Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Malnad Cycling Tour

"And i was riding bit fast through the downhill. It was lush Green everywhere, no vehicles, no pollution, no humans, no one except I and (Steve).I was rolling down with (Steve) at the speed of more than 60 KMPH and at one point, i exactly remember those 5 minutes of breath i inhaled. Believe me, i never experienced inhaling such a pure oxygen in my life time. I felt a different kind of experience. May be i was in a state of Euphoria..."

Welcome to my write-up of 4 days of Malnad Cycling Tour!



One day, i saw some pictures of the CTC Trek posted by Peter in his Facebook wall and i commented 'I miss Chennai a lot after seeing pictures of CTC Trek. Now i regret moving to Bangalore'. And in 2 days, i saw a FB notification from a person named 'Nobal Mohan' from the Bangalore Triathlon FB Page. By then, i don't know Nobal. He tagged me in one of his post which said '4 Days Malnad Cycling Tour'.Immediately i added him in my friends list and got the details about the trip. With my goal of doing the 'Tour Of Nilgris' (TFN) cycling tour in December, i decided to go for this tour and confirmed my presence to Nobal. And there were 3 other friends too(Ambika, Supraja and Vipin) who joined the mailing chain for the tour.
I planned todo this tour in my Road bike(Specialized Allez Elite aka STEVE) to condition my body in the saddle as a practice ride for TFN and i heard all others planning to come with their sturdy MTB.
With chain of mails around the preparation for the tour and ticket bookings done, we were all set for the tour.

The plan was to leave Bangalore on Nov 13th Wednesday night and arrive back on Nov 18th Monday morning with plans of doing 4 days cycling in western ghats. Vipin planned to join us from Day-3,so remaining 4 of us started the trip from Bangalore. We reached Bangalore Majestic Bus stand by 10'O Clock and boarded the KSRTC Airawat Volvo Bus after loading our bikes in the luggage box. It costed around Rs.400 to load 4 BiCycles as part of luggage. Believe me loading the BiCycle in the bus is an art and Nobal was good at it. And the journey to 4 days cycling tour started there at 10:30 PM.

Day 1 14/11/2013 - Chikmagalur to Horanadu

We reached Chikmagalur Bus stand at around 4 AM. Nobal realized that there was a flat in his front tyre and he immediately changed the tube. By that time, i realized i forgot to take my spare tube with me for the tour.It was very cold and we decided to start once the fog goes away. Finally we started the ride towards Horanadu at around 5:30 AM. Nobal was the organizer of this tour and he already planned a route and loaded the maps in his Garmin GPS. So, we are aware of where we want togo and how togo too :)


Slowly we started pedaling through the roads covered by trees on both sides with the lights on. I was leading the group from the start, reason being i was on a roadie bike and with a back pack that weigh around 8 KG.
I was going in front in my Specialized, followed by Nobal in his Schwin and then Ambika with her Scott and Supraja with Trek. After few kilometers, is saw the Chikmagalur Serai Resort on my left which reminded me my last team outbound i been there in November 2012. I was warming up with my roadie listening to my body and was riding slowly. I had my iPod touch in my sleeve pocket with which i clicked photographs while riding. I found it very comfortable to catch the memories without stopping the ride.


I realized it was going to be a different kind of riding experience for me as most of the times, i did my long rides in the Highways. With so many thoughts in mind running already how the next 4 days are going to be,i kept on pedaling.I enjoyed doing it. Then it was around 7 AM, we reached Aldur and we found a small hotel that was open for breakfast. I stopped and waited for others. I checked with Nobal and then we decided to have early breakfast reason being we are not sure to find any other hotels going ahead.

After finishing our breakfast(Idly+crispy vada) we started the ride again.Forgot to mention, there were lot of kids looking at our bikes curiously while we were having breakfast and i noticed one notorious kid has already played with rear break lock, when i realized i was not able to move further. Then i started the ride unlocking the same.I took my Forclaz 22 AIR backpack for the trip and i found it compact meeting my needs for the 4 days covering  1 full sleeve + 1 padded shorts + 2 tees and 2 shorts + a towel + a raincoat + a small utility bag.

We kept on riding further and i had tuned my mind saying that this is not going to be a intense practice ride but it is going to be a tour and to be with the group. So, i was going ahead with moderate speed and stopping for almost every 10 kilometers or whenever i found some interesting scenery on the way, for others to join. Once they come, we took photographs, had a chat, rested for sometime and went ahead. The same thing was repeated for almost all days of the tour.

Watching the nature all through the ride, we kept on riding and its worth to mention about our two women riders. They were equally riding at our speed. It was a surprise to me and it changed my assumptions i had earlier. I was very conscious about the nutrition and hydration during the ride. So was  sipping my water bottle for every 30 minutes and munching energy bar/banana for every 1 hour.

At around 9:30 AM, we found a nice paddy fields with smalls walls in the road and we stopped there took a power nap for around 40 minutes. I was playing with a doggy by communicating in our own language.
We took some nice photographs, had some snacks that everyone bought, rested and started pedaling again.

It was altogether a new experience in cycling for me.I normally focused on building my strength, improving my time over the practice rides in the highway and this tour i was enjoying through the nature not focusing big on the time/anything else. That was a good feeling.

At around 11 AM, we stopped at Badra coffee shop aside Badra River near Balehonnur. We had a small lunch there in-form of mangalore bun/omlettes/coffee/juice, all priced at less than Rs.20 per unit. I highly recommend anyone going by this route to stop and have a coffee here.It was worth it.

Again i was leading the group in front with my comfortable speed and was riding for around an hour and more and i stopped for regrouping with others when i found a river on my left on the Magundi-Balehole road stretch. The roads in this stretch were not road bike friendly but a good test for MTB.
Once everyone reached, we decided to take a dip in the flowing water.We spent around 1 hour here relaxing ourselves in the water and we started again at 2 PM deciding that we wont stop further occasionally.But we broke such promises all through the riding days as it tempted us to stop and take photographs of the nature every now and then. We stopped for every 1 hour and sometimes for every 30 minutes and enjoyed the nature munching some snacks complimented with rides. It was by then 4'o clock.

I was looking forward to suffer through the climbs when i signed in for this tour and i was so happy to whenever i see some climbs though not major ones. With some bit of climbs to close the day, we finally reached Horanadu at round 6'o clock to end the planned ride for the day. We found a shop and we had apricot juices and to a surprise we paid Rs.30 per juice. Supraja won't forget it. Why i mention her here, is because she is the typical Indian Bargainer, wherever we went.

Finally we found a good home stay on the way and we checked about the fare and we took 2 rooms costing Rs.400 per room. After a good shower in hot water and refreshing ourselves, we went for the Dinner. We were informed that, the Annapoorneshwari temple serves free dinner for everyone starting from 7 PM. Since Supraja wanted to taste that dinner, Myself and Supraja had dinner there while Nobal and Ambika had dinner in a hotel. And yes Supraja had one more dosa in hotel post dinner at Temple. That's the secret behind her power rides whole through the day.

That ends the first day of the tour riding 90KM with a good sleep in a cold weather in the night at Sri Matha Home Stay, Horanadu.


Day 2  15/11/2013 - Horanadu to Sringeri

It was 6 AM, when we woke up and it was full of fogs and mist outside so Nobal suggested to start once the fog is cleared and there is a better visibility on the road. We had bed coffee and got ready and we left the home stay at around 8 and finished a heavy breakfast. Our standard items in breakfast wherever we went are IDLY+VADA+ CHOW CHOW BATH(Nobal's favourite?).

That being said, we started our second day ride towards Sringeri. The plan was ride via Kudremukh. It took some 1 hour to cross the Horanadu town and i was going ahead with a bit decent climbs on the way. Though i had the advantage of minimal weight of the bike, my gear ratio is not that great for climbs like MTB. But as i mentioned earlier i enjoyed whenever we saw the climbs and was riding through it without stops.



After an hour of ride, there was a deviation as mentioned by Nobal which will take us to Kudremukh hills. So, i stopped at the deviation and went to bakery to fill in my water bottle waiting for the others to come. Only after calling Supraja after sometime i realized, i overlooked so that they have already crossed that point in the meanwhile. So, i started riding fast to catch up with them. After some time, we were out of town again riding through the complete scenery covered with greenery everywhere. After some distance, i saw Ambika and Supraja riding through the rolling terrain. As usual, i was literally flying through the rolling terrain with my SPECIALIZED and i saw that some part of the roads had potholes. I exactly remember that one pot hole through which my front wheel had a hit as i pass by. After some distance i stopped just to see that my tyre had a flat. Supraja and Ambika crossed by then. 

Now comes the interesting part of the tour. I never fixed a flat/my bike never had a flat during the rides. And Nobal was in front crossing some distance ahead. And as i mentioned, i didn't bring along a spare tube with me. I asked Ambika and Supraja to leave and i said i will inflate the tyre and try riding. Once they left, i again saw the air went out and now it is very clear that it was a puncture. Believe me, fixing the flat in the tyres for the first time is like doing surgery for the first time. I kept aside my bike. Good that the pucture was in front wheel and not rear. I removed the front wheel, removed the tyre and tube. I tried to inflate with the air pump i brought in, but nothing happened. I never checked the condition of the pump before the tour. Lessons learnt! Now started the mind game. Already lot of thoughts running through my mind. Since i was unable to inflate air, i thought tube lining or the valve region is damaged. If that's the case, i have to replace the tube and i don't have a tube to replace. And i cannot expect a Decathlon shop in Kudremukh hills where i can buy a tube. I was literally confused and highly disappointed that my whole trip got spoiled just on the start of the 2nd day of the 4 days cycling tour. Adding to those disappointments, i got irritated while trying to put in the Tyre in the wheel. It took me 1 hour to go through this phase. I was not able to reach anyone's phone as there is no network in mine in that area. Finally decided to put in my bike in some vehicle and reach the point until i see anyone of the riders in the group.

Luckily i found a auto-rickshaw in few minutes and myself and and my bike(STEVE) went inside quickly and we went ahead. Believe me, it was a pain in the heart going in motored vehicle in those roads covered with greenery keeping the bike inside the auto. It was around 10KM i travelled, found my riding buddies and i got the hope by now. Nobal also said, that was a wise decision to put the bike in the vehicle in such cases and i heard Nobal rode back some 5KM back to reach out to me. Nice guy he is!
Now he is my Xaviour. He has done lot of surgeries in the past,(fixing the flat tyres). He opened the tube and tyre in no time and he said the problem is with my pump as it is not inflating the tube. Ambika gave her pump which had pressure gauge too and it worked. Now we saw there was a stone puncture as i suspected during the hit on the pothole. I was so happy and bit relieved as the tour is not spoiled and i am going to ride it further. We fixed it and within 5KM, again i saw the air went out. Now again we checked and to our surprise there was another hole nearby the first one which we didn't notice earlier. Again Nobal fixed it and also he adjusted the brakes after sometime.


By now, everything was fine and we went ahead and we have covered less distance than the planned one. We stopped at around 1 PM for lunch near Kudremukh steel company. Not many hotels there so we checked with few passerby and went to one small hotel where we got rice and sambar with appalam.(papat). Post lunch we bought good number of oranges to fill in our stomach during the ride. Since we have to cover more distance in the second half and it was almost a rolling terrain we decided not to take stops. One thing i noticed was every now and then, a bridge over the river. It has become a common experience for us riding through such place during our tour.

Now we were riding through the Shola forests on our left. Thick green grass forests which i have rarely seen earlier. I stopped taking rest there waiting for others to come. Once they came, we took some good photographs. I forgot to mention one thing. Except me, remaining three were vivid trekkers. So they were talking about their experiences of different treks in the western ghats including Kudremukh, Kumaraparvath,  etc.,

Again we started pedaling down the roads and the next stop was at one waterfall where i found lot of monkeys. Now it was completely a dense forest and it was almost 4:00 PM. And i was riding bit fast through the downhill.It was lush Green everywhere, no vehicles, no pollution, no humans, no one except I and (Steve).I was rolling down with (Steve) at the speed of more than 60 KMPH and at one point, i exactly remember those 5 minutes of breath i inhaled. Believe me, i never experienced inhaling such a pure oxygen in my life time. I felt a different kind of experience. May be i was in a state of Euphoria...It was a good stretch of rolling terrain for sometime and we stopped for snacks and coffee in the evening. We realized that it was getting dark and we have to cover around 25 KM.

After climbing up and down for some time and then riding for around 10KM in the dark, we finally reached Sringeri town by 7 PM. We found a accommodation there too in short time and it costed us around Rs.350 per room and we took 2 rooms.

After the same routine-hot water shower and refreshments, we had good dinner in the nearby hotel and went to bed by 9 PM ending the second day trip covering around 85KM.

Day 3  16/11/2013 - Sringeri to Kundapura

We woke up at around usual 6 AM and Vipin joined the 3rd day with us at Sringeri coming from Bangalore. We started the ride at 8:30 AM sharp post breakfast. The planned destination was Hosanagara. And the route for the next 2 days were planned by Vipin as he wanted to ride bit longer to cover the missed first 2 days. Just kidding. He too had a good Garmin GPS and has drafted the route for the day.













Now it has become the routine for us. Get up, have breakfast, get ready with the bike and just keep on riding! That's what we did. We kept on riding with the usual stops for photographs and enjoying the scenery.
The roads were pretty bad in this stretch. Not a good sign for roadie but a good test for MTB guys.

With bit of struggles on the saddle, i crossed those bad stretches and finally we stopped at a lake for a short dip. Nobal found lot of Jelly Fishes in that open water and it seems it is very rare to spot such Jelly fishes in the open water. We were lucky then. By then it was almost 12'O clock and we left the place and had a good long ride for almost 2 hours to stop by for lunch at a place called Edur. It was rare to find any hotels here so we got into one hotel where we got rice/sambar with one veggie curry. Believe me, during the tour after long rides, any food tastes good for the taste buds.

Post lunch, we found a banyan tree nearby where we took a power nap for around 30 minutes. That was a great refresher. Again we started the ride and i was bit sleepy during the ride till the coffee point at Hulikal. We stopped at Hulikal and few had Tender Coconut and few had Coffee. I had double Coffee to come out of the sleeping mode. Now comes the turning point in the tour. We enquired one tea shop guy about hotel stay in Hosanagara and his advice to us was not to goto Hosanagara but he suggested us to goto  Siddapura instead. the reasons he gave was the roads were not good and for going to Kundapura next day, we have to anyway ride back again in that route. Instead he said, we will find hotels in Siddapura and the roads were also better.

We followed his words though Vipin was not that convinced about it. But finally he was also ok with it. So we deviated from the original plan. Again after crossing some stretches of bad roads, we reached the reserved forest area. We never expected it to be one hell of a long rolling terrain. We all five were actually flying in that road with our bikes. I was so conscious about the pot holes during the downhill from the experience of Day-2. Sometimes, people say things happen out of our control right? Same in my case. Though i was so conscious, the front Tyre had hit through a pot hole. And i am already sure that there will be a flat soon. Sometimes, my intuition goes right. After some distance i stopped the bike. Yes, it was a flat.


All those 4 nice chaps stopped for me and our surgeon Nobal started the surgery and fixed the flat. Again it was two small holes in the same place as it was a stone puncture.


I own him a beer for fixing my flats for two consecutive days! I am sure i will do my home work and will be perfectly fit to be a surgeon during my next ride. We started again and on the way, we found a peak where we get to see a good view of sunset behind the mountains. It was a remarkable view so everyone of us took their profile pics here.

Again we started rolling down the roads for some more stretch and we finally reached the destination Siddapura at 6:30 PM. We were searching for hotel stays as mentioned by the shopkeeper in hulikal but to our surprise it was a small town and no hotel stays available. Myself and Nobal went to find one stay where 1 room is available but considering the safety aspect and comfort, Nobal took the call to reach Kundapura the same night loading the bikes in the vehicle. That was a wise decision. That means our ride is going to end there at siddapura as Kundapura is near coast and its a big town so no rides next day.

We had dinner. I found it hard to find a vegetarian  hotel but found one and had Neer Dosai/Idly. It was yummy. The locals were supportive and one gentleman called some vehicle guy and he came exactly at 7:30 PM. So, post dinner, we loaded all the bikes and we too sat in the TATA ACE and the drive was around 35 KM to Kundapura form there. We paid Rs.800 for the vehicle guy.

We checked in at Hotel ShivPrasad at around 9 PM ending the ride for the 3rd day with no idea about 4th day plans.But yes, i had a plan. If not for ride, then i thought of doing my weekend run next day morning.

That ends our 3rd and the last ride of the tour.


Day 4  17/11/2013 - Kundapura

Someone knocked the door at 5 and it was Supraja asking me where we are going to ride! She is a damn productive girl i say. Nobal and Vipin were acting like sleeping at that time.Finally hearing from the Organizer Nobal, she was convinced that there are no rides planned for the day and it will be mostly sight seeing.

I brushed up, fastened my Garmin and went for the run. I felt ok to run even after 3 days of ride. 
No Pains.No Injuries.So i did my 14KM run in the highway of Coastal region of Kundapura. It was Humid.
I came back. Had breakfast and coffee. By now also, Nobal and Vipin were sleeping at around 8 AM.

Finally everyone woke up, had breakfast and the plans are to go out to kill the time. We took local town bus to visit a temple and then again took a bus to goto Trasi beach Maravanthe, before which we had some snacks in Hotel Court Restaurant near bus stand. We spent good time in the beach walking in the shore in the sand. We finished our lunch there and started back to town to kill some more time in the so called back waters area. I was restless without any activities and so budding the guys , back to hotel all the time.
  




I left to hotel having one more coffee on the way and after some time, everyone reached hotel too. We refreshed ourselves and got ready for the return trip to Bangalore. The bus was at 8:30 PM in Kundapura.
We had a light dinner and rode a kilometer mark to bus stand. Loaded our Bicycles and this time, we paid Rs.360 for 5 bikes as part of luggage cost. At the last minute before boarding, Ambika's new Nokia Lumia fell down and the screen was broken. Not sure about Vipin's contribution towards it :)  The bus reached Bangalore at around 7 AM.

That being said, we carried those 4 days beautiful memories with us to Bangalore. 
Personally, i felt it was very much needed tour for me once in a while and am already looking forward to start my journey to the world of Trekking soon.


Ambika, Nobal, Supraja and Vipin - Thank you for the wonderful company during the whole tour.


Photographs - Click here.Route - Click here.

Saturday, August 3, 2013

Mountain Biking - My first time experience


"There came a steep downhill.I saw Heiko in bike doing the tricks/stunts in the front and flying with it. Now comes the difficult part, the fear. I exactly remember, i was little afraid to ride in that steep downhill. One side of my mind signaled me that it is going to be tough but other said just go for it!

Listening to the other one, i went ahead and was riding fasssssssssttttttttttttttt!

And the exact next thing i remember was that i showing a big smile at my friend's face (Dr.Heiko Gerwens)."




Hello Friends.....
Welcome to my blog post titled "Mountain Biking - My first time experience".

I was eagerly looking for the day 4th of July.I didn't tell the reason right? I was going to ride with Dr.Heiko Gerwens in a Mountain Bike in a Mountain in Heidelberg, Germany. How cool is it!!!

My friend/colleague Dr.Heiko Gerwens came to India from Germany in 2011 as part of business trip and out of curiosity i organized  a bike trip for him to Nandi Hills. I must say, i enjoyed and learnt a lot out of the trip from him.

He was kind enough to invite me and organize a trip for me once he got to know about my trip to Germany. I would have been more than happy if i have accepted his proposal of trip over the weekend but i moved it to the week day evening because of other travel plans with friends. 



Finally the day i was eagerly waiting came. At around 5 PM, I boarded the train at Rot Malsch station and reached Heidelberg Rohrbach station. Heiko picked me up from there and it was hardly a distance of 1 KM to his home. After wearing biking gears, i was all set to experience the joy of mountain biking.

We went to his cycle garage(full of bikes everywhere) and he offered me the best Mountain Bike to me and took the second best.There we started!

Cycling is also a habit for Dr.Heiko along with Software Performance Tuning :)
Whether it is sunny, whether it is snowy, whether it rains, whether it is cold, he always commutes by bike to office!Wow!!!So, climbing the mountain was not a new thing to  him but it is a huge thing to me reason being i never did that. I always rode in the Indian roads never in the trails.
mountains.I was excited!


After a distance of oddly 5 KM in the roads, the real mountain biking experience started!
he taught me on the tricks of Gear usage and Saddle Position during UPHILL. With all my force i started pushing the pedals with the minimum gear in the front and i was pressing pressing pressing without showing the pain in the face :). I made a good start and was pressing hard and realized that it was not tough to climb the hill if we know the tricks of proper usage of gears, saddle/body position. Though i was not physically fit during that time due to no activities because of a injury in the right calf-bone, my mental fitness,the hopes, the positive attitude, the never give-up attitude within me made me to climb that UPHILL. I truly believe in that!

Then after some climbs in the road, there came the TRAIL. That was an another experience next to the UPHILL,like life teaching us many different experiences one after another. Trails are ok but how should i react after i see the trail path which is small enough only for one bike to ride, with one of its side covered with trees/bushes and on the other side being wide open. If you slide down there, you will directly reach the Base.It's a free ticket :)

Again i considered it has a learning/challenge. The difficulty i initially i faced here was that to ride with the suspensions. Riding with suspensions in trail(with ups and downs) needs learning for sure! Heiko after crossing major trails stopped and came back just to protect me from sliding down the hills during the ride.Thank you Heiko for taking care of me!

After some struggles with the suspensions and some more climbs, Heiko told that we have finally reached the peak of one of Hill! Wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have climbed a mountain. What a feeling it was. The feel of achievement! I had some munches offered by Heiko and we took some snaps of the beautiful landscape of Heidelberg with River Neckar flowing all over!




Now, the tiredness started making me lazy. Another lesson here in life. When we achieve something great. We should not just stop there feeling proud of ourselves. We have to go further making lot of achievements! That being said, i started again and suddenly Heiko was vanished :) In the sense, it was a DOWNHILL.

I told to myself  'You have crossed UPHILL, gone through the TRAIL, DOWNHILL can be easily done. come on............). Until i started riding in the downhill, i promise i don't know what a bike ride would look like in a DOWNHILL TRAIL. The best/worst part of DOWNHILL is that, you don't have any control/minimum control unlike the UPHILL.

In life also, when we go through the struggles, we would feel like when this will get over and when we can have a good time. And sometimes, when so many good things happen in life from nowhere, it will be a surprise for us.
See, how cool cycling teaches us a lesson in life!!!!

Being said that, i started going through the downhill and to be frank initially i enjoyed flying with the bike without applying brakes as the downhill was not scary as both sides of it was covered.

Finally i heard from Heiko that we have crossed one hill. He asked me whether do i want to climb another one. We humans always wanted more right!!! So I am. I said, why not, i am ready for the second hill.

Before climbing the second one, we took some photographs and had a great view of Heidelberg from the top.Then we started the second.



It was the same experiences with the UpHills, Trails and bit of downhills here and there.

There came a steep downhill. I saw Heiko in bike doing the tricks/stunts in the front and flying with it. Now comes the difficult part, the fear. I exactly remember, i was little afraid to ride in that steep downhill. One side of my mind signalled me that it is going to be tough but other said just go for it!

Listening to the other one, i went ahead and was riding fasssssssssttttttttttttttt!
Vooooooooooooooo...............!Voooooooooooooooo..............!Voooooooooooooooo........!

And the next thing i remember what i did was that showing a big smile towards my friend Dr.Heiko Gerwens.

I smiled at him and i realized immediately that i fell down from the bike and was unconscious for some time.

I am experienced in this case, reason being, already i experienced this state during my school days while practicing a Human Pyramid Structure. Being the one to stand at the top, the bottom guys slipped off and i fell down and out of shock went to the unconscious state for the first time.

Then I asked Heiko, for how-long i was unconscious and he replied that for 5 to 6 minutes! I am sure he was worried and already tried calling a ambulance. Good that i came to the concious state!

I felt bad because of the reason that i made Dr.Heiko to worry for those 5 minutes and gave him a trouble. Sorry Heiko for that :)

Being a believer of Philosophy and Spirituality, i always believe whatever happens, happens for a reason!
I had a look at my body parts, nothing broken except with few bruises in right knee and elbow.My GoGreen jersey protected me.

And i was surprised to see a dent in my helmet in the right side. Immediately thanked God and Helmet for saving my head ! People teased me for taking my helmet from India to Germany.
Another lesson here: Never listen to small minds. Just focus on your goal and do whatever it requires to achieve and protect you.

Heiko wanted to make sure whether i was ok. So, he asked me few questions about the ride and places where we came through. I just smiled and answered all the questions :)

Then i remember we rode some 5 KM and reached home at around 10 PM and had a delicious(lecker in German) dinner along with Heiko and his family and i left the place keeping those fun and joy of the ride within me.

                              

One of the activities i was interested in,  eagerly waited for and passionate about that Germany trip was this Mountain Biking with Heiko. I will never forget this experience and it is a long way to go for me to become a mountain biker!



                                  As Forrest Gump said for 'running', i say here to all of you now.
                                      From that day on, wherever i go, i was cycling......


                                                                    Thank You
                                                                       Karthik

Saturday, June 8, 2013

The Green Bazaar

Attended green bazaar at park square mall , Bangalore organised by The alternative.  as part of environment awareness week.
I must say it is a unique effort to create awareness among citizens about the environment.

There were many stalls displayed during the bazaar ranging from organic groceries to eco friendly toys.

To support the cause and to contribute from my side to this environment, I bought a notebook made of elephant poo.

The highlight of the event was the stage play to create awareness among audience. I simply loved it.

Worth mentioning is that, I got a 250 rupees voucher just for cheering up the performers :)

I converted that 250 into healthy organic groceries bought from green bazaar.

Lot of plans are there to change as eco friendly citizen. Let's see how it progresses.

Cheers
Karthik

Monday, August 27, 2012

Technology through Music

I don't know where to start as i write this post after long time.

All it started with a official mail which said "Barcamp Bangalore 12" hosted at SAP Labs India. Barcamp Bangalore is an "Unconference", where people around bangalore meetup at one place to share their ideas and knowledge in form of presentations or as a demo.

Being an enthusiastic technologist and that too, the event being hosted in SAP where i work,my heart said to go for it. Yes, i immediately drafted a mail to the co-ordinators of the event at SAP sending my nomination as a speaker. I decided to talk on InMemory Database as i already created a slide deck for my team as part of the IIC session(Insane Innovators Club) founded by me.

Next thing i did immediately is registering myself and posted an overview of my session in the Barcamp Bangalore portal with a fear in mind on how many participants will be attending my session.

To my surprise, in couple of hours my session got the first hit, where a Database expert registered for my session. And next day i could see more than 25 participants registered and on the day before the event, a total of 89 participants registered for my session in the portal, which is very decent number compared to other sessions.This is not a comparison, i am trying to explain the fact that its purely based on the participants, they can attend the sessions of their interests.

So, the event is on next day.Since I am pretty confident of what i am going to talk and already the slide deck was there with me, i didnt put much effort on preparing for the presentation until the day before the event.

I don't know why, but always i try to be different from others let it be a presentation or the views on any other topic. And that too these days, i became stubborn enough to just follow my heart no matter what others say.The same thing happened here for this presentation too.

I sat and started thinking from 10 pm, a day before the event on how am i going to present. Only 45 minutes if the time given to me, so i should not bore the participants by talking rubbish theory stuff. Yes, there came an idea of why not running through the slide deck(70 slides) for 10 minutes with an interval of 8 seconds per slide with a background music in my BOSE SoundDock Portable system using my APPLE IPod Touch. Yeah, i imagined myself how good it will be and my mind accepted the same. Then came, what to play. First thing came to my mind was 'Nothing Else Matters' but the track will run only for 6 minutes but the slide deck is for 10 minutes.

Then came the beautiful idea of playing some instrumental in the background and the one and only choice without much thinking is Music Director Ilayaraaja's instrumental.I chosen two instrumental songs of him namely 'Ilaya Nila Pozhigirathu' and 'Ilamai yenum Poongatru'.

So all my preparation came to an end and by that time it was 3 AM on the event day. I went to bed waiting badly for the sun to shine.

That was the event day and i was all set with my Laptop bag, Apple IPod and Bose SoudDock heading towards to SAP Labs. I registered myself again at the event and also my session and then got introduced to few friends there at the event.

The event started at 9 AM with an introduction to Barcamp by the organizing commitee and finally the electronic schedule of sessions was displayed. My session was scheduled from 02:30 PM to 03:15 PM.

So, i made myself free to attend other sessions with LINUX 101 session being my first one. Wow, i cannot stop myself from appreciating this idea of Barcamp. I went in and a person is talking about Linux to which am a amateur.

I installed the VirtualBox and over that Linux Ubundo OS and tried my hands with the same all in a matter of 30 to 40 minutes.That was an Awesome experience!

Then attended a non-techie session 'Ancient methodologies to the corporate world'. Though i am not convinced with many of the points made by the speaker, it was a good awareness session which is very much required in this confusing corporate world.

Had a usual lunch in SAP and witnessed a new event called 'Techlash' where people having different ideas came and showcase the same in 5 minutes.

Then i was all set for my session and i must say it was houseful with the room occupying around 50 to 60 participants with few sitting in the floor to listen to the craps i am going to say :)

I just went in and in couple of minutes made sure my laptop and speaker is ready to project and play what i planned for and the next 10 minutes, i left the audience with the mellifluous Ilayaraja instrumental music and the Picture Slide deck giving overview about INMEMORY Database.

I know how they would have enjoyed it as i do experienced it well before the event.

And then i started explaining the stuff with the little knowledge i had and as the goal set to myself, i created the awareness about INMEMORY Database among those who are new to this topic and also got a good feedback from the participants.

Again, attended one more session on open source web development tool called 'JOOMLA' and left the venue with a goodie(Laptop backpack).

To summarize, i enjoyed and had fun as a speaker at Barcamp Bangalore 12. Got an confidence that the world is ready to listen to you if you do something different.

Never mind others opinion on how good/bad you are doing at something. Just listen to your heart what it says and follow it!

And the below human being is one of the two inspiration's for my session.

Sunday, January 22, 2012

'Nanban' da...

I went to watch the tamil film 'Nanban' a remake of the hindi film '3 Idiots' based on the Chetan Bhagat's novel 'Five Point Someone'.

There is some kind of connectivity between this film and me, reason being that was the first english novel i ever read in my life.I can smell the smoke....It's not my mistake.The environment around me in schools, colleges and in my town never taught/told me to read novels.

One of the many good things i learnt after moving to bangalore from chennai is reading habit,Till then, only the academic books were known to me.

Back to the topic, to those who never read the novel 'Five Point Someone', let me give you a brief idea on the plot of the novel. The plot of the novel is on few students'friends of IIT(Indian Institute of Technology) who were the engineering graduates dying hard to score that cgpa border of 5 point something (someone).

The moral of the story was that the education system in India is still expecting the
students to score some good marks but it is not concentrating on the real purpose of the education which is encouraging the students to pursue the career of their interest.

With this plot, novel went on defining the day-2-day life of 3 students specially who were also thick friends.I really loved the novel reason being i was eager to know whats the next scene in the novel everyday once am back from novel. Good work by Chetan Bhagat.

Later in 2009, bollywood film '3 Idiots' was released directed by Rajkumar Hirani starring Aamir Khan. The film was based on the novel 'Five point someone' and the credits were also given to the author.

Aamir Khan performed his best in the ace role portraying the hero of the novel.
All the time, there was a dialogue 'All is Well' injecting the postive thought among other characters and also the audience. I have also watched this film. One of the very few hindi films i have ever watched.

After saying that, today is the day i watched the remake of '3 Idiots' in tamil with the name 'Nanban' meaning 'Friend' directed by ace director Shankar starring Vijay, Jiva and Srikanth.Believe me, Shankar is the director who wont complete the film until he shoots atleast a small scene in foreign countries.But to the surprise this film is shooted only in 'Tamilnadu' nowhere else.

The story line was the same and the screenplay also mostly fits the original '3 Idiots' except for the duration of the film which is little lengthy.
Such kind of films is also very much of required in tamil nadu to boost the motivation of the young generation.

Whether it is a '3 Idiots' or 'Nanban', the root is 'Five Point Someone' by C.Bhagat.
Hats off to him for writing such a novel which have made many students to pursue the career of their interest, LISTENING TO THEIR HEART and not to their mind.

Saturday, December 31, 2011

Lets have a crazy year 2012

With an another kind of experience we gone through during 2011, we have now landed up in year 2012. Yeah, all those scientists will talk in terms of earth orbiting around the run for the 2012th time.

So, how was 2011 and how 2012 is going to be?
We everybody know about 2011 but not 2012 and that's better not to know about the same as somebody somewhere were telling that the world is going to end in 2012 which again means earth is not going to orbit around the sun for 2013th time.

Ok, lets not get into the end as we are just in the start.
All i would like to say is that instead of thinking that the world is going to end in future, let us take it for granted that the world is going to end each day when we woke up and just think of what we want to accomplish and just follow our heart and go ahead in living the way we want instead of sticking to other person's dogma.

Yes, lets live everyday as if it is going to end and just act on what your heart and mind says, no matter others liked it or not. Its our life and it should be lived by us not by others.

Its a crazy world and a crazy life, so we should be crazy enough to live in it.

Lets all have a crazy new year!

Monday, November 21, 2011

Nandi Hills Cycling trip

Simply awesome Cycling trip!

This trip was organized by me for my German Colleague Dr.Heiko Gerwens.
So, eventhough i have cycled sometime 6 months back, i had the hope and was very much interested to ride with this cycling enthusiast.
Once i said that we could go for a cycling trip, he is ready to drop all his schedules for the cycling. I could see the enthusiasm in cycling in his eyes :)

So, once he has confirmed the trip, the next job that came to my mind is to service my cycle and get ready with a cycle for Heiko.

After checking with SAP Roadies, finally i got a bike from Damu(my manager) a day before the trip.I went to koramangala with him in his car and rode his bike from Koramangala to Whitefield(20KM). Believe me, i cycled after 6 months and good that i reached in 1 hour and i directly went to the Hotel where Heiko stayed just for the curiosity of showing the bike to him and to check whether it fits him. Clock ticked 10' at night :). So he came and checked the bike for few minutes and he was so happy that i have made the arrangement such that the trip could be organized in a better way.

I understood that he knows about each and every part of Bike with the way he checked the bike :) Yes, a professional cyclist. Then i left home on that day.(Friday)

Next day, i gave my bike for service in Karnataka Cycle Shoppe and i got it ready by evening.Then mapped a route to avoid the highways and to stay in the outskirts so that i can take him along a route with less pollution and traffic and then went to bed at 11 PM(Saturday) hoping for sunday to come very soon after setting alarm in my mobile.

Yes.It is sunday and morning 4'15 i woke up and got ready for the trip. Reached Fortune hotel(opposite to my office SAP Labs) to join Heiko at 5'O clock.I was bit late by 10 minutes(because of locking the bike and other stuff...).

Yes,the trip started at 05:30 PM heading towards Nandi Hills.


So we started at 05:30 am from SAP Labs and took the outskirts to avoid pollution and traffic.The scenary was beautiful and the temperature was 12 degree celcius in the morning.



Since i ride the cycle almost after 6 months, my legs pleased me for the breaks for every 20 KM.I am sure if Heiko ride alone, he would have rided at the speed of 30 KM.
I slowed down his speed or to say he slowed down his speed just for me.



Almost after some 50 KM, we drunk some tender coconut water. Then we cycled further and we reached Nandi base camp at 09:15 am.






Then i asked Heiko to climb alone with his own speed not to wait for me since it is a peak and of elevation 4000 feet.After Heiko left to climb, i made sure whether the hotel down there will be available at 11'0 clock.





Then i started climbing for 1 KM and then after seeing the peak, i decided not to do the climb mainly because of Nil-Training for 6 months and considering the delay in returning back if i climb.So i got down and locked my bike in the hotel.

So pooled with a car guy to reach peak and yes Dr.Heiko finished climbing Nandi in less than 30 minutes :) I bowed my head and congratulated him for that climb :)



Then we roamed around the peak of Nandi for sometime and he climbed down(may be in record time), before i reach base camp in auto.
We had yummy breakfast at base camp. I hope Heiko liked Onion Dosa very much. He had 2 onion dosas and 1 masala dosa and i ended up having 2 onion dosas.

And then we started at 12:15 pm and i cycled following few inputs from Heiko. This time i took break only twice eventhough there were few ascents and descents were there. Yes we reached back home at 03:45 PM.


Fully satisfied in this cycling trip along with a great cycling enthusiast and a great human Dr.Heiko Gerwens.(He has got five cycles for different purposes in Germany :))

He is one of my inspirations in cycling and performance :)

Eventhough i have done bangalore-chennai trip along with our SAP Roadies-Amol, Venkat and Sathish in 22 hours and also Mysore.....i must accept that i didnt have self discipline to maintain the trainings.

Same is applicable in running also. Without trainings for last 3 months, directly ran 25KM during Ultra in 03:45 hrs.....

Resuming my cycling and running trainings from today onwards! Come what may!

Bike Details :
Me - Fomas Road King Deluxe
Heiko - Schwin Searcher

Route Map:

Google Map Route - ITPL to Nandi Hills

Distance : 130 KM
Time taken for cycling with breaks : 07:40 hrs.

My thanks to Akshay(Bangalore Bikers Club) for this wonderful route.
And a great thanks to Damu(SAP) for lending his bike for a day.
And also to Vinod(SAP) for the Helmet and to MJV(SAP) for his support!

Happy Cycling and Running!!!!