open engine operation

the tappets in old bullets could be fixed by opening a side hatch in the engine.

now they have to open the whole engine, and here it lies in waiting.

new hydraulic tappets are not available in indore since the last three days.

(forgot to click the heartless bike's pic)

maybe the new bullets aren't made as they were before, 21000k's on the odo,

and the last two services have cost me rs 15500 and a bit more...

just another number

no wonder we are obsessed with cricket statistics...
its not just another number if all are talking about it, is it? ;)

keep riding...

en route to kanha national park, madhya pradesh

the bike thumps along on the open road,
while the eagle soars high, glimpses caught in between the trees.

the sun shines down upon the very few leaves,
the wind hits my body and gives cold relief.

the heated engine now performs at its peak,
a twist of the throttle and refined power within my reach.



now sets in a calmness while in blurry motion,
and the crunching up of kilometers gives languid peace.

the eyes are occupied with the changing vistas,
and the travel infuses new thoughts within.

while the road keeps going on forever,
times presence is only felt as the shadows lengthen.

for the lonely road too, does time stand still,
and the changing riders all get an opportunity to escape.

update

the house comes live on google maps!! :D

Its a dogs life

why cant i sleep the whole day... just wake me up for my meals!!

Maximus II, six months old, already!

plug em in

After all the planning to keep three devices charged optimally,

it is such an irony to get the same email on all of them together.

The digital needs of our times! A whole bunch of chargers and wires carried around everyday in the backpack.

# dell inspiron N5010

# blackberry 9700 bold

# samsung tab2 7" p3100

Think Again: India's Rise. by sumit ganguly

...unless its leadership can tackle problems from corruption to bureaucratic stagnation to political dysfunction, its hope for global standing in the 21st century will remain just a hope, says ganguly.


http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/07/05/think_again_india_s_rise?page=full

but who is listening?
people like me? busy with setting their own house in order, trying to build up their bank balance?
or the politicians and bureaucracy, who are also just think of their self, like i am...
hahahaha...

my way or no way at all

Seven lane one-way road?

just outside my office window; the center median of the two way road has been broken because of road widening and BRTS corridor work.
full license for the traffic to do as they wish? oh yes!! the attitude of everyone on my city roads is, "i have right of way before all else. let me get through, others will then manage." disregard for rules are second nature to people. like the sun does rise in the early hours, so does chaos during rush hour.
the consequence one fine day: seven lanes, all going the same direction, the scene is a little better at the other side of the junction with only 6 lanes of on coming traffic. traffic does eventually clear after 3hrs!

lack of governance, lack of civil responsibility and utter disregard for others.

and i read somewhere, how a city commutes is how its people live...
...

H-31

yeeehaaa!!!! :)

the new house is almost complete... cant wait to shift there soon.

levelled

then we rode upon 'more plains' and a city emerged within my thoughts. that after the relentless assault of the mountains, which had left me feeling insignificant... at the high altitude plain, the city staked a claim for mankind. my way of trying to prove to nature that we too exist.

we might have all been many atoms in a star once...  if i can relate to that time scale.
but it is easier to imagine we have risen from the earth,
and the vast plain was flanked by many a high mountain on either side.

egg it out

cooking one since i have been 12yrs old!! :)

fast, fun and filling... couldn't miss putting this quick and pleasing fix here.

source: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/03/18/magazine/anytime-egg-recipes.html?ref=magazine

the best ever! a tribute to rahul dravid

i watched on tv as he made 95 on debut at lords, and i liked him instantly. i guess it had a bit to do with him being my namesake. in his early years, even in the first half of 2000, people who didn't understand test cricket would get at me for supporting and defending him. i eventually learnt that i shouldn't bother, let the skeptics be. a dravid believer need not shout from the roof tops, but would rather go about quietly minding his own business. 

The winning runs (copyright Hamish Blair, Getty Images)

what is it that made him my favorite sportsperson?
he was always a team man before being a batsman. in a team game where individuals fight turn by turn as against together like in football, playing for the team has a very different meaning. ganguly gave the team a new attitude and perspective but even he did not fight for the team cause as much as dravid did. the true fighter.
he always gave me hope and reassurance. for a man not born with genius; he showed me the way by his dedication, for hard work can climb the highest summits and the will of a man knows no boundaries. brian lara once said, 'if i want someone to bat for my life, it would be dravid or kallis.' dravids concentration and determination under pressure were colossal.
he was always the gentleman. with superb ethics and a calm and correct external demeanor, the only times he showed anguish or anger was on loosing his wicket or dropping a catch. how he lived on the field and how he behaved off it; the values that he showed, he has always inspired me to get better at life.


and we have not yet talked about the skills he got to the table as a cricketer...
the glorious cover drive with his head always on top of the ball; the fabulous late cut with the perfect transfer of power on the back foot; countless leaves for blunting the new ball, knowing exactly where the off stump is; rebuilding tirelessly when your top order mates are beaten and sent packing; super fielding close in on the stumps, great reactions at slip; copy book cricket inculcated in his soul, the hand book devoured and then perfected upon!


i just love what the all conquering, tough matthew hayden had to say about dravid. he said, 'all this going around is not aggression; if you want to see aggression on cricket field, look into rahul dravid’s eyes.'


a few accolades i have read recently;
Sambit Bal writes on cricinfo: When we spoke a couple of weeks ago, I asked if he regretted not having retired in England. His response was a further revelation of character. He would certainly have retired if he hadn't had a good series, he said, but after doing so well, retiring would have been selfish.
Rob Smyth writes on guardians blog: Dravid is the he kind of man you'd want your son to grow into.
Rohit Brijnath writes in HT: Runs might emerge in unsightly dribbles - but he would keep going, a leave, a block, a block, a leave, and this should have been boring - and well, yes, sometimes is was - except by the end he'd build a lead, or rescued a situation, or offered us a winning chance and you would look at this man, shirt bound by sweat, ferocious in his concentration, and just think bloody hell. Struggle in all its forms, was his hymn.


apart from his stellar innings with laxman in kolkatta in 2001, which i watched on the first five days of our seven day gap before our 12th board exam chemistry/physics final paper, two mammoth innings stand out for me personally, test no. 1673 played at the adelaide oval in dec 2003 and test no. 1697 played at the rawalpindi stadium in april 2004. in an around this time dravid was the best batsman in the world of test cricket, and there was justice in the cricket field. good guys finished first.


it was a pleasure and and honor to have supported you dravid!! thanks for the 164 test matches (and 344 odis), 13288 runs (plus 10889 runs in 50 over format), 31258 balls faced (plus 15284 in 50 over format), fighting it out for india. you are a legend! but most of all thanks for giving me valuable lessons on how to live life!!!

chores

Not just the will.
We need DISCIPLINE to live the good life.

old dues

all the efforts were long done, the knowledge multiplied two fold since,
how happy do you feel when you receive Rs50000 that you were supposed to get 2yrs and 5months ago!?
feeling drained and elated at the same time...

as it is, i never feel real great once the money finally gets to me.

road trip, getting there

i love vacations!
i love to drive/ride and get to the destination too!!!


now, our friend, mr. patel was getting married in pune on the 6th of december. since we four friends(thakur, jariya, rane and me) were to go to pune for the wedding, we decided to pre-pone the trip and also extend it, to accommodate a small vacation in goa into our itinerary!! :D why not!! our one-way trip distance of 619kms was increasing by just a measly 486kms more, incurring an additional 125hrs in our planned 45hr pune trip. 
(google calculated the distance from indore, madhya pradesh to calangute, goa as 1049kms)

i had a lot of work/back logs to finish off before the trip. who wants to get repeated calls and the need to find time to slog on the laptop on a vacation (for the record though, during previous vacations i have always carried my laptop along but never once switched it on for the purpose of work!!). so the week before departure was loaded with extra hours at the office, the impending vacations helped finish backlogs, and time flew in a jiffy. not before long it was the 1st of december. here follows a log of getting to calangute beach from indore. we drove the diesel suzuki swift.


01dec2011
1600hrs: finally left indore and on the city bypass which is being converted from 4-lane to 6-lane.
1628hrs: cross pithampur, industrial town near indore. the four lane roads are super smooth to ride on.
1700hrs: a broken down factory building with only a huge gable end wall left standing. RS written on a banner on the wall. reminds of rohit who would in all probability been with us on the trip, alas.
1715hrs: zero discipline on the toll booth. we are far away from being a civil society. all the lane breaking and arguing ends up taking double the time.
1735hrs: more chaos on the road, not that we are not used to it. am thinking we need a revolution of sorts. a movement that reminds that we are not just individuals but a 1.2billion society. our general attitude it 'bas main nikal jaun, baaki apna dekh lenge' (let me get through, other's will manage). a bit more feeling for the communal and our lives will be lot more easier.
1807hrs: driving now. we need to rotate ourselves on the wheel, we plan to check into our hotel by noon tomorrow. rane will not be given the steering, we are less confident in his driving. thakur isn't feeling well. he has been asked to try and sleep in the rear so that he can take over sometime tomorrow early morning.
2057hrs: fatal accident on the other side of the median. a young couple on a bike dead. we must have reached the scene 2-3mins after the accident as there are only 3 vehicles ahead of us. the local villagers have blocked both sides of the road. soon around 80ppl have gathered. traffic starts piling up behind us. a long delay is anticipated. to our surprise two ambulances manage to reach the spot within 7-8mins of our getting there. and cops arrive 5mins later. i am definitely impressed. the road is cleared, the mob quietened, the ambulances depart and we are back on the move within 25mins of reaching the spot. now all this surely would not have been possible in say 2006.
2116hrs: i am off the drivers seat. jariya back in action. we don't plan to stop for dinner, to save time we have methi parathas and chutney already packed from jariya's home. the chutney turns out to be fantastic!!
2322hrs: 468kms on the odometer. on the two-lane section of the pune-nashik highway now. oncoming traffic slows us down. overtaking in the full beam lights also a hindrance(the truck do give us the dipper, its the buses and cars that are a problem).
02dec2011
1250hrs: back to driving now. rane had been sleeping along with thakur but jariya too is falling asleep. during childhood it was imperative i sleep 7-8hrs a day, just couldn't stay awake. 5 years doing bachelors in architecture changed all that... i move into my own thoughts. on the road, even as we keep eating up the distance, midst the rushed motion there is a stillness within. the open road not just calls me forward to explore but opens my mind to various thoughts, thoughts hidden in the otherwise routine of life...
0257hrs: 685kms on the odometer. just paid the toll ahead of pune on the pune-banglore highway. google maps got us quickly out of the sleeping city roads, though we did have to ask a few autowallah's for direction once. technology helps but i still like to rely on my own keen sense of direction! ;)
0315hrs: finally thakur takes the wheel. he is all rested and feeling better now. i will try leave him to deal with the open road, let him do the talking. i will try catch some sleep.
0526hrs: was sleeping on the front seat, and i get a rude awakening. thakur wakes me up by saying 'baba kuch nahi dikh raha' (i can't see anything). i open my eyes and am shocked to see only white through the wind screen. in my mind we are going at 120kms an hour. i think frost has accumulated inside the windscreen and immediately turn on the defogger. panic. thakur laughs, there is massive fog outside, we are moving at 30kms per hour, slowly the surface marking paint and the fog lamps come into my vision. nice way to break my one and half hours of sleep! the fog clears and kolhapur city is close by.
0600hrs: just gobbled up a mcspicy chichen burger. the mc'd outlet at kolhapur highway is open 24x7. a dhaba meal is more rewarding but not possible at this hour. global fast food chain to the rescue. wonder why i tried to go to the loo here, possibly because of the cleanliness? can never make it in a public place. behind a bush on the highway might have been doable.
0631hrs: the fog descends once again, the sun tries to peep out of it. nobody needs to sleep now. the previous bits and pieces of sleep will last till goa. soon we have to leave the highway. its all country road from there onward. the best parts of the road trip. can't wait to bid goodbye to the many trailers, large freight trucks and our 'tata and leyland' trucks that have been really populating the highways these recent years.
0705hrs: jariya is driving. its so much of a pleasure driving on the narrow roads. much more rewarding to the driving enthusiast within. gotta take the wheel soon.
0911hrs: just finished driving a long downhill stretch through the western ghats. i like to believe i am a good driver. tried take the best line in and out of the curves. blind turns were duly slowed down upon. gear shifting and braking was precise. bet my friends had some heart in mouth moments! now am smiling from ear to ear. finally rane is going to take the driving seat.
1019hrs: third diesel stop of the trip. as more experienced highway drivers we all get into rane for missed over-takings and error's in judgement. the anxiety of getting to goa is building, the silly jokes are laughed at, the fatigue non-existent.
1038hrs: the familiar 'back lanes' of north goa beaches. lush agricultural fields surrounded by lots of palm trees. 1094kms on the odometer. check-in is at twelve. we have time to kill. good and solid driving coming to an end.
1132hrs: have left the car finally and are walking towards the sea. here it comes. we find a beach shack, order for beer. i sit and take out my shoes, the sand feels heavenly to my feet. the gentle waves of the winter sea are inviting us. the open road has turned into an endless horizon!

1105kms and 19hrs and 45mins later i am filled with peace.


like vegas; what happens in goa, stays in goa.
kothari who came from mumbai to join us for the vacation will second that! will write a blog about the best thing that happened on the trip though!!! :)