We will keep looking up to our captain Niket Misra

Four years ago, a post on ADDA is how my foray in recreational cycling started for me. Niket was the initiator and that's how the Nitesh Cycling Group started: 11-Aug-2017 at 9:20 AM. My first rides with my single speed MTB was all about crossing the two flyovers in Hoskote to reach the tea time point at Nandi Grand. 

Slowly as the team advanced, the distances increased from 30 to 50 to 70 to 100. I advanced as well investing in a jersey & shorts and then upgrading to my hybrid cycle. This was around the time when the team advanced to road bikes; Siba and Arvind ji first with their 520s. Then Niket brought in his Blue beauty. 

I was pretty irregular compared to the group, but every ride in which I was able to participate, I enjoyed it to the fullest. I was usually the weakest rider. At that time, I was thinking it was the hybrid bike, but clearly it was the rider. This was the time we started getting faster and although I was riding solo for the most part, still the team used to wait for me at catch up points and help me out. 

The addition of my road bike changed the dynamics a lot. A month or two in, Niket introduced another fantastic thing for this group: BBCh, racing, ITT. November 2020 was the turning point for me, this was the time I transitioned from a casual weekend rider. I started training for events and this was the start of the transformation for me - both mental and physical. 

Dec 2020, Arvind ji and myself - riding the holidays to hit targets, a casual ride turned into a 150 k ride. This was the trigger that led into the world of Endurance, Brevets and Randonneuring. And now there is no looking back. 

Niket ji, all those rides when we rode abreast or drifting one behind the other, the chatty breaks, the events, training and participations, all the conversation about tech, gear, whats next, how to get faster, better. Best of memories. 

You have really mentored me as a trainer in this world of cycling which I so much enjoy now. Thanks for being with me and lets continue this partnership even though we may not be able to ride physically together a lot like what we used to do. Fare well buddy and good luck as always.

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. 

Aadhaar Seva Kendra (ASK) in Bangalore - Such a breeze.

Aadhaar Seva Kendra (ASK) is now open in Bangalore. This is located in the Basavanagudi - South End Circle area. The ASK is a stone throw from the South End Circle Metro Station.

This brings the focus firmly back on Aadhaar. Previously banks and post offices were the only avenues and the experience was a bag of crap. 

The ASK is modelled on the lines of the Passport Seva Kendra and starts with a queue for Token, then a document verification queue, payment and then registration or update services of the Aadhaar.

The process was super quick and super easy. After standing in queues for tokens in front of SBI bank for hours together just to be denied tokens since only 10-15 are issued each day and taken for rides by the bank staff (treated like shit), the experience in the ASK brought solace to my soul. Thanks. Amen. 

Read my review on Google: https://goo.gl/maps/3MtExNPGpQKM8Wvc7

The 12th of March, 2014

Pallavi spent over night at the hospital - Fortis @ Bannerghatta road. The OT was scheduled for 8.45 am. Pallavi's mom was with her. 

It was almost 7.45 am when we (My mom, Arjun, Pallavi's dad and myself) got into the car to drive to the hospital. The road was full of early morning commuter traffic. Plus frantic calls from Pallavi for filling up the consent forms for the OT. Finally keeping cool prevailed and we reached close to 8.20 am. 

Consent form all done, Pallavi was wheeled into the OT and I was asked to suit up for entering the OT. It was freaky and I was nervous, but I also became the first family to see the just born being whisked out. Boy. Elation mixed with a little let down. But Pallavi was happy or appeared to be so. It was more difficult for me to underplay my emotions.

Outside and in plain clothes, started the big list of messages, whatsapps, phone calls for conveying the message. Somu, Pallavis cousin came by and helped in getting the hospital admission for the new born. Mom was making sure Arjun was warming up to the new born when Pallavi was being wheeled in after the procedure. 

Sudha athai and Sunil came by to spread the congratulations. It was a lot of merry. Arjun was feeling hungry and I dropped him and his Apaai back home for him to have lunch and the mid afternoon siesta. I rushed back to the hospital to get some quality time with the new born without Arjun getting J. He really loves his papa... 

Pallavi was wide awake, but in of stiffness and pain, but was chatty and thus started a conversation about the name for the new born. Frankly all our plans was around a girl baby. We had a name picked out. We had plans to move to a bigger house and a bigger car. All thats out. Back to the name. We picked one from the shortlist. It is making its way to the BBMP registers as I make this post. More on the name later. 

Medical insurance pre-op required some work and that was promptly dispatched. A box of chocolates for the people visiting us at the hospital and a  box for the Nurses Station. By now return messages started pouring in, and this was all done for. Pallavi's mom was to spend the night at the hospital and I drove back home with Pallavi's dad. The day was phenomenal, but a good indication of the days ahead. 

So thats how God spoke it. Two boys it is. He has designed for Arjun to have a little brother to spar and for the little one to have a big brother in Arjun. One thing that is going to be simpler is that the love will be equally distributed, not just from us but from the family in whole. If it was a girl, then Arjun would have been J much much more. I think thats what was in Gods will... 

Volleyball

One of the good things I enjoy about living @ Springfields is that it has a 20k sq. ft ground. And a few gentlemen folks who man the Springfields Welfare Association (SWA) happened to be Volleyball enthusiasts and put an outdoor court on this ground.

So almost every evening, few folks (sometimes 3 a side to sometimes 4 teams of 7 members each) get together for a few games. Now that we have played almost for a year, the games have become of good quality.

I used to play Volleyball back in school. I used to enjoy it so much. I was one the most loved things for me at school. This was the teens. I have not played any sport in my 20s. Now I hope this changes in the 30s that an hour or two of Volleyball a day will keep me fit. Will it keep me flexible, I do not know. But its a thing I enjoy about every day @ Springfields.

ActivelyLazy

Its good to be back on blogger. The interface has changed. The google guys are doing a fantastic job.

Whats changed:

• Arjun is growing up, that will continue like forever. 
• Kiran came back from sailing with an injured finger. Got recuperated and is back to sailing on MOL Comptetence. You can track him here - http://www.marinetraffic.com or here http://www.facebook.com
• Sabrina got married. Been home for Diwali and then the wedding and came back an exhausted family. 
• Sujesh got married. This was fun. An extended family of 20+ folks with kids and bags taking the train to Tiruvarur and wedding over a couple of days. A week off at work, this was fun, the way wedding should be!
• We moved houses to an apartment in Spring fields. The apartment is great and the apartment complex is superb. 

More on whats not changed later.

Vinayagar leads the way forward.

Vinayaga Chaturthi Vaazthukkal. Folks enjoy the holiday season...

Mommy is in town for a couple days and is having a blast with her grandson.
Work is light since it is an end of release and that has let off a lot of steam.
Lots of folks have left Bangalore on vacation to their home towns or to places and traffic is very light...

Thanks Achu...

About 5 years back, before Pallavi and me got married (and were doing our rounds), we were visited by my youngest cousin. Done and dusted on his 10th exams, Ashwin (Achu) ventured out of his hill top world and embarked on a week's vacation of Bangalore.

It was a fantastic one week for the both of us. Pallavi was put up in a PG in Koramnagala close to my aunt's place where I was put up. Those were the days when my office day started at 11 and ended pretty much at 4. :), so basically lots of free weekday time unlike the present days.

Everyday for that week, Pallavi used to join us after work and we roamed all the hot spots of Bangalore. We did roam like crazy. Those were the times of no car and we used to take the autos everywhere. To sightseeing, to movies and to shopping. Achu had a halo of simplicity, innocence and amicability all around him. So much fun and laughter around, that it appears to have happened just yesterday!

Times have changed and that little brother has grown up. Much of the amicability and innocence is still intact and he has grown a persona that I have now come to admire. Now in college and notably the leader among us with cars, tech and gadgetry and stuff.

We have been wanting to have a picture of us framed every since Arjun become active, but look at what Achu has done for our wedding anniversary. Brother, you have done us proud and suddenly I am amazed its the same Achu who visited us 5 years past.

Thanks a lot Achu...

Achu's gift to us for our 4th wedding anniversary...

Work life balance

This week has been the most hectic ever. I don't remember it being this tough or this chaotic ever. 

Day light is long gone and the night moon is ever smiling when I get home. 9 - 9:30 - 10. It has been progressing as the days of the week pass by. I have to thank the two creatures at home who wait for me with smiles on their faces and good food steaming and ready for me when I get in. 

Thanks dudes and hope these tough times bade by soon.

Guess what???

,,,,kuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuulluolxollko

... Guess!

Updates...

Arjun is 6 months and growing up fast. His activities and expressions have more than doubled. 

He has advanced from gazing at objects of interest to now trying to grab stuff and an occasional attempt to leap and just go for it. 

He is an interesting thing to just watch for and is more than a full time job. His crawl is not yet perfect and this saves some effort for us, nevertheless we need to be careful. 

Work is tight and she has also resumed work and its a tightrope that we walk everyday.

Subramaniam

So where do I start? Class V is when this friendship started. That's when I joined the school. He was already in there, may be he joined a year or two earlier. He was the son of the most famous dentist in town. Nishanth joined the school a year later in Class VI.

How did we become buddies? I do not know, may be we were always buddies. But we were the gang of 3, always together during break times and lunch hours, we did a lot of crazy school stuff together. We were in the school band, he was the drummer and then went on to become the band leader and performed with a lot of grace. Nishanth was always the side drummer. I joined in as with the bugle and then went on to become the trumpeter.

Lots of incredible times. He was in the neighborhood and come into the hostel for the studies times. I also had to join in being the principal's son. Subramani or STN as he was fondly known as, was a guy with a lot of flair. He was the prince of the 'A' section, the only one. The most friendly guy around and certainly the most talked about.

Certain stuff that come back to my memory. He was quite a studious guy but not the most serious one. He would be remembered by the teachers (and my mom) for getting all the answers correct on the exam papers, but still will loose marks because of not tagging his answers to the right question numbers. I think it did not matter much to him as much as getting the bookish knowledge as full as possible onto the answer sheet.

A very good dancer he was. Self created and an ardent follower of MJ. Western dance came on naturally and effortlessly to him and he was on the annual day performances all the school years. Me and Nishanth had a lot of catch up to do and some of the steps that he produced, required a lot of effort to replicate. Over the years in school he has given innumerable performances, Western (O-Pa), Karagattam and Tamil folk too.

When we were about to finish school (exams over and waiting for the results), he and Nishanth always used to say that I would secure the first mark and I used to chide them, given the fact that not even once during school I did secure first. But he had a genuine heart and may be because of his words, I don't know, I did secure the first mark, topping with two other folks. I will always remember you for that. 

We finished school and he went to do BDS and then his MDS, Nishanth and I went the engineering way. We were in contact for some time after that as well, but recently fell out of touch. Subramani is a name that everybody in my class and most in the school will always remember with a tall figure who is always on a smile, that's forgotten how to end.

Life is sometimes so very cruel. It takes away some gems and leaves behind a big void. We hear of accident mishaps so many times and people losing their dear ones. It only strikes you when you have lost somebody dear. It changes everything, all is well one instant and gone to nothing in the next. It has shattered some of the confidence I had in the 'good life'.

STN, this one is for you. We have lost a dear friend and I wish I had a one more chance to tell you how dear you have been to me. During all the years in school and beyond I have learned a lot from you. That is part of what I am today. You are somebody unforgettable and your memories will live on with all of us. May you rest in peace. Pray there be some solace in these troubled times.

Toothless smile.

Its 1:30 AM and he has been up for an hour. His mommy has been sleeping, well she is tired and she deserves to rest. I am watching over him and he seems to be very far from anything close to sleepy. 

I put him on my lap and start rocking him, gently at first and then increasing the rhythm as my efforts bear no fruit. After about half hour of rocking, the little eyes start to droop. And as the eye lids close in further, the rocking gets smoother. 

Finally as the eye lids close tight and shut, a second or two later, the toothless jaws open up in a smile of divinity and contentment that is so serene, I wonder if there is anything more joyous to watch.