on my ass and thinking about the ride, the places and the fun we had.

Coming soon...

Behen Ji PAGAL ho gayi

Recently we all would have heard about Mayawati unveiling her own statues in UP and some more blue Elephant statues that are in the pipeline. Blue Elephant is the party symbol of BSP. Lo behold the latest, self proclaimed godess added to Hindu Mythology. Like we were short of godesses in our long list of Gods that rule every nook and courner in this vast and diverse country. I wonder how people of UP are feeling now looking at this idol every day, for how many is it a good look charm, for how many it brings bad luck and for many birdies is the best place to poop :-). Bitch are you out of your mind, eating from the peoples money and geting worthless statues placed all over the state. Are you Mother Teresa or some big personality (like Rocky Balboa) to have a statue and people to worship you. You fool go and do your job rather than thinking how to spend the money in the treasury and how to have birthday bash. You are suppose to serve us and not eat us. God it eats up to think about how the city looks like with these statues and the worst part is that it is gonna stay there for the years and generations to come. I demand that the government at the central takes some action on this godless act and maybe even make a rule of not erecting the statues of worthless people. Let there be some guidelines for a person to be captured in bronze and displayed for public affection.

Flash of a Genius

The Product: Dustbin Paper Bag

My First Customer



Hard earned money :-)

Suggestion are welcome.

Kids-Food-Ragging

Kids are making news now a days. They are in the news for winning a singing competition, chocking to death, ragging juniors, some loosing their sight and ability to hear. Looks like they are here for more of wrong reasons than good ones. Looks like there is a drastic change in the way todays generation is growing up and looking at things in life. There are a lot of changes in the ways the kids are growing up today that are very visible to me, more to my parents and older generations. For instance eating habits, burgers, pizza and coke compared to roti, dal and nimboo pani. Ease of clearing exams, it was not easy and funny to face an exam in those days. There was a hell lot of pressure to perform and out perform. There is a lot of dependency on peers and others in the family making kids not to think about situations, for instance they are not able to walk a km to the grocery store to fetch some goodies. Well i guess there will be more to talk about.
The reason why this blog has come up is the recent death of a student in school who choked herself because of asthama. there was a hue and cry that the school was not well equiped medically and they killed her. Hello come on it is a school not a sursing home. Well there is another question to be asked, why want she carrying a inhaler if she was a patient of asthama? Well today the news has died in the media but is sure is worthy to ponder about. Are we killing our children? Feeding them with fast food without giving a second thought on how it would affect them. Exposing to them to pollution in cities, i guess we all are responsible for that. Not encouraging them to have some physical activity, that could help a lot. Children are pampered a lot than ever before. It is not that i m jealous out here, but i wouldnt mind having a life like this when i was a kid :-). But surely i will not like to be like to be them.
Raggin has been other life clincher. The whole concept is screwed up. I like ragging and getting ragged. It was an ice breaker between seniors and juniors that is suppose to open up avenues academically and personally. There are a lot of things that schools, colleges, teachers and parents cannot teach. But friends and seniors can. This was one way to get to know people better and learn and exchange ideas. But now a days it is becoming a curse to send students to live in hostel and learn. Looks like the seniors that they are alpha male and can do what ever pleases them. Their actions are reflecting the mind set that they have violent and explosive.
It sure will be a long way to go. I guess we are moving the west way and we will go a full circle before we come back to the traditional India way.

Why should I get married?

Modhu when are you getting married? this is FAQ in ever body's manual of life.
Most of them asking this are either married or about to get married, i guess they want me also to get into ditch ;-).(Just kidding guys!) I am not sure why I should get married or rather I don't know and don't want to (wish i could try it ha ha ha ha). Most famous reasons that have been used and re-used for generations and all sexes & race.(I wish Software engineering was like this,modular and portable ha ha ha ha ha)
1.This is the right age
2.You are getting good offer, you will miss them (yeah like it is end of year sale)
3.You cant live alone
4.You and your family can settle down, while you are still young.
5.You need some one to take care and love you. :-D
6.We all did this (like goats :-))
7.What will you do staying alone.
8.You will loose your mental balance, maybe turn out to be mad man
9.Get married for the happiness of your parent x-(
10.Your education qualifications are less than the girls.
11.Astrologers all over India have said that after first issue you will flourish like anything.
12.Because of you we are getting humiliated.
13.What will you read at this age, you are 28; get married and you can do what ever you want.
14.Maybe some of your friends are asking you to live like this.
and so on, well i remember these repeated again and again.
Well I don't think I should get married because the above reasons are grave and are of high importance just like whether India should attack Pakistan or not now.
Here people are getting married because somebody thinks that you have to get married. Like that is more important thing to do in life, like there is no life without marriage, like its the end of the world.Because of society said you have to get married. Even if you decide to get married you marry to whims and fancy of the society....prrrrrrrrrrr.I dont know if I will ever get married, but I will when I can say "You Complete me!!"

Big Apple

Does any one know why new york is called Big Apple? well i though big apples are grown in NY ;-) and i wanted to eat them. Well on a serious note NY is called Big Apple because of many reasons and Google it you will be a bunch of stories, in brief "that answer about horses and racing is true however The Big Apple was a nyc mayoral campaign during the 1980's to promote nyc and attract tourism." So yes I did go to NY. It was tempting to drive all the way but the distance, time and loneliness was not encouraging. I flew down to NY, landed in La Guardia airport. This airport has a section of the runway on water. When i landed the weather was gloomy, dark and cloudy. looked like it had rained all night. my first destination was to Mukund's place. Mukund my host and guide from my trip. I first met Mukund in Kalpakam,Chennai in a quiz contest and next in Delphi as my colleague after a long long time. Well no there in no Delphi in NY, he works for Bloomberg in the financial district of Manhattan playing around with others money he he he he;-). When i landed in NY it was sure that driving here would be like driving in Bangalore. Lots of traffics unlike in Flint. Anyways we were traveling by metro or foot. Our first destination was Metropolitan Museum of Art, best place to spend time in a bad weather. we went there by train and it was an interesting journey. the system is pretty old and at some places there are two levels. at many places the trains are running on a elevated track on steel bridges, man it can get so noisy. Well the museum has a lots of artifacts from all civilizations. yes all the civilizations from all over the world. interesting how the Americans got hold of them. in some cases the artifacts were donated for preservation. there was a lot to see but less time. so my guide made sure i see the important ones. the best ones were the mummies and temple of Dendur. there were a lot of sculptures from India too, making me think where are these things on display in India? by the time we were done here it was almost 2PM. Next was food.Saravan Bhavan, yes in NY. Indian food after one month, felt good to eat some good food.
Next was Brooklyn Bridge. It is a beautiful bridge, built in the early 19th century. you can walk in the center of the bridge, giving you a beautiful picture of Manhattan sky line. we walked across the bridge and went to a location where a couple of scenes for the movie Kal Ho Na Ho was shot. from here the bridge looks majestic. From there we walked to Ground Zero. the place where once WTC stood long and tall. I got goosebumps when I was there just thinking how the palace could have been when the towers came down. Now they are building a memorial here and the construction is in progress. NYSE was the next place we went, it was just to see the trading place. Here at the Bull we shot some crazy snaps. Yes they sure are:-D. Next we visited Mukund's office. It is a nice place to work. Beautiful environment. we have lot of catching up to do in our MNC offices. Next we went to Time Square. Boy what a place. Awesome place with bright lighting and big, big displays. Lots of people out here just to see the lighting and displays. It would be nice if i could just sit on the pavement in open air and have a chilled beer. Just perfect. By the time we reached back home it was mid night. Guess what the trains run 24X7. Well had a nice nap because of all the walking around in the city.
About NY, the place is not USA. Yep you wont feel like you are in USA, there are people from all over the world all races. It is so full of energy. It was energizing to be there after living in this small town. Life here is fast always on the move and people are not fat:-). they are thin and fit. I felt i should be here for some time. I should look out for a company who has a center in NY ;-). Day two. We were headed to Central Park. The lung space of NY. Yes this is only place in entire city where there are trees, trees and only trees. Outside this park it is only koncrete. People here were engaged in different activities, sun bathing, football, ball or something. there were a lot of shows going on in different place. dances, music and acrobats. all for free, enjoy it and uf you want pay for it. there are some lakes here and you can boat also. we walked a lot here in the part almost 20 blocks. Then we went to Grand Central Station. as the name says, it is GRAND. A huge station and beautiful architecture. on the ceiling of the main hall there are constellations painted. it looks beautiful up there. After this we went to Madam Tussauds. Time to meet the celebrities. this is also in times square. Well they are so near to life you just can beat it. If you are good you can get people confused as to who is real. Here posed with all the big shots and who's who and and some crazy pose. to end it we saw a 4D movie. Well the 4th dimension is the feel of the movies you are watching. Then we went to Empire State Building, 5th tallest building in the world. Getting in the building was like having darshan in Tirupathi. We were moving around in the same floor for ever and there are so many people. We first went to the 102 floor. It was sight from there, entire NYC was visible. all lit up bright and beautiful. one hell of a sight, from there we came down to 86th floor. You can go out and see the city. Got some pics here. We returned back from here and called it a day. In these two days i realized that i have a pairs of functional legs and could feel every god damn muscle.

Last day last stop Statue of Liberty. Gifted by the French to the USA to commemorate the signing of US declaration of Independence. The statue is suppose to welcome the visitors and immigrants to the US. The statue is of a robed woman holding a torch. I did this trip with gube and some of her friends. Well all good things must come to end. Shortly i was headed back to Flint. Thanks to Mukund who took the pain of taking me around the city and planned it well and not to mention his cooking. Mate that was good, not to mention the mommy he can be taking good care of people;girls are you listening:-). As I am writing this i realize that i will be flying back home. Well what am I going to miss, well my car Dodge Charger, popcorn in the theater and few restaurants here that served some amazing fish :-D. Yes that is it.Adios amigos. Oh yes i did eat an apple courtesy Mukund.

Uncle Sam!!

Uncle Sam is calling!!
Well the call for me was on hold for a long time. Now here i am in Flint, Michigan. It is a small town but still looks big. everything in the US is big, big people, big cars,big road, big food, big big big. There is nothing small ;-). Well that is the first impression you get BIG. There is a beautiful system in place and people follow it. you just cant deviate from the line. you do that and you are in soup, at least on the road you can make that out easily. but there is a lot of silence in office as well at hotel. not much of noise. it is so irritating, so i keep the TV on all the time. Food is always junk in true sense, you can eat a lot of junk food and if you are a non vegetarian you wont die of hunger. it is strange to see how people live on that kind of food. well i am now :-D. life in US revolves around the cars. they dont do anything without a car. well the place where i live there is no footpath. the first time i walked here i felt so alienated. it was so damn weird. yew i wished i never got out on my foot. these guys have a drive through for everything food till ATM. their motto is simple, when there is a simple way to do why do it the other way!!but summer they enjoy like. mainly it because it is a short time when they get to see the sun. so they are all over the road in their vehicles. they go on long trails and drive around the country. harleys are all over and every time they pass though i feel sad for not being on them. we had been to this place Frankenmuth about 30min drive from Flint. it is a small town Bavarian, Germany based town. Well some Germans in 19th century came here and settled down, and the entire town now is like a German Bavarian town. The architecture and planing is all German. there isn't much to see here apart from the buildings and a museum. you can indulge in lots of food out here. there are farm fest also going here. they just open the farm to public and you can see the farm animals and what a farmer is doing. one thing here the horse, you should have seen the size of the horse, fuk it was like the horse was directly out from a Hollywood dark age movie. it was mind blowing. forget the horse even the pig, it was big as a baby elephant. imagine that. see i told you every thing is big. while we were in Frankenmuth there was band of harleys, 20 of them minimum and the kind of roar they created when the passed through the city was amazing. the beats are simply awesome. waaaa i want one of those machines. Later we went to Birch Run a huge shopping mall where you get all the brands factory outlets and there is always a good going on here. so that's pretty much of the first things in the US, now off to Detroit.

The Devils

In the year 1983 India won the Cricket World Cup. it is 25 years since we won the first worl cup and the celebrations are still going on. this mega event in the history is always referred to as Kapil's devils winning the world cup. Sad but true they won in the stone age and in the IT age we are yet to win. It is ironic to see that today they are hosting a gala event to mark silver jibliee of the success.what is essentially missing here is the recognition to other sports in this country. no wonder why we have produced and re-produced gavaskars and tendulkars and dhonis but not a milka singh. with a popultaion of one billion in this country we havent produced many sports person in sports other than cricket who have excelled at all levels. even if there have been people who came up at the international level they have faded as fast as a fire-fly. they have not been able to exist for long. well i suppose the system has to be balmed. there is no proper infrastructure for most of the sports person in this country to practice and excel in their fields. there is always a lack of fund and if funds are avaialble there is always a bunch of greedy fox to feed on it. no wonder why u can see the some big statdiums in this country in dilapated conditions and atheletes runing bare foot in national and international events. there are big corporates ready to finance cricket team but very few for other sports. basically there is no recognition. sad na....

Infrastructure Bond

Today as i was joggin in the whitefield trade zone where ITPL and many other tech campuses are sprawling i wondered wat the hell has happened to our infrastrucutre. these big builders are who are building concrete over concrete all over the city, state, nation and world wide are a bunch of blood suckers, money minded, pea brain, dick headed pigs. ass holes have build so much but they have not taken any care to improve the surroundings around their own campuses. they make sprawling campuses and claim that are world class. world class my ass. just to look at less than a feet away from the main entrace you can see there are no proper pavements, there are pot holes enough to gulp a baby and burp. the whole place can be filled with filth but they will be least bothered about it. there is enough dust to cover up a vehicle parked with a layer in less than 5min. this can even beat a pregnency test i suppose. the drainage is open and the contents can be shocking, u might think if it is a drainage or a production line for waste management.
Now with all the cribbing i would think that the builders can take up some responsibilt in improving the conditions around their campuses. give a good payment cover the drainage, maybe make a good approach road. with so much construciton happening there is no difference between a construction site and the road, looks like off no where some one has created a dirt track. a typical example is the road leading to ITPB loading bay. idiots are expanding like a creeper and they are least bothered about their surroundings. builder will say it is not my job to get these things but then government is also a slow tortoise. i would say that there should be some rule that will enforce the builders to do something minimum to the infrastructure, society in re-turn apart from filling the pockets of a fat pig in a government office or a politician.

The year 2007 that was

The year 2007 was the pig year, I spent 6 months in oriental land and all through the year it was a hectic. It has been an eventful year with lots to do, learn, see, eat, drink, play and travel. I liked the switching between India and shanghai and eventually it was like going to mysore n coming back. I am looking forward for the same in this year also, more travel more food n pejo and more of everything. But in this rat race of deadlines and software deliveries I wanted an off. I wanted to be away from the city and office and work. We planned to get out a couple of times but somehow things did not work out. All of us were traveling or tied to our works. But towards the end of the year we all could unite again. Chandu also came back for a vacation after a year long absence. The plan was to go to Managalore where AK n mindu were spending time with their families and ride on from there to the north or to the south. In their journey to mangalore via Mysore n Coorg the journey for about 120Km was not good and that was something that did not encourage me to ride to managlore. Also on looking at the map I realized that on the new year we all had to bike more than 350Km and that was something not feasible as we all had to hit to office the next week. Ideal distance to cover would be less than 300Km on the last day.
After seeing a lot of combinations for destinations we finally dedcided to go to Waynad in kerla.
We started our journey on the 29 Dec 2007. Ganesh n I rode from Bangalore to mysore early in the morning, the saddest part was to get out of Bangalore and the damn thing takes exactly one hr to hit the high way. Once on the highway it was like heaven to ride on the bullet, didn’t feel a thing. The road was also good. The first pit stop was in Kamath Lokaruchi, just outside Ramnagaram. This place has the best food that I can eat, I like stopping by for breakfast, lunch/dinner or simply for sugar cane juice. After having a good filling breakfast we rode on and as we crossed Maddur we were forced to take a deviation from the highway as there was some unrest in the next town. We were asked to go to Malavalli and the distance was more. In between there was another deviation that took us to Mandya directly. We took that road, it was between small villages and the road was good, bad and ugly. We rode along paddy fields with farmers reaping their harvest. It was a nice ride although the roads were not all that great. By the time we reached Mysore it was lunch time and we had some light meal in Green Court on KD Road. By this time my ass was numb and hurting. The hotel seats were like an icing. From Mysore we headed to Najangud – Gundlupet – Sultan Bathery. The ride was awesome because after Gundlupet it was forest area and the fresh air of the wild was intoxicating. Every kilometer the sight and the smell of the air changes. At the border our vehicles got checked for proper documents. Once we enter Kerla the roads change drastically, I wonder what the heck is the problem for Karnataka govt. to maintain the roads. Ass holes have only time in pulling chairs and power. When we got to Sultan bathery we decided to ride on till Kalpetta. Oh by the way Mindu, Chandu n AK are biking from Mangalore to Kalpetta the next day. We decide to get a room or cottage for the 5 of us. We were facing it difficult to get a room, but at the end we decided to get a room for the two of us first for the night ahead and later look out for a cottage or something. We rented a room in Affas Hotel. The owner told us about a cottage for 3000 bucks and he wanted us to pay for 3 days, ass hole was trying to make money at our cost. There was a risk attached and we were not convinced paying so much. So we just took one room and decided we will look for a cottage later in the night.
After freshening up we went out in search of an internet center so that we can get hold of some phone numbers to call and get us a room. We went to one internet center and the owner sanjay told us that it about time for him to close and he can let us for about 15min to surf the net. We were ok with that. While we were surfing he came up to us and started talking to us and also helped us in getting a cottage. It was a home stay Green Hills cottage. It was a nice place. This guy sanjay was from Bangalore but was here looking after coffee estates, he even spoke in Kannada and that was more pleasant to hear in Kerla. Once we were done with the cottage the next thing was food and beer. We went to a decent restaurant called Pankaj recommended by sanjay. Not a very flashy place like you would see in Bangalore. But good enough to have a nice time. We had some beer and food for the night and that was enough to get us in a sober mode to sleep tight. Kalpetta is not a big town. It is a small place with limited options. It was nice to be in this place. We were moving at our own pace and there was no body bothering us. Most of all there was no need to wear helmet. The weather was also good, not too hot and not too cold. After having breakfast and moving into the new cottage we decided to got to two places while the rest of them came to Kalpetta from Manglaore. Our first destination was to Pookod lake, like any other lake this was also a lake. The ride to the lake was good. Winding roads, green pavements and less traffic. When we went there we did not want to go the lake to the things the rest of the public was doing. We just walked a bit to a distant place alongside the lake had a cup of tea and were talking bull shit. From there we deicded to go to a place called Chain Tree. We rode a little further to the start of the descent of ghat section to Kozhikhode. The view from this point is really panaromic. We spent a lot of time here eating chikki. From there we moved to Chain Tree, sadly this place was disappointing. There was a chain hanging around a tree and it was grounded . We were just laughing. It was 1:00 PM by now and when I called up mindu they were is some place having beer and lunch. So we went back to the cottage and took rest for some time and went to Uduppi hotel for lunch. We had so much to eat there full batting. We came back to our room an I sat on the cane chair watching TV and fully dozed off. Phew that was one hell of a nap that I had. At 6:00 in the evening the rest of the gang had still not come and we were restless sitting inside the room. So we went out for a stroll, had some tea, bondas and bajiis and sat along the road side. Finally at around 8:30PM these guys turned up. Mindu was all jumping on his bike like a drunk monkey ;-). After freshening up we went for dinner to Pankaj.
The next day we had planned to go to Chembur peak and Kanthapara falls. Chembur peak was a private property in a tea estate. The ride was yet again good. When we reached he place, they did no allow us to trek as there was a forest fire a week ago. We just enjoyed the scenic beauty at the watch tower and headed toward Kanthapara falls. The falls was not polluted or crowded. There was not much water, but good enough to do time pass. I did not want to get in water as it was cold and sometimes crazy things happen in my nose all of a sudden. We slept near the falls and then roamed around a bit and headed back to Kalpetta. Waynad has less places that can amuse you. So we were totally out of places for our interests. Again we were at Uduppi for lunch but had snacks. It was 31 and we were wondering what to do. We went back to the cottage room and slept. At night we all decided to go to Haritagiri and hang out for some time for new year. But the option at Haritagiri was not good, so we went to Pankaj back again. Had lots of wine and food and came back to our room. All of us were tired and hardly able to keep ourselves awake. well then there was new year all of wished each other and slept. The next day we all got ready soon and started our bikes to Bangalore. All the bikers enjoyed the ride in the jungle upto Karnataka border. We stopped in Mysore for lunch and Chandu separated from us as he was headed back to Mangalore. We rode on to Bangalore with a pit stop at Kamath. And as we entered Bangalore there was a night mare traffic jam. Ha ha ha I was laughing.

Love Life and Work

What do all these things have...are they interlinked??
Love rules and rocks your life. But when love fails life is miserable and that thing called Life u wished was not there at all. Life without love??? work in life is a must..a WORKout is also important. Work makes some people go mad an loose love and life. most of us have already lost life working in front of a machine ogling at things most of the times we dont know why thy are there.

Love Life n Work....phew!!
-@)*($%$#@!%#$%^&#%&

Bangkok

All good things must come to an end, but why?? Heheh my assignment in shanghai was over and I was slated to return back home. It was not a desperate get back home situation for me. I loved and lived every moment that I was there in Shanghai. I will surely miss all the people, food, beer and girls. It was a wonderful time. I decided to take a stop over at Bangkok on my way back. My flight was via Bangkok. I did not bother about the visa as on arrival visa was issued without any problems. They charge 1000THB and you photograph must be handy. Getting visa was no hassle. After that I straight was heading to my hotel Holiday Inn in Silom road. It is a long ride about 50Km. It was about 1:30PM local time when I checked into my hotel. It is a nice place. Very big and comfortable. The next thing on my mind was food. I was hungry. So I set off on foot in search of some hotel for food. Before that I asked the concierge people some advice about the local sight seeing that I could do on this day. They said Wat Tri Mit is a nice option to go to. I saw that on the map and seemed do able on foot. The concierge warned me about the traffic and pollution. I was like who the hell gives damn. So I started walking towards Wat Tri Mit. Here is the statue of Golden Buddha. Thai is big time Buddha. I kept on walking and there was no sign of restaurant, I was wondering what the hell is happening here. Suddenly there were some street vendors serving food. I saw a white guy eating so I thought it is ok to eat. I went and treated myself with a Hainan Chicken Rice. Yummy it was the best food that I had. Great soup and the tangy sauce. I was walking after lunch and I could feel the pollution in the air. The weather makes it even worst. It is hot and very humid. I was feeling very weird also. Now about the place. It is some where between India and Shanghai, geographically and development wise. It has far good infrastructure, but what I felt is it is not as clean as Shanghai. People don’t care about it. Traffic is a mess just as in India. The Tuk-Tuk and the bikes are the main pains in the ass. There are a lot of cars too; Toyota and Isuzu have a good market share I believe. I wonder how the situation is outside Bangkok.
As I was walking towards my destination, I bumped into a Thai local. We started talking and I did not say that I am from India but from Shanghai. The reception is different when you are from India and not from India. He told where all I can go today and how to go. He got me a Tuk-Tuk and told me how much to pay also. The deal was for 40THB he will take me to 3 places and all the places he is going to wait for me. I was cool. So there we were in a Tuk-Tuk. Let me tell you about the Tuk-Tuk, it is a three wheel taxi like the auto rickshaws back home. They are longer, have a lot of room for anything and everything. They are big time maniacs on the road and the sound is very typical. It almost sounds like a Moto GP race bike. So my driver Alex was more than happy to take me around. He kept on talking about everything. My ride was long and exciting. I was moving all over the seat and up and down. Our first stop was Wat Intaravihan. Here there is a tall standing Buddha in golden colour. Height I am not sure. Maybe around 21ft. It was majestic to see such a tall Buddha. Not much to see apart from the statue of the Buddha and one small temple adjacent to it. This temple had a seated Buddha. The entire temple was made of wood. From there we went to our next destination Wat Sam Phraya, lucky Buddha as they say. It has a sleeping Buddha and a standing Buddha. Here I met a security guard who talked about the temple and informed me that there are 40000 Buddha temples in Thailand and 450 of them are in Bangkok. The sitting Buddha was made of concrete and coated with gold. He started telling me to go away from Bangkok as in Bangkok there is not much to see and the other thing that you can do is shopping. He said that their country is poised for a change in the government and there are chances of some violence also. He then told me about the suit sale that is happening and I must go there. He instructed Alex to take me to one such place. Alex also yes sir, I will. I was not interested at all. I told Alex forget it; take me to the Golden Mountain. But that man, phew he straight away took me to that place, Voglee. It is owned by an Indian for sure. Here I met another person, he was from Burma and when I said I am from India, he became senti and told me that India and China have always helped his country. US are a fool imposing sanctions, I just wanted to get out of there and soon I was out. Finally. SO next I went to the golden mountain. It is a small hillock and the top of the mountain is a small pagoda kind off thing made of gold. The climb was tiring although it was tall. At the top there was a cool breeze and that felt really good. From there I saw on my map that the Democracy monument was nearby and said ok let me walk. As I went walking and was pretty close to it I again fell into the hands of a security guy, who said take a Tuk-Tuk to the river side and some Thai factory to see the Thai handicraft. I did want to, damn I was cursing myself. But I was made to go to two shops coz the driver would get a petrol coupon if I buy anything. I kept telling him don’t go there I wont be buying anything. Finally I reached the river Chaophraya and was waiting for sometime for the sun to go down a little. I took a boat that keeps ferrying up and down the river for 18 THB to Sathon that is nearest pier to my hotel. The ride was really good. You can see the grand palace also on the way. When I reached Sathon I was fully drained out. No energy no enthu. It took me about 10min to reach my hotel by foot. There is a sky train station at this pier. When I reached my hotel I did not want to eat in the hotel. I was still looking for some local restaurant and I found one right opposite to my hotel. I went there and ordered a stirred vegetable minced with shrimps soup and steamed rice with Singha beer. When I started eating boy o boy it was damn hot. Hot hot since ages. Phew I was gasping for air. All I knew at that moment was fire in the hole. Finally after finishing my meal I crashed back in my room and I as glad to be in bed. In the meantime there are a lot on Indians in Bangkok and guess what they do, jewelers and clothes. That is my observation. There are a lot of shops for suiting and the names of the shop so Punjabi. You can make out if you are an Indian. There is a wide range of bikes also. You can see Vespa scooters, RX-100, RXZ, Honda Wave, Harleys, Phantoms and what not. A good market.
I had a good sleep but my legs had still not recovered fully. Today I wanted to go to the Grand Palace. I went there by a taxi and as soon as I entered there was a march of royal guards into the palace. Here they have a strict dress code. You cannot wear shorts in to the palace. Even if you are wearing one you get pants for hire. The entrance fee is 250 THB. As soon as you enter you will be spell bound by the three magnificent structures. The palace huge and cover an area of 218000 sq-meters. It was built in the year 1782 during King Rama I rule. There are some interesting sights to see and a lot of history matches with the Ramayana. You can easily kill 2hrs here. But the sun and humidity would be in turn killing you. After the grand palace my next destination was the Wat Phro. Here there is a sleeping Buddha which is about 41ft long. It is simply majestic to watch it. You can spend close to one hr here. From there I took a ferry to cross the river to Wat Arun. It was used as a temple by the king and is about 67meters tall. You can climb up and when you are near the steps it is not encouraging because it is so straight up you will think twice before embarking on it. But when you reach the top it is a panoramic view, you can see the river and the grand palace and a good view of the city. I got back to the pier where I boarded the ferry to go to Wat Arun and had my lunch. I had rice with chicken in garlic sauce and pepper. It was good sitting beside the river and having food. The river does not appear to be very clean. There is a lot of pollution also. There are a lot of fishes also in the river. Then I came back to my hotel to rest before I left for the night market and life ;-). I rested properly for about 2hrs watching movie. At around 8 I went to Phat Phong. This place has a night market till 01:00 AM and good amount of bars and pubs. There are a lot of girls and they are waiting for you. The market sells everything. Same as what I had experienced in Shanghai. It mite be cheaper but never bothered to enquire. The scene is a lot different than in shanghai. After having enough beers I headed back and crashed. The next day I just laid there in my bed for a long time. I just did not want to do anything. Just relax madi!! At noon I checked out of my room and came to the airport. After 3 days I am using my laptop so much h ah ahaha. It is sometimes good to be away from work ;-) but I know on Monday when I am back there will be a lot of things to do .

Beijing Bites

It was along pending trip to be made and finally I could make this trip. I was all excited about it. I was going to see one of the seven wonders of the world. I was slated to travel by train on Friday night at 7. I left office early and went to the station. I had taken the sub way and half of the journey was smooth, the next half of the journey was something funny. There were so many people in the sub-way that I had literally push all the people to make my way out. Reminded me of Mumbai metro trains. Now coming to the train that took me to Beijing. Boy that was another luxury. It was more than a first class AC train. There were cabins and only four berths per cabins. It was so comfortable to travel in it. They also provided you with tooth brush and paste. And the cost was just 500RMB. I had taken a package tour, so all the arrangements of hotel booking, train tickets and local sight seeing was handled by the travel agent. I wanted to do it alone without anybody’s help but now I am glad that I did not. There were no untoward incidents but covering the places on your own would have been a pain. Morning oh god the mornings are too early here, at 5 in the morning the sun shines right into your eyes. I reached Beijing station at sharp 7, the slated time to arrive. I was suppose to wait in a nearby hotel before I joined a city tour group. The hotel was right opposite the railway station I had to just cross the road. At 7:45 my guide for the day Tony arrived and picked me up. There were other tourists in the bus and we had to pick more. For the day there were people from Finland, Taiwan and Iran. Totally we were 10.
Our first stop for the Day was Forbidden City. It is not a city it is a palace, so huge that is more or less like a city. There is a lot of history associated with the place. The guide was telling it very well. One thing I realized was that the emperor was damn afraid of people waiting to kill him. The walls are thick n tall, the ground beneath you had 8 layers of brick and there are no trees. Glad that there were no B2 bombers at that time. The palace is spread over an area of 72 hectares. There are huge court yards. Majestic carvings and buildings. Most of the buildings top is yellow in colour and from a sight it looks beautiful. There was also a clock museum inside the palace. The clocks were gifted to the emperor by foreign national. Clocks of all shapes and sizes were available. Most of them came or were made in England. There was one interesting clock which could show time based on flow of water known as water clock. I am still wondering how it does so. We entered from the south gate and came out of the north gate. It took is whole 2 hours there. Surprisingly there was a Star bucks coffee shop inside the palace and Tony said “Disgusting isn’t it” I totally agreed him. It was like having Pizza hut in Tirupati Temple. The next stop of the day was a silk museum. Here they show the life cycle of silk and how they make it. It was interesting and then shopping which I loathed the most. Coz I did not buy anything. Next was food. I was waiting for it hoping to eat duck. But we were served some imperial cuisine which mostly had pork and I could not eat well. The place where we had lunch was very near to the Temple of Heaven our next destination. By now the sun was blazing hot and the temperature was above 35 degC.
The temple of heaven is the place where the emperor came to worship the heaven god. He use to consider himself as a placement of the Heaven God on earth. He also worshiped here for a good harvesting season. There is an echo building here which happened accidentally during construction. Two interesting things. At once place if you stand and clap you can hear up to 3 echoes and in a different place 2 and in a different place 1 echo. Also if you stand the wall of the circular fence and speak anything the person standing at some other place can be heard. The temple occupies an area of 272 hectares. There is a lot of greenery here. By the time we were done looking at the temple I was drained out. All my piss evaporated in to air. Phew after a ling time such a thing had happened. The next destination was the Summer Palace and that being a little far got some time to relax and recharge. There are many places which were undergoing renovation and maintenance for Beijing Olympics 2008. So some places we could not see. The summer palace is like any other summer palace in the world. There was a huge lake, with three islands and a long corridor to walk along and a palace. The palace was located on a small hill and I must say from a distance it didn’t look easy to climb it. When we went near the entrance of the palace I had to look straight up to see the steps. Man it was no way possible considering the state in which we were. We just walked around the lake and came out of the palace compound. Now the sun was cooler. Next we went to a tea ceremony. To see how tea is made and served and different kinds of tea. IT was a good experience. Here there was a bird, I think a mocking bird which would respond to Nihao (Hi in Chinese). Some time pass there also. So that was the end of the first day trip for us. I was dropped back to my hotel. I freshened up and got ready to go to Tian an Men Square. I took a taxi to the place. The square is a huge open place and is at entrance of Forbidden City. Damn big place. You can have a rock concert here. Surrounding the square is a museum and the parliament. I was just walking here and seeing people and taking snaps when two girls approached me.
They started talking in English and we built up a conversation. I got to know that one of them was a English teacher in a school in Beijing and the other was her friend who had come to visit her. They said they were going to Old China Street and if I wanted to join them. I said ok let me check out the place. It was 7 in the evening and it looked like 5. Yes the sun doesn’t set here till 8 in the evening. Such a long day, damn!! We came to the old street and were walking along. It was not as I had expected or I did not see the entire place. There were some shopping places and some nice bars and local food stores. Then we decided to have some beer and went to café. But it was a tea café and they did not serve beer. So we had a tea instead. While we were having tea a police guy came into our room and started asking for ID with these girls. He did not say or ask anything to me. HE took the ID of on of the girl and asked the teacher to come along with him. Now I got scared. But she did not return back soon. Now I got spooky and wanted to get the hell out of there as soon as possible. We finished the tea soon and got out of the place. The other girl accompanied me till the taxi stand and we bid farewell to each other. I wonder what had happened there. Anyways I was glad to be safe. I got back to the hotel and had my dinner.
Next day the tour was suppose to start at 8 in the morning. I got to call to be ready at 7:30. When I finished my breakfast and coming out, there was a girl looking for me. Mama mia, she was gorgeous. Sigh !!!. she spoke a lot and also wanted thing in her control. Her name was Sally. She used to always say Sally’s friends come here , sally’s group this way. There were three Germans who made mast fun of her. But she had enough data to feed us with. Our first stop was the Ming’s Tomb. The place is located away from the city, about an hours drive. This place has the bodies of the 13 emperors buried in different locations. They are the emperors who ruled China in different times. Not very impressive place. I was not excited to be there. I was looking forward for the Wall, which was the next destination. As we were approaching the Badaling Section of the Great wall, we could see some part of the wall over the mountains. It was a feast to the eyes. When we reached the place we had to take a cable pulley to reach a point from where you have to walk. We had two hours time to spend on the wall. We had to walk to tallest point on the great wall. The climb is not easy. At places the wall just follows the contour of the land. Phew it is a very physical and challenging up there. When you reach there you can find a tablet of Chairman Mao, which says “He who hast climbed is not a hero”. There are many vendors who make certificates and medals saying that you are a hero or you climbed the great wall and things like that. At the top it is windy and a little cold. It is a good relief from the Beijing heat. The wall is such a strong structure that most of it is still intact. I wonder how many people got themselves killed to get through the wall. At the end is was a wonderful experience.

Hangzhou

There is a popular saying in China: "Above there is heaven, below there are Hangzhou and Suzhou." I had already been to Suzhou and now it was Hangzhou. I was supposed to go last week but I did not get tickets and I did not want to travel by bus. So this weekend I got my super fast train ticket for the round trip. My plan was to come back on the same day. Now a days I am reluctant to get up early in the morning. But then can’t have that luxury all the time. I got ready pretty fast and left to Shanghai South Railway station. Man this station is a miniature model of the Suwarnabhumi airport in Bangkok but a lot better. Round in shape and well maintained. You won’t feel like you are going to catch a train. I like the system here you need to check in at least 5 min before the train leaves. They don’t allow you to enter the platform until the train is ready. Once it is all ready to go, usually 15min before the departure time they open the gates, check the tickets and let you in. After you board the train there is no one bothering you to show your ticket. And once the train leaves there aren’t any relative waving at you. Cool an!! Well when I got inside the train man it was more than economy class. The leg space was so much that I could spread my legs to its length and sleep comfortably. The trains are so well maintained and the cost to travel is also lea 50RMB to my destination that is Hangzhou. He takes 1Hr 20Min to cover the distance between Shanghai and Hangzhou at an average speed of 100Km/hr.
When I reached Hangzhou, it was raining and I was feeling bad about it. I wanted it to be bright and sunny day but I guess I was not granted that. I took the taxi to my first destination of the day Ling Yin Si (Ling Yin Temple). The taxis are like in Shanghai well organized. On my way I had my breakfast in the taxi. It took me a long drive to reach the place. First need to cross the city and suddenly you are in the middle of a green cover. Whoa forget Ooty this place rules. It was so beautiful and green all over. You need to but a ticket to get in to the temple rather two tickets. I was some what puzzled why twice. The temple is inside a compound and again inside you need to buy ticket to see the temple. I got lost in finding the entrance; the directions were kind of misguiding me. Finally I got to know where the entrance and temple is. When I went in there were lots of trees and rocks. The rocks had the carvings of Buddha and Buddhism. All over the place you can find that. There was a small stream also flowing inside the place adding to beauty. There were some caves also and I went inside them. There also there were some sculptures. Then finally I got to see the temple. Man that was by far the tallest and largest structure that I had seen so far, it was mind blowing. Inside there a huge a very huge splendid statue of Buddha in golden colour. You can spend half and hour here. After that I wanted to see The Peak flow from Afar (Beng Ji). Legend has it that this large piece of rock flew from India, crossed the Himalayas and landed here. I thought the rock is at the top of a hill and started climbing it. Phew it was a steep climb for about 20 min. When I reached the top, damn what there was nothing? So I came down to see that the rock was same as the one that I had initially seen. But then it was fun to climb the hill. After a long time doing trekking. A good exercise and my legs were cursing me, h ah ah ha ha.
My next destination was the Six Harmonies Pagoda. I took the taxi to reach the place. The pagoda is a tall tower. The architecture is kind of different. There is nothing much to see here apart from climbing the Pagoda. It is about 13 floors high and you can go up all the way by foot. Damn this climb was killing me. The stairs were not normal. They were spiral and steep too. When you reach the top the view from there is breathe taking. You can see the river and the hills and the forest. It was a cloudy day and could not see far from there. My next destination was the Song City. This place is a replica of the Song Dynasty. You can see the culture, people, buildings and everything that was there in that period. There is also a food street selling I suppose food that belongs to that era. I had one snack that was like a stuffed puri. The stuff inside had some meat and I don’t know which one but ate it. It was very tasty too. There was another dish that was like a roti but I did not want to have that as my plans for lunch was entirely different. While roaming around there were a couple of Chinese tourists who were taking some snaps and when they saw me they wanted to take a photo with me. One after the other, they were just excited about it. Then I went and sat for some time near an artificial lake. There a kid had dressed up in a song soldier costume. I took a snap of him. You get costumes that you can hire and sport them. While I was relaxing the drums started playing and there was a show at the main entrance. It was an acrobatic show. The artists were standing on a stick on both the legs and were performing a wide range of tricks. It was a nice show that they put up. This place is good for children as they can see their history and also have fun. I was done with this place and now was the last and most talked about destination Xi hu (West Lake).
All I knew about this place was that it was a huge lake and you can spend the entire day here. That was true; it was such a huge lake. I could only see water as far I could see. There are a lot of gardens on this lake and on its shore. There are three islands also on this lake. You can take a boat or ferry and go to them. I was not willing to do that, I was more interested in having a beer and some good food on the shore and kill time. But the place I got down was on the other end of the city/lake and there was not such luxury as I had anticipated. So I was walking and looking for the restaurant and then I finally figured out that I have to get to the other end of the lake. So I hopped on a ferry who would take me to two islands and then to the city. I t was a good deal. So there I was in a ferry on the lake cruising along and enjoying the beauty. The islands that I went on did not have much to see. Some gardens and some smaller lakes on it. When I kept my foot on the city the time was not permitting to look for a hotel on the shore. I had to catch the train back to shanghai at 5:20PM and now it was already 4:00PM. I was also concerned about the time to travel to the station as in the morning it had taken me almost half an hour. So fast food was my only option and landed up eating a Fish Fillet in Mac Donald’s. Actually the city side is very posch. Somewhat like shanghai. Then I took a taxi back to the railway station which was just 10 min away and I was back in Shanghai in 2 hours.
http://www.chinahighlights.com/hangzhou/attraction/