Foggy mornings ahead

Dussehra is over. And this brings about the start of the north east monsoon in southern India and the advent of winter. 

Yesterday’s cycling was also a foggy one. The fog cover was thick as we were crossing the Hoskote roll gate but then cleared after. 

Today’s morning there is no cycle ride since I am still recovering from riding 150+ kms over the long weekend, but the fog is very much there. 

It’s going to be foggy mornings henceforth. 

I love you Adhu

Life is always easier if you believe that you have given your best. Don’t compare with others. Different people have differing capabilities and inclinations. The circumstances covering you is not the same as the others.

Keep it simple and don’t think too much about it. Future is always bright and beautiful irrespective of what’s happening in the present because future is always a relative term. Hope is good, hope is real.

What has happened has happened well, what is happening is happening to the best of your abilities and what will happen will happen well.

Just move on. Love you Adhu.

Calm morning ride. Still no 100.

It was a laggard start because the body was not fully recovered from yesterday’s ride. But I was not going to miss the opportunity of today’s ride. 

We took the Chintamani road today. The chiller the weather is it takes a longer for the body to warm up. I think when I warmed up, I then hit a mild exhaustion. When I kept peddling my breathing gets used to this state of exhaustion and then my body keeps the state of riding. 

Was a decent ride. Still not able to match up with Niket on his Bianchi, fitness counts a lot on what amount of power you can put on the pedals. He was gracious enough that when I was tiring he let the guard down a couple notches for me to regain ground and catch up  

It will be fun training with the group and riding with the group. My first 100 k ride may be next time. 

Longest ride but Still waiting for the first century.

 

What a windy return. Loving the new road bike. It’s the machine pushing the man now. 

Road bike

After months of deliberation and weeks of planning I have landed my first road bike. Went for a Scott speedster 10 2020 my bike. This is a comfort geometry endurance type of road bike. It’s going to be fun. 

Cutting the queue

I am proud to be living in Bengaluru where queuing behaviour is the norm than the exception. I can say this after living for at least a couple off years of my adult life in other cities in India where concept of queue means a hundred arms stretched into the counter. Be it a movie theatre booking counter or a pharmacy counter. It was nauseating to live in such places. 

Anyways today in Bengaluru I was taking a suburban and the metro to be able to get to my work place and there were three instances of people trying to cut the queue. You may be surprised but there are a 100s of people who are patiently waiting their turn in the queue, so 3 of 100s is not bad odds at all. Generally the justification is that folks are late for their train/ metro and need a short cut. From the dressing and the behaviour you can say that education has still not done enough.

Today a well dressed man with an office bag in his 40s was trying to cut the queue in the entrance to Bayapanahalli Metro station. My friend and me who were in the queue but just behind - were like "What the?!!". We politely asked this man to respect the queue and take his turn and in response this man has the most weird answer. "I have already spent time in the ticket counter queue, so I am entitled to enter this queue without waiting!!!" 

This was the most weird justification to cutting a queue that I have heard so far and it left us both in splits. OMG, Ye Mera India!

The joy of finishing

Thanks to the Managing Committee of Nitesh Forest Hills Apartment Owners Association (NFHAOWA) for allowing me to organise the second edition of the Marathon events for residents. 

Nitesh Forest Hills and Nitesh Flushing Meadows are two phases of a single residential condominium community located in Seegehalli - far from the madding crowd, yet with accessiblity to ITPB and Whitefield. 

The layout of blocks within the phase wise development, the private spaces between the phases in the premises makes provides for a decent stretch which can be used for walking and jogging track. The community in general is very much into fitness - walking, jogging, yoga, sports activities and so on. Both these put together was the motivation for making a running track for conduct of short form Marathon events - 3 km, 5 km and 10 km events.

The race track layout

The laid out track track is approximately 900m and so its 3 rounds for a 3k, 5 rounds for a 5k and 10 rounds for the 10k. The very first version of this kind of event for Nitesh Forest Hills and Nitesh Flushing Meadows was in 2019 and was conduced on the night of 19-Jan-2019. For the 2020 event, named 2.0 the date was set to 1-Feb-2020 a Saturday. This event saw 300+ registrations in categories of Under 8, 8-12 Kids, 12-58 Adults and Seniors. 

Teaser

My boys 9 and 6 both ran the 3k events and my wife also ran the 3k under the adults category. Last year's event since I was organiser and officiating on the runs, I watched from the side lines cheering my many friends who were running. This time around I was fortunate to have have a different person officiating so I was able to participate in the 5k event. 

All our race bibs

The events were conducted between 4:30 pm and 10 pm with time slots to various categories. Kids ran first and both my boys completed the full 3 rounds. My younger one ran the rounds hands holding with two of his close buddies. By the time 3 rounds were finished, both of them were huffing and puffing with pink all over their faces. 

The adult events started about 8:00 pm with the 10k runners starting up first. 10 rounds is no easy play and it requires some practise and strong will. I realised this as I was running my 5 rounds. By the time I finished the 2nd round, I was already panting and realised that I need to slow down to work out a breathing rhythm. Thus rounds 3 and 4 were managed. Round 5 was the hardest but executing this 5k without making any stops or walking was very very satisfying. 

With fellow residents and friends

Till 3.0... 

Malaysia - Truly Asia

Kuala Lumpur - Fusion blend of ethnic Malay with Indian, Chinese and other imports. Liberal with the right spirit of tolerance for an Islamic country. Beautiful lush green is seen everywhere. Although the tropical climate and the 3m of rainfall a year helps, Malaysia does take in every effort from citizens to remain clean and beautiful.

Getting there - Bengaluru - KL convenient flights from IndiGo, AirAsia and others. We took an IndiGo flight. Booked though https://www.makemytrip.com 

Visa - eVisa or e-NTRI visa for Indians. Applied though portal: https://www.malaysiavisa.com.my submitted scanned PDF versions of Passport, Birth certificate for kids, Travel tickets and hotel confirmation. Payment is online. Visa was processed in 2 days and PDF document of the e-Visa was sent to the registered email address. 

SIM card - Grab one from the airport itself. Maxis and Digi are options. We went with Digi and they had a 7 day plan which worked perfect for us. It was quite good. There is no registration, no ask for any KYC etc, configuration is super quick and you have a local Malaysian number in no time. This is a MUST have. 

Grab Taxi - Download the app, its a super Uber and its very very convenient and cost effective. https://www.grab.com/my/download/ 

Attractions that we visited. 

Aquaria KLCC - an underground aquarium on multiple levels. Freshwater tanks, planted tanks, reef setups, saltwater, brackish, terrariums and palaudriums, this place has it all. The best first place to visit on this tour that the kids enjoyed so much and we also had a lot of fun.

KL Tower - This is in the KLCC area and since we stayed at the Grand Hyatt it was just a 5 min Grab ride. There are 2 tour options when you get there a visit to the observatory on the lower level or observatory plus sky deck visit on the top level. Take the combined ticket it is worth it. We visited the tower when it was already dark and the city scapes were well lit. 

Batu Caves and Shrines - First stop on a day trip. The shrines on the ground level followed by trek up the long and coloured flight of stairs and visit to the shrine on the top. Was a hot and humid day, get blessed and find your way back to the transport to continue the journey. 

Genting Highlands - After Batu caves the day trip took us to Genting. Fun ride in the cable car to the resort and mall on the top. Day excursion, the water theme park was unfortunately closed for renovation but shopping, indoor kids theme park and food was welcome and made up the good part of the day. Fun place but pricey. 

KL Bird Park - Short Taxi ride away from KLCC. This is a bird park where visitors enter into enclosures with birds.

Petronas Towers and Suria KLCC Mall

Malacca City Tour - Another Day tour that we booked from the Hotel's concierge desk. Churches, Museums, Religious harmony, city walks and the river side are main attractions. There is enough to do in Malacca that once can spend about 2 days in this place. We got a taste of the Baba Nyonya cuisine.