My mountain bikes as a friends-gurus-philosophers - Part two

In my last post I described my journey into cycling and a bunch of memorable adventures from past years. Being a regular commuter to office on MTB having having clocked 3400+ KMs on speedo now, I must admit that cycling is one thing that happened in my life which is having a positive influence all through.

Couple of years back I was an avid Enfield Bullet rider! I was a proud owner of 1983 Enfield Bullet Std - did touring for 3-4 days with fellow bikers - went on solo rides to places around that I wanted to explore. There was a lot more speed, power and loved mile munching on such beautiful motorcycle. People around me, who didn't have the sense of what it feels to ride such a motor cycle, were poking fun at me to sell the fuel gulping Bullet and put few more grands on it to buy a cycle instead and thus I granted their wish! To be honest, I jump started my cycling life again in becoming a "monk-who-sold-his-ferrari" ;) I felt really glad that I have made them shut their mouth now.
Break-up with my beloved Enfield took its toll :( but my new love Khs Alite 500, did help me recover back from the depression very soon ;)
Thus as a close friend the first lesson my mountain bike taught me was "to move on in life"!

When I started commuting to office on my mountain bike (16km, round trip) folks around me said its not feasible/suitable in Bangalore traffic and they were too skeptical on lean me doing it even for couple of days. I confess frankly that it was hard for me too to begin with the plan of daily commute. People look at you as a dumb-idiot-attempting-the-impossible-all-in-vain. Sad but true - a lot of people wish to see others fail in their endeavor. But I had to break the ice in integrating cycling as a part of my daily lifestyle. That is when my cycle taught me second lesson to "just get on with it and don't hesitate of what people think of you". This lesson has helped me in welcoming funny comments at my cycling attire during commute - Once a passer-by called me out loud as "Hey, look at that Spiderman!" - Well, I second his thought as I wearing full sleeve red jersey with black neo-mask air filter in black-red shorts (Just to be more visible on road). Who knows he might call me a "Green goblin" when I wear a green jersey. Hehehe :D

Courage is not to be thought as "having-no-fear-at-all" but it is the power of your will to overcome your fear. It is just the 1st day that mattered when I started - the rest just happened on determination. Its been more than 1.4 years of my office commute now. It is like doing meditation (Yoga) - you keep practicing it daily and hope that you perfect it within your lifetime! I personally feel that anything you inculcate as a habit of practicing daily becomes a part of your spiritual life. I might not daily say mantras and sit and meditate at one place but I rather feel that every time I crank the pedals with my feet, it feels the same as chant! Thus the third lesson my bike taught me was "to contemplate and introspect at least once a while"

To be very honest, at first even I was skeptical about my fragile body (5'7", 60Kg) whether it could take long duration exercises. I was worried more about cycling associated pain and injury. That is when I came across an article about human body and its endurance. It read - Homo sapiens are not meant to be sprinters like other four legged mammals but we are very good at aerobic metabolism and have excellent body cooling system. Great, I thought and I did test myself in doing 100+ km rides endurance cycling to Nandi Hills and back several times now but I have never suffered any injury (touch wood :P). All you need it a proper bike-fit and good posture to sit on bones in your butt to avoid back pain and injuries. Thus the fourth lesson my bike taught me was "we have an evolutionary legacy to be athletes"

(To be continued...)

Yours amateur  biker,
Karthik

My mountain bikes as a friends-gurus-philosophers - Part one

Took a very long break from my web log. So here I am saying hello as in Terminator3 movie - "I am back!!"

I dedicate this post to my beloved friend-guru-philosopher called "KHS alite 500" mountain bike who is just about 1 year old now but wiser than me who taught me a lot of things in life.

My journey into cycling started long time back in Mysore when I was a kid learning-how-to-balance on small hero bicycle with the support wheels on them. But I never had an opportunity to ride much of bicycle during schooling days as I always had to take bus due to longer commute. Since then I had a longing to own a bicycle looking at many of friends coming on bicycles to school. Years passed by but the fascination for bikes was never gone. Well the first thing I bought myself was the Hercules bicycle saved from my internship money after finishing my under-graduation. Yes you read it right! after finishing my engineering. It doesn't take people to be crazy to ride a bike but being crazy helps. Soon after that I got bit by the bug of riding longer and longer distances to satisfy the thirst and improving my endurance. Couple of guys like "Nomad" and "roasted neurons" inspired me (Their funny names and writing style itself are enough. Need i say more!) to take the cycling to next new level. That happened five years back exactly on this same day I had been on solo biking journey to Maakalidurga. A memorable journey indeed with lot of thrilling adventures of mountain climbing, taking dip in lake, hiking with other camping members en-route! Then the phase of office commute started on same bike and I called it operation Manyatha. Indeed it was a mission and a tough one but it is good that I am able to keep it running successful till now but on a much better bike now. The thirst for riding long distances and building stamina ever increased and that is when I had registered for Bengaluru cyclothon in 2009. My views about cycling changed a lot after meeting people at cyclothon and seeing more mature biking groups. This is where I met GGI and BBCh members for first time. I saw road race bikes for the first time in my life during the event who were zipping past ahead of me with their 9+ kilo imported race bikes while I was riding a steel-framed 30+ kilo purely Indian made local bike. :) My riding distance had got better by this time of about 60+ kms a day on my Hercules cycle. Soon after this cyclothon incident in my life, I pulled my cousin (Sumukh) into cycling. He was then new to cycling but i forced him one day for a Nandi hills ride, an overkill for a beginner indeed but it was the most funny ride ever as I did tow him for about 10+ kms with our bikes pulled by a rope after he started limping on our way back! Even more funnier part was that the rear mud guard fell off!! I mean it just fell off while riding and got stuck between the road and rear tire but it was this rope we tied to our bikes which helped us to avoid the disaster of me having a face-first-fall. Hehe.. With no tools with us, all we could find was a hardware store nearby where I only found a hack-saw blade to cut the mud-guard off the bike. :P

Too vintage.. i guess! :P

Country bikes with informal bikers then...

Are you kidding me? Tow away zone!?.. we were towing ourselves all the way back to Yelahanka!

Cutting the mud guard which fell towards the front of wheel!

Then I decided that it was the time for me to go for better and more reliable and lighter frame bike. But never found a proper way to go in search for proper kind of bike which suited my budget and my way of cycling. Road bikes looked really cool lean machines with those aerodynamic drop bars with those thin 700x25c tires and elegant frame geometry. But I am a kind of guy who takes too much adventure within and loved to be one with nature than on asphalted roads speeding at 40-50kmph. Thus I opted for Mountain bike and sooner I got to know about cycling-and-more(CAM) team who were having this regular weekend cycling rides around Bangalore. Me and my cousin both opted for rented bikes and took the ride as opportunity to get ourselves exposed to some modern day imported bikes with good components. We got Merida Matts 20V rented during the whole ride. It was then I realized the beauty of handling and braking of these Mountain bikes. We did the ride starting from Horanadu-Kalasa-Mudigere-Kottigehara-Sakleshpura, the heart of western ghats i must say, in-and-around the Charmadi ghats. The climbs were thrilling, tiring, challenging which were all negated by scenic beauty, greenery and pristine routes we took Not to forget the amazing food at  Linger Balur estate! and the lovely bungalow built almost everything out of wood from 1850s. Made new cyclist friends who were riding Cannondale Trail 5, Mongoose Tyax, Rock Rider 5.2s, Schwinn hybrids etc., but just fell in love with the Cannondale bike after I took it for spins.

Lovely greens meadows between Kottigehara-Sakleshpur

I look like a charred version of me :P

Welcoming us to village life

A lovely water body with lotuses on the way (In the pic - Sumukh)

How often does one get a change to be there!?

Soon after this ride we went to BOTS, Wheelsports (specially for KHS, Merida, BMC), Pedals and Wheels, Wheel life adventures (specially for Giant bike) and other branded bike distributors. Finally I chose KHS alite 500 as it has best components for my budget range.

Then I did a lot of upgrades to my bike since it was mainly a commuter purpose bike for me but often a trail bike too. Got a Cree 950 Lumens torch which runs on 4000mAh Ultrafire 18650 battery with a custom mount made out of a reflector clamp. A simple DC-4W cyclocomp to monitor distance and speed. A custom built DIY project for phone/battery pack charger. The recent of all was to get the puncture resistant tire liners kit installed as I face lot of thorns in trail rides towards Nandi hills and Hesaraghatta. Here are some videos that I took during my rides sometime back.

Offroad cycling is just so much fun! Have been to Nandi hills thrice (Dared the 8K climb only once though, last 2 kms are killing!) and Hesaraghatta trails about 4 times now, each of these rides would be around 80+ kms from my home at Sahakarnagar.

At Hesaraghatta lake (water remains to be precise!) - with my schoolmate Nikhil

Sumukh and Jon during the Nandi climb

It was a 100+ km ride back tiring ride that day!

Then came another bike trip with the office colleagues who are more of marathon runners and share same level of enthusiasm and passion as mine in biking. It was 3 day ride to heart of Madhumalai, Ooty. The ride was memorable as it was through the famous wildlife - Bandipur, Madhumalai, Gudaloor forests. We started from Mysore all the way to Bandipur (1st day), Bandipur to Masinagudi (2nd day), Masinagudi to Ooty (3rd Day). The ride was splendid and so was our final day accommodation at Taj savoy at Ooty! Yipeee.. A refreshing star hotel pleasure after treacherous rides (but not to mention that it burnt a hole in my pocket though :P )

My colleague Manav with his Kona dew taking a break

Thats the way - Mahi way! :)

Took rest here for few mins before the start of climb when I saw deers cross the road next to me!!

I was probably in 1x1 gear ratio here - crawling the way up!

Bend it like hair pin :P

Hocus - pocus - focus!

The latest ride of mine was my second ride with the CAM team last month starting from Bandipur - Gudalur - towards Kerala, Wayanad - Sulthan batthery - Soochipara falls. The tea estates were mesmerizing at the Soochipara falls. The best moments of the ride was to sip the freshly brewed tea, taking a stroll inside the estate in which it was grown, kids cheering us and asking us for name in their pretty English, taking a full body water massage below the water falls soon after a long ride!

Horse shoe for sale in one of villages

Lovely morning sunshine

A piece of art from a tree right next to them!

Yes. It was Christmas time last month! We stayed at Hotel Issac regency.

Fellow bikers

Edakkal hills in Kerala.

Speeeeeedo...

Most lovely pic! No words for its beauty!

Tea estates

Vivek Kini - on the way to Soochipara falls

Scenic route throughout

Tea estates very close to Soochipara falls

I hope you enjoyed my photo log of my journey as a primitive biker -> to an informal biker -> to an amateur biker. :D

Having done past 3000Kms now (of which 2000+ would be in commute), even to this day I enjoy my office commutes as it keeps me energetic for the entire day in getting me exposed to the some sunlight and breeze and relives a lot of pressure at work. Special thanks to Endorphins here! Even though traveling is slow paced I reach faster than on Car and coolest part is that I know a lot about short cuts and also round about ways to reach home in-case of traffic jams ;)

I didn't say why I called my Bike as friend-guru-philosopher yet! I promise to come back with another post as sequel to this soon. Thus I would like to end this post as I started with Terminator movie quote - "I'll be back!!"


Hasta la vista,
Amatuer biker Karthik

Live.Love.Rewind

I am directly picking this title off the Sony Handycam's Ad. Today, we (our family) had been out on Deepavali shopping spree. Bro and SIL bought a new Sony Handycam to gift ourselves on the occasion and to treasure moments with yet-to-be-born my nephew/niece :) Never to miss the moment of all his/her first's in life... be it first touch, first smile, first words spoken, first step, first masterpiece, first rock show, first make up and most important of all those first words calling me "mama" ;) and so on... :)

At the Sony world/center, There was showcase of a lot of electronics. Above the display of Handycams, there was an large LCD TV which was looping through this advertisement below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBohbQB-55o

It is all about a father reliving the moments of his daughter from childhood to her marriage. A lovely cute ad indeed! This took me back to an incident of which I was a witness a couple of weeks back. I had been to Malleshwaram,Bangalore to pick up my mom from her evening class of psychology. I was waiting outside in car for the class to get over and was just watching strangers around to see their actions, reactions, instincts and do a micro level sociology study of people and myself. That's my favorite pass-time! :D
As I tuned in some soft FM music in car stereo, I noticed an auto-rickshaw stopping next to car on the other side of the road under a street light. A pretty girl in her mid 20's stepped out with a lot of luggage to find her residence. I couldn't help watching her. I was a little safe as I had hid behind the tinted glasses ;). No sooner her father came to place and talked to her giving her a good tight hug and helped her with her luggage home. There was so much joy in his face on seeing his little kid come back home after a long time and all the expressions on his face told how badly he had missed her - Life is just fleeting moments of joy worth waiting for and the uncertainty is what makes life more beautiful. :)

Cheers! and Happy Deepavali.

"Mute" spectator

Today, I left the office at around 6pm and took the way out of campus via the rear exit of Manyatha Tech Park as this avoids me hitting bad evening traffic on Outer ring road. It was a beautiful dusk. A bit sunny as sun was still visible at the horizon shining over the yet-to-be-completed tall concrete buildings around.

I dropped at nearby shell service station for refueling my Enfield Bullet. After top up of fuel tank, I reached out to get a filling of the tires with Nitrogen gas. There was a guy, station worker at that Shell petroleum outlet, who was busy doing his work of setting the PSI units to prescribed values and filling up the front and rear tires as fast as he can. He waved at us and called upon all two wheelers in the queue as he was working parallel on all front tires of all bikes at once and then setting the pressure to a higher value for the rear tires to work smarter. (A nice efficient scheduling algorithm indeed!) But there was a man with his scooter who was in need to break this algorithm and wanted to be FCFS! (First-come-first-served). He was very upset of the way he was waved and asked to wait for filling up of every other bike's front tires to get his rear tire done. He went to manager with a complaint that this worker is showing hands at him and asking others to move ahead of him and break priority. Manager rushed to the place as the guy was still continuing doing his work of filling air. Manager revealed that the guy is deaf and dumb and does show only hand signals to communicate. I said to the man in scooter that he was doing his work in parallel so that it saves a lot of time. But the man left grumbling over the petty issue making a big fuss. The manager who stood next to me said that even though god has given him everything, he shouts over this poor guy who is deaf-mute. At least this guy isn't begging or stealing but doing a service at station for earning some money. The man was already long gone with his two-wheeler to even lend an ear to those words. I stood a "mute" spectator after listening to what manager said as my thoughts lingered around the same but the guy was busy filling up gas for the next car in queue without knowing what all had happened until now.

Fear of God

Ganesha chaturthi is celebrated as a grand festival in our family. We worship clay idols of Ganesha and Gowri at our house. They are usually bought at nearby place where artisans sell out hand-made idols. It happened that day-before-yesterday, Dad had asked a lady who was selling the Ganesha idol of the cost of the clay-model without all the paint. She quoted a whooping Rs.250/- for a small Idol! Dad was surprised at the cost and he gave her a Rs.1000/- note and asked her to take money of what she thought according to "Dharma" was correct price and then return the change. After listening to the word "Dharma" I don't know what made her think but she started giving back change and she just took Rs.130 bucks for that same Idol. It seemed just a small incident but the power-play of those words and the fear of god in the lady seemed so obvious at that moment.

For everyone God is a divine spiritual power. We all see him in different walks of our daily life. We associate everything happening to our lives which we don't have control upon as god's act of testing our strength and will. Sometimes we are guilty and we know it. We fear of that something wrong we committed and feel that some punishment awaits us! So strange are our customs and rituals but it is the way humans have created god from eons ago which has helped to maintain a good harmony in the society we live in.

Jai Hind!

Today, Saturday August 14th 2010, Eve of 64th Indian independence day, I saw and experienced this nice feeling of celebration of Indian independence which i would like to share it here.

This happened to me on the road today. I was going to meet a bunch of my colleagues who had called for a weekend fun meet at Amoeba bowling alley, Churchstreet Bangalore. I started from my place at 10:30am in the morning for we were suppose to meet at 11am IST (If you don't know the "real" meaning of it then it could be called Indian "Slip" Time) near Brigade Rd.

Roads were not so crowded up until late afternoon. I was heading to the Brigade Jn via MG Road where I had to stop for the Red signal. I saw few guys at the junction selling a lot of Indian tricolor on the streets of Bangalore.One small kid, around 10 years old, approached me with different variety and flavors of how Indian tricolor could be used - Wristband, Badges, Khadhi, Caps and finally flags. He had a plastic flag which had glue at the bottom to stick it firmly on dashboard of the car. A SUV with a dark tinted glass stopped next to my Bullet. As I said no to everything the boy showed me he had to finally move on. The window of the SUV rolled down and the boy was busy again in selling those to his new customer. To my surprise they were an old foreigner couple (around 45-50 years of age) and they did buy a Indian flag to put it on the dashboard of the car. They gave him some money and asked him to keep the rest of change. The boy was more happy than ever and gave the lady one more Indian flag for her to keep. For that fleeting moment, I saw the feeling of celebration in boy. I smiled at the couple who smiled back at me. The signal had turned green and I left with several thoughts on my mind - Who are really celebrating our Indian independence? - those foreigners! What it means to be real freedom struggle for that boy? - Is it just his daily bread! Why do we now see it just as a national holiday? - to rejoice without office work!

Even I am the victim of globalization of economies, societies and culture, working for software industry in a MNC, I don't have authority to say much about this but feels a kind of guilt that we have lost the real feeling of Indian independence and freedom struggle.

Jai hind!

My Grandpa, A true story

Today evening, my mom was watching the opening of the movie named "Me and my dream"(Naanu.. nanna kanasu), a remake of tamil movie "Abhiyum naanum". Several actors were made to read out letters to their young kids about love and care for their little daughter which is the basic theme of the movie, A dad giving all that he can to his lovely daughter. Mom (as always!) being highly emotional and sensitive was taken back to her childhood memories and those old day memories just flashed by her eyes. Mom and I, being close friends, She shared her childhood story with me.

This story is two generations older and hence may seem very unrealistic to some but happening in all our lives.
Story line starts somewhere in 1960's when mom was in her school days. She was the latest addition to grandpa's family, I mean really late coz she was completing her tenth grade when grandpa retired at the age of 58 years! Hmmm... seems like no family planning soon after independence :P Well, If it was there I wouldn't have been here to say this ;)

It was a family of 8 people; Grandpa, his mother, Grandma, two aunts and two uncles elder to mom and my mom. They all lived happily in a posh villa in the area known as Malleshwaram. Even today it is being called the same after decades of development in Bangalore. To me atleast some places like Gandhi bazaar, DVG road of Basavanagudi, MG road in central Bangalore, 8th cross of Malleshwaram, Jayanagar 4th block hangouts should remain the same even after centuries.

Is there something like lived-happily-ever-after as in fairy tales!? Nope certainly not, coz this is real life. Betrayal, deception and cunning nature of some people inside the family rips it apart into pieces and that is the exact reason why I haven't seen one of my maternal aunts till now!(Anyway, That's another long story!) Grandpa lost his own beautiful house in this gambling of others! At this time, Mom was doing her second year BSc in MES college. (Even I did my pre-university at the same college :D)

Every father's thought of crossing all her daughters to safe house (its called Marriage! here) crossed my grandpa's mind and no sooner he was into action. Dad's family had come to visit the Mom's family in Malleshwaram and like every other bollywood movie the police came with a court notice on the that same auspicious day! Grandpa somehow managed to drive off the policeman but not the situation impending in about a month. There is a saying in kannada - "Nooru sullu heLiyaadharu madhuve maadu" meaning "Do marry even if it necessitates 100 lies". God knows why they people earlier used to take so much risks! Hmmm.. Not so different in our situation where we see lots of fake love, fake assurances and fake promises. Everybody lies and many of them flirt!

Before the house was bid for sale, Marriage was successfully carried out and the last burden(!) on Grandpa's shoulder had come down. Mom said that grandpa had asked - "What is my purpose of life next? I am done with all my responsibilities", after undergoing a lot of financial and emotional turmoil in the recent years.

Then comes the most dangerous part of life called old-age where children are supposed to take care of their elders. But as the favorite inglorious quote says, "where there is a WILL only then there are family members" comes into play. Inheritance of property causes a kinda civil war between sons and no sooner did grandpa decide to move into an aashram(Old-age home) at his own willingness together with his mother. It was quite a daring task to leave the small family to join a bigger family! But with all the energy, the young spirit and his back-end support called pension, he was able to move-on. Not only did he change but he was also able bring a reform in the aashram activities. He had been to Himalayas several times with his good old friends amongst all this. He started a new wing in aashram and audited the whole of it for more than 14 years. I have been there several times when I was a small kid. I had cried and somehow managed to bring home his hand lens which was used to read newspaper by him. I now apologize for giving you a lot of trouble grandpa. Every time mom sees my elder brother in his half sleeve shirts, she is perplexed to see you standing there. No doubt everybody sees their own parents in their kids. This post is a salute to my late grandpa who has been a brave heart and yet soo kind hearted too which makes my mom often say that "He was the best papa in the world" in a childish tone :)

One Nite at the Customer Site

No, this is not a sequel of the Chetan Bhagat's novel :D
Let me not even mention the customer site name(of-course you can guess it).

At on-site place, the work is a lot more different than what it actually is @ my office. By different, I mean a lot more hectic with lots more work pressure. But I feel that work is made more fun when people around talk to you comfortably closer and expose some personal feelings of home/family even at work.

This happened to me one day(actually very late evening). One of my colleague(Let me call him, Mr.X) and myself had to wait for the daily release build to do basic sanity and also check the all different fixes called CR's integrated into it and make sure there are no regressions.. If you don't get the "bad long phrase" that I used just now, feel free to replace it with "testing" ;) Since the developers were busy with fixing issues all day long and integrators always take all the time in the evening to put all corrected CR's into the single build, we poor chaps had to wait for our turn till night! sob sob.. ;( However, I still call it "insanity" testing rather than sanity tests :P

Since I came to customer site later that afternoon, It was not boring yet, even if I was staying a little longer. Thanks to managers who look into that we are scheduled properly.

Moreover, It was a Saturday evening and I received a message from our Team lead which said "Thanks for coming on weekend" and soon I realized that he too had taken off for the day, leaving Mr.X and myself to attend to the further needy. You may not know how horrible the next day(Sunday) might be when you stay late evening during a weekend! Am I again supposed to say "pissed off"!? :P

But Mr.X, was so different in his attitude! as he had seen so many of such weekends before.. He was so positive that I couldn't believe my eyes!

First of all, Let me introduce Mr.X. This guy is an adorable family man who loves his wife sooo..much that he sacrifices everything for her(lucky her)! A very open, honest and helping guy.

We had been out for dinner that night (around 9:30pm for the build was yet to come) and I asked a few personal family questions(in general) which he didn't even hesitate to answer! Even after 5-6 years of marriage he is still so young - like a "teenage lover"- at heart. With my eyebrows raised, I asked how he could spend time with his wife in "ruined weekends"(like the one I was suffering now) even after staying so late at Saturday night? To which he replied that he would go out on Sundays with her getting up early in the morning as it's the only way he could be with her for more time. Man! Didn't I say he is choo-chweet :)

This lovely incident doesn't end here. Soon after we headed back to our workstations we received the patched binaries and testing was soon carried out and it was all over earlier than he expected. But, time was ticking very fast for only me. It was already 1:00am, the next morning! He had expected not less than 3:00am to reach home. He was so happy that it was all done and all set to leave, he noticed a bouquet of flowers in nearby cubicle and smoothly drew a Red rose from it and said He would surprise her wife today by going early! (I was dumbstruck with his lovely thought)

Even on the way back in the company cab to his place, we had little chat. He welcomed me home in that odd hours too.. for which I said of-course I will, but some-other time. Getting down from the cab at around 1:30am, he ran down the lane to reach his home with the red rose in his hand and a big smile on his face.

For that fleeting moment in my life I really felt that, Love was in the air for sure :)