Sunday, December 23, 2007

Long Drive.....

It was very unusual to rain in the month of december in bangalore.... it was very cold outside and it was raining as well.... no one was at home other than me..... i got up from my bed and came out of my house..... felt the cooool air inside my lungs..... it was still drizzling and i could see the green leaves in the garden are very happy .... tiny water droplets dripping from the leaves..... i took the newspaper in my hands and prepared myself a cup of coffee and was standing outside feeling the cold weather.... all of a sudden i remembered i am late for office..... but that was the last working day in the year of 2007 before shutdown......

With such a great weather and rain i felt its not a day to work..... all of a sudden something struck to my mind why not go on a long drive in my car.... called up loki and chandru and started off.... it was not all that great until we touched the outskirts of bangalore with all the traffic but once out of bangalore the roads welcomed me to feel it.....

We headed towards tumkur with no plans of what to do in tumkur..... but it kept raining all along i droped the window a bit to feel the droplets of water on me..... it was simply soooperb felt like its just how you feel the beauty around you......it started raining heavily and i was not able to see the road properly....

Once in tumkur we went to the place were i played lots of cricket in my childhood well i think it was wish i had my cricket bat and ball in my car...we played for some time and as expected i lost the ball in the bushes......

Then we started to move towards namachelume.... i remembered this place because i used to go here in cycle with friends and the forest around used to scare us during that time..... but now lots have changed but still due to rains it looked lot more greener.....

After some time in this place we started back to bangalore hoping to visit it again very soon..... but felt like lived that day of life the way it had to be leaved.... felt everything on that day was completely absorbed into mind.....

Felt like an empty road, coool breeze and light music will give lots of relaxation to mind and sole.....

Saturday, December 22, 2007

Bannergatta.....

I had not seen Bannergatta even after staying in bangalore for almost 3 years..... got up one fine day and asked my sister and cousin to get ready and left for bannergatta national park in my new car..... here are some snaps of the same......even though i didn't like the idea of shooting the wild animals in cage but i am very happy the tigers are in good health and also... i got some good shots of the big cats.....

My new cat......
















He's got amazing looks....
















He was all ready for my camera.....
















Lady in White....
















I love cobras......
















Look at his simle......
















Mr.Croc..
















I am very hungry don't dare to come near me.....
















Am i lost?
Great i got a good lunch....















i am very hungry....
.















At least allow me to rest here.....
i am sick of humans.....















Mr.Gajaraj.....








Sunday, December 09, 2007

Irupu Falls and Bhramagiri....

Even though i enjoyed the trek for my own self i didn't enjoy this particular trip for the group i had gone with..... basically i never felt like i was with people of a same group.....everything looked sooo different from our MR...group...

I don't want to write much about this trip.....other than few things which i enjoyed for myself and the details of this trek......

Getting down to irupu falls to enjoy the chillness of water was one such amazing moment.....The force with which the water was hitting our body was really thrilling.... we just went below the falls it was very slippery as well as very cold but all worth it......

A small trek in the early morning and sleeping all alone on a big rock.... this was something i waited for some time now.... wanted to be left alone from everyone but somehow, there also i could hear people shouting.... how strange u find humans every corner........

The path to bhramagiri is very tier some and painful anyway i was a bit injured and couldn't take up the challenge neither did i feel that, this time i should try myself.... rather wanted to be myself for some time.....


On the technological point we were able to track the digital route of this trek through our new GPRS... here is the link for the same....

You can find lots of details about the rout path and other stuffs in this link......



Irpu - Narimale - Munikal Caves - Brahmagiri Trek at EveryTrail

Map created by EveryTrail:Share GPS tracks

Friday, November 23, 2007

Boys with their Birds

When i was a kid i used to watch a TV serial "Street Hawk" -- The man ...The machine.. The power.... This is exactly what i remembered when i first drove Thunder Bird from Royal Enfield.... The sheer sound.. the stability has made a big dent in my mind to own this bike.... its a passion to drive this bike....its a feel like people just respect you for driving this bike on road... once you drive this bike you would never love to drive any other bike....


Through our friend sripad we came to know that Royal Enfield sponsors few bikes for adventure lovers to promote biking..... we contacted them and we were able to get 4 Birds.... for our trip to Bandipur,Masanagudi.... Well we didn't have a definite plan to the place the whole idea was to enjoy the drive.... so planed to start as early as possible....

We started as early as 6.30 in the morning.... 4 birds rocked all along the road.... the formation we kept made people wonder all along..... taking snaps from their cars.... such was the beauty....... The first stop was in Lakshmi's house in mysore..... We had a heavy breakfast and started to move towards Himavad Gopalswamy betta..... We were a bit unlucky as the day was very bright and we couldn't see much clouds in this place otherwise its like walking in the clouds... its a beautiful place with a small temple often visited by elephants..... we walked a bit along the grasslands just have a view of the beautiful forests.....

From gopalswamy betta we started moving towards masanagudi.... Masanagudi is around 15kms from Bandipur but it is in tamilnadu... hence we need to cross the checkpost.... but what was strange was... bandipur even though it is with in karnataka.... you are put in roaming and you will be charged for roaming calls.... we discussed how the telephone operators take the customers for a ride with no one asking against the same..... But probably to be realistic its a bit difficult to define boundaries for signals.....

The drive on our birds along this route between gopalswamy betta to masanagudi was really great.... its thick reserve forest on both sides, with your eyes not able to see anything beyond a few 100mtrs.... And going by bike in the evening was pleasing, however we had taken a bit of risk as well.... On the way we found elephants, spotted deers, peacocks lucky we didn't land in any trouble.... especially after diwi doing the stupid thing of getting down from bike and taking the snap of the elephant... about which we later came to know that it had killed few people in recent times....

This stretch of drive was one of the best drives.... for bullet boys... coool breeze... thick forests on both sides of the roads... and every individual driving at 40km/hr feeling every bit of breeze against them.... enjoying the beauty of the empty roads... We reached masanagudi at around 7 and then we went to a hotel to have dinner.... the dinner was pretty good.... i dont remember the name of the hotel but it should be green park i belive... it was very calm and tasty food....

The lucky thing was sandeep had his relatives in masanagudi and our issue of staying for the night was solved.... well i would love to make a strong point on this small family.... that was an amazing display of love and affection for the people who they had never seen before.... its very difficult to show such care in this current materialistic world..... well this is one reason why we indians should be proud of our culture..... The food served by meera aunty and the hospitality shown the entire family was simply amazing.... no words....to match.....and also not to forget the enthu of our rajni fan sachin....

Early sunday morning we decided to drive towards ooty as we came to know that the drive would be very great..... yes it was cold and pleasing especially the ghat section drive was very cool.... we were not interested in visiting Ooty as we knew it would be overcrowded... we enjoyed the drive and started turning back around 5kms from ooty... Again it was amazing fun to switch off your engine and just feel the bike on the return....well we could see that it reached the speeds of 60kms/hr such were the slopes.....

Such was the impression of bullet formation that once we parked our bikes in masanagudi people used to come and take snaps with our bikes........ We started back to bangalore from masanagudi at around 1pm.... Well everything was very smooth until gundlupete were in i was last in the formation and my bike broke down with a flat tyre.... i was lucky that my "hutch ka kutta" had followed me there i was able to establish contact with others who returned back to get a mechanic to fix it up........

Just after nanjangood we found a canal.... just instincts drive you guys crazy at times we just parked our bike and jumped into water..... the wilderness of bullet boys at its best.... it was great feeling to swim after a 2 day drive...... we finished our packed foods and again started back after an hours time in water.....

It was amazing drive back to bangalore on the mysore road with lights... we could see the indicators of all the 4 bikes following each other.... people loved the formation so much that they were not interested in breaking the formation.... they used to take snaps from their cars....such was the beauty....well got the feeling like you just deserve all the respect driving such an majestic bike.....

Route map:
Start time : 6.45am-Bangalore -- Mysore - Reached: 9am --140kms
Start time :12.30pm-Mysore -- Nanjangood -- Gundlupete - Reached: 3pm -- Take a right along the arch and drive 15kms to reach Gopalswamy betta (65kms + 15kms)
Start time : 5.30 pm Gundlupete -- Bandipur - Reached :6pm-- 20kms
Start time : 6.30pm Bandipur - Masangudi - Reached: 7pm - 15kms
Start time : 6.30am Masandagudi -- Ooty- Reached 8.30am - 30kms

Monday, October 29, 2007

Shangai.....

Before i landed in shangai... on official purpose i had a very different image of shangai,china.... I still considered china to be a developing country and expected it to be very much similar to india.... I don't say china is developed because just looking at one city doesn't give you the idea of what it is.... however the pace at which it is taking up work and the pride they take in to complete the same is amazing......













I was spell bound by the number of high rises over here.... its huge towers everywhere....i am not able to see the sky.....sooo many high rises.... i had never seen a city with so many high rises.... and the infrastructure is simply amazing to the population shangai holds...... roads/flyovers are worth seeing once...... i was thinking the same to construct a small flyover in bangalore they take hell out of time and play all the dirty politics to gain as much as possible..... there are certainly few things which india should learn from their neighbours....at least we should forget the false pride we have for our country without doing anything..... we are way behind any developed countries till date.... i agree we have got great culture..... but on the other hand we are a highly corrupted country no denial for the same..... if at all we need to rise to the standards of others....there has to be something which should be pride in doing.... rather than doing for the sake of doing....














Our politicians should be lot more educated and should have the willingness to challenge the rest of the word..... they should have a pride to move the country towards a different levels rather than filling up their own pockets.....





I do agree china is still poor.... but attest they are way ahead than india and what i see is they are definitely making tremendous progress in improving their standards compared to us.....





If they learn english.... they are going to outnumber and challenge us in every field..... we guys have to think and act on it before its toooo late......






Sunday, October 14, 2007

Red Hot......

Got Red Hot Swift..... Things are already running wild in my mind about my passion for traveling..... Only thing is i need to improve a bit on my driving skills..... and then i think i can manage...


I would love to drive alone...on empty roads.... with a bit of music...would love to stop at a lonely place and sit all alone......

I got the vehicle and as usual i had a big argument with my mom regarding the pooja... my mom insisted me to take the vehicle to a temple for pooja i didnot have an issue with that but the argument started when mom told they might charge around 300bugs for the same.... i was totally against.... i would rather give money for a cause..... anyway the priest did not ask anything and i had to settle down my temper....

Friday, October 12, 2007

Whats next.....

Today morning i got up....and all of a sudden i felt like i need some budget allocation to be done immediately....... 2 things were running wild in my mind......

A budget of at least 2 lakh rupees needs to be allocated for the same..... one is a Bullet.. a passion to be a Bullet owner..... and the other is a Digital SLR....

Bullet --> It will be either ThunderBird or Electra 5S (http://www.royalenfield.com/app/IN/)
Digital SLR --> Here i am a bit confused still need to study a lot however it will between Nikon and Canon. I am still studying various SLRs and various lens ...will update once i know certain things.....(http://www.photozone.de/active/feature/dslrs.jsp)

Probably i will be a proud Bullet owner somewhere between Dec 2007 - Feb 2008 and for SLR its still at least 6 months away.....but for these i have set the highest criteria in my wish list....

Monday, October 01, 2007

October 2.... Gandhi....

Its October 2... gandhi jayanti.... a holiday in remembrance of Mohandas KaramChand Gandhi.... few days back i read about gandhi... its not like i don't know about him.... it was more like why and how he thought.... i studied because right from my childhood i had seen lots of people who didn't like gandhi... hardly i have seen people who liked his ideas, so was thinking how he was such a big personality in the independence struggle....and still no one likes him to this day....

His ideas were hard to be digested or understood by young with hot blood.... Initially i used to think what a stupid concept he had..... why do we need to talk about peace with people who hurt you..... but later felt like implementing gandhi's ideology is not that simple its the most difficult thing on earth.... and something which has to come from heart....its more of a mind game.... killing you mentally..... many do argue with me saying gandhi's ideas were that of a coward..... i just laugh at them......

Well in the current world his ideas will not work always...... but yes this is a very strong way of representing yourself.... its very hard to control your anger..... you know your enemy is going to attack you....but still you need to take the attack without defending.....this whole idea itself totally against the nature...... and mentally u need to be very strong..... his main idea was i was brought to earth by god and i have the right to leave myself without being controlled by others....

Well one more thing is gandhi was more of a saint whoz intention was not freedom rather it was beyond people to think.... his idea was "vasudeva kutumbakam"....all are kids of god....lets remove the concept of country and boundaries..... yes a very difficult ideology to think and implement in the greedy world but what a beautiful concept..... which could wipe off the bloodshed.....but it was unfortunate his ideas were used by politicians in a different way.....

It requires a good understanding of gandhi's ideology to feel gandhi...