30 days --- 30 photographs

I recently came across a video on TED where Matt Cutts (http://www.ted.com/speakers/matt_cutts.html) an engineer from Google talked about his life changing experience by experimenting with a 30 day challenge of trying something new.

http://www.ted.com/talks/matt_cutts_try_something_new_for_30_days.html

It struck me instantaneously and I also thought of trying something similar myself. I thought starting with a 30 day photography quest will be a nice way to experiment with this idea. So come 9^th January 2014, and I started my 30 day photography marathon J

Day 1 (9^th January 2014)

This year has been one of the coldest winters for Bangalore. I wake up every day in the morning and look out through the balcony to judge how the day is going to be. This picture captures the view from the balcony overlooking the bamboo wind chime towards the new apartment building through a foggy outdoor.

Day 2 (10^th January 2014)

The neighborhood where I stay is newly developed. So there are quite a few construction projects happening around the area. A crane in one of the site is a "major attraction" for my 1.5 year old son, who is super excited to see the crane moving around while performing its job. Here is a view of the crane that can keep my son occupied for a quite long time.

Day 3 (11^th January 2014)

My mom loves gardening, especially flowers. So I had picked up some bit of that passion. I have tried to maintain a small garden of flowers that will enable me to practice my passion. This picture is of petunia flowers that are blooming at my balcony.

Day 4 (12^th January 2014)

Visited the "Madiwala Market" today to get some stuffs for home. This picture captures a snapshot of how the market would look to a passerby.

Day 5 (13^th January 2014)

This is a picture of my son Yash playing with his toy car. This is one of his favorite truck gifted to him by my brother/bhabi.

Day 6 (14^th January 2014)

Today is Bhugali Bihu (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magh_Bihu) and we along with our friends set up a Mezi to be lightened in the morning. This picture captures my son Yash with his friend Aadarsh in front of the "mini mezi" that was created. Don't they look like some gang of street fighters :)

Day 7 (15^th January 2014)

Surprise was awaiting me today morning. As I went to my terrace I saw a kite (bird) sitting at the top of my water tank. I wanted to seize the opportunity for an awesome capture and rushed down to grab my camera. By the time I was back, the kite had opened up its wings. This picture was taken of a flying kite.

Day 8 (16^th January 2014)

Though my neighborhood mostly comprises of individual houses, it have a fair presence of high rise apartment buildings. This picture shows the view of few high rise buildings as seen from my terrace.

Day 9 (17^th January 2014)

It was spotted by my son two days back. Since then the butterfly has been a regular visitor to our balcony. This picture is taken when the butterfly was resting on one of the petunia plant.

Day 10 (18^th January 2014)

Unfortunately I do not use public transport in Bangalore. I either travel by my car, or take my bike. Today I had to take the bus to collect my car after servicing. I enjoyed taking the bus after a long time (may be because I had a place to sit due to weekend J)

Day 11 (19^th January 2014)

Our son Yash keeps exploring different places where he can get cozy and enjoy his tasks. This picture shows him in his new discovery, a bucket.  He is seen playing a game of car race in my mobile phone.

Day 12 (20^th January 2014)

It’s an animal world. These are some of the toy animals of Yash, out of a bunch he has. He can identify all of them shown here and even name a few. While watching TV (NatGeo etc.), he loves to pick up the one he sees on screen.

Day 13 (21^st January 2014)

Honestly, this is not what I normally do – sit back to enjoy a sunset in Bangalore. But I wanted to have it in my list of 30 photographs. So here comes a beautiful view of the sunset from my terrace (including a bird flying back home J).

Day 14 (22^nd January 2014)

This geranium plant was nearly dying and with God’s grace somehow revived itself. Good to see it finally blooming with its beautiful bright red flowers.

Day 15 (23^rd January 2014)

This is the same crane from day 2. The picture shows the crane still working hard late through night. The crane also got a partner J.

Day 16 (24^th January 2014)

Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham’s Bangalore campus is just beside our layout. This picture is a night view of the college hostel in a long exposure image with few vehicles passing by through the layout.

Day 17 (25^th January 2014)

The construction workers of a nearby apartment building are being settled near my house. This picture shows the female members of the migrant workers waking up early in the morning and preparing meal for their family.

Day 18 (26^th January 2014)

**~** HAPPY REPUBLIC DAY **~**

Celebrating the republic day with this selective color picture of a beautiful yellow rose blooming in a bright sunny day.

Day 19 (27^th January 2014)

“Better late than never”. The packet of homemade special Bihu sweets finally arrived. Seen here are the Bihu sweets (Pitha: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitha#In_Assam) beside a traditional Assamese headgear (Jaapi: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaapi).

Day 20 (28^th January 2014)

“Play of Light and Shade”. This picture shows the magnified shadow of the staircase railing projected on the walls by the night lamp.

Day 21 (29^th January 2014)

Night view of the storage space of a construction site near my house. The marble slabs block almost half the approach road (seen in picture) to my house. The ghostly figure is a person inspecting the site.

Day 22 (30^th January 2014)

“Being Spiderman”. Can this spider bite convert me into powerful Spiderman?
“With great power comes great responsibility” J.

Day 23 (31^st January 2014)

While my better half takes care of all the important stuff, I attempt to provide a helping hand to her by doing this – watering the plants J.

Day 24 (1^st February 2014)

It’s a beautiful Saturday afternoon and the sky is shining bright. There are some moments when the sun plays hide-and-seek behind the clouds. This photograph is one of those moments!

Day 25 (2^nd February 2014)

Kaikondrahalli Lake is a great story of lake conservation in Bangalore. This lake was revived through active efforts by responsible citizens. Here is a picture of a beautiful sunset as seen beside the lake.

Day 26 (3^rd February 2014)

This is one of the lights purchased during this year’s Diwali. It is still hanging on our balcony and makes for a warm ambiance at times.

Day 27 (4^th February 2014)

Look who came visiting today – a baby “Praying Mantis”. It is praying to grow up as a strong and successful predator.

Day 28 (5^th February 2014)

"There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it." - Edith Wharton.
Lighted a candle today to feel both the darkness and the light at the same time.

Day 29 (6^th February 2014)

There are times when our son is deep in sleep by the time I leave for office, and we have to wait until the evening to bully each other when I am back from office. Lovely picture of our son deep in sleep and thanking my better half for helping me schedule my time.

Day 30 (7^th February 2014)

30/30 – It’s all done and time to harvest, “Quite literally actually J”.
Picture of today’s morning harvest of home grown tomatoes…

Trip to Kalavaarahalli betta (Skandagiri)

I have been there before, and I knew this was good. So when my friend called me up for a trek and night camping at “Kalavaarahalli betta”, I said YES without hesitation.

Kalavaarahalli betta OR Skandagiri is a place ~ 70 kms from Bangalore near a small town called Chikkaballapura. Trekkers mainly trek here overnight to view the splendid sunrise in the morning.

There are two routes to reach this place. One is to take a turn towards Nandi Hills and go further to Kalawara Village crossing Muddenahalli. This is shorter route than the one from Chikaballapur. Second one is to go to Chikkaballapura and then to Kalawara Village. From Kalawara Village ask for Omkara Jyoti Ashrama / Papagni Mutt. There is a shiva temple and vehicles can be parked there. This is at the base of the Hills.

We were 4 of them: Me, Pankaj Jaiswal (Jassi), Jyoti Prakash Deka (Deka) and Sikha (Deka’s wife). We planned to trek to the peak in the evening (and possibly see the sunset) and camp there for the night. See the sunrise the next morning and then trek back. We decided to go on our bikes. The plan was finalized with all the logistical details and each one of them was assigned their part of the preparation work.

We started from Bangalore on 3^rd of January in the afternoon @ 3:00 pm. We all got together at the outer ring road flyover, which turns towards Hebbal from K.R.Puram. After we redistributed our weights, we started our journey towards Chikkaballapura. The roads until BIAL was really good. We had to take a left turn in Chikkaballapura town (near a temple) that lead us to the Papagni Mutt. Bought some water on the way. We finally reached the base @ 5:15 pm.

After quickly freshening ourselves, we started on our trek towards the Kalavaarahalli betta peak. The bikes were parked in the base (its quite safe). There are guides easily available (if u need one), but we didn’t take any. The loads in our backpack had become quite heavy with the tents, sleeping bags, water and food in it. With none of us in our best of physique, we got tired soon and had to take frequent breaks on the way. The trek path is well marked and frequently visited. We finally reached the peak at ~ 7:30 pm after almost two hours of trekking. We missed the sunset by quite some time.

Now its time for some surprise for me. I saw vendors at the peak selling tea and snacks (which was missing the last time I came here). There were even campsites and firewoods on sale. We were pleasantly surprised (and also annoyed at the exorbitant pricing). We took some bread omelet and went to a campsite the vendor showed. It was a nice cozy place, a bit protected from the heavy winds that were beating the peak at that time. Temperature started dropping fast and we quickly had our tents erected. With enough of woods available, we started a campfire and made some lemonade. People were hungry and all gulped the Biryani’s we packed from Hyderabad House in Bangalore. The campfire continued afterwards with occasional lemonades and baby corn barbecue along with roasted potatoes. Believe me that was fun. As the wind started getting stronger, we decided to take shelter into our tents. We had a tough sleep at night with the gust of wind constantly beating the tents to wake us up throughout the night.

Woke up early in the morning (5:00 am) and re-lit our campfire. Had a quick session of lemonade and some cup-noodles. It was still quite dark. After the sky got brighter at 6:30 am, we moved towards the viewpoints for seeing the sunrise. It was extremely misty and foggy and the visibility level was very low. We quickly lost our hopes of seeing a sunrise. The chilly wind was really hard to bear. But to our surprise, the sun smiled at a height above the clouds and the fogs cleared. We quickly got it captured in our camera.

It was time to get back. We packed our bags and the tents. Collected the garbage we created to be thrown at a common place for disposal. Cleared the bills with the vendor from which we took the snacks and firewood.

We started our trek back to the base. Captured some pictures on our way back. After reaching the base we redistributed our weights on our backpack. It was time to drive back to Bangalore.

On our way back had a stopover for lunch at Green Park restaurant. Food was average. Finally reached Bangalore @ ~ 2:30 pm.

The whole trip was an wonderful experience, much better then the first trip I had because of the wonderful overnight camping and the campfire.

Important information:

Location: Kalavaarahalli betta (Skandagiri), ~70+ kms from Bangalore

Routes: There are two routes to reach this place. One is take a turn towards Nandi Hills and go further to KalawaraVillage crossing Muddenahalli. This is shorter route than the one from Chikaballapur. Second one is to go to Chikkaballapura and then to kalawaraVillage. From KalawaraVillage ask for Omkara Jyoti Ashrama / Papagni Mutt. There is a shiva temple and vehicles can be parked there. This is at the base of the Hills.

Others: You get some tea and bread omelet at the peak, but mostly carry your stuff. Medical care will be possible at the Chikkaballapura town only.

Ramanagaram: A trip to see Bollywood history

If you ask someone about one of the most famous movie in Bollywood (film industry in Mumbai, India: Synonymous to Hollywood), you can't miss one movie in most of the lists: 'Sholay'.

Landscape of Ramanagaram

The place we visited recently has its relation to this legendry Bollywood movie. Ramanagaram is situated ~ 50 kms from Bangalore in the Bangalore-Mysore highway. Its a small town with lots of huge rocky outcrops. This place is also popular with rock climbers and adventure sports enthusists. The location was also selected for the village "Ramgarh" in the hindi movie Sholay.

I got my first car recently and my friends were anticipating a long ride (they are just scapegoats, I was actually wanting to have on long drive) in it. So one fine day decided to drive to Ramanagaram ans see the places around. 

On a fine Saturday morning called up my friends Pankaj and Kshitij (they are my college friends from Kanpur working in GM). They were still sleeping, the common time pass for Bangalore techies on a Saturday morning. 

from left: Me, Kshitij and Pankaj

"Hey Pankaj" --- "Kya hain" --- "Chalna hain kya Ramanagaram" --- "Chalna hain kya? chalte hain. Kab nikalna hain" --- "9:30 tak latest nikal chahltein hain" --- "Theek hain. Hey Kshitij, Phuki ka phone hain. Ramanagaram chalna hain. Chal uth jaa jaldi". And thus our trip to Ramanagaram was finalized. I quickly went to have my bath.

By the time I left home it was 10. Filled my fuel talk to full and picked up my friends. We hit the Bng-Mysore highway by ~ 11 and then started the smooth ride towards Ramanagaram. The highway is awesome for drive and you can test your vehicles performance. All said and done, there is something you should be careful of:

"I wan enjoying the nice empty roads and sudenly was intercepted by a traffic police vehicle. I was told I exceeded speed limit. I was given a ticket. The speed limit was 50 and I was driving at 70. 70, thats because its a new car dude, I sould have been driving over 100 at such roads. Anyway, I paid the fine (Rs. 300/-) and moved on. So don't get carried away and keep eyes on the speed limit boards."

We stopped over to have our meal in the middle. The day was extremely hot and we had some tough time. We were expecting similar weather even at Ramanagaram and had our second thoughts on going on a long trek.  We reached there at ~ 12:40, distance covered ~ 60 kms. At Ramanagaram, take a right turn after "Ghousia College of Engineering" to hit a small road away from the highway. The road will take you upto the base of a temple. Its also passes through a small ghat kind of area. Its approx. 4 kms from the highway. We parked our car there and looked around for the roads.

Me with Ramanagaram kids. Car parking

A guide hopped in and promised us to provide the trip of a lifetime :) He was asking for Rs. 50/- and we agreed. He guided us through a route through a very small village. He started showing us stuffs (most relates to the movie Sholay). He showed us the place where the bridge was made (relate to the movie), where Thakurs house was located. One funny claim: "You remember the goat Jaya Bacchan hugged in the movie, that was mine", the guide said. He finally lead us 

through to the place where Gabbar Singh had his "adda". Its was combination of some nice hillocks, spreaded uniformely around. Some small rocks are spread around and the place was surrounded by high rocks hills (looked like a ideal place for rock climbing and rappling).  His claim of this place as Gabbar's den was realistic, and the place looked very similar. We started clicking pictures of the place and also enacted a small movie of the Gabbar Singh's "Kitne aadmi thein" dialouges (Pankaj as Gabbar). 

Gabar's den

Its time to move on. We came back to the base of the temple and bid adieu to our guide. A set of around 400 steps lead us to the top of the hill where the temple is situated. Saw a water tap and quickly quenched our thirst. Saw the places around and took rest. The view from the top was amazing. We can get a good view od the landscape around, with small rocky hills surrounding the place.

Temple at hill top

It was around 4 pm by then and we decided to move back to Bangalore. Reached home at around 6 pm after beating the traffics inside Bangalore. Went out for dinner with Kh,Pnk and headed back home. It was tiring because of the extremely hot weather, but fun. Some new places to see, and just hang out at some places outside Bangalore (my idea of a perfect weekend).

Informations that migt help:

- Distance ~60 kms each way

- Water is available but nothing to eat. Carry eatables

- Roads are awesome, you will atleast enjoy the ride

- Turn right from the highway after "Ghousia College of Engineering" and drive until you see the entrance to the temple. There are enough parking space there for free

- Take a guide, its helps and its fun

Visit to Golconda Fort, Hyderabad

I went to Hyderabad some time back to meet my cousin who works there in an video gaming company. We went out for site seeing in the afternoon. This video was taken from one of the structures during the visit to Golconda Fort. Golconda Fort is located on the western outskirts of the city. It is known for the amazing acoustic system. During the course of the video you will be hearing sounds of hands clapping. This is part of the demonstration given by some of the guides on the acoustic system, where a simple clap at the entrance of the gate can be heard at other end on the top of the fort. At ancient times, this was used to communicate (and also send warning signals). Also at the entrance can be seen the famous "Rahban" cannon.

There is a sound and light show that happens in the evening at the fort, after sunset. We took some ice-cream and joined the show. It started raining after during the course of the show and we had to leave the show halfway.

Trip to Shivasamudram Waterfalls

This visit was done quite some time back, during my initial days in Bangalore. The office team went for an off-site, and as a part of it we had a stop over to see the Shivasamudram waterfalls. I was thrilled just at the first sight of this massive waterfalls (you know why by looking at the video).

The Shivasamudram waterfalls have twin jumps, Gaganachukki and Bharachukki one km away from each other. The one you see in the video is Gananachukki.

Trivias:

Shivasamudram is also famous for the first hydro electric station in India started in 1902. This was supplied by General Electric.

Shivasamudram is the second biggest waterfall in India and the sixteenth largest in the world.

Mysore Zoo

Recently went to Mysore with my friends. We also took out some time to visit the zoo. My experience at the Mysore zoo was very satisfying. The zoo is well maintained (its really crowded though, a -ve) with most of the common animals found there.

Most of the animals were kept in a environment closest to its possible natural habitat. The zoo had sufficient space, and they had the luxury to give enough to the animals. One of the main attraction, the Giraffe, is kept at the entry to the zoo which welcomes the public.

The above video was captured when two zebras were in their playful mood. It was satisfying to see the animals having fun even in their captivity. It looked like they were just kids who wanted to go out and have fun.

Well, thats the fun to be born wild......

My first experience with BIAL (Bangaluru International Airport Limited)

I had to travel to Mumbai for my personal work on 23^rd of May 2008. It had already been announced that BIAL will flag-off the same day. I had to catch a 3:30 pm flight. So I planned to work for the first half of the day in office. At the back of my mind, all the uncertainty involved with the travel time kept me worried as this was the first day of airport opening and there were no data to tell me the exact time it would take for me to reach the airport. The best I could do was to plan to leave office at the earliest.

Call it my luck, due to elections; the opening was postponed by a day to 24^th of May, and I comfortably spent the first half of my day in office. The HAL airport is just walking distance from my house, and I took my Kingfisher flight to land in Mumbai.

I had my return flight on Sunday, 25^th May. I knew BIAL has already started its service, and prepared myself mentally for the long trip back home. This is the first time I properly looked at the Mumbai airport. It looked beautiful. Lot of work is still going in one of the terminal and construction workers were spread around at the terminal with their machinery and equipments. I looked for the terminal from where the Kingfisher (KF) flights takes off. I figured out the auto dropped me at the first terminal and I had to walk down to other end of the airport. The KF terminal is at an unbelievable location and reaching there was a real adventure: passing under overhead construction workers, walking up staircases to the second floor and asking multiple peoples. The KF flight was delayed by 1 hour and finally reached Bangalore by 11:10 pm night.

I peeped out of the aircraft window to get a first glimpse at the new airport. To be honest it looked really impressive and huge, compared to its old HAL veteran. But soon all my enthusiasm vanished as we waited more then 10 minutes with the aircraft door still closed. This delay after reaching late to Bangalore was annoying. An naturally embarrassed flight captain announced “we no more control the disembark ladder. Its been controlled by BIAL and they has been informed about the requirement”. This was the sign that BIAL is still learning to manage its resources in the second day of its service. Finally the ladder came and we were out of the aircraft. The Volvo bus took us to the terminal building. I guess it was a rare mistake; the driver dropped us at the wrong door. Everything was closed and whole team was struggling to find their way out as everything was closed :-) We saw other busses dropping passengers further down, and we started walking to the other door. To be frank I was quite frustrated after all the delays and the mess, and others looked frustrated too..

After entering through the door, got the first glimpse of the new terminal building. The space is not that big, but naturally spacious compared to its veteran. There were LCD

panels all around displaying adds. The overhead LCD screens displayed the baggage claim details with belt no for each flight that landed at that time. I just had my hand baggage, so I won’t be able to comment on the efficiency of the baggage claim system. I directly walked towards the exit of the airport. The directions were nicely marked at all locations visibly illuminated. I followed the direction that said Bus, which lead me to the exit. There was a helpdesk right there where I enquired about the bus service. They guided me to the bus stop, which is located right outside the airport, and it can be seen even from inside. Walked down to the bus stop. When I looked back, got the full view of the illuminated BIAL terminal. It looked really great. Outside the airport there was sufficient space for parking for vehicles, each locations clearly marked. The bus conductors were calling for passengers for their respective routes. I enquired about the HAL airport route and I was guided to the route # 4 bus. It’s the same Volvo that plies in the city. The front seats were replaced with luggage compartments for ease of luggage transport. I paid rs. 150/- for the ticket. The bus started it journey at 12:00 at midnight with the bus filled with passengers.

The bus left the airport to hit the highway. The infrastructure outside looked awesome. The roads leading to the airport has been really well built, and may be because it being the second day of operation, the whole road leading to the airport is beautifully illuminated. Felt like moving out from a real international airport. The Volvo bus took to its full steam, and roads were quite empty at that hour at the night. Saw the cabs from the “Meru & Easy Cabs” the official taxi service for BIAL. It looked cool with its ash color and big taxi sign illuminated at its top. The cabs were mahindra logan vehicles. The bus traveled without any traffic interruption, something I have never experienced in Bangalore :-) It was funny that roads got worsened when it entered the city, and I got the feeling how bad Bangalore infrastructure is. The bus took the bellary road, old madrass road and finally hit Indiranagar and then airport road. When I was dropped at my place in front of erstwhile Kemp Fort, I quickly looked at my watch. It was 1:00 am at night. I believe this is the minimum time I would take to reach home, as there were hardly any traffic and the bus was at its full steam. I might have to get a more practical estimate of the travel time, as today travel was quite an ideal one. I guess, at least one and half hours looked practical. The same time will apply for reaching the airport also. I would ask people to keep 2 hours for airport travel to be on the safer side.

Things that worried me the most, the airport travel looked smooth: courtesy BMTC. Besides the operational hiccups in the new airport (they will improve that with some days of service), the overall experience was very satisfying. Only pain was the drastic increase in the travel time, but I guess I will start getting benefit of reduced traffic on the airport road from now on.

Sunfeast World 10k run

Bangalore has been gearing up for the Sunfeast World 10k run, so was me. I have only once been part of a marathon, which was the BSNL Bangalore International Marathon on December last year. Believe me, the thrill of running with whole of Bangalore is just amazing. So I didn’t wanted to miss this opportunity.

The registration process was also available online (along with the many drop boxes), which made it really easy to get myself registered by paying Rs. 200/-. The simplicity of the process gave me the first glimpse of what turned to be a truly well organized event.

Training for race day:

After registration it was time to get ready for the real race day. I have done a 10k distance before (including the last marathon), so I knew I could complete it. The fact that most worried me was lack of training for quite some time with my foot injury. So started running over the weekdays in the treadmill of the company gym. Also tried out couple of 10k attempts over the weekend. The first was a failure where I had to stop with severe back pain after just 3 kms of run. I regained some confidence with the completion of the second run, with not much complication. The open 10k run (in which I participated) is scheduled to start @ 9 am. With the current hot weather of Bangalore, it is going to be real tough. I knew the problems I might face, but there is no way I can prepare myself for that. Just decided not to stretch myself by getting carried away by other runners (knowing my limitations).

Pre-race process:

We had to collect our bib# some days ahead of the race. So left office early on 16^th Friday evening for Kanteerva stadium with my office colleague who is also participating in the run. The idea was collecting the bib# much before the race was the sign of a well-planned event. This reduced congestion (due to multiple collection time for multiple days). There was also a fair happening down there in parallel where different sponsors were displaying their products. A surprise for me was a F1 car at the entrance, courtesy Vijay Mallya. The bib collection was at the end of all the stalls (very smart, as you can’t avoid the stalls). We showed our acceptance letter and ID proof to collect our bib#, my bib# is 1420. The number 420 at my chest was not very comforting J. Collected the timing chip with a deposit of Rs. 100/-. We also received a goodie bag, with loads of stuffs (water bottle, biscuits, mints, chips etc.). Well, to be honest I felt the value of the goodie bag was more then the registration fee of Rs. 200/- we paid. The line at the bib# collection counters was also small, thanks to the multiple lines for different ranges of bib#. Detailed information of the race day (route map, locations etc.) was duly attached with the bib# for the convenience of the participants.

Race day, 18^th May 2008:

Woke up early then my regular Sunday time. Took bath and got freshened up. I had planned out for a light breakfast the previous night. Prepared some fresh fruit juice and gulped some bananas. Did not want to go there with a heavy stomach, which might create problem while I run. Asked my rommie to drop me at the stadium entrance. Reached the stadium @ 8:10 am. Went directly to gate 12, which was the entrance for the participants with chip. Once in I saw many peoples already gathered there. There were music and entertainment programs going on at the middle of the stadium. Started stretching my muscles and got warmed up for the run. The women world 10k participants were completing their runs, and we all stood up to cheer them up. Unbelievably there was a photo finish by first two women participants. Athletes from Kenya and Ethiopia dominated the top 10 places. This followed the prize distribution ceremony. The times clocked by the winners in 26-27 minutes were just too amazing.

We were asked to line up at the starting line. At exactly 9 am, the run started. I also started with full josh with all the other participants. It was real hot out there and after the halfway mark the heat started to take a toll on me. At one point of time I almost decided to stop running because of getting extremely drained out. My speed reduced quite a bit and I saw peoples overtaking me. What was more frustrating was the seeing the peoples who overtook me which included ladies and senior citizens. I did not wanted to stretch, nor wanted to quit. So kept moving at a steady pace until I hit closer to the finishing line. Reenergized myself for the last 100 meter and gave a final push at least to beat some participants. The clock showed 10:06. I believe I completed the run in 66 minutes with an average speed of ~9 kmph. Will have to wait for the timing certificate to get my official timing. I was dead tired and exhausted from the heat.

Collected my refreshment pack. I was happy to see some bun and biscuits in the pack. Good thinking by the organizers, as at that time I needed them very dearly along with the water. Went to collect the timing certificate. Saw lots of peoples already standing in the queue, suggesting the high completion percentage. The timing certificates were over by that time and organizers asked up to deposit the timing chip, and the certificates will be mailed on a later date. It was time to call up family and friends to inform my completion of the 10k run.

This 10k run was more enjoyable then my previous half-marathon experience for multiple reasons:

- Great organization, easy registration and bib# collection

- The traffic was stopped for all the route, last time there was quite a bit of traffic mess up

- Water stalls were sufficiently available, last time I remember water getting over and I was begging for water from my fellow participants

- Since it was a smaller distance run, huge crowd accompanied me from beginning until the end (minimum drop off’s) and it was fun

- The only dampener for me was the race timing, it started too late (9 am) and the sun was unbearable. The run could be made more comfortable by advancing the race timing.

Added on 27th May:

Received my official timing, it's 1:04:36

Bangalore Marathon, 16th December 2007:

I started running some 5 months back. I use the treadmill in my office gym. Though I am not so regular, I have tried to keep my gaps small enough to claim I have continued. It started with small tired runs at the beginning of my running expedition and improving myself with time. I haven’t seen my physique change for any better, though my stamina improved.

I run for short distances in the treadmill, usually getting exhausted in the beginning, but comfortable after the body gets used to it. Never get a chance stretch myself, as there is a 15 mins time limit at the gym treadmill, so that all peoples get equal chances. I have always seen lesser crowd on Fridays, and started stretching myself to run longet time in some of these days to see if I can go further. Running at a slower pace then usual, I was able to stretch myself to longer time.

Couple of weeks back I decided to take my run to the tar roads of Bangalore. So measured a route besides the airport (I live near the airport) of about ~10 kms long. One fine morning I woke up early at 5:30 am (I hate to wake up early), and started my run in the pre-decided route. I started taking deep breaths just after I started, but soon the body got used to it. To my surprise, I completed the 10 kms of run without stop, and I was genuinely satisfied.

Yesterday I went for the second time, despite hating to wake up early. It was again a 10 kms run. After doing it second time, I felt confident enough of repeating the same distance again if required. The same evening I was talking with my roommate and during the course of discussion the Bangalore marathon topic popped up, and the though of participation came to my mind. It’s a chance to test the limit of my distance running.

Woke up early next morning and took my bike headed towards Kanteerava stadium, from where the Marathon will start. Registered myself for the half marathon and received my chest no (#1008, wow already a 1000 participants). First, it was the full marathon that started. The full marathon had ~ 300 participants (my smart guess looking at the crowd size). Half marathon started after that @ 6:30 am with ~ 1500 runners. I started jogging at my treadmill speed, knowing I had to finish at least 10 kms which was just half the way. The marathon started at Kanteerava stadium and the route followed was ->Cubbon Park -> Dr. Ambedkar road -> Cubbon road -> Ulsoor Lake -> Old Madras Rd. -> Byapannahalli R.S. At the railway station we have to turn and take the same route back, the station being the halfway mark at 10.5 kms. I saw peoples overtaking me wondering if I was running too slow, but didn’t took the chance of going faster and tiring myself before I get to the halfway mark. It was after 1-hr and 5-mins I reached the halfway mark. The organizers threw a violet color fluid in my shirt, it was probably for marking me for completing the halfway mark. I took the turn to take my route back. I saw peoples on their way to reach the halfway mark; well this means I did better then few peoples I guess. Not that slow, mmmm..

After the halfway mark I felt my body getting drained of its energy. After a couple of more kms, I had to take a short break. After walking some distance, I started running again. But I felt the energy level dropping and my legs not that fast any more. I started taking short breaks, and the breaks started coming frequently. I saw most peoples near me taking short breaks too. I didn’t wanted to quit at this point, like many others whom I saw putting up a run after breaks to make sure that the job is not half done. It was 5 kms left and I started thinking, this is one thing I will never ever do again in my life, with legs starting to get frozen. But I still kept moving on running and taking small breaks in between. I saw the banners of kms left counting down with time, and my energy levels kept me just going close to the finish. As I approached close to the stadium, I went for the final push and just started running. Entered the stadium with peoples cheering at all of us who just came in. I thought, GOD it’s done. But after entering I was told I had to make another full circle at the track before entering the finish line. Well, some more push, and I was finally at the finish line. I saw one organizer noting down my chest number, yes # 1008. After 2 ½ hrs of grueling fight of body vs. mind, finally the mind triumphed.

I was given a water bottle and I directly headed towards the grass, lying down with tiredness and satisfaction. Within 5 mins all my tiredness was gone and I was filled with joy of completing the job half planned. I had done something I have never done before; I had beaten my expectations. Well it feels so happy.

I was among more then 500 odd peoples that finished the half marathon, many of them kid’s. Luckily I was not the last one to finish, as I saw some peoples finishing after me. Good to see good running culture among Bangaloreans.

Added afterwards:
Today I received my certificate of completion. I finished the 21 kms with timing of 2:32:08, ranked 326. The runner who finished first had timing of ~ 1:04 mins. So I took almost 2 ½ times of what he took. May be I should try to better my timings in the next marathon.

COORG TRIP ON BIKE:

26^th January 2006: Happy Republic Day. It's an early morning for us. Woke up at 4:30 am in the morning at Sujeet's house. In fact all the peoples in Sujeet’s house was awake (The bikers: Me, Deka, Sujeet and Jaiswal). We all got freshened up and took bath. Had a light breakfast with bread toast. Our luggages were already packed. Got quickly out of our room to fasten our luggages to the bikes. Finally all set; we kicked off our trip at 6:30 am. We filled our tanks full at the first petrol pump. It was now a drive out of Bangalore to a 260 kms of grueling drive to Coorg.

We kept on taking small breaks on the way to keep ourselves out of fatigue. The first break was at Srirangapatna (near Mysore) for a better heavy breakfast. Bypassed Mysore on the way to Madikeri. The drive to Coorg was very good, we had nice stoppages at coffee plantations, tree shades and of course bio-breaks. The complete drive was real real fun, no tiredness at all – not the way expected it to be.

”FLASHBACK: It’s a week left for us to leave for the bike trip to Coorg. We are planning our stoppages and places to see. All of us are scared deep in our guts in the thought of that long drive. Nobody was confident enough that we will make it safe and healthy, one reason being we never had such prior experience of a long drive. We were enthusiastic though, enthralled by the very feel of the upcoming adventure never tried by us.”

After the entire fun ride we finally reached our hotel – “Hotel Cauvery” in Madikeri at 2:30 pm, 8 hours after we started. We unpacked the luggages and got freshened up. It was already ~ 250 kms of drive. All got together in a room to plan out the rest of the trip. Everyone agreed to the first thing in the agenda, LUNCH.

The café of our hotel was already closed. Its 4:00 pm in the evening. So we moved to a nearby restaurant and had our snacks/lunch. That evening we thought of completing the visit to Abbey falls. It was ~ 10 kms drive from our hotel. We took off in our bikes to the waterfalls. We were quickly there. Very small treks lead us to the falls. It was a nice place (though honestly not the best I have seen). We captured the moment with few snaps and pushed on our way back.

On the way back we stopped over a kings tomb (could not find the name of the king). It was almost evening with the sun setting down. There were few enthusiastic kids playing cricket. They quickly agreed to be our guide and they lead us through the cool structure. It was getting dark, so time to get back to hotel. On way back, stopped over a temple. We planned for the Madikeri fort, but it was already dark. The day ended well with dinner and 283 kms of driving. Dinner was at the restaurant of Hotel Cauvery (one honest advice, never eat there).

27^th January 2006: Day 2 of our journey. Today’s plan is to go to Tal Cauvery. It is known as the origin of river Cauvery. It is also a holy place. Its gonna be a 47 kms drive, so we started early. The first destination was raja seat. It’s a viewpoint with a nice garden. After a brief stop there enjoying the morning sun, its drive to Tal Cauvery. The drive to Tal Cauvery was very scenic with almost 95% of mountain biking, sharp corners, steep roads and lots of fun. With Sujeet around, the speed at which we moved hovered around 80 kmph.

Reached Tal Cauvery. It’s a bright sunny day, and quite windy at the hilltop. Suji Deka and Jai wanted to go see the spring (origin of Cauvery). I decided to stay back, just enjoying the cool view outside. Once they are back outside again, its time to climb up to the top of the hill via the steps. I guess there were ~ 200 steps. We were damn tired once we reached the top (shows our fitness level). But with nice view in front of us, and the soothing breeze, the tiredness disappeared immediately. Far off at a distance we saw some windmills (the first windmills I have seen in my life). The view was awesome, and we started convincing ourselves that its worth a close look at the windmills. The idea cooked up to go out on the trek and we started off to get to a closer look.

After a reached our first target spot we had, we decided not to stop but get closest to the windmill. After the grueling and tiring walk when we finally reached the windmills, it was really satisfying that we started to congratulate each other. Its not that we did something really great, but we did something really satisfying, to walk the roads not often taken. After a small rest it was time to walk back, back to our DARLING bikes for the drive back to our hote

l.

We were already tired that day after the trek. So we decided to do no more travel and just rest. Only thing that was planned for the day was go hunting for good Coorg cuisines. After some unsuccessful hunt for “Pork Chilly” we just went ahead and had our drink and dinner @ East End Hotel. It was some good food and good night sleep.

28^th January 2006: The plan for the day is to spend first half of the day sight seeing and next half traveling back to Mysore. Spend the evening at Brindavan Garden, night at a Mysore hotel and spend the next morning at a water park.

The first destination was “Nisargadhama, Kushalnagar”, a island on river Cauvery. It did not look like a island though, but was fun. There was a small zoo with spotted deer’s in it. There was also elephant ride which was supposed to start a bit late, and we decided not to wait that long. Back to the entry point stopped by a restaurant (dhaba truly speaking) to have our breakfast. Ordered some Idli-Vada and Bread-Omelet. Till the time our breakfast reached we spent our time with the rabbits in the garden nearby. After a good heavy breakfast it was time to go to the next location, “Harangi Dam”. We reached there pretty soon. Photography was not allowed (because of terrorist threat, LTTE I guess). We took some snaps from outside the boundary at the entry gate from far off. Deposited our cameras and went in. time for some rest, slept over the dam and went besides the water body (remembered the good old NERIST day’s, where we enjoyed the Dikrong river).

The next one was the last stoppage, a Buddhist temple at Bylakuppe. Its one of the places of Tibetian refugees in India and Dalai Lama. It’s close to Kushalnagar in Kodagu. The first impression I had looking at it was, amazing. The golden dome was shining bright in the sunlight. Spent most of our time inside. We are getting hungry and planned for some local tibetian cuisine. Finally entered one of them. Ordered noodles, and chopstick. I had never eaten with a chopstick. So after minutes of struggle, the hotel owner came to our rescue. Once he taught us how to use it, it seemed very easy now. After finishing our food, it was time to be back.

Though the initial plan was to stay back at Mysore that night, we decided to get back to Bangalore. Stopped over for dinner on the way. It was night and driving became dangerous at the highway, though thrilling. The headlights blinding our faces and visibility from our headlight not that good, we cruised back to Bangalore in the Mysore highway. Finally reached home @ 10:30 pm at night. The total distance clocked in our bike was 575 kms.

As planned on our way back, the next day we went to see the blockbuster of the year “RANG DE BASANTI”.