A visit to Melkote..

It seems my friends here in Bangalore had been planning to go to this place called Melkote for quite sometime now. But the plan left to be executed from a long time. A very quick exchange of mails followed early last week and it was decided that we all travel to this place on Saturday the 26th of Jul. I waited a couple of days impatiently for this day. Finally when it was Friday i was more than happy that the next day would be a long ride and a day out on the roads riding my bike again with my pals. But then, Friday turned out to be a nightmare when the whole city went berserk when reports started to pour that there was a bomb blast in Bangalore. I initially thought nah, this was not happening in Bangalore. But then this was a reality as the TV started blaring the flash news of bomb blasts. The singular somehow became plural and then it didn't take much time for the news to pour in on the serial blasts. Slowly the number of blasts started to increase and i counted till 7 and then i closed my ears. ;) All my colleagues left early as the management deiced to close down the office. But this bomb sounded disaster for the peace loving city and to our trip as well. We thought it was rather wise to drop the plans for Saturday and sit cozily inside the comfort of our dwellings. By evening when the picture on the blasts became much clearer it was obvious to us that all the blasts were nothing major in terms of damage and somehow were glorified crackers. Though some people were injured seriously and there were a couple of deaths, the damage done was not that disastrous. Hence we had to rethink on our canceling the trip late in the evening. Later we deiced it was OK if we could leave our place early.

And so we got up early on Saturday to a bright sunny day and so the 6 of us on 3 motorbikes started off towards Melkote on Bangalore-Mysore state highway. After a brief stop in ramnagar for breakfast we made good ground to Melkote. The roads were wonderful with very less traffic and the distance of 130 kms were not that tiring. The road stretch from mandya to Melkote was a bit bad at some places as the roads were not maintained that well. The place Melukote is ancient temple city and has its place in history. Get some information here. Interesting!
The Yoga-Narasimha Swamy Temple is situated atop a big boulder on a hill. Once on top on the hill, the view is astounding and it takes a few steps to be alighted as more than half the way to the top is kept motor able. We also visited the Kalyani or Pushkarani Pond situated in the foot of the hill which is quite big and beautifully constructed. The Cheluvanarayana Swamy Temple nearby is also know for having a lot of devotees. A visit to this temple and later we decided to explore around Melkote. The place has a huge stone pillared entrance built during vijayanagara emporer's rule. A lot of movies have been shot here with song sequence from recent movie Guru also been shot in this location. A small garden and couple of ponds surround this monument. We stopped by the sides of one of these ponds to have a some Puliyogare that we had packed from a vendor near the temple. Eating it we realized that it was one of the tastiest puliyogare we all had ever tastiest. The sweet pongal was also extremely good. And this lead to us following back our path to the vendor and ordering in for more of the eateries. Please do not miss to eat puliyogare from an Iyengar serving here in Melkote. You'll know what i'm saying if you taste it sometime. :)











The vendor was kind enough to let us know that if we wished there was a large lake near by that we could visit. It was called Keretonnur and was about 15km from the temple. We thought we might visit the place as well as we had lots of time to spare before we planned to return. So we all set out to this huge lake that covered a enormous 1390 acres of land. Huge by what I've seen for a lake. Nice place to spend an evening. To reach this place take the road that takes you to mysore from Melkote and take a left once you reach Madeshwarapura. A 3km on the same road gets you to the lake. Shrirangapattana is just 15km from here and we had thoughts on visitng this place to visit the palace of Tipu Sulthan but a couple of my friends turned the thought down and hence we decided to head back. It was saddening to head back when we knew that the places were close by. An architectural Marvell called Somanathapura temple also close by was indeed close by and we had to skip visiting this place as the skies were dark with clouds starting to look very dark. And on our way back it rained cats and dogs once we crossed mandya. A half an hour later once the weather cleared and we managed to ride along to Bangalore without much delay. Another of those wonderful days came to an end with a 300km round trip
and i was more satisfied than i ever was. Enjoy some of the pictures I've posted of the place.

Ninja 250R....

Today i needed to take bike to office as some cab drivers were on strike today. Don't ask me the reason, i do not know why they are on strike! So, along with a colleague of mine who weighs a good 90Kgs i set out to office at 8AM. I was riding along when i sighted a Yamaha YZF R15(Tech Specs) ahead of me. It was a three lane traffic to one side. I wanted to zip past him. But then i knew it wouldn't take him long to beat me. :( The bike is light compared to mine and more over i was carrying more weight remember. A bit of turn on my throttle bought me near to the R15 that was just ahead. The bike looks a cool cool one i must admit. The rear of the bike is a bit ugly as it tapers towards the end. But then the whole chassis and the fairing i must say steals a breath or rather a couple of them for me whenever i look at it. Needless to say i would like to own one. I kept close proximity to the bike as long as i could watching the lean machine. But then once i reached office, i was left thinking on what kind of bike would satisfy my hunger for power here on Indian conditions. Well, sanely considered the fact that i would double the bike as a commuter and weekend trip vehicle. When a thought like this comes in your head, well all you need to do is Google! The search engine that has invaded our life threw some good results. And i liked this one a lot. This model has been in production for a long long time. almost 20 years! That is great. And it's one of the top sellers from Kawasaki. Cool! The pictures are satisfying and i wish i could get to ride this bike someday. And as I've heard, this bike might just make it to the Indian shores soon with Bajaj trying to market it here in Indian market. Don't know how true this is. Good, keeping my fingers crossed.
More search on the bike revealed a good review. And also this. ;) The bike in the wiki picture looks good. Hehehehe...

Burnout...

An issue that plagues sport today and lot many other industries is burnout. If we think on it seriously it's something that started out to shape up maybe about 10 years ago. A lot of expectations and competition drove individuals to perform better each and every single time they were performing. This in turn is good for whatever they are doing. But then the individuals forget to take the required amount of break that could help them redeem the interest in their area of interest and work. Then, they are psychologically burnt out. No one can be blamed on this phenomenon but the individual himself is responsible for this. In sports and some other area a physical burn out is possible too. But then all this starts with the mind. A good example in recent past could be Justin Henin. I had huge amount of interest in the kind of the game she used to play. Quality awesome. But then she did it all in a very young age probably putting herself into all kinds of stress and strain. And then she ended her career. :( A brilliant tennis player won't be seen on center court again! I wouldn't be surprised if Rafa Nadal also does something very similar in future very soon. I would be more than sad if this happens though. For same reason i loved what Mahendra Singh Dhoni, our cricket team captain did to himself. Treated himself with a time off from international arena. Not every player would dare do it here with the place up for grabs anytime. Even likes of Ganguly admit to have not done it because there was certain amount of fear of loosing the place to someone else who performed better in his absence or not finding the same tempo once he returns back after break. But then all this would be better than burning out quick i believe. But then saying all this Ganguly didn't burn out and he is ready to play even at his age when others plan to hang up boots. Probably that is something i wonder always why he would do it? is it too much involvement on what he is doing that is driving him to play more or is it something else? ;) Whatever, i have been a tremendous fan of this stylish left hander. So, only an individual is a best judge of whether he needs a break from what he is doing or whether he is capable to push for more without tiring himself. Whatever, one is the best judge of what is best for self and only thing that needed is not to overlook on one's capability. :)

10 Seconds to glory!

A special take on CNN was done sometime yesterday on Olympics. And something on the show that was given special focus on was the most awaited event in track. Yeah, the 100m dash. Jus check here how close the records are placed in this particular event. A hundredth of a second can make a difference here! :) And the next event where the milli and micro seconds come into picture is in F1 or motor racing. Such precision and such amount of competition. Forget the doping controversy and stuff. It's a different issue altogether as i do not want to discuss it at this point in time.
Athletes now get to prove themselves in the world arena now after 4 years as the sporting extravaganza comes alive again and so does the hopes of many athletes who've been training all these days. Going hard on themselves, both mentally and physically. They must have pushed themselves so hard and disciplined themselves to a regime of training all these days. Be it the rigorous hours of training daily or the kind of food habits that they should consume to keep their body in shape. The passion for the sport or for the country and more than everything the urge to be at the top of the top or the best in the business drove them all the way. How many of us dream such a dream? To be at the top and the best in the business? It takes a lot of courage and perseverance to reach where they are now. And a pinch of luck too. Luck why because, they could identify the talent they had and could follow what they wanted to achieve.
All said and done, what rather struck me when i was watching this TV show was that these athletes after all these days and years of training get JUST TEN seconds FLAT to prove their metal. :) A mistake cannot be rectified, a false start or a late start rather would mean the end of the title for even the best runner. Because as i said it's all in a hundredth of a second. Making even a small mistake will be very costly. Four years or more probably years of training might jus go down the drains... Jus like that. Imagine the plight. We might not know how it would feel because we in IT industry get more time to prove our worth. An appraisal period is long. isn't it? But for a 100m sprinter the time is 10 sec :) Hows it? Jus 10 seconds to glory. They've everything to fight for. Usain bolt and asafa powell seem to be the favorites going by the record. Lets wait and see... :)

Quick lookback...

It's been a month since i landed up in Bangalore. It's been a pleasant stay out here. I wouldn't compare Udupi and Bangalore as it would be blunder of sorts. Each have their own adv. and disadvantages. But i would just take a look back as to where i stand now after a month's time and a job/place shift later. As an individual it's bought me a lot of good. I got explore to certain new areas in technology. Got to learn more new things in the place where i work. A good deal of knowledge on how big and well managed company/management works. And as a shift in career it's on sunnier side. One word of caution though for the people who say being in Bangalore is like getting to work with the best. This is not true in my case at least as of now. What i mean to say is the company i used to work earlier too had good amount of exposure in terms of technologies even though it was not based in Bangalore. So just being in Bangalore doesn't mean I'm in middle of ground breaking technology work. I'm yet to experience something great in terms of magnitude in technology. Lets keep it at that. Lemme see what I've in store for the near future. On personal front, i think i have less spare time to myself now as i loose more time for travel. An hour a day more at least goes to commuting to work. Other than that i get to live in a bigger city where i have access to anything i need. Literally there is nothing that i cannot get if i can afford it here. And you happen to know, see and explore a lot more into many things that you've been wanting to do. For example i got to see the prototype of a Mclaren-Mercedes F1 car in the middle of forum mall. It was put up on a promotional display. I wouldn't have seen it if i were in Udupi. Things like this is something that gives you a high. All in all I'm getting to love this place too as i did the earlier one. :)

Gift!

Gifted myself a FastTrack watch this gone weekend and it looks like this :)



And how could i resist when the brand is selling the watches at 'flat' 25% off! :) Good buy i thought.

Machine specs

I happened to get this quote from a dealer in SP road for an assembled computer that i'm planning to get. Hope this information might help people who visit this place. If you think that the dealer has overpriced something here do let me know. So, lets help ourselves with it here.... ;)

AMD Athlon X2 5200 :Rs.3750
Asus/Gigabyte Motherboard SLI ready :Rs.6600
Corsair 2*1GB RAM :Rs.2300
320GB HDD with 7200RPM :Rs.2850
ATX Cabinet with SMPS :Rs.2100
17" LCD Samsung :Rs.8450
Microsoft Mouse and Keyboard :Rs.750
Liteon DVD Writer :Rs.1150
512MB PCI Ex Nvidia G Card :Rs.3900
APC 650VA UPS :Rs.2975
Creative SBS 300 2.1Speakers :Rs.1200

A total of Rs. 37,400 approx. including VAT. :)

Post Number 50

What is with the number 50? Well, a batsman in the game of cricket would've been proud to raise his cricket bat after he reached this number. If i was 50 years of age i would be looking back at the amount of time I've lived on the surface of this awesome planet. But then now on my 50th post I've something funny to write. :)

Well, it happened so that me and my cousin started off to S.P road in Bangalore to get a quotation for a PC that i planned to buy. And everything went on well until we reached the place and him riding my motorbike. And me pillioning on my bike watching trees and birds sitting on the trees. Also, some beautiful birds who were not sitting on the trees ;) he he he. We reached the place and needless to say this place is so so jam packed with the streets very narrow and shops very very small dwelling on both sides in the road. Not an inch of space you could find on a Saturday evening that is not taken up. Cattle, people, motorists everyone on roads. he he he. Funny sight. We managed to find some nice place to park our bikes. Being the smart ass me that i am, i jus ignored the parking symbols on the board and my cousin who pretty much grew in Bangalore also was wondering what the sign meant. So happily we went in search of the vendor we were looking for. Finally got hold of him and we gave him a description of my dream machine(sort off) and he came up with his price list and a quotation was soon to follow neatly done. I bought a Creative SBS 300 speakers. A la 2.1 speakers. BTW, all this while we are happily spending time discussing different combinations and pricing issues for my comp. We leave the dealer to himself a good hour later and am at top of the world with the thought of good deal what i thought the buy would turn out to be. My cousin points me something that suddenly bought me back to senses, yeah, my bike's not there where i had parked. ;) ha ha ha. Thank god, a look around did give us scenes where in policemen were towing other bikes parked on the side I'd park. On inquiry with the traffic policemen i found out we had parked on a wrong side of the road! And then the story continues on how we waited in the traffic police station for a good half an hour to get my bike released. Luckily my bike was unharmed. I must admit the towing guys are good. And know what is the best part in this all? I was fined 300 bucks!! And the bills showed me that the traffic regulations ticket was valued at 100 bucks only and the towing charges were 200 bucks!! Who the hell asked them to tow my bike? ;) hahahahaha. God, I'm back now and am happy my bike is unharmed. But i lost a good deal of money that i could've used it to buy tickets for a good movie is some multiplex if, if i was a little smarter. ;) can't help. But then this will give me a good idea on how things work here.

Well, as to give an idea how it works here i'll write down what i learnt. You know, the moral of the story. ;) i got to know how parking works on some roads in Bangalore now. :) The parking sign board has some numbers printed beneath the parking sign. Like say 1, 3, 5, 7, 9. This means you can park on the side where the sign board is put up on odd numbered days of the month only!! and the other side of road has signboard reading 2, 4, 6, 8 which means parking on even days of the month. I don't know how this works better!! I mean can't they jus make one side of road as parking permanently?!!! Whatever.. i need to be extra careful henceforth.. ;)

Movie: 'Battle for Haditha'

This is one movie that has touched me. IMDB link here.

It's about the war on 'terror'. This is what the American's say for the invasion on Iraq!! This movie gives a different picture altogether. Other side of the picture on terror war! An angle i always ignored to think about. Civilians in Iraq or the general public who have lost a normal life in all this invasion. Common man dies a dog's death everyday there. In the name of war on terror everyday hundred innocent civilian casualties. The movie pictures an incident that happened in a city called Haditha in Iraq. A certain mass killing of the civilians there on behest of orders to kill responsible for a IED explosion that took US mariner's life. Kids, women and the helpless are slaughtered as if it was a unreal tourney game! A sense of helplessness, agony and fightback to no results is what the movie is picturing. Imagine this, if you support extremists there, army kills you. And if you support army, extremists kill you. Anyways, you are dead. And only thing you could chose is how you could die and supporting whom!! After all the casualties, a kid survives in a family that had 11 people! And the innocent gets to see her parents and siblings slaughtered in front of her very own eyes. A loss that could never be overcome.
I equally feel bad for the mariners too who have to lead a life where in they have to kill innocents just because they feel unsafe when Iraqis are around with their assault riffles(it's common there in Iraq to posses assault riffles at homes) and also that they do not know who really are the ones creating trouble. They just have to execute orders. No wonder, some of the post war syndromes in marines are that they find it hard to sleep with the pictures of these innocent killings returning as nightmares. Last week an article in the newspaper said about a mariner taking life of a 16 year old girl by running over her in his car. Reason, he was totally depressed and hence was abusing a lot of alcohol and was drunk when he ran the teenager over in his car. A lot cases like these are reported. Now, who's mistake is this?
A good movie on a very good subject.

PS: This post is dedicated to people who've lost lives in the war unnecessarily. Be it a mariner or a civilian. May peace follow soon. And prayers for the people of the region to get to lead their normal life soon.

Whatever!

Most of you must have got a reply for your questions on seeking suggestions from people around as 'whatever'! I was wondering yesterday on getting this reply from one of my close friends to a decision that we needed to make on a certain thing that was important for both of us. Well, this reply is something that makes me stare on people who say it as to how could they be saying it so easily. Maybe they mean to say 'whatever you deciede is fine with me'. Yeah, this sentence seems more meaningful that the single word whatever. Isn't it? Maybe i too have uttered this 'whatever' many a times when conversing with people. But, henceforth i have decieded to be a bit more cautious when i use this word. It could mean a lot of things and we jus happen to utter it without giving it a second thought.

Some of the reasons why 'Whatever' doesn't qualify as a good answer to me are,
-It doesn't reflect whether it's a very well thought answer.
-It doesn't say anything on whether you have a slightest idea on what is going to happen.
-It doesn't reflect one's choice. Or rather individuals likings and disliking.

Flashback..

Memories, aren't they sweet? Yeah, this one word has so much of history to it and it is something that returns every once in a while to give you a chance to re-live those moments in your thought again. A smile does slip from the corner of your lips when this happens. you happen to think about those moments and those anxious/sad/happy moments which is past. I'm writing this post because i did get one such sweet flashback this morning when i was sitting in the company cab and this post is dedicated to all my friends back in Udupi. I do miss you guys a lot. Read it again guys. But those years spent there with them are well remembered and i was fortunate to have them all around me. I do thank them for being so nice to me all the time and helping me on countless occassions. All the laughter, tears, trips, countless number of lunches out, discussions at tea time in office. And then there was this place called downtown which was our weekend spot. This place has a great ambience and with the company around, you could drown into almost any topic to discuss on. I miss the way air smelled there and miss the sands in the sea shores of Malpe and Kaup. And this is something that comes to my thought when i think of the place. Hmm, chage is constant they say and no one is spared. Wheel of life keeps rolling and takes us to many destinations with so many unknowns in store. Variables i must say. Hehehehe.
BTW, did i tell you all this happened because i was holding on to a iPod gifted to me by those valuable souls. All the thoughts jus happened to come back. A special PMP from special people did make this small PMP more valuable to me now. A lot valuable. It carries a lot of songs in it and memories are connected to it. :)

A trip to nandi hills

People who leave in and around Bangalore must have already visited this place. And people who haven't at least have this place in their must watch list. :) This because the view atop this hill is so picturesque. This gone saturday, me and my friends set out to Nandi hills on our 2 bikes. This at 4AM in the morning. Why so early? because, we wanted to hit the top before sunrise. And watch the sunrise from the top. So, we did succeed in driving to the top comfortably at 6Am. This is about 65Km from the place where i stay. The tarmac was jus too good and wide too. Ride was an awesome experience as it was the first time i rode on my bike so early to any place!
Once we reached the hills, we could see nothing in front of us that was farer than 10 meters! It was fully cover with mist. The eucalyptus trees and the mist were a good combination. A walk in the park early in the morning was a very good experience. In midst of nature, with the birds chirping it was treat to the eyes and ears... We did miss the early sunrise because of this mist. But then, we did enjoy this weather and at about 9 AM the sun made an appearance in between clouds for a brief amount of time. :) Sun looked more like a bright moon!! hehehe..
Left the place at 9.30 AM as we were hungry and planned to visit the 'Bhoga narasimha swamy temple' in the foot of this hill. It's situated in Nandi village. With dravida style architecture, this temple is interesting as an monument and quite a few kings did spend time and resources on maintaining this temple. After a few prayers said we left the place and headed back to Bangalore with a stop for breakfast. Traffic had caught up on the drive back and we were making slow progress to our apartment once we reached the city traffic limits. A worthy ride to a beautiful place... Would want to visit this place sometime in the evening too.. :)
I've added some snaps from the trip here for a change... :)

definetly, maybe

This is the title of a movie. IMDB link. Watched it sometime last week and i think it's a very well written and directed movie. Screenplay was superb i felt.
To cut the post short i'll jus leave it here.... jus watch this movie and you'll know why i'm rating this movie highly. If you are a romantic movie person, do watch this. :)

Funny! or, maybe not ;)

Well, this is something that is posted here just for fun intention. No offenses to anyone meant.
This morning when i was walking to catch my cab to office, i happened to notice a girl with a t-shirt having a phrase on the front side of the clothing saying "Destiny favors the brave". Good thought i must say. :) There is a lot we should think on this phrase. Very very strong words. But then, the slogan on the t-shirt was placed in such a way that the words were right on top of ahem.. you know, the soft parts ;) Jus thought to say this because people could take a wrong meaning because the placement of slogan and the slogan together might send across a wrong message.. if intentions are not right.. ;)