Break from diet and training

2015 has been a tremendous year on one side, where as it has been a let down on other sides.

Where its turned out positive -

 - Two Himalayan treks
 - One being Auden's Col which was tough tough 11 day & other being a 12 day continuous trek.
 - Loads of preparation, had to be very precise on diet and regular on training.

Where its turned out not so well.

 - Haven't been able to go to beach side during entire 2015.
 - Two times had been to Sharavathy but could not get down all the way to Honnavara.
 - With so much of preparation needed for Himalayan treks, much of Western Ghats trek took a backseat..
 - Only 3 treks to western ghats since January.
 - Very less road travel
 - Lethargic attitude weeks together after Himalayan treks
 - Work related disappointment.
 - Personal life took a backseat.

There has been days after Himalayan treks, when I have been lethargic and took time to get back to the routine. waking up late, missing diets regularly and missing routine training has become quite frequent now.

I have not been a 100%, trying to be on a strict diet, its taking a toll on the body. Plus I have been told by my parents to avoid future Himalayan treks.

Without a goal in future the motivation to continue training or diet seems to be going all wrong. Sometimes, I wonder, how important it is, in life to have a serious goal where we can focus our energy on. Without a goal its just wandering like a nomad taking whatever comes in our way, well, atleast as of now, I feel thats how it is going.

I have planned couple of treks in the next two months, hoping to end 2015 on a high!

Cheers,

Shuttle / Office cab update

After a steady 3 months our office shuttle driver, is calling it quits. He has his own personal reasons, and we very openly sympathize with him.

Our office cab woes are set to re-appear. So it has to be a new vehicle, since this was a self owned one. We are pretty sure we wont be having a permanent one for this route. But we are used to it or we have rather other things to worry about.

Hope its another Toyota Innova this time, with a 3 seater in the middle bench. After driving, being driven around in a Toyota Innova, i don't know what to say, take a bow Japanese guys.

With a frame and chassis construction it offers an unparallel ride, believe me, with a unibody or moncoque construction what it might offer. I can imagine the rates of monocoque Innova (if any) will hit sky high, but cannot imagine the comfort on that one though, plus added handling! Ahh man, thats the best affordable treat a man can have!

Cheers, I still cannot afford it!

Savoring the retro...

I don't know how to write anything into this post. It mostly has to be precise. (As I have slept for only 4 hours each day since the last two days and its already midnight today, I'm scared the same thing will repeat for third day in a row!).

I have been quite unaware of songs of Kannada movies, which are gems. Some of the lyrics composition have been quite extra ordinary and many of them are from the years 1980's to early 2000's. 

So in the last 10 minutes I was wondering how could I have missed them. Why did it take so long for them to turn up regularly into my playlist.

One enlightening program was Straight hits with V Ravichandran on Big 92.7FM. It surely turned some heads when it came to playing hits only! Apart from that, many programs at the same time do play lot of retro Kannada music. That's competition I guess. What we do is to make sure to switch stations at each advertisement break. (But none with Ravichandran program though).

Reasons for my unawareness...

- Ignorance, may be I was too busy listening to something else, to pay attention to them.

- Immaturity, may be I was immature to appreciate deep lyrics, while I grew up, providing importance only to tunes.

- Accesibility, 80's 90's early 2000's did not have this kind of reach when it comes to CD's radio stations, TV, internet. We did not have a steady supply of songs to get hooked into.

- Unaware - Due to less advertisement / coverage we never knew what all contemporary music had to offer, be it any language English / Hindi / Kannada.

- Kid/Amateur/Teenage - the golden age went by without us even understanding or appreciating the language, now, we only have, to look back!

Why are we bothering this much now?

- Thanks to shows like these we get to know songs which one's topped the charts.

- The crap which is churned out these days, I guess its better to savor the retro than those lyrics which tend to be written in 5 minutes.

- Anything with beats is a super-hit. Absolutely wrong. I prefer songs with lyrics please. So back to retro.

- We could relive the period where there was less traffic, less crowd, where great great people like Dr Rajkumar still were around to give out great hits.

- Unlike now, take any language, its just so boring to tune into contemporary music, amidst that all kinds of promos advertisements etc.

- Seems like many people had chosen literature to study during those days ending up with proper lyrics. Now that, all the painters/writers/mechanics have all disguised themselves as software engineers, you can imagine who would be writing lyrics. (My assumption though no offence!)

It would be so fun just to have these old songs getting played without any breaks!

Cheers,

Listening to the radio - 2

So you might be wondering, what program on the radio we would be listening while stuck at silkboard.

Luckily to our rescue, few of these days we had one program on the radio channel Big 92.7 FM I guess. It was called "Straight hits with RaviChandran".

I guess RaviChandran needs no introduction, probably, if you are from Kannada, I am sure, you would know him very well. Else go and do a search!.

So this program was all about songs from RaviChandran movies. Believe me, every alternate days couple of the songs would repeat or would be the same. But not a single time we would crib about the songs being the same. Mainly because they were songs from the bygone era, extremely good lyrics, worth listening a 1000 times.

In the end, I switched listening to Kannada songs, which reminded me of the 80's/90's my childhood! So when one door closes something else surely opens.

Just like the radio 91.9 which I stopped listening to the ads, which helped me recollect Kannada songs of the 80's, though there were commercials, well, either it was because we were stuck in traffic that it made no difference or may be it was less after all.

I cannot imagine what would have been playing on 91.9 FM at the same time, but why to bother!

Cheers,

Listening to the radio - 1

Once upon a time, I used to listen to Radio 91.9 FM, my favorite show was hosted by Geoffrey Thomas called the Night Patrol, I used to come home and finish dinner and listen to it, before going to bed, preferably with the lights turned OFF.

There is something soothing with alternative rock music and no lights. Gone are the days, gone are the melodies. I do not know what plays in the night.

Day time, I do not listen to radio at all. The commercials on the air have driven the radio out of my room. These days I find myself having very less time. Whatever its and bits of free time I have, I spend reading or blogging.

I do end up listening to music, but those are all songs which I know/remember. Learning about contemporary music is a thing of past to me. I am no more interested in knowing, which is Coldplay's latest song is, nor what U2 is upto these days.

But still, I listen to songs at work and listen to the radio as well. Considering we move through silkboard traffic each day, we ought to listen to something while we are stuck, so what it is!

Let me tell you in the next post. Its of course not 91.9 FM

Cheers,

Nice song - Rang jo lagyo

Looks like, I will have to maintain track of all those songs which I feel awesome. It might end up being another 500 posts considering, it encompasses English/Hindi/Kannada old and new.

May be someday! Till then one more awesome song, came across this one recently, shame never heard this one before, seems to be a hit, but considering, I do not watch much television and the radio is full of commercials I stopped listening to Hindi songs on the radio!

From Ramaiya Vastavaiyya movie this Hindi song comes!

I have slept for 4 hours only yesterday night, More on less sleep pattern in next posts!
Cheers,

Cobalt Blue by Sachin Kundalkar

Posted this one on goodreads, now adding up here too!

I, in-fact loved the plot so much that, I ended up reading in a very quick time, few hours to be precise. The book is a translation from a Marathi version, so I am assuming, some of the original charm might be lost in the process of translation.

Book deals with the story of a brother-sister residing in the same house and ending up falling in love with the same guy, who takes accommodation in their home as a paying guest. 

First half deals with the brothers emotions, feelings which he holds towards this guy who comes as a paying guest.

Second half deals with the sister narrating her good/bad experiences, her feelings some of which takes form as notes in a diary. 

Worth a read, since, it gets you, to start thinking on loads of stuffs.

- How it feels to be in such a deep relationship when they are not earning (still studying)

- What are the things one has to deal when in same sex relationships,( in places where its still not accepted or mainstream. )


- What a double blow it will be for the parents (or may not be too) to know about their son being gay and daughter too in love with the same person.


- How would it be for the parents, to see all of this when their kids are of that tender age.

Rating 3.5 / 5 

Cheers,

PS - I read this book only because, it was mentioned as a good read (by an Indian author). I have nothing to do or relate with anything  that is written in the book. 

Super Song! - Bayalu Daari - 1977

One such song, which I listen to again and again is over here!
From the by-gone days when technology was less advance, when there was simplicity around, less complexity, when we could savor each day growing old, there comes this song, which, with its simplicity was generations ahead of its time. (Be it lyrics, composition, the way it was sung, it was a masterpiece)

What a phenomenal song, what a voice, take a bow!

Cheers,

Rs 200 Gift from Amazon

Recently I purchased a ebook for my kindle from amazon.in (worth Rs 61). It was delivered through whispernet and I did the payment online through NetBanking.

Little did I know, that in return, I would get a Rs 200 worth Promotion code from Amazon mailed to my id. I was totally overjoyed, a book which I was looking could be purchased. I was ever looking for RK Narayan books. But this time I purchased a book worth Rs 265.

I had to pay the remainder Rs 65 through netbanking. That is where things went wrong!

There was some issue with the payment mode and  I was at the mercy of the bank which failed to let the transaction through. Finally at the fourth attempt, I could successfully transfer the Rs 65 to them.

I would come home and wait for the book to be downloaded on my Kindle.

So, all in all, it made me happy. Something for free!

Cheers,
The book I purchased was Blue Cobalt, by Sachin Kundalkar originally in Marathi translated to English by Jerry Pinto! Few other books were there, but they were way too expensive, even for the kindle!

For the Love of India: The Life and Times of Jamsetji Tata

In brief 

This book is a biography of Mr JN Tata. It provides an insight into his life, his works, his projects, also his family.

In detail 

I should have read this book a long long time ago, infact I am ashamed because all these years all my awareness about the history of the Tata conglomerate was a tatty one.

Some books are to be read by school kids just to get them inspired. One such book is this. Sad we do not have this as part of curriculum, atleast I do not remember having one in mine.

This book contains excerpts from various people and various conversations that had some association with Mr JN Tata. I simply loved the one between Mr JN Tata and Swami Vivekanand.

Take away from this book

You get to learn more about the founding father
- who worked selflessly for the upliftment of people of India.
- who brought industrial revolution to India.
- how well read and grounded Mr JN Tata was.
- how he touched the lives of each and every Indian in one or the other way.
- his projects, be it Empress,Swadeshi,Tata Steel,Taj Mahal hotel, IISC
- his will where he pledged part of his wealth to his countrymen, for bringing up IISC.
- what a visionary he was, his plans for hydroelectric plant to reduce combustion in the late 1800's. (yes please).
- his pension, gratuity schemes in the late 1800's
- his travels in an era where a month ship travel was all needed to for a return trip to America.
- his shipping company which he planned to take on rival British company.
- his contribution in Swadeshi movement.

Also you get to learn about the "A-Team" which he built. At the end of this book all I can say is, I am so so proud, Mr JN Tata was born in India.

A excerpt on where Mr JN Tata studied and what transformed him - " The teachers at the Elphinstone Institute not only informed but aroused curiosity and awakened young minds to make their own studies and discoveries through life." 

Take a bow!
Cheers, (less)

Shuttle driver #13 - Driver who drove us down a memory lane!

So, now that we have a regular cab/shuttle fixed on our route, we are no more worrying about daily changing drivers and vehicles!

Our routine driver took a day off and instead sent across one of his friend. His vehicle was none other than the legendary Toyota Qualis. The production of Toyota Qualis stopped around 2004 or early 2005 which is almost a decade back.

So whenever we encounter a Qualis as one of our shuttles all of our cab mates get very curious and start asking questions to the driver.

The questions range from how many kilometers has the vehicle done, is the engine opened for repair once or is it still sealed, how many times the clutch plate has been replaced, how many drivers/owners etc etc.

So this appeared to be the second case where the qualis was driven by a single owner since purchase. Yes please, I was surprised when he said that. But appears to be true.

Here goes the answers to the questions what we generally pose.

- Single owner
- Date of purchase - December 2004.
- Original kilometers - 7,37,000 - yes 7 lakhs 37 thousands.

What was the icing on the cake was, that the driver told that, he used to do pickup/drop for Symphony Services located at Cessna business park in the year 2005. Well, back then foundations of other buildings were being laid was I guess, this was the only operational unit out there.

Back then there were no flyovers and underpasses and only congestion could have been KR Puram or Kundalahalli Bridge. On a very good day, Marathahalli to 4th block Jayanagar took 45 minutes only.

It was all retro rewind with this driver! Since he is a replacement driver he will off after couple of days.

Cheers,

PS  - I am still surprised on how a person could drive a same vehicle for 10 years without an upgrade. may be he has other vehicles back home!

Shuttle driver #12 - Driver who didn't need a rear-view mirror

In the cab driver series of posts, I can recollect one more driver, something was very strange about him and his vehicle as well.

He used to drive a Toyota Innova, which had done more than 1.5 lakh kilometers, but was in almost mint condition, almost zero rattling. But one weird thing was, his vehicle had no rear view mirrors none to the left, none to the right. I can never imagine driving a vehicle without rear view mirrors. I can probably do that, with Maruti 800 or Alto, but anything which is sizably bigger needs a rearview mirror, especially the one on the left, because that is where the 2 wheelers overtake us from!

But this guy was so comfortable driving without rear-view mirrors, it came as a surprise to us, not as a shock. One advantage of not having rear view mirrors on Innova is that, you drive it so closely in traffic. You can just drive it like a car, penetrate through smaller sections without much hassle.

With a couple of rear view mirrors I am sure, it slows you down, because on smaller roads, the judgement needs to be perfect, so generally, you dont take chances, either you slow down or completely halt. But without rear-view mirrors, man, you can drive it so close!

I learnt that, but seriously, it comes with a cost, of course!

Sadly, he lasted probably 3 days, may be 6 trips, thats it! He was more of a tourist driver than a office pickup/drop!

Cheers,
PS - Regarding driving without rear-view mirrors, well thats limited to Maruti 800/Alto, which I have driven not more than 10 kilometers. So my experience without rear-view mirrrors is almost nil.

Free Lunch - One such thing in Dharamshala!

After we had successfully completed the 12 day trek, we almost had 2.5 days to spare in Himachal Pradesh. So we decided to halt at McLeodGanj. One very first day, our team split  (foodie / sight seeing / lazy bunch ) leaving me and my friend with an option to come down to Dharamshala during the day and go back to McLeodGanj during the night.

So once we came at Dharamshala, we did one such unique thing. While coming from Billing to Dharamshala we had seen free food distribution at a Langhar near Sri Chamunda Devi Temple. Over here in Dharamshala too, we saw free food distribution (for lunch of course). We were in luck we thought and I quickly made up my mind to stand in line for free food. My friend who was initially reluctant to stand in line, finally agreed after a stranger told him to stand in line.

In return we got to eat some delicious rice+dal+rajma. My friend expressed his desire to stand in line yet another time for which I disagreed!

Cheers,
Below is the picture.
Location. On the junction of the road leading to McLeodGanj where one can board multiple private taxis and where there is an intersection!

Trekking in hailstorms

I have done some treks recently and few in the last year. Through the rainy season, I have trekked, as well as through the summer. So, it was normal to have trekked in the rain, with heavy downpour and trekking through snowfall (done that in Sikkim/Himalayas as well as Uttarakhand/Himalayas). One thing which had eluded me till now was, trekking through a hailstorm.

And believe me, it happened this time, that too in the Himalayas, it happened to be Himachal Pradesh, Yes we had a snowfall during the initial days of trekking, but on the last but one day, while descending, we encountered, heavy rainfall for almost 4 hours, we trekked through it. But in between, there was a huge hailstorm for may be an hour and a half, you can imagine, we carrying full load (backpack) plus getting hit by hailstorms coming on to us, at good speed, it was quite an adventure.

By late afternoon the rain had subsided, leaving us with something to celebrate. Yes we were on the 11th day of the 12 day trek and tomorrow would be the last day when we would be seeing each other and after that it would be back to civilization and routine life. Yes, it was emotional but all good things do come to an end, so did our 12 day trek!

Cheers,

How to get leaves at workplace

I just completed my second Himalayan trek for the year 2015, so this means, ideally, I have taken off, 2 times this year. Each of those vacation has been minimum of two weeks or even more.

So colleagues at workplace were wondering, how could I manage the same, with so much work all the time, I managed to squeeze in two weeks of leave two times a year.

The answer lies in who is your manager, and who is your manager's manager.

If the people above you are workaholic and come to office regularly, with zero time off for personal life, then you are blessed. They do not have personal life (or take leaves) means, you get to live your life.

I generally do not have to worry about unnecessary meetings, I generally do the technical work and keep my mouth quiet most of the times. All the meetings, so called decisions are taken in absence of me. Does that make me jealous, not at all, I am least bothered. Its the only time, I thank people who do not contribute technically, or in other words write code just for their sheer presence in the office or rather meeting rooms. I know taking decision is not a big deal as there is no rocket which is getting launched, in either case, all their decisions go inconclusive because of one or another technical glitch, apart from the release dates, where we the coders suffer the most!

Its because of them, who regularly come to office attend meetings with clients onsite people, that people like me get leave, otherwise, me doing all these things + technical work will make me a dull boy.

I hope this answers the question on leaves, and yes, I do have run into LOP's (loss of pay leaves) but would I mind, not in any way of course.

Cheers,

Glimpses into BaraBhangal trek

BaraBhangal trek was just magical, over continuous 12 days, we got to walk over awesome places, below one is just one amongst many!

Cheers,

True caller and its advantages

Recently I saw an advertisment of truecaller website / software / app on television. I was quite happy seeing it. I do not know how it works, but it spits out details of the caller.

So how does it help me? These days, I just turned my mobile into silent mode and refuse to pickup any calls, from unknown numbers. I do not care if its a missed opportunity. For me, my freedom, privacy is more important.

So truecaller has been most helpful in finding out whose number the call originated from. Till now, it has not disappointed me. Hopefully in future too it wont. And to anonymous people calling me, no more do I care, nor worry.

The downside is few of my friends try to reach me, considering my phone is on silent mode, I do not pickup, but they are okay with it, given that, I call them back shortly. This has given me more time from unnecessary distractions at workplace.

And regarding people talking at workplace workhours, I still do not have a solution for that.

Cheers,

PS - I hope true caller remains free in future as well!

BaraBhangal trek done!

My second Himalayan trek for the year 2015, done successfully. It was a 12 day continous trek crossing 3 high altitude passes and it turned to be exhausting but fun indeed. More updates on that soon.

Cheers,

Shuttle driver #11 - Driver who formally retired

We were on the lookout for shuttles as well as drivers. On one such occasion, we came across a driver, who was ready to drive us to office. Loads of things happened during this period. He became one of our good friends, but in the end, he formally retired from professional driving, instead choosing other business!

Few things which happened were -

1. He drove a red colored vehicle. Normally we never see a taxi which is red colored. But this one was, he told it was his lucky color, even the seat covers were red!

2. He once told about an incident, when he had driven an ambulance all the way from Bangalore to Nagalapuram (AP) and then to Hassan. The way he told the story of what had happened, it just sent chills down our spine. I cannot even think of writing what happened and about his experience when driving the ambulance and for what purpose.

3. He also told about one occasion, where he had gone to a high profile wedding and I cannot write about that one too over here!

But his stay was also quite short as he chose to do business instead of driving vehicle. As a result, we ended up losing contact with him!

Cheers,

Shuttle driver #10 - Driver from Madikeri

We had one such driver, who belonged to Madikeri. He too came on for a short duration. He was willing to continue for longer duration.and gotten attached very much to all of the cab mates, but unfortunately, owing to his health condition, he was advised a month's rest and there after we never got to hear about him.

I hope he is fine these days. Few things happened during his tenure as a cab driver too. Regarding his family, he told they owned some acres in Madikeri. His father had served in the armed forces and retired, while his brother was still in the army.

- Once his mother had came all the way from Madikeri, his mother had brought some herbs from the forest and cooked Sambar out of it. He had brought this sambar for us to taste. It was the first time in the history or since my childhood a driver had fed his home cooked food. It always used to be vice versa.
- Most of the time, we had shuttles/vehicles confirmed but drivers used to abscond. But this time, the driver was very much willing to continue, but there came a day, when the vehicle which was assigned to our route was put up for sale. The travel company itself was selling its vehicles off. But even before this sell off happened, the driver just retired due to health reasons.

Sad ending to a budding friendship, never mind.

Cheers,