Leh Ladakh Srinagar bike trip

Day 1 ----------------------Delhi to Chandigarh


The excitement of a big long adventurous trip kept me awake almost the whole of Friday(29th June) night.
Random imaginations of Ladakh and bikes and sometimes the risks involved. I kept thinking i
need to sleep but somehow could not. Finally fatigue overcame all the random thoughts and
i fell asleep by 4AM and by 415AM the alarm rings :-). Couple of snoozes and i was up.
Shashi had already given a missed call. I was ready by 445 and Shashi gets the cab after
10 more minutes. The journey before the big journey had started. We picked up Sandy and Manish
on the way. Thanks to Manish's and Sandy's skills we started from their homes only after 6AM.
Finally we reach Bengalooru international airport by 7AM. Thanks to Shashi's and my ignorance
we did not have a print out of our flight ticket :-P. We waited for Balu and Haseeb who carried
the print out of everyone's tickets. While waiting we had our breakfast.

        The first delay in our mega trip started from day 1. Sandy's flight was on
time but for some reason our flight was delayed almost by 45 minutes. The sleeplessness
was not only my syndrome it was a common problem. We all realized that none of us had slept
properly. I caught some sleep in the flight. Finally Mr.Pilot announced we are descending
to IndiraGandhi International Airport. The first nightmare came true when Mr.Pilot announced 42 degrees
outside. Delhi indeed gave us a very warm welcome :-). So warm we were all sweaty and wet!

    Sandy and his group had already reached the railway station and had struck a deal
with the railways workers to pull out all 5 of our parceled bikes for 2k. Meanwhile Ajit and
Bilal hired a Bullet 350 and a thunderbird respectively. The railways parcel division for some
reason is still in the 1950 mode. Manual ledger entry for each small parcel and 2 counters
for the whole of New Delhi railway station. For all those who want to try this stunt allocate
at least half a day just for this in your itinerary. We had to wait for almost 2-3 hours in long
queues after paying 2K for pulling out the bikes "safely". We did not mind this. We were here
for an adventure and this for sure was a good start. I searched for the nearest eating joint.
To my luck i found one very close to the parcel center. Ginger hotel. Best thing was "AC" :-D.
Ok jokes apart good filling food and by 5 o clock we started after initial posing and clicks.
We headed towards Chandigarh amidst a horrible evening Delhi traffic asking the route towards
Chandigarh at least 10 times. Finally we hit the GT Karnal road. Haseeb somehow missed one road
and ended up rounding New Delhi railway station again :-P. We waited for him in the outskirts
and kept posing. Finally Haseeb joined and we started.

        Good flat roads. Easily touched 80kmph and sustained it for a long time. So
the first day ride turned out to be a cake walk as we ripped past Karnal and then Ambala.
I had heard stories about tasty Dhabas between Ambala and Chandigarh. We stopped in one
such Dhaba. The food was decent i must say. This is where we met one more biker's gang
which happened to be our co-gang which gave outstanding support through out the trip.
Mr.Manthan Adiga's gang :-). We finished dinner and set off to finish the remaining
small part for day 1. We reached Chandigarh by midnight. I must say awesome planned city.
After some searching we finally gave up and asked a Auto Rikshaw who took us to
a "sastha" but not so "sundar" lodge. Hell yeah! We only had to sleep somehow for 6 hours
or so. So all slept off by around 2 AM in Chandigarh. That's it for Day 1 :-).

--------------------True Engineer---------------------

He was not a politician, He was not the king, He was not the son of a filthy rich man, he was
a common man. Yet he transformed the lives of millions. He changed the way people lived,
thought and imagined.
He was just an engineer but a true engineer of the highest quality! Yes friends i am talking
about our very own Dr. Sir M Vishweshwaraiah.

Through out our lives we keep thinking of changing our own fate. This man changed the fate
of our state, our country and the fate of many other countries.

We know Mandya as a very prosperous, Irrigated lush green district. None of us know
that a 100 years back it was a dull, dry and yet another backward one. Thanks to Sir MV
and his pioneering efforts from 1909-1912 world famous KRS dam was built. A classic
example of how one wise man with real good intentions can impact. Folks note the
time period 1909-1912!! 3 Years and a huge dam with no real modern machinary was
built which is still passing the test of time and Nature! For a while think of "Namma Metro!"

He was not only an engineer but a true innovator. A guy who had keen forethought
and most importantly a vision. It is very unfortunate that "we" so called "software engineers"
do not know the basics of Basic engineering disciplines and yet call ourselves "Engineers".
We can not designate Sir MV a civil engineer. He is an "Engineer". He was the brain
behind many hydro electric power plants in our state. Now dont call him "Electrical engineer".
This man visits Jog falls and does not utter a word in appreciation of the beauty but just says "What
a waste of resource?!". This small incident a testimony to his passion for develoment of
the nation. He was also instrumental in introducing the sanitary system in hyderabad and even usman sagar
and himayat sagar reservoirs, a long bridge in Bihar to name a few.

Now if you guys think his life is all about engineering then hold on! The university of Mysore
was one of the fruits of Sir MV's dedication. He also founded the Kannada literary academy.
Sandal oil industry, paper, bhadravati iron and steel works! One person impacted industry,
irrigation, education and literature.
One engineer did all this. One man did all this. One common man!

A classic example of how powers given to able, innovative and good hearted person
changes the geography of a state. We all are still impacted by his good deeds and ideas even
today. From the water we drink, electricity we use to the sanitary system. Hope even we can
follow him today and make an impact. Hell yeah! We have challenges but dint he have challenges
back then??! Of course yes but his will and the attitude has shown us the way.

Thanks to my friend Ramya Parshy for sharing this inspiring and enlightening video.

Friends please do take 18 minutes of your time and get inspired.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=IN&v=f1LbPgeTekw

Thanks Sir MV. I take a bow. Thanks for the inspiration.

(: Combined studies with a five year old :)

This weekend I was casually reading through a technical manual. A lazy Saturday morning sitting on my sofa, legs stretched with few pages of manual in my hand. I was doing this just to convince myself that I was not wasting my weekends completely!! Whatever!! It was relaxing and nice. Amma went out to buy vegetables. On her way back she went to a neighbors place. She brought along with her our neighbors five year old grand daughter. She was getting bored at her place so she came along with amma. As she entered she noticed that I was reading something.
With a 5 year old's curiosity she asked me "Are you doing homework"? I replied "Hmmm....I am reading a technical manual". Then suddenly something flashed and I said "Yes I am doing my Homework". (I was indeed doing my homework for the weekend :) ) She quickly replied" I have to finish my drawing homework". She ran back to her place and got a sketch pen set and a drawing book. She sat next to me and started drawing. I recollected my nursery days. I was my drawing teachers nightmare. I was really hopeless at that. Even today i remember the plant I had drawn with a flower and leaves. The leaves were looking more beautiful than the flower I had drawn (relatively of course!!).
As she started drawing I started to ask her questions and give my own stupid answers. “Are you drawing a sun? Fill it with red......Red looks very good " etc.....( The drawing genius giving his golden tips to a five year old lol). She patiently listened to all my non sense. After a while I got back to my Tech manual (Thank god I did that!!). For a 5 year old she was remarkably quiet. Once I got into that manual I was into my own world. After twenty odd minutes she got up. She said "I finished my homework". I just took the drawing sheet from her and started to figure out what she had drawn. For a five year old she had done very well. There was much more than a Red colored rising sun!!
I asked her to explain what she had drawn. She started "Sun is shining so it is a day. There is an ice cream trolley. A boy has bought two ice creams and he is carrying one in each hands. There is a girl who is playing with
A heart shaped balloon (was that her heart!). The boy is eating one ice cream and carrying the other ice cream for the girl playing with the balloon!!!!!!!” She imagined and captured so much in twenty odd minutes!!! All I had managed was five pages of my technical Manual!
Imagination has nothing to do with the age or experience. We have all heard about this and may even believe in it. When someone actually demonstrates this we will be dumbstruck!! I learnt one real good lesson for life!! Anyone can teach us a lesson. It is up to us to learn from them!
Sayonara :)

SMS FROM APPA

The age old generation gap always persists. I always felt my appa never made use of the technology properly. On the contrary he always felt that so called cutting edge technologies are spoiling the so called discipline and the order in today’s youth.
Let me come straight into the topic of discussion. These days all of us have cell phones. Even though to start with he was opposing the usage of cell phones as unnecessary commodity, today even if he forgets to wear his watch he always carries his cell phone. Both of us use cell phones.
The difference in opinion is with respect to its usage. He always thinks it is basically a phone and should always be used to call. I believe in optimal usage. If something can be conveyed in few words then i type an SMS and send only otherwise
i call. Most of us send and receive these text messages. All are familiar with the SMS lingo. Making the shortest word even shorter cutting off the vowels lol rotfl brb etc etc etc. A prank SMS from one of my friend had almost convinced my appa that his son was committed. It almost took two minutes of scrolling for me to show that it was a prank forward with no real emotions. The inherent ambiguity in the SMS lingo due to the optimal usage of letters made him feel it was ridiculously meaningless and far more confusing. I agree to this point because even I have got confused few times. This does not mean it is completely useless.
A few months back he got promoted as a regional manager and his responsibilities increased. From a single branch to over a hundred branches. He was finding it difficult to communicate with all the branch heads calling them up individually. Many a times the same message is conveyed to all of them. He discussed this problem with one of his peers and was a little surprised by his answer. He said he sends an SMS to all of his subordinate managers!
For the very first time he came to me asking help regarding SMS!! I soon recognized the best option as to create a list and forwarding it to the list. Big deal! We have been doing this for ages now sending forwards to a list! For him it was a pleasant surprise for the first time something related to SMS. I recollected the days when he used to teach me how to write letters. He was learning this new thing with great enthusiasm.
This showed me that he was just a twenty three year old father (Not a twenty three year old's father!!!) :). Appa did not stop at this and accept the solution. He called at least ten folks in the list and confirmed that message was indeed delivered to them!! Finally after all the confirmations he was happy with the solution.

A few days passed. Amma got an insurance renewal reminder post. She called up appa regarding this matter since the reminder was addressed to his name and he was out of town. A few minutes later I saw appas number on my cell phone. At the first glance I thought he was calling me for some reason and pressed the call receiving key. To my shock it was not a call it was an SMS!!! It said:

"Bike insurance policy to be renewed immediately with united India insurance"


When i first read this i could not stop laughing for 2 minutes lol! As i read it again and again i realized how crisp, clear and precise the message was! This was my appas style of messaging. I have got many romantic forwards, hilarious jokes, philosophical ones too but this message from appa will surely remain as one of the most liked message of mine. We tend to laugh at their formal ways of dealing with things and forget their level of maturity in communicating things. In the same way they tend to misunderstand the new technologies dismissing them as rubbish and waste of time. Neither of us is completely right nor completely wrong. As time progresses the right blend of innovations coupled with good old values will definitely help us making the world a much better place.
Leaving you at this note :).

Keerthy