bangalore???

Cantonement....
Pensioner's Paradise.......
Garden City.....
Pub City.....
Silicin Valley Of India...
Fashion City.....
Cosmopolitan.....

One-way roads City?????

Five point someone...

Was intrigued by this book after reading Chaitra's blog....
This is a book by an indian author..and so the identification-with-the-characters is a defenite reality unlike most of the books that claim to be... This was one of the books where the characters have this coming-to-age experience... I for one was completely enamoured by this book..
It basically dealt with how things can go wrong, when you are " not thinking straight"... Hari, Alok and Ryan have got into IIT, and things take a nose-dive after their initial jubiliation at making it into one of the premier Educational institutes in India.. They are frustrated at the onus on assignments, tests and basically being burdened with work...they yearn to be free, but are scared to go against the system..Until Ryan comes up with his ideas, and this is where they let him take over their lives and begin to enjoy their life..
They have a lot of good times and their friendship goes through many hardships...They have a whale of a time and are content mostly because they have lost the drive to get good grades...
The book has a lot of emotions, ranging from comic drunk scenes, to ones of love blossoming and bearing fruits...and veering off towards tragedy and guilt ridden nights... This book must be a Bollywood producer's dream...and it is no wonder that the 70mm version is going to be out pretty soon..

I am not sure if i am going to watch this on the big screen..for I already have a vision of this book, and have been able to identify with a lot of the parts here.. The movie is going to be a projection of the director's view and I do not want to be imposed upon by that view...
On the othr hand it might be a good idea to watch it..if only for the sole reason as to see how much this book could impact people...

I am sure that there are going to be alot of mixed reactions based on their own college experiences... I can identify with these guys..because I was never ine to be buried in books..I was always doing these last-minute thingies..and somehow managed to do well... i did not want to lose out on some of the best years of my life..Luckily I knew where to draw the line..and was careful not to go overboard... That is actually what I guess the author wants to put across..that fine line between veering off into oblivion or having the best of both worlds.. The boundaries for each of us lies completely in our hands and we ourselves are solely reponsible for what we do...

This book has actually inspired me to start off on my writing once again...Hopefully I get to do some soon..as I expect to have a lot of free time on my hands..

The sensual nosering...

Recently observed that a nosering adds this sensual touch to a woman..Almost all the girls whom I have seen wearing a nosering..I felt them to be sensual.. and this is like way different from sexy..I abhor at people who use these two words in the same sense..not a lot of people differentiate between sensual and sexy...there is this huge difference..an example would be.....Sushmitha Sen is sensual but Mallika sherawat is sexy...

Views and reviews..

I have gotten into this new craze of buying movie CDs. I have been buying them faster than I can watch them..I still have to watch some of them before they catch dust and my mom dumps it in the garbage mistaking it for some trash.... Anyway..managed to watch some of them over the weekend and thought I' d put in my 2 cents worth about them..

English Patient...
This is a romantic movie set in the second world war..It is not the mushy mushy kind of movie..more of a mature romance..with some wild passion thrown in for good measure.. It starts off with this plane being brought down and the pilot has a miraculous escape but is badly burnt and injured.. A nurse who has had her share of woes takes it upon her to help this man recover..then follows th story of how the man landed into his present state in Italy,from being an explorer in Africa....
The basic premise of the film is his love story with a married woman..their passion for each other is pretty strong..but so is her love for her husband.... This film takes a sort of neutral stand on the adultery theme.. and the user can decide what he wants to see. This is something pretty difficult to achieve in a movie....since most times the directors opinion spills on to the screen...The camera work is pretty brilliant..and there are some interesting side plots too...
The movie has this uncanny knack for introducing twists just when the going seems rosy... It sort of makes you stop getting all dreamy eyed and take notice... Overall this is well worth the dough I had to shell out for buying it...
One word of caution though..If you are watching this at home..make sure your parents are away or at least cannot walk into your room...my folks have this unique gift for walking into the room just when the steamy scenes come on..And boy oh boy..the silence of the room is enough to put a graveyard to shame... then you get weird looks for the next day..and they start wondering if they need to marry you sooner than needed... Well in one word it gets pretty uncomfortable..oh that's two words...but what the heck...


The Day Of the Jackal....
This is another good movie well worth the money I invested on it...and this too needs to be watched with a lot of care and definitely without parental invasions... this is the movie adaptaion of Fredrick Forsyth's novel of the same name.. This movie does absolute justice to the book..especially because of the cast... The remarkable fact about this movie is the lack of background music in most parts of the movie..this is actually paying the audience a compliment and acknowledging their intelligence...as the main purpose in background scores is to spoon-feed you with the right emotions... You tend to associate certain scores with certain emotions.. but here the director has managed to steer clear of it... The assasin is such a cool person..who has planned the whole thing to absolute prefection.. it is so perfect with even small contingency plans thrown in..that you want the guy to succeed...the cold-blooded way he goes about his whole mission has definitey involved a lot of research... So go find out for yourself..if the Charles de'Gaulle can survive the Jackal's plans.....



Apart from watching these movies, the weekend was pretty normal..Saturday night's talk was revolved around our plans for New years eve.... and here started my problems... I do not have a date and so this would be a problem as entry to some parties would become an issue...Smitha came up with this brilliant idea.. she said I would have to catch some dumb looking chic at the venue and strike a deal with her..Pay for her entry in return for her accompanying me inside the party and then we part ways... anything after that would involve furthur negotiations...
Seems like a nice idea..but am very sure that I will not find any takers...
So... the hunt continues....

testing..testing...pic testing...

sumanth-01

Do I look cool or what???

more pics on the way soon...Thanks to Chaitra

..Santa's Gonna visit me

Yeah.that's right..Santa should be visiting me this christmas..My good deed for the yuletide season was done yesterday..I Donated Blood..
On a more modest note..I donated blood yesterday at the Sai Baba Hospital..A heart patient was in urgent need of it and so had to go all the way near ITPL in the night..Feels very good though that you have somehow contributed to making some person's life better..I don't know who the patient was..
Ok..now its down to brass tacks..Let me see what I need from Santa.. I think a four wheeler( preferrably a Sierra) should do..also to adress one of my more immediate concerns..I think I will be in need of a date for the new years eve party..This I sure am gonna need a lot of help with..

Realised something about my riding yesterday..As i was saying, I had been near ITPL and was accompanied by my sister..We were returning at around 10:00pm and I was not going faster than about 60-70 kmph...I transform into this safety concerned rider whenever I have a pillion..And the ironical part is that about 2 weeks ago..me and my friend were trying to set land speed records on this particular stretch..at around 1:00 in the morning..on our respective bikes....Now that is a trait in my riding that I like..Maybe it is that subconcious feeling of being responsible for the other person's safety more than your's...


Oh..and Santa..I wouldn't mind some chocolates too....

..the week that was..

I managed to finish that write up of the kemmangundi trip last week. I must admit that this is not one of my better works, though..I should have put more effort into it..I was in this great rush to finish it as I wanted to complete it when I was not loaded with work ..and this took its toll on the quality..Oh well..there will be more rides and I am sure I will make up for it pretty soon...

Diwali was pretty low key this year..Anyways I have stopped with all the fireworks stuff..do not want to add any more noise and pollution.. This is definitely one downside of Diwali..there is so much of noise and pollution all around..and to top it, I developed an allergy to the fumes and had a bad cold the latter part of last week... I was working night s during Diwali and so, I slept through most of it anyway.

I went back home from office on the festival day..and was made to take an oil bath..it was actually pretty good..I must vist a spa soon.and see how relaxing an ol bath and a massage can be..:-) Then came the shopping for some home appliances which was loong overdue..Now we have a lovely new refrigerator and hopefuly this time..the cockroaches don't assume that we have brought them a new home..as they did with the last one..A delicious lunch follwed this..and then it was time to hit the sack..
That was my diwali..nothing very inspiring I must admit..but the upside was that I did not contribute to all that noise and air polluion..

The weekend was as usual..Saturday was filled with running erands for home..and of course a visit to STYX in the evening.. I was very envious of all those guys with looong hair and was cursing myself for choping my locks.. This weeks STYX sojourn had a purpose..We were celebrating my friend being accetpted by his girlfriend's parents'..Looks like a marriage in the offing....returned home in the wee hours as usual..

Sunday was a lazy relaxed day..The highlight was that I taught my sister how to ride the bullet and she is picking up very fast..

Kemmangundi --> Serve Chilled FINAL PART

Here is DAY 3...

DAY 3 NOV 1

Today was going to be the last day for our road trip. We were up by around 7:00 after just 5 hours of sleep. We were all a little groggy, but still managed to get up. I was promised that since I was their guest I would be treated to Davangere's special dosa's for breakfast. This inspired me more than anything else to get ready. I was soon all washed and spruced up. We first visited all of Uday's classmates who were in the neighboring hotel. I was introduced to them. They were all enjoying their reunion, and so was I. I hardly felt left out, even though I did not know most of them before today.

Breakfast was supposed to be at a small place, which was the hangout of these guys when hey were studying here in Davangere. It was called something like "kottureshwar". I do not remember the name properly. By now I was hungry and not thinking very straight. We had to wait for a very long time for a table. After we finally got a place, we placed our orders and the waiter was taking too long to get our orders. By this time we realized that it was 10:15 and the wedding was supposed to be at 10:30. We had to leave the place even before our food arrived. I was hoping to come here before we left for Bangalore.

We then raced across the town to the church to attend the wedding. This was the first Christian wedding I was attending. At least the first one where I was paying attention. The last one my friends and me were just making noise and had got thrown out off. Anyway, that is a story for another time. The reason I was paying attention was because I was expecting to see the "now you may kiss the bride" part. Apparently they skip this part in Indian weddings. Anyway learnt a lot about Christian weddings. After the wedding there was a reunion photo session and we guys hurried back to the room, to start packing for our departure to Bangalore. We decided that our lunch would be the Dosas I had missed in the morning.

Murgesh would not be coming back to Bangalore with us. He was going to stay at Davangere as he had taken a few days off from the office. The remaining three started packing and we were awaiting Reddy to join us. We went to get lunch and as my luck would have it the place was closed. I guess I will have to visit Davangere again, to be able to eat those Dosas. We next went on to visit BIET where Uday and his friends had studied. After that was a lunch stop at a dhaba pretty close to the college. Lunch was over nostalgic memories by Uday and Reddy. They told us of all the good and bad times they had experienced during their stay at BIET. It was pretty nice listening to all their exploits and I was getting very envious of Hostel life, as I have always been a day-scholar.

Post-lunch we got onto NH4 and set off towards Bangalore. By now the time was 3:00 pm. Sine this was the last day, we were all eager to get home, and get some well-deserved rest. We had a lot of sleep to catch up on. Also, our butts had started aching by now. Our first stop was after about 70 kms. We stopped for just 5 min, especially to give our sore butts a chance to recuperate. Stretched our legs and moved on and the next stop was somewhere midway between Davangere and Bangalore. We stopped at a Dhaba, which was populated by truck drivers. The truck drivers were pretty amused by our antics. We were all stretching and none of us wanted to have a seat. After a very long break here, we moved on. The problem was that the longer you rested you would want to just keep on sitting. All of us washed our faces and helmets and got back onto our steeds.

The NH4 is a very god road for night riding. Upto now half the road was under construction and so we had to make do with a 2-lane highway. After Sira, it was a 4-lane highway, and a huge divider separated the oncoming traffic. This made sure we did not have to worry about oncoming headlights blinding you. The roads were so good, that even though darkness had set in we were doing speeds in the 80's and 90's. Also, from here started our " I just can't go on" stops. Every 20 or so km one of us would overtake everybody and stop. This was because the rider's butt would not be able to take the torture anymore. The others would curse, but would take the break. Even our butts were sore by now.

After a few such stops we reached Tumkur by 7:40 or so. Getting off the bikes we realized how famished we were. This hotel we stopped at had an unique offering- "half-masala-dosa". This was a first for me. They would give you half a masala dosa, if you thought you would not be able to put the full one away. After our break here, we started off by around 8:10, and the roads after this were just too good. We were all doing very good speeds, as we wanted to reach home as soon as possible. We hit the city and parted ways. I dropped Jaggi and was home by 9:30, before my dad reached home.

I was able to surprise dad by opening the door for him when he came home. He was expecting me to get in late at night. The good roads had ensured that I reached earlier. Had a loong hot bath and a good home-cooked dinner. After dinner it was my turn to narrate my experience. They were happy to see me return safely and we all had a nice talk late into the night. A good sleep was what I needed.

I was so tired from this trip that I took , the next day off and spent all f it sleeping. All the riding and lack of sleep was catching up. In spite of this I was still heady from the trip. This is one trip I am going to remember for a long time. I met my friends the next evening and we all spent a long time discussing my trip. I even inspired them to go on one. All those wonderful memories still fill my thoughts and I am waiting to do this again sometime soon, and hopefully, the company will be as good as this one. I must say that the company I had on this trip was really good. It helped making the whole trip even more enjoyable.

Overall I was very happy with my bike's performance. We had done 800 km in 3 days and I had got an average of 41 kmpl, which is very good considering some of the bad roads we had to traverse. I also enjoyed all those looks my bike got on those highways. However one grouse remains. Everybody's first question has still been-"what's the mileage?” This apart, all those envious looks add to the whole riding experience. So then, Cheers until next time.

Kemmangundi --> Serve Chilled PART II

DAY 2: 31-Oct-04

The plan was to get up early and go to Z-point where you supposedly get a fabulous view of the sunrise. The place was still covered in fog early in the morning so this plan was cancelled and luckily no-one woke me up until around 7:00. Sleep had become a very precious commodity to me. We woke up lazily and finished our morning duties and headed off for breakfast. After breakfast it was off to Z-point which is the highest point in Kemmangundi.We reached halfway to this place and were about to turn back, since the cloud cover was still thick. Luckily ( as in most of our trip), the cloud cover disappeared and we had a fabulous view of Z-point. Looking at it we made up our minds that we just HAD to go there. We trekked up to the end and boy was it worth it? The view was absolutely fantastic and you can see for miles and miles and miles.. The locals told us that this was the plae the maharaja's used to visit on their horses for a view of the sunrise.

By 12:00 we got back to our guesthouse for we had to vacate it by then or we would be charged for 2 days.Next on the agenda was the Habbe Falls.This had a very trecherous road which ran for 10 kms. There was no way our bikes would survive this road, so we hired a jeep to take us there. This road was the worst I have ever seen. I truly admire the jeep for being able to take us there. On the way we saw a Safari, and the ease with which it moved on this road was amazing. Habbe falls was a treat after this ride. We had to trek for about 15 minutes through an estate to reach it.The falls is just awesome.. I know I am using such expletives throughout this piece I am writing. I just can't help it that all the places we visited had so much to offer us that we could not help but be overwhelmed by the beauty of nature.

We had a good time clicking snaps and just taking in the full splendour of the falls. We had to hurry back as we had to get back to Kemmangundi soon and start off to Davangere. our plan was to reach Davangere by night which was already a distant possibility. By the time we were back in Kemmangundi again it was 4:00 pm and it was then that we realised that none of us had any lunch and we would not be getting any for some time. We had to make do with some bananas and start preparing for the next leg of our journey.

Around 5:00 pm or so, we set off from Kemmangundi. There was promise of rain in the air and we were expecting to meet it at some point in our journey. The next 20 or so kilometres were just potholes but it was a descending road and the twilight made the view of the valley below just too irresistable to ride away without stopping and savouring it. After our descent we came in contact with the rain, we had been lucky to avoid so far. This lasted for a good 10 minutes, but as luck was on our side, it was not heavy enough to reduce visibility and we pushed onwards. Our next stop was a place called "Tarikere". Here we had a long stop for refuelling our bikes as well as our stomachs. After the delicious Dosas we had to prepare for the night. This part was something I always enjoyed. We would clean our Helmets and then wrap ourselves in our warm gear. We set off at around 7:00 or so from here and our next port of calling was "Shimoga". The road for another 10 kms was unexpectedly bad from here and the darkness made it more difficult to avoid the huge craters in the road.

In this stretch Jaggi was my pillion and I was making good progress on my bike as my headlight was pretty good. After some distance we found that we were alone on the road and the others were not anywhere near us. Jaggi and me waited for nearly 10 minutes and still nobody showed up. We beagn to get worried and took our mobiles out to call the others and realised that both our batteries had died out. We had no choice but to backtrack. After about a Km we found the others. They had stopped to help two guys who had just had a fall. Luckily our group was alright. We moved ahead at a reasonable pace after this, as the road also improved. Jaggi knew this road very well and so we did not have to rely on any signboards.So we could travel even faster.

Davangere was still 50 km away, when we reached Murgesh's and Jaggi's Aunt's village. We were to visit them and also finish our dinner there. They were a very hospitable family and we had a hearty meal. The downside was that there was no power and the whole house was in semi- darkness illuminated by a candle here and a candle there. So, I doubt if they will recognise me if I vist them again. I seriously doubt this.After dinner we clicked a few snaps and it was time to set off again.

We entered Davangere limits at around 11:00 pm. We were stopped at at-least 3 places by the cops. They would check whether we had been drinking, queston us for some time, check our licenses and then ask us to go on. They would even take down our vehicle numbers. This was the first time I had seen such an exercise and was wodering if there were somebody these cops were after. Jaggi informed me that this was normal practice for vehicled entering the city after 11:00pm. The nice part was that the cops would give us funny looks when we told them that we were biking all the way from bangalore. One cop even started chatting about the weather up in Kemmangundi, but al of us were too tired to get involved in his discussion.

At Davangere we got a room at a place called "Shanti Comforts". It was a vrey good room hich could accomodate 5 people and it cost us only about 400 bucks for a day. As we were settling in one of Uday's and Murgesh's old friends paid us a visit. It was around 12:30 by now. We all got talking and were looking at the pictures taken so far. It was nice to see a reunion going on. We hit the sack by around 2:00 in the morning. It was the end of a veru loong day, and we had a wedding to attend and also to get back to Bangalore by the next evening.

SMS conversation...

This is a SMS conversation I recently had with a friend.

ME: Dear GOD, please keep my friends healthy & happy and give them some money so that they SMS Me regularly.

Friend: Dear friend, when I ask U flower, U give me bouquet. When I ask a stone, u give me a statue. When I ask u feather, u give me peacock. ARE U Really DEAF?

ME: Sometimes when U cry no one sees ur tears, when ur worried no one sees ur pain, when ur happy no one sees ur smile, try farting all will stare.

Friend: @#$%^

Kemmangundi --> Serve Chilled PART I

The last weekend of last month I visited Kemmangundi. This was a bike trip, and I am always a sucker for bike trips. I jumped at the idea when Uday invited me for this. I was writing a log of the whole thing and realised that it would be a very long recount. So I have decided to break it up into three parts recollecting the three days we biked. Here is the first of the series.


The riders:Uday (Ambition)
Reddy (Electra)
Murgesh (Pulsar)
Sumanth (Thunderbird)
The pillion: Jaggi

This was an amazing ride whose memories will linger for a long long time. Good roads, good company and a damn good bike. What more do you need? The planning was all done by Uday. We had a long weekend coming up and so I too jumped at the offer. initially I was a little aprehensive as Uday was the only one I knew in the group. This apprehension vanished in just a little while as I got to know the others and they were all just great. There was a lot of camaradrie and I was happy to gel in so quickly.
The ride was planned over 3 days. We would visit Kemmangundi and then move on to davangere to Attend uday's classmate's wedding and then return home.

DAY 1: 30-Oct-04

We were to start off at 6:00 am from tumkur road, near the Outer ring road. I was working in the night shift and was planning to go home, pick my bag and start off. I knew I was not going to get any sleep for at least another 14 hours. This was fine as I knew the ride would make it worh it. The initial plan was for the others to start off, and I would catch up with them on the way, as I would not be able to make it only by 6:30 am. Lucky for me Reddy ran a little late and I left the office earlier than expected and was at the meeting point by 6:10. The early morning empty roads also played their part. By now it had started drizzling and we thought we would come across some heavy rain soon. luckily that too did not happen. We were actually very lucky throughout our journey. We had got hardly any planning other than the destinations and everything just fell into place as we moved ahead.

The road from Tumkur to Kunigal was just awesome and we al let loose. I had fun testing out the top end of my bike. Initially I was planning on doing a steady 80 or so. After watching everybody let loose I too starting speeding and reached 120 kmph at one point. I had fun dragging with a SUMO. I would overtake this guy evry once in a while and then let him pass just to bruise his ego another time.Going al out we reached Kunigal in no time and stopped for breakfast here.

Breakfast was a 30 minute affair, and after that the good roads continued. I was hoping that we get some narrow roads for some time at least, as I was getting tired of riping at high speeds all the time. Our next stop was just before Hassan. From Hassan we were to go to Belur. We were asking people for directions and one of the cops gave us the wrong directions. We went on for anout 2 kms before reklising we were headed in the wrong direction. We got back on the right road soon, not before passing through a lot of HAssan traffic. From here the roads got a little bad. For quite a distance there was only half a road as it was still under construction. It was fun to ride on this however as th eroad was more like a maze, and we had to keep swnging from left to right, to avoid all the potholes.

At Belur we had a small break at a Bakery. Here the owner confused us with his broken english. We asked him how much furthur to Chikmagalur and he said 74 kms, and we later found out that this was actually only 24 km's. Chikmaglur was conquered at 12:30 pm. Here we settled down for lunch and boy was it good. Chikmaglur is something straight out of some R.K Narayanan's book. It has the mix of the old and the new and both co-exist peacefully, at-least that's how it looked to me.

After lunch, we set off towards Kemmangundi. from now on we would be travelling on Narrow winding roads and would have to keep to our formation. Murgesh was in the lead, and Uday was the tail. The two bullets would keep swapping our places intermittently. Upto now, we had seen lush green fields on the highway. Now we got to see the Red soil for which this place was famous for. As it had been raining, the road was pretty slippery and muddy. The highlight of this part of the ride, was that we saw a HUGE battalion of cops swarming all over the highway, going towards Chikmaglur. Reddy almost met one of their trucks head-on but missed getting packed off into the mountain by just a few inches. After this it was relatively smooth sailing except for the road being slippery thanks to the rains that had lashed this place.

We stoppped at almost every bend and viewpoint to experience the sheer beauty of the place. The place was just so beautiful and Serene that I canot put it into words. The pictures we have taken do a lot of justice to the place but the real experience is something else.Our next stop was at Dattatreya Peeta. this is a shrine where the hindu and muslim Gods co-exist. This place is an eye-opener. Sadly it is not maintained as it deserves to be. After this shrine, there is a road that goes up to the top of this mountain, where a supposedly sacred sanctifying water-fall existed. By now the place was enveloped in a thick fog and visibility was down to around 10 feet or so. Now thanks to my sharp headlight I was the lead. The next 3 kms took us almost 10 minutes. This part of the ride was absolute thrill and was heightened by the fact that if we went off the road, that ould be the nend of us. The road came to a sudden halt and I had to brake suddenly to stop from driving off the cliff. We then explored the water-fall here. The story goes that you come here and have a bath in this falls to wash away your sins. You will have to leave behind every piece of clothing you came with. This was the sad part and people used this as an excuse to defile the place. The place was absolutely filled with clothes left behind by all those "sinners". According to me their sins would have doubled by resorting to discarding their clothes in this manner and spoling this place.

We left this place and started off on our journey towards Kemmangundi. This was going to be the last stretch. Here we passed a stretch of road which I have enjoyed the most. The road was a very narrow and winding one. Also, it had grass which was about waist height enveloping the edges of the road. We all went full blast on this stretch. At any given time, the gap between any 2 vehicles was just 5 feet. This required complete trust in the rider ahead, because if one rider had braked suddenly, we were all goners. Sadly we do not have any pictures of this stretch as we were all so thrilled at the ride that it slipped our mind completely.

Reached Kemmangundi finally by around 5:30, but found the whole place engulfed by fog, and so we missed the sunset. Darkness set in pretty quicly and we launched our hunt for a place to stay. We wer lucky that we got a decent enough place to stay at even though the place was pretty crowded. Since it was a long weekend, there were a lot of people here. Dinner was by 9:30 and we spent time just making arrangements for our food and stay until then. Hit the sack by around 10 or so. It was then that I realised that I had not slept a wink in the past 28 hours.


Next update as time permits me....