Freedom on Saddle

I still remember how happy I was when I did my first long run. 15th Aug and Bhavani Mantap both are symbols of freedom. This 15th Aug is also going to be special, I am planning solo bike trip of 400+ KM starting from Bhavani Mantap. So many things to plan & pack, gotta go now.
zooooooooooooooommmmmmmmmmmm

Sakharam Binder & Kanyadan

I just finished another Vijay Tendulkar play "Sakharam Binder". Not to mention its brilliant. By the time I finished first part, I could see Sakharam's character and thought that veteran Marathi actor (villan actually) Nilu Phule will perfectly render the drama. Aaila! I was 100% right, yes! Nilu Phule acted as Sakharam Binder on its first show!
I wish I can see this play with Nilu Phule in the lead.

Well this Fri, Aug 10 you can watch yet another Vijay Tendulkar play "Kanyadan" in Bangalore. Check maadi The play is in English and not in Marathi :( and it costs a lot :( am not really sure if I can go for it.

I am eagerly waiting to watch "Ghashiram Kotwal". I couldn't find a portal where I can check theater schedules in Pune/Mumbai/Kolhapur

ZOHO Polls

My Slogan

"If you need a reason to ride, You are not on the right bike."
I picked up this slogan from Bike Nomads
Every morning my bike motivates me to go to office...

MTB Himachal 2007

There is so much interest for mountain biking on RFL-Bangalore group that we started a new Bangalore bikers groups Through Nagaraj I came to know about MTB Himachal 2007 This is a 9 day race starting from 4th Oct 2007 from Shimla to Manali. This year they are having a COMFORT version, in which you don't compete but you are doing it just for fun. Also you can opt for 3/6/9 days. I was not very confident initially to do the EXTREME race, but now I don't want to miss a single day of race. have a look at this video to get a feel of what to expect. find more

No Onion nor Garlic still Sakaath Hot

I was looking out for a bold and honest fiction for some time. something close to English, August or Cuckold in its form. Browsing books at Landmark store is always fun. They have good collection of Indian writing in English. There I found what I wanted No Onion nor Garlic. Published in 2006 its very fresh n crispy, bold, hot and honest...

On my recent Kolhapur trip I brought four plays by Vijay Tendulkar. Its strange that I like reading plays. They are usually small and to the point. I finished Ghashiram Kotwal its brilliant. now I want to watch it. The play is set in history but very relevant in any era or country, just like Tughlaq. Again its terrifically bold and what they say, brutally honest!

Kodagu (Coorg) Trip > 1 MAY (Day 5)

I had plenty of time to see Madikeri. Early morning I took a bus to Bhagamandala and from there Talakaveri is 8 KM. Talakaveri is the place where Kaveri originates. Heavy concretisation of this place has started happening and the new temple doesn't have that appeal. Climb few hundred steps from here and you are on Brahmagiri. The view from here is superb.

I came back to Madikeri by 1 PM. Abbey falls is near by but wasn't really interested to go there because of crowd. In the evening walked to Raja's seat. You can see the mountain range from here. You can see flowers of different kinds here in the garden. I took lots of photographs.

MY bus came at 8.30 PM and it was the usual Rajhamsa bus but had luggage space at the rear so transporting bike wasn't a problem. Reached Majestic at 4.00 AM. bike was all right. This is the first time that I haven't taken auto or bus from majestic to home. I peddled it :-) sure I would like to carry it to Kolhapur next time I go...
11.00 AM, office. Some moron has scheduled one more boring status meeting, back to normal life...

Kodagu (Coorg) Trip > 30 APR (Day 4)

I started at 6.00 AM towards Dubare Elephant camp. It is 12 KM from Kushalnagar. The terrain had changed drastically now. Green hills on all the sides and riding was pleasant. Kushalnagar to to Siddapur road is newly done. Reached Dubare in half 45 mins. You have to take the boat and cross the Kaveri to reach the camp. The Camp starts from 8.30 AM so I had plenty of time. This spot is amazingly beautiful. There are 5 cottages in Dubare Inn and Jungle Lodges & Resorts have few cottages on the other side in camp. But they were all full as expected. You have to do booking in
Bangalore to stay here. At 1600 Rs./night this place is worth that. By 8 AM the tourist influx started and this place was like any other spot then. I got a feel of what it would be inside camp in few hours. So changed my mind and decided to ride to Siddapur which is around 15 KM from Dubare. I had a heavy breakfast in Dubare Inn.

This was the first time I was in hilly terrain on mountain bike. I was expecting that it will be tiring and exhaustive. Not at all! This was when I actually enjoyed riding! Dubare - Siddapur stretch passes through some dense forest and coffee estates. Morning views were superb. I inquired for home stay at few places but its tough to get when you are single. Ideally I would like to stay here in the traditional Kodava house in the midst of forest and do nothing. Just hang out for a week.2 KM before Siddapur you will get a road to Madikeri on your right. I stopped here for water and inquired about the road condition and distance. The tea shop Ajja suggested me to go back to kushalnagar and take the Madikeri road since that is not very steep. That distance was around 45 KM. Where as Siddapur - Madikeri road is around 35 KM, it is very steep but its extremely scenic. I was here for mountain biking so my choice was clear. Entire Siddapur - Madikeri road has coffee estates on both sides. Clearly they have destroyed the forest for coffee plantations and thats why there is lot of buzz in Kodagu for wildlife conservation by the same guys :-) This entire stretch I was riding in 1-2-3 (lower gears) got lots of opportunity to climb on 1st gear. My bike has 7X3=21 speed combinations, at two places even that wasn't enough; I felt that my bike should have few more gears. Where as on Bangalore - Mysore road I used only top gears 6 & 7. Took few snaps on this road but you have to be there to get real experience of the natures beauty.

Traffic is very very less on this road. You will only see Mahindra Jeeps and few buses. Kodagu has a very efficient public transport mainly run by private operators. I took a break at Murughodu and one more place after that. Had some mangoes on the way and reached a small place 4 KM to Madikeri. There was a board "Shanthi Estate" which I knew from Outlook guide provides accommodation. I took there private road which was going down the valley, this was extremely steep and it was just a mud track. I couldn't see anybody even after going half a KM. and the road was going down for another 1 KM. The thought of climbing it up if no one is there came to mind. My left knee was paining badly by now.

That slight injury at Srirangapattana was un bearable now. So I came back to main road totally exhausted. This 4 KM stretch to Madikeri is a extremely steep climb so I have to walk most of that. The milestone was showing that only 1 KM is left but I could not see any house, people or vehicles. That was surprising for me because I knew that Madikeri is a big town & its a district place so have to have a large population. And it is a big town! as soon I reached the top I could see the entire town!

Hotel Atithi is one of nice restaurants, serves veg buffet for 30 Rs. I had a heavy lunch. The tough task again to find accommodation. There is a tourist info center next to Atithi run by a beautiful & polite lady. Its actually a gift shop and info provided is free. She gave me 4 phone nos and all of them were full. BTW this lady was not at all impressed that I have peddled all the way from Bangalore :-( in fact no one gave me weired look or asked why I was cycling, after Kushalnagar! On the 5th call I got the room at Hotel Kaveri. Evening I went for a walk and visited
Omkareshwara temple. It was calm here, felt really good. I was not in a state to ride further as my knee was paining badly, So decided to head back next day. All VOVLO buses were full, its easy to transport bike in VOVLO. I had no choice but to book the 10 PM Rajhamsa before it gets full. I noticed that Rajhamsa buses don't have carriers on top and not all Rajhamsa will have luggage space at rear. So went to bus stand and inquired the matter. The 9 PM Rajhamsa is a new bus which has VOLVO like luggage space. So canceled the old ticket and booked the 9 PM bus.

Kodagu (Coorg) Trip > 29 APR (Day 3)

I left the hotel at 5.00 AM. took ring road and reached the Hunsur road. A 10 KM stretch from ring road is in a worst shape (Good for my bike!) and probably thats why everybody advised me not to go to Madikeri. after that stretch road is excellent till Kushalnagar. I took first major break at piriyapattana. The 20 KM stretch till piriyapattana was the tough one. It was just climb, climb and climb for 20 KM. The gradients were not very steep but very very long stretches. Did breakfast at Piriyapattana and took rest for half an hour. Kushalnagar is around 25 KM from here. This was easy ride.




5 KM before Kushalnagar you get a diversion to go to Bylakuppe on your left. Take that road and go for 6 KM you will reach Golden Temple. Bylakuppe hosts Refugee camp for Tibetians. Here you will feel as if you are in Tibet! The golden temple is a must see. This has become a crowded place, still worth a visit. Had good (actually heavy) lunch at Bylakuppe. Kushalnagar is just 4 KM from here. I reached Kushalnagar at 2 PM. I decided to halt here since getting accommodation at Dubare was next to impossible. Also Nisargadhama is just 3 KM from Kushalnagar. So I could visit it and come back.


Nisargadhama is a man made island formed by diverting the flow of Kaveri. you can do boating, take elephant ride, take a dip in Kaveri and take a walk in the woods. Again it was too much of crowd here. people talking on mobile phones, lots of plastic/ garbage. yack...
Came back to lodge and took a bath. this lodge wasn't that good but ok for 120 Rs. there are quite few decent lodges in Kushalnagar. I realized that I need to shave while looking at the mirror. I was not carrying shaving kit to reduce weight. This was the first time in my life that someone else shaved my beard! That guy used 1/10 th the shaving cream I normally use and rubbed it for 15 mins to get enough foam out of it. whooosh.... Next time I won't mind carrying that extra 100g weight :-)

Getting accommodation was going to be difficult in this tourist season so best option was to go to Madikeri next day. From outlook guide I figured out that there is a road from Siddapur to Madikeri. Siddapur is known for coffee estates. Plan was to stay in Siddapur if I get home stay at all or reach Madikeri.

Kodagu (Coorg) Trip > 28 APR (Day 2)

This was a rest day. I went to Chamundi hills early in the morning by bus. Later I came to know that Madhu and gang (from RFL group) were running here. Missed out a nice opportunity :-( It was getting crowded slowly at Chamundi hills. The flux of crowd gave a good idea of what will be ahead in the day. Then I went to Palace, spent couple of hours there. The artistry is magnificent here. The entire palace has sandalwood smell! glass paintings, tiles, woodwork is just amazing.


Took a bus to Srirangapattana, which went straight to Sangam. Actually Kaveri splits at Ranganathswamy temple into two streams, which meet here again. There was too much crowed here and is not very clean. I hired a auto for 200 Rs to see places. It would have been better if I had come here for a halt and ride on bike. Then Went to Karia Ghatta. this place gets less crowd so its clean. A bath here can totally rejovinate you. Even though depth was less, current was very strong. I slipped from a stone and hit on knees. That didn't pain much at that time. Then went to Gomez, the place where Haider Ali, Tipu, his sons and other family members tombs are situated. From there I went to Dariah Daulat Bagh, that is Tipu's summer palace. Autowalah dropped me at Ranganathswamy temple at 4 PM. Afetr taking darshan I headed back to Mysore.

First thing I did was to check if my bike is still allright. Informed the Chacha there that I will come to take the bike next day morning at 4.30 AM. I was skeptic that if there would be anybody early in the morning. Still had lot of time so walked to Devaraj Urs road. the upmarket shoppping area of Mysore. You can see all modern multinational brands on this road. I liked city very much. it is similar to Kolhapur in many ways. I felt very comfortable being in Mysore.

Now it was time to decide next days plan. Nagarhole or Kabini could have been done in a day but finding accomodation would have been a challange since this was peak time. So I decided to reach Kushalnagar next day check out nearby places and decide further plan. Manager of the lodge gave me direction to reach Hunsur road.

Kodagu (Coorg) Trip > 27 APR (Day 1)

Breeze was cool and there was no traffic on the road towards Banashankari (except few ubiquitous call center cabs). I took slow start and was checking gear shifters / breaks in between. A autowalah esquired where I was going for which I had no definite answer so just kept peddling. After I crossed Banashankari Big Bazaar there is a big slope, I was riding very fast now and suddenly hit a wide speed breaker, I could not see it. I applied both breaks but front one is pretty strong. As a result the rear wheel went up in the air about a feet! I released the breaks and managed to hold the handle bar steadily at that speed. Landed safely and came a big scream from bottom of my stomach! this was awesome and sent jitters in the spine!

At around 5.00 AM I reached Rajrajeshwari Dental collage after which I saw the first milestone "Mysore 129" took a snap here. My immediate target was Ramnagaram. I reached there at around 6 AM and took 5 mins break. I wanted to eat something but shops were not open yet so kept peddling. The view of the hills was awesome. This is the place where "Sholay" was shot. I didn't take any pictures on the way at many beautiful spots b'coz I had to take the camera out of bag and keep it back which loses the momentum and flow. I guess there will be a camera mount accessory for mounatin bike.

Next stop was at Channapattana. took a 15 min break, eat two banana and had water. The shop keeper asked politely why are you cycling? and my face was blank... Peddled for another hour and I reached Maddur at 8 AM, the place famous for vada. I had breakfast at Maddur Tiffany which is just off the road, pretty decent place. After upload and download headed to Mandya, 40+ KM from Maddur. I was in Mandya at around 10.45. The saddle post was getting loose. I had misplaced the Allen key at home. Which is enough to fix 95% screws on my bike. Got the Allen key at one cycle shop and fixed the saddle. This cycle mechanic was extremely impressed with bikes design and its simplicity.

After Mandya you can see lot of paddy fields around you. Looks absolutely green everywhere even in the midst of summer. Now it was getting hot and hotter and it was climb till Srirangapattana. I had tender coconut water at few places but that doesn't really quench the thirst. Only and only water can quench the thirst and bring back energy in this heat. I could get cold packaged mineral water every now and then on express highway. 1 liter of water was the fuel for me :-)


"Mysore 12 KM", thats when I realized that I have done it! another half an hour peddling and I was in the city. I reached Mysore at around 1.30 PM. Decided to stay at lodge, had enough time for rest before going to reception.
Got a decent lodge near bus stand for 300 Rs/ night. Food was delicious at Abhishek's wedding reception and live carnatic instrumental music relaxed me completely.

Parking my bike makes me nostalgic. it always worries me at the back of my mind. The lodge did not had parking space. Found out a paid parking garage and paid him 30 Rs for 2 days! I went to sleep still thinking if bike will be safe there.

Yella Ok Cycle trip yake?

The marriage season is on and so came Abhishek & Reshma's invite for wedding reception at Mysore. Abhishek had teased me a lot when I bought my mountain bike and had enticed me to ride Mysore - Bangalore many times. I needed a good break from my work very badly so this was a gr8 opportunity. decided to do it in plain old style trip, "NO PLANS". Going solo was not really a choice :-) After this trip I can say that I really really love traveling solo! "Outlook 52 Weekends from Bangalore" was a faithful friend as usual. I marked few places around Mysore. Kabini,Nagarhole, Siddapur, Kakkabe and Madikeri etc. So it was going to be Kodagu (Coorg) trip, but no details worked out.

FRI 27 APR 4.00 AM was the start time, so that I can reach Mysore well before 7 PM when reception starts. but it wasn't that easy to start. I had to attend a cousins wedding at Hospet (7 Hrs bus journey from Bangalore) the previous day and come back to Bangalore by mid night so that I can do packing and take few hours of sleep. I managed to escape from wedding hall at 4 PM, got a direct bus and reached home at 1 PM. There was a new drama by autowalah this time. I gave a 100 Rs note and three 10 Rs to him, a moment after he says that I have given him four 10 Rs notes. Sravan had
told me his similar experience happened two days before that, so I knew his trick. Being in Bangalore for more than two years I know how to handle them. This was the easier one...

I had set three alarms, two in cell and one in my watch so that I wake up before 3.30 AM in any case. Got up at 3 AM, did all the packing and set out exactly at 4.00 AM. I was carrying 4 T's, 1 Jeans, Kurta for reception, water bottle,pump and puncture kit, outlook 52 weekends guide, 4000 Rs, sports watch, cell phone etc...(read underwears). I did not have front/rear lights and trip meter. Riding on highways early morning is tough without lights, it’s dangerous :( and that’s why blessings of Raagi Gudda Anjaneyya was a must (temple is at 1 min ride from my home!). Finally there I was out on the road. 4.05 AM

Flash back

So many things happened after NRF that I did not get any time to update my blog.
I was planning for Mumbai Marathon for almost two months and no chance that I would have missed that. So I decided to run despite the fact that I was out of practice for 3 weeks and still had jet lag and there was a big blister on my right feet. This visit was after more than two and half years!


My timimg was 02:45:55. check out Search for "java". For records I was 2 mins faster than Bangalore Marathon 06. After KM 12 that blister started paining badly. There was only one way out, keep running faster! You can see the result
Visited my favorite spots like Gateway, Marine Drive and had dinner at Samrat. That delicious Gujju thali tastes exactly same!


After Mumbai Marathon it was time to reward myself (or my legs really?). So one fine day I went to that firefox showroom on CMH Road, Indira Nagar and bought TREK 3700 mountain bike. Well it did cost me a bomb but its worth that. I started commuting to office on my bike but that is not it is made for. So decided to do a trip to Big Banyan Tree near Ramohalli. Which is around 30 KM from my home. I traced the entire route on WikiMapia! someone has put all the tags there.



The mashup I had built in December was selected for IBM WEB 2 Conference in Kolkata. Sam pitched in to build the WPC service and the demo was Live! We won the best paper award!(must be first time I have won any award :-))
We visited Gharia Bazzar and did some shopping. Kolkata has a very strong sense of its culture and identity compared to any other Indian city. You can see some very nice traditional paintings even in shopping mall.



The very next day 31st Mar was BarCampBangalore 3 This time IIM-B was host to the event. This was my first unconference, though I was not presenting anything I just dropped in to check out what really happens at barCamp.
I got chance to meet Dr. Ashwin Mahesh of Mapunity, folks from Active Mobs and saw many cool demos/technologies in mobile space. Lots of good work is happening in Bangalore.
Since barCamp was in a educational campus it had its effect. Class rooms are not at all suited for unconference. I hope that will change next time. Also felt that the guys who are organising this want it in "controlled" way, why do they want more people for event?
The kind of passion and enthusiasm that exudes here is just amazing. No nonsense, just stuff and have fun!

Visual Communication

Finally I managed to purchase my first camera. I bought Canon Powershot SD 900 (10 Mega Pixel) from B&H Store on 32nd Street NYC. Shopping for camera is a experience itself here. Its a huge shop with around 10 payment counter and still you are in a queue! Well the same camera costs $100 more in Curcuit City. I got a good camera at great prize.

Now what a great timing to read two interesting books on media and communication. I am currently reading Amusing ourselves to death and Going Visual and this is how my bookshelf is looking now :-)

I got M Arnuva 50 Boa

Two weeks back I noticed the cracks in the sole of my running shoe and was wondering what to buy next. Well today i had a chance to buy M Arnuva 50 Boa from New York City.
Its damn comfortable and just don't want to remove them. They come with Boa multi-adjust lacing system. No lace, just screw it! and fit is awesome. I am sure I will be doing the NYC Marathon one day, may be with same pair. for now I want to do my best at Mumbai Marathon 07.
NYC is very much like Mumbai in many ways. I went to Time square and Empire state building observatory. hmmmm I no longer enjoy this kinda sight seeing trips. but yaah there is lot to see here. Well I am getting bored here...in general and want to get back home ASAP after finishing our show at NRF 07 More on my visit later....

Mash Up or Shut Up

Yuuuuuupie I did my first mash up, all in around 7 to 8 hours! So I am on high, in the clouds.....
If you enter the Global Trade Item No(GTIN) of a product you can actually see the product location on Google Map! Its running on my ThinkPad, I will integrate it tomorrow with WebSphere Product Center (WPC) which is IBM's flagship Product Information Management (PIM) offering.

Happy Birthday Monty

This picture is taken near Rankala bus stand in Kolhapur. There is craze amongst politicians, student leaders and even gulli ka gundas and Matka Kings in Kolhapur to flaunt their birthday posters in the city. Now its time for these guys to do some thinking and find out are they really worth of it?
missing Kolhapur today :-(

Powered by Python

I am so much hooked to Google but never thought much about the technology they use. The need never arised, that may be the reason. While googling about Google Ad Words I found this paper The Anatomy of Search Engine This is great source to learn about Google's search technology and it come from the founders of Google.
Now here comes the shocker " In order to scale to hundreds of millions of web pages, Google has a fast distributed crawling system. A single URLserver serves lists of URLs to a number of crawlers (we typically ran about 3). Both the URLserver and the crawlers are implemented in Python. Each crawler keeps roughly 300 connections open at once. This is necessary to retrieve web pages at a fast enough pace. At peak speeds, the system can crawl over 100 web pages per second using four crawlers. This amounts to roughly 600K per second of data." Does any one still doubts power of a scripting languages?

Clash of Cycles

In India there is a perception that bicycles are for poor people who can not afford any other mode of transportation. Just check out the prices of these. most of them are below 2500 Rs. there are handful of models in the range of 2500 Rs to 6000 Rs primarily made for school children in cities.
So what happens when a cool dude/IT guy/US returned/endurance sports buff goes to the market to check out his cool machine.(there are 'n' number of reasons why he does this :-D)
1.The cool dude starts searching Google and finds out addresses of dealers of BSA, Hero etc in the town.
2. He has never heard of this "xyz rd", does it exist? start searching Google map. No luck :-( post a question on some "abc" forum. gets some clue.
3.Dude goes searching the shops in some old part of city, a shabby place wonders why is he here?Guy at the shop ignores the dude even when he repeatedly ask the questions."Do you have a BMX? is it alloy frame? can u remove mud guards? why the heck it has carrier? Shop keeper does not understand dude's language. Shop keeper feel this guy won't buy anything. He keeps himself busy in absurd conversation with a guy who looks like mechanic in the shop. Dude is now totally frustrated and decides to walk out of shop. Same scene happens in next three shops. Absolutely frustrated :-(
4.Cool dude comes home writes a blog entry to relive. Feels better... posts his experience on a mail group. Someone suggests a foreign brand recently launched in India. swears that its absolutely cool though it costs a bomb.
5.This foreign bike shop is in the posh locality of town. just next to cool dude's fav McDee. Dude feels awesome as he enters the showroom. gr8 stuff.just buys it.
6.After few weeks some snag develops in dudes bike. The foreign bike shop owner now even refuses to talk to the dude. He has already sold the costliest bike to dude so no point attending him. competition...whats that? Cool dude is now absolutely fuming and frustrated.
7.Next day. Cool dude strongly feels he has to be assertive. yah thats what they call it. He writes mail to the head office of foreign bike shop. Feels better...
8.Few more weeks pass... No use of "Assertive" behavior.
9.On the web site cool dude discovers that the bike shop sells repair kit. Decides to buy it and do it himself. Hands on always works! let me get my hands dirty...
10.Cool dude is delighted to find that the bike is damn simple to fix. and he is amazed at his own ability to fix it. Cool dude writes a blog entry , mails to group to share his experience, advises few more guys on buying a ATB/MTB. Enlightened!!!

Well there are at least a dozen such stories on the web. What strikes me is the pattern of events. My mind is so trained to see patterns :-) can't escape it.
I think this is a great situation where two classes of society so widely separated come to market to buy same thing but with vastly different needs. And the experience it creates is worth writing a blog entry :-)

Male Restroom Etiquette

Well if you wonder what relation Male Restroom Etiquette has with Maslow's hierarchy or for that matter with world peace watch this amazing video on YouTube.

Registration open for Mumbai Marathon 2007

All marathon enthus, registrations have opened for Mumbai marathon 07. Hurry up the last date is Dec 16th 06.
The credit card payment from India times doesn't seem totally secure. My firefox browser gives warning that although the page is secure, the connection is not secure and info can be easily read by third party. The digital certificate seems ok. I have written to the organizers about this.
Well the 1st prize is $30K and goes till 15th rank across various categories.
This marathon is highly organized. They provide timing chip if you want and also medal for every successful marathon runner. And only a certificate for half marathoners.
So this year I am eager to see that certificate in my hands :-)

Book shelf update ...

Red Earth & Pouring Rain starts very well. Abhay has returned from US after studies. He kills a monkey in a dramatic incident. But this is no ordinary monkey. He remembers his previous berths as Sanjay (from Mahabharat)and Parashar (not rally sure of this character :-)) So when Lord Yama comes to take the monkey away, he pleads to monkey god Hanuman. Hanuman strikes a deal with lord Yama that Sanjay (the monkey) will have to tell a story every day for at least 2 hours. Yama puts a condition that if audience starts getting bored Sanjay has to go with him. This starts a thread of stories. stories inside stories, typical to Mahabharat style. These stories are not all that interesting, they are very slow and don't really hold the attention. This is Vikram Chandra's first book. He certainly does not have economy when it comes to using words. He could have done it in a much crisp and readable way.

After reading cuckold I was looking for something which has dark shades and very bold in style. Then one day in Landmark I found Confession of Indian women eater by Sasthi Brata. It has forward by Kushwant Singh. So just picked it by instinct. Again the first half of the book was up to my expectations but then it becomes very repetitive in story telling. It has that shades of soft porn in the later part, but not always exciting.

I just started reading "Swami" a marathi novel written by Ranjit Desai based on the life of Madhavrao Peshwa. Next I have RKN's "English Teacher" and planning to buy My name is red by noble winner of 2006 Turkish author Orhan Pamuk

Why Do I Run

many people have asked me this question and I have no definite answer. may be it is a little bit of madness. I found out few more reasons from Madhu who actively runs Bangalore Runners mail group on Google.

1. It feels sooo good when you stop because it hurts soooo much when you run. (Endorphin Drug Addiction reason?...masochist reason?)
2. It is the easiest way to keep in shape (Epistemological reason)
3. You can (almost) eat whatever you want (Gluttony reason)
4. If Animation or conscious motion (De Anima of Aristotle) is significance of life and the lack signifies death, choose to be be Animated (run) and Live. (Metaphysical reason)
5. To revel in the feeling of BEING in tune with your inner nature and the outer while running (Ontological reason)
6. Impress beautiful girls with athletic abilities (Deluded reason)
7. See beautiful scenery travelling and running in beautiful and exotic places around the world (Teleological reason)
8. Freak show material for popularity at parties (Perverted reason)
9. To watch Surya Bhagavan as he chases the darkness away with the first rosy flush of dawn. (Exalted reason)
10. To collect nice T-shirts of impressive races from around the world-wear
and be proud (Narcissitic reason)

Little Super Star

Check out this cool video doing great rounds on YouTube. Enjoy Maadi

After months of wait I got my broadband connection and office laptop. BSNL broadband speed is good but service is pathetic. Well now I can work form my home or form office near my home. That's is superb. After months and months of planning finally things are in place :-)

Just did it

Finally I did my first half marathon race and all that preparation was worth doing.
I reached the kantirava stadium at 4:15 AM since I was not aware that race is postponed to 6 AM. I got plenty of time to do my warm up. I had a glass of Badam milk in the canteen and relaxed a bit. People started coming in by 5:30 Am but still it was not a big crowed. By 6 AM some decent numbers. Well for full marathon their were just around 30 to 40 folks and for half marathon around 100 to 150. By looking at the kind of accessory and gears they were wearing it was very much clear that this crowed is damn serious about this race. Including me :-)

The half marathon race started at 6:15 AM. First 3 KM were some what tough since I was still feeling pain in the thighs. The route was via Cubbon park - Vidhan Soudha - Golf course - Ganga Nagar to Hebbal lake flyover and back to Kantirva Stadium via same route. This route is quite scenic and whether was awesome. But it has enough number of slopes you have to overcome. It took me 1:12:00 to reach the U turn of race on Hebbal Flyover. At this point I was pretty confident to finish the race.

At around 1:44:00 time I saw a long stretch of underpass slope I have to climb. By this time I was almost exhausted and realized that I can not push more. This was my first stop. Lot of people had taken breaks at regular intervals, which I think is good. After walking for 6 mins I started running again but could not cover even a 1KM stretch. So here on it was a mix of walk and run.

There was a good support form the crowed and even from the police mama. Event was well planned and executed. Plenty of water points on the road, ambulance and volunteers. Overall very cheerful.

When I reached the stadium back my stop watch was showing 2:48:00
Now as per articles on Nike Running 3 hrs is considered to be a good time for first timer. I realized that this just my beginning.
But I am sure I can improve my timings.

Overall I think it is worth paying for the race. I don't feel any sense of accomplishment, pride or high. It is just passion and fun all the way, for each and every KM and that's enough to add another 21 KM and do a full marathon in 2007!

Bangalore Marathon 2006

I am planning to do my first half marathon on coming sunday. Check out web site
Though I missed the last one, this time I am quite confident. Now I have experience of two 15KM runs.
Last weekend I checked out the new range of Nike Free. Its realy cool, utra light and damn sexy design. Hmm price starts from 5500 Rs. Well lets see when can get them.
Actually I wanted to buy the water bottle with waist straps but thats very expensive :-( come around 850 Rs , dont feel its really that worth.

The real challange for completing the marathon is to maintain a good speed. I think I have to hydrate myself properly. I am excited , thrilled and eager to do my first half marathon!

Monsoon Hungama

Now its more than a month monsoon has started in rest of state but it has not rained much in Bangalore :-) How wonderful it will be in Kolhappur now. Planning a trip there, lets see how it works. BTW I am going to Gaja's place Brahmawara near Udupi this weeked. Agumbe at this time should be interseting. It receives highest rainfall in Karnataka !
So here is my Q3 wishlist
*Agumbe
* Trip to Kolhapur
*Trekk to KP
*Cycleing to Nandi Hills (I need good company)
* 201G Run :-) more on that later


Meanwhile borrowed a travologue from Kiran, "Falling off the Map" by Pico Iyer. Also found a good one on Amazon "Hullabaloo in Guava Orchid" by Kiran Desai this seems a pefect indian writing. Ohh I also picked up "English teacher" by RK Narayan in Landmark
So lot of good stuff, enough for monsson.

New arrivals

Actually I got sick of "Girlfriend in a coma". I am desperate to finish the last 50 pages. Hope the ending will be worth the read. But its a fascinating story of a group who are in search of their identities and its mixture with ghost and coma.
So had to get some nice fiction to come out of this sickness.
So yesterday I picked 2 books from Landmark.
Cuckold is a fiction set in history of Marwa's and Sultan of Delhi written by Kiran Nagarkar.
English, August, its the story of a young IAS officer brought up in the Anglo Indian environment who faces real India in Madna, MP.
Just by reading first 10 pages I can tell you that its fresh juicy and punk. Upamanyu Chatterji's work is fresh even after 18 years!

Run Ubuntu as guest OS on Windows

I just installed VMWare image of Ubuntu. Its gr8. the usability is amazing, way ahead of Red Hat Linux. Ubuntu in african language means "Humanity for others". Quite interesting name.

VMware player is free now! You can run Ubuntu on windows box in three easy steps.
Step 1: Downlaod the VMWare image for Ubuntu
Step 2: Download and install VMPlayer.
Step 3: Run the image
Downlaod

:-(

After a long hunt I am able to find a house in Bangalore. Thanks to my roomi Nilesh.
I have mixed feelings now.... The thought of moving out of Kolhapur makes me sad. I don't know how I am going to overcome it :-(

Girlfriend in a Coma

At least from the Amazon reviews it appears that this book is interesting.
See Reviews

I got a Trainer

I found it some what difficult to increase my jogging stretch from 8 KM onwards. I was not able to find out if my action and pace is correct.
So I wanted a coach to train me.
that's when I found Timex heart rate monitor sports watch. I was quite lucky to get this watch from US, since it is not available in India. I got good discount too.
See Details

You can select your zone of activity according to the fitness objective e.g.weight loss. This watch comes with a booklet which helps to draw your training plan according to the age and max heart beat rate/min.
The watch records your HBR/Min and time you spend in the target zone.
I found it really useful. In first three days I improved my performance. Now I take 2 min 15 sec less to run the same distance.

Google enters enterprise software market

Google base recently launched Google Base. I guess Google Analytics is still in beta.
Both these products are free and targeted towards e-commerce services.

Till now only big retailers have luxury of using product information management (PIM) products due to astronomical prices. A big market of Small and Medium Enterprise is left out from benefits of PIM solution. Google is not selling any product, Google Base is a service. You can register your product in Google's categories and publish. I guess one should be able to pull products from ones e-commerce site to Google Base and publish them and you get access to broader market. The cataloging features are quite primitive when compared to PIM vendors.

Google Analytics integrates with Google AdWords and provides the charts for your e-commerce site

We notice it or not Google has entered enterprise software market and they are shaking the structure of market.

Reaad whole book on Google Print

A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.
Lao Tzu

My first solo trip

This is the first time I traveled alone on a trip. I had no choice actually. Rather than sitting alone at home on Dasara holiday I decided to visit Sringeri.
This was a totally unplanned trip. I just got lucky to get a seat in KSRTC bus to Sringeri which goes via Chikmaglur. Otherwise I was planning to go to Shimoga and there on to Sringeri.
The bus left Bangalore at 9 PM and reached Sringeri at 7 AM. The scenery is awesome from Chikmaglur.
Sringeri Sharda  peetha was established by Adi Shankara in 8th century.
on the banks of Tunga river.  If you are interested in the history browse
wikipedia .

After visiting temple and mutt on the other bank I returned to my lodge, slept for an hour I had around half day available. Agumbe is just 26 KM from here, Karkal around 60 KM. I decided to visit Agumbe and even boarded the bus. Soon I realized that I don'’t know what to do there (and could not find anything in my “Outlook 52 weekend guide”). Very reluctantly I extended my ticket to Shimoga. I am sure I will return for Agumbe -– Sringeri trek this season.

It took me almost four hours to reach Shimoga. From there I got bus to Bangalore and reached at around 3 AM. Painfully spent next 2 hours waiting for city bus. Memories of our Kukke Subramanya trek suddenly flooded my mind.

When you are on your own you don'’t have to wait for anybody or build a consensus. Stop where you want or jump on. But you need to do a bit more research before setting off. I think I need to be talkative while on the go.
Do I want to go solo on my next trip? Hmmm not sure really ... This should be a last option.