Cycl-on goes cycling ...

Its been more of a cycling than motor biking for last month or so .. somehow cycling has interested me! Last time i went to Iskcon on my bicycle .. and this time it was a trip to some unexplored part of Bangalore.

I am a part of a team Cycl-on which is a bunch of cycling enthusiasts coming together and exploring their limits to cycling, testing out their threshold and at the same time enjoying every bit of it! Same is the case with me as I remember telling my colleague that i wont be able to join them for Big Banyan ride .. but then had a great experience riding to Iskcon!

This weeknd it was rather an unplanned route, we just followed one direction and reached Sarjapur! So 6:00am was the start time from BTM Udupi Garden. Needless to say, we were half an hour late to start .. but thats ok if u are going to ride at ur own leisure pace! :) Oh ya.. thats wat we did .. and thats wat we planned! a so called Fun Ride across Bangalore.

(courtesy: Raghu)

Charles, Jagdeesh, Preran and me from BTM and Abhijeet, Raghu coming from Jaynagar, we were 6 of us enjoying the smooth down hill 1+km route which takes you

to SilkBoard. Everyone just thinking about what would be to ride here on or way back! :)

Our first stop was just after Sarjapur circle which means we covered pretty good distance before halting. Jagdeesh had some bike problems as it needed air .. We continued on the same way till we encountered a railway crossing. Me and Abhijeet saw the train pass by and hence knew why all vehicles are stationary. Our other fellows simply reached the spot and had no clue why the traffic was! :) But soon realised it actually was a crossing. Ok then .. time for a snap and we were on the railway tracks!

We had this question in our minds! "How should we find .. how much distance we have travelled?" .. but Charlie ..with Chacha Chowdhary's brains came up with this ... "Ahh .. no probs .. I will google it once i m home" ;-) ... oh Yaa and Raghu actually did it for us! Its 60km .. right Raghu?

For some reason, Charles was desperate to go Aishwarya Sanskriti Resideny, i guess the name says it all! :-) But instead we reached a place some 3 kms from Sarjapur and our friend, our Guru Brijesh asked us to follow a route which would take us through beautiful green fields .. but it meant we still tested our own limits :) Yes u r correct ... we took a longer route on our way back and we headed towards Marathalli where Abhijeet and I almost took the Whitefield way but soon realised we are better off if we go directly to Marathalli! Changed our route and headed towards Marathalli. What we saw was so relaxing .... a big slope, a long stretch and we were a bunch of happy folks ... but what followed was not expected! We had to soon cross a flyover which drained us to the core! :-)

Soon to Marathalli and this was the first real chance of having our breakfasts! We were just on a bottle of water, Glucon-D and Nariyal Paani for last 3 hours! But with the feeling that 'Delhi abhi Door nahi' we continued from Marthalli junction to Sarjapur Circle. This was the most difficult stretch for me .. not for the kind of road but for the amount of energy i had in store. Also this was the stretch where we had split. Some riding at their own speeds, some halting for a drink and I had to reach on time. Speed dead slow but i continued to pedal until i reached Sarjapur Circle, stopped their for sometime. This was the most satisfying stretch for me. With no energy in me .. i found a little water in my bottle and i remembered my conversation with Preran .. "yaar .. thoda paani to apne bag me hona chahiye .. pata nahi kab jaroorat pad jaaye .. aur agar koi sath nahi hua to?" .. and thats wat had happened! ;-)

Started again and had some pace now .. decided to stop only at SilkBoard. But with Silk board approaching, i was desperate to reach home and continued in the same swing. The moment i saw BTM signal i was desperate to reach it .. but had to really struggle to reach the place. Slowly but surely I reached the place from where we started in the morning. It was exactly 10:50am and thanks to Charles plan .. I was at home on time ..

A great ride .. which started as a fun ride but really tested us on our way back and am sure Preran will agree with me? right Preran? :) Had a great time with the group and was also introduced to new folks in office. Who would have imagined two people introducing each other while riding on bicycles .. but thats what it is and thats what Cycl-on does as it brings all the people of similar interests together.

Great ride guys .. and looking forward to many more! ;-)

Nice little story ..

My friend sent me this sweet little story ... really liked it ... n thought of sharing with u all .... So here it goes ....

Horror gripped the heart of a World War-I soldier, as he saw his lifelong friend fall in battle. The soldier asked his Captain if he could go out to bring his fallen associate back.

"You can go," said the Captain, "but don't think it will be worth it .Your friend is probably dead and you may throw your life away."

The Captain 's words didn't matter, and the soldier went anyway. Miraculously, he managed to reach his friend, hoisted him onto his shoulder and brought him back to their company's trench.

The officer checked the wounded soldier, then looked kindly at his friend. " I told you it wouldn't be worth it," he said. "Your friend is dead and you are mortally wounded." "It was worth it, Sir," said the soldier.

"What do you mean by worth it?" responded the Captain."Your friend is dead." "Yes Sir," the soldier answered, "but it was worth it because when I got to him, he was still alive and I had the satisfaction of hearing him say.......

" Man...I knew you would come ! "

Ganpati Bappa Moraya .. Modaks ..

"I Mukul Vinay Lele wont have sweets for 1 week" is what i said last weekend and am surprised .. that i could follow it! ;-) I timed it perfectly though .. as the next day that is today ... i had my favourite Modaks! Ukadiche Modak! :)

Today was fun .. well not exactly when the day began with 2 exams scheduled back to back. But we have been doing this for last 8 months now .. So .. just another exam i thought! but never could study seriously for both these subjects as i was in festive mood from Saturday (yesterday) itself. Most pathetic preparations ever for any exam. But after the exam realised that it's good i didnt study. Cos whatever i would have studied wouldnt have helped me anyways! ;-)

After both exams real Ganesh festival started for me. And first destination was Naren's place .. my XLRI friend. Wowwwwwwwww ... kya khana thaaaaa .... :-) need not describe much .. else .. ur mouth will start watering now!

Reached my Mama's place at 5:30pm .. and i was supposed to reach for lunch there. Dil bol raha tha ... "Mukul .... modak modak modak!!!!!" ... par pet me itni si bhi jagah nahi thi :-) Had a nice time there with kids as usual ... playing with them, sketching, njoyng there stories is real fun! We had small Puja in the evening. Dinner at 8:30pm ... and i started my dinner with Modak and ended my dinner with Modaks .. i can say ... had only modaks! ;-) Then chit chat with Mama Mami and back home at 11pm ..

All in all ... amazing day ... bole toh .. vo kehte hai na ... pet khush .. to Dil bhi khushhhh .. ;-)

[P.S: Can you tell me how many times did i spell "Modak" in this post. hahahaha!! Cant control ... cos its my Dil Ki Baat!!]

Sometimes things go well ... when unplanned !!

Not that "not planning" is the secret to success but sometimes .. things go well .. when not planned. May be because we dont set any expectations and njoy watever comes our way! ;-) or may be .. u have no one to blame but urself if things go wrong .. and hence .. u better accept whatever happens.

Oh ya .. i 'll never say .. that one should not plan .. ofcourse you should and strive to hit the target. But the joy of tasting success or achieving what you set urself for is a bit different .. when u dont plan for it .. isnt it? I m sure this wont have the satisfaction which u 'll get if u plan your move and take efforts towards it. What i m trying to say is ... dono ka kuch alag hi maja hai ... The later being more of an achievement and the former being more of a luck .. what say??

Forget the more important and serious decisions which we take in our life .. these surely need to be planned (cant gurantee success tho but atleast can list down the probability of achieving what u r set to achieve) but .. think about more common things ..

Have you ever tried this ...

Saturday morning .. get out of your house .. kickstart your bike ... have some cash .. pick any road which takes you out of the city ... and go for it ... ;-) U have no idea where u r heading to .. but I think .. it would be a fun experience!!

Ofcourse its always good to plan your activities, your vacations, your job, your daily schedules .. but one day ... just go for it .. and do things which dont come under ur so called 'planned activities' .. call a frnd @ 9 n meet for a 9:30 movie ... just sit at home and watch movies whole day .. call a frnd with whom u have lost touch ... set out for a walk and get loads of sweets for ur family on ur way back .. give ur cook, ur maid more salary than decided saying "i liked your work this month" and njoy the happiness, the satisfaction they show on their face .. or just sleep whole day!! :)

Just try out things the way u want it .. and not because u planned for it .. not sure if u 'll b happy with its results .. but m sure u 'll be satisfied with it ... because u set no expectations! ;-)

Back to Bicycle .. MotorBike parked!!

Hello Guys ..

Posting again after a long time. This has been a problem with me! I decide to be regular in this but somehow get into some other stuff.

I am cycling now a days! Lets see how many days I maintain my cycling spirits high! and manage to keep my bike parked at home :) I used to cycle my way to school but once out of it and few more years I really dont remember using cycle again! Oh now i realize i missed some fun! As one of my colleagues said .. while we were kiddos we wanted a bike and now we r getting bored of that kickstart machine .. ya ya .. i know .. even the autostart is available .. :-) but thats not the point! Its the feeling to get back to cycle days ... has got me to sit on my bicycle once again. Let me show you my new cycle ... so here it goes ..

Its a Hercules Ultime Shox 6 speed and same color too.

So now a days .. m on bicycle from home to office and ofcourse back home. First few days were not at all good and i struggled to even cover my lane and get on to the main road. But its getting smoother now. :-) Thankfully!!

Around 4kms one way is managable. This is my condition .. and my colleague is asking me for a 100km ride this Saturday .. oh ya .. u got it right .. 100km ride. We have few Pros out here .. 100kms, 150 kms, 60 km on a hill and so many things i hear but ... cmon .. right now m at 8-10km range ;-)

We have even thought of starting a biker's club in my office and had its first meeting today. Went on well .. and hope many others from my office join the gang. A noticable change is my office which has strength of around 350 has now started with a bicycle Stand!

So .. things are moving and m planning to improve on my cycling stamina in coming weeks .. lets see how thing s go around! ;-)

IPL2009 .. its fun ..

IPL 2009 is about to discover its winner and Mumbai as it did last year, will sit in hotel and watch the IPL finals !! I wanted Mumbai to atleast go in to the Semis this time and it was not so bad till last few games when Mumbai started losing game after game!!!

Bangalore on the other hand has played in exactly opposite fashion ... it was looking gloomy for Bangalore and no one counted Bangalore in. But series of wins and now Bnaglore won its last match of the round robin against Deccan chargers and is marching into the Semis .. what a way!!

Punjab has its own little story .. haha! a real funny situation actually .. Need to win a match to go into Semis, opposition barely scores 110 and at half time, it looks the match is in Punjab's pocket!! but then Punjab plays, and plays as no one else can .. i think even Calcutta would struggle to play the way Punjab played their last match. ;) Could not make the score, when needed to reach only the lowest odd target of IPL2009

Well, IPL surely has given us nail biting finishes. And a team like Mumbai is well trained to take a match right till the last ball and then lose it! ;) I havent missed a single day-night match and most of the times i witnessed a fighting match. May it be Yusuf Pathan fighting for his Rajasthan or Duminy playing a knock which would make the 'Wall of India' proud.

Just semis and the finals and we will find out the IPL2009 winner. There's no point in analysing who will win the semis and the finals. T20 has shown time and again that team who performs on the day wins the match. So m fine anybody winning .. and anyways Mumbai isnt playing :) Let's just hope that we get to see good game of cricket and a nailbiting finsh. Super over in finals .. wat say !! :)

I work in a domain of e-learning n i m surely aware of importance of e.learning in today's world. Today, we need info to move with us rather than we move n look for information. Even m slowly becoming one such person, who wants to put every word he encounters in a wikipedia n get more on it. I hav connected to vodafone live n it looks really cool. Pretty fast n all sites on ur mobile. Actually m posting this msg via mobile. :-) lets see how much i make use of this ...

I work in a domain of e-learning n i m surely aware of importance of e.learning in today's world. Today, we need info to move with us rather than we move n look for information. Even m slowly becoming one such person, who wants to put every word he encounters in a wikipedia n get more on it. I hav connected to vodafone live n it looks really cool. Pretty fast n all sites on ur mobile. Actually m posting this msg via mobile. :-) lets see how much i make use of this ...

I work in a domain of e-learning n i m surely aware of importance of e.learning in today's world. Today, we need info to move with us rather than we move n look for information. Even m slowly becoming one such person, who wants to put every word he encounters in a wikipedia n get more on it. I hav connected to vodafone live n it looks really cool. Pretty fast n all sites on ur mobile. Actually m posting this msg via mobile. :-) lets see how much i make use of this ...

I need 30 hrs a day!!

All of sudden, life has become so hectic .. God! give me 30hr day. I hope that will prove sufficient for me!! Everyday i think about it and everyday i think .. its time to get more and more efficient.

But really thinking where should i cut down my time. Or rather, where should i utilize my time correctly. Finally everything boils down to, how, where, when, how much we spent our time on? So .. i m struggling to get answers to my the 7 W 1 H questions. Hope i get it soon.

Well, where should i start, which daily tasks should i drop are questions hitting me. One immediate answer to is, my daily game of TT. 'kambakth aadat hai , chutti hi nahi' :-) .. but really trying hard to cut time on my TT games.

No chirkutting .. this has been an easy change, the reason is .. so many activities has occupied my mind 24x7 that i have hardly had time to login to my accounts! :-)

what else !! These are very on the face turnarounds ... but wat about tasks wherein i have to be efficient! how do i decide on that!!! :( Lets see, I remember GILBERTH and his motion study to make workstation movements efficient. Know wat, i think of it everyday when i park my bike, remove my helmet, lock my helmet, take out keys and start walking. I m sure THERBLIGS would help me there! But thats just an exaggeration !! Kidding! :)

So, lets see how much i succeed in this activity i have taken up to self improve! just trying to take up positives from the situation i m in ..

God .. give me 30 hrs a day!!! ;-)

Just a HIII ...

Hi Everybody ..
Hows life ..

It has been a long time since i posted last, so thought of saying a big HII to all! :)

Well nothing much happening in life.. and so nothing much actually to talk about!

If you have read my last few posts, you would know .. we were about to release our product and ya .. we did on time! Being a part of a product release has been a great experience. It has taught me so many things and now ..its time to learn from all those mistakes and give more than my 100% in the next release. Next release work has begun and is in full swing. Very tight schedule, deadlines to be met, milestones to be achieved makes it a far more complicated and hence challenging task!

Recently attended a session on 'User Centered Analysis'. Now went bore you by explaining what it is .. but in short, its a very imp stage to be followed before deciding on the new product features. There's a whole lot of stuff to be learnt and i hope .. i get to explore anything, everything about a product life cycle .. i really do!

Btw .. i shifted my house and its going good at my new place! As one of my frnd says .. 'Living life king size' :-) .. kuch aisa hi ho raha hai aajkal! but ya .. not sure .. if it should be so comfortable :-) Ghar pe cook ataa hai .. so now, no need to eat food outside day in and day out .. which we had been doing for last 3 years here!

chalo then .. baki sab maje me .. Thinking of buying a badminton set now! TT to chal hi raha hai .. but some sports @ home with roomies would be great fun .. lets see how it goes .. may be next weeknd .. we will buy and have some fun ...

And ya .. btw .. i have also started writing on www.adobe.com :-) ofcourse its serious stuff and its about my product and everything about it .. you can know more @ http://www.blogs.adobe.com/captivate

C ya ..

And I am Shifting ...

I m doing my packing since last 4 hours and watching Nadal v/s Verdasco Australian Open semis in parallel. Completely engrossed in this amazing match played by the Spanians. I complete my packing stuff, switch off lights, come to bed ... there's a pin drop silence, roomie somewhere in other room, as usual on phone .. and i suddenly realize .. ITS MY LAST DAY IN THIS HOUSE .. and i am shifting tomorrow !!!

Phewww ... well .. its 3:10am on a 31st January 2009. I switched on the lights and have started typing :)

Its been more than 3 years, 3 years and 2 months to be precise and there were many occassions when we had to think of shifting. But someone used to come to our rescue and we continued here for this long time. But that's not the case now, its done, decided and we will be going to a friend's place.

And while i do my packing, i found few things which took me back to the good old days .. starting with Shrinivas's training books which he kept here and asked us to courier which we didnt! :), Abhishek's friend's glassware, Abhishek's gift which says 'Friends Forever', Sudarshan's sis's letter to him, Harsh and group's photo at Wonderla, Kenish and me playing inside house, holi dhamaal inside the bathroom, all those bday celebrations, Sumit Gupta's expense books and his phone calls. There are so many things coming to my mind, memories which are attached with this house. :-)

Really wanted to invite few of my friends here before i leave this place. But could not manage it. But then ..'ll invite them to my new place :)

Here i have seen people changing places almost every year, may b they dont want to stick to a place .. unlike me! It has been a gr8 time spent here @ this place and have made really special friends ... and m sure this trend will continue even in my new home .. ;-)

Your Car needs Petrol!! Its thirsty!!

Just 2 days into the strike and we saw long queues at all the petrol pumps. Thank god i filled up just a day before the strike.
The reason is the strike by the oil-sector officers in demand of higher wages. Wahh .. yaha job ki khair nahi hai .. and few people are going on strike in demand of increase in pay!!

And its a double blow in Bangalore, to add to this strike, lorries have also declared indefinite strike. Hence its not even affecting the petrol but prices for vegetables and other commodities.

Today, while i was coming to office, BP was closed but HP was open and i could see minimum 25 vehicles waiting for their turn. Hopefully, they are selling @ right price :) I was also observing the fuel level for the vehicles while stopping on signals .. and there were no half measures .. either it was right at the top FULL or approaching E!! So as it suggests, with more days into the strike, we will see more than half of the vehicles parked in the garage! :)

At the same time, its chaandi for HPCL as they have not participated in the strike and hence are supplying fuel to the petrol bunks! But where will this demand and supply equation head now ?? as its only one company supplying fuel and other 3 majors, BPCL, IO are down and out!! actually .. empty and out!! :)

Btw .. its even affecting me .. as yesterday i was discussing with my roomie about a bike trip this Pongal but if the strike continues, forget the trip, i will be happy if my bike is atleast up and running!!

Chalo, all we can do is wait and watch and hope that the strike is called OFF before my bike fuel meter touches "E" !!!!!

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FINALLY SOME GOOD NEWS!!! - REDIFF Article
http://specials.rediff.com/money/2009/jan/09slde11-no-fuel-in-india-army-to-move-oil-cargo.htm