Whats in it?

Whats with Male Bollywood singers?? Udit Narayanan, Kumar Sanu and others cannot pronounce words in thamizh (Tamil) songs properly. Especially words like vazha, kaatril. But listen to Shreya Ghosal who is also from bollywood but can pronounce correctly with proper stress.

Why do music composers spoil their best compositions by rendering their own voices or humming. Example Ilayaraja. Hes such a great composer but the composition ‘Mad Mod Mood Fugue’ from his album ‘How to Name it’ becomes irritant when hes humming, otherwise a beautiful composition.

Generali Something

Diwali celebrations: Bangalore should have a law like in Chennai with regard to diwali cracker bursting. In chennai you are not supposed to burst crackers after 10:00pm. Last night after reaching Bangalore, my sleep was disturbed till 12:00 due to bursting of crackers all around. Am not against cracker bursting, even I do it.
Candle light dinner: You can always be assured of candle light dinner atleast once a week in Bangalore. Thanks to Karnataka Electricity department.
Power dressing: If you really want to catch others attention go for power dressing. Formal shoes, formal pants, t-shirt and not tucked inside. Howzzat.
Pink slip strategy: Is this possible in cricket. Yes, you tell to media that player X cannot play due to injury, when you actually dont want to him to play. Followed for long, Anil Kumble is the latest.
Cheap travel: Do bus hopping from Bangalore to Chennai, you can reach Chennai in 8hrs and under Rs.150/-. Atleast 2times cheaper than booking bus and travelling.
Utilisation of time: You wake up early in the morning since your mind & body is tuned for past few weeks. But you can go for running since you got bad cold. How do you utilize this time, blogging, tweeting, checking mails!! Just an observation, my running speed in Bangalore is better and steadier than in Chennai…

ECR Run

First time am running with Chennai Runners. Run along East Coast Road on 19th Oct, I decided to cut down from 35kms and do a 20kms. Running in Chennai is definitely a different experience than running in Bangalore due to heat and humidity. Also, the earlier day was in IITM for BCC2, after the run had to get back there again.
The organising was really done well with support from Apollo Hospital. Some of the runners also decided to be volunteers, like I did last year. Hats off to the organisers and volunteers and Apollo Hospital.
I ran with my bro, Shyam and decided to run at a decent pace. We both had bottled lime juice from home. I found this particularly better than Gatronade or Electrolyte (both taste I hate) and this is sweeter than plain water. After 10km mark, we met Karthikeyan running towards 10km mark. We joined KK. At 10km mark we asked another runner who was volunteering to join us in the run. Maintaining a decent pace of close to 10km/hr, after 15km mark I increased my speed.
In the end I finished 23kms in 2hrs20+mins.

BarCamp Chennai 2

IIT, Madras the venue for BCC2. Meeting the usual suspects, Syed, Sukumar, Kribs, Aswin, Viki, Kausikram, Vijay Anand, Rupya Ganesh. Apart from that a poor turnout less than 100, far less than what was expected. Maybe the seasonal rains are to be blamed.
Met new guys, Viru, Deepak, Bala.
One session stood out. This was a session on Open Source mapping of street roads. The project is being done by bunch of college guys. Its really a very detailed mapping being done. Since the users contribute there will be more accuracy in directions. Would be very useful if there are guys in every city doing this. Would help tourists a lot. Also, not everyone in city knows every roads, would be helpful even there.

Best part was:
Person 1: Inga smoke pannalama? (Can I smoke here)
Person 2: No problem
Person 3: Yaar kitta Kings irruku? (Anyone having Kings cigarette)

2nd best:
Kiruba’s paisa vasool theory for wearing jacket stitched for reception. Not sure if he got anything back!

80kms of running this week

3 days of 21kms and 2 days of 10kms. According to Garmin the new watch which I’ve got, my timing has improved and so has my speed. But am maintaining a steady speed so as not to get tired easily when running Ultra Marathon.
All that I take along is a bottle of lime juice to regain lost fluids. Lime juice I found to be better than normal water. This is a cheap alternative to Gatronade and other liquids available in market.
These days the early morning is also very nice in Bangalore with cool breeze and some times slight drizzle.

GMail Goggles

This is a real good concept which is definitely bound to prevent lot of those unintended mails. Those unintended mails which create rift between partners/friends.
The series of Maths problems could frustrate you and in the end make you discard the mail itself. It would be great if goggles could be activated for specific user-id’s rather than for all mail id’s.
In drunken state its very common for anyone to send mail to the person with whom he/she last fought with.
Click here for more on this new concept.

Road Trip

Those waving of small outstretched hands, group of guys crowding around bikes in admiration & respect, smiles while riding past, blush on face of village belles. Well well well, thats why heart of India is villages. Lush green fields, rich rivers, mist covered mountains, unspoilt beauty.

Long stretches with no sight of people. Roads filled with potholes and stones, few stretches of neat roads. Few close shaves with oncoming vehicles, a real close encounter with a beautiful snake. The snake got me confused, whether to take a snap or stand still. I chose the latter 🙂

Total distance travelled – 2500+kms.

Mode of Transport – Royal Enfield Standard Bullet

Route –
Bangalore – Tumkur – Chitradurga – Hubbali (Hubli) – Belgaum – Kolhapur – Pune – Mahad – Malvan – Panjim – Margoa – Karwar – Kumta – Honnavar – Sagar – Shimoga – Berur – Tumkur – Bangalore.

Places visited –
In Maharashtra:
Pune, Malvan, Tarkarlli, Devbagh
In Goa:
Benaulim, Colva, Margoa
In Karnataka:
Gokarna, Om beach, Jog falls, Shimoga

Places to eat –
Any road side dhaba is the best choice.
Pune:
Manmeet Chaat shop on FC Road.
Malvan:
Hotel Soyba, bamboo (very cheap. I got a big plate of crab masala for Rs.25/-), Motel Sonchafa, Hotel Chaitanya.
Dont forget to try out kaju burfi, very cheap and real good.
Benaulim:
L’amour beach resort, Castello’s nest
Gokarna/Om:
Hotel Om.

For photos click here.