seeking the warmth of the pages

I set out on a cold Monday morning on my bike on a 12km long ride through a sparsely crowded Bangalore, which is currently in its milder state due to the pandemic and the cold.

I had never used this route and having gone around circles a bit ( which is customary in Bangalore ), I finally found myself in front of Bookworm on Church Street.

Needless to say, shaking off the pandemic laden emptiness and cold, I entered the warm house of books. Books all around, shining with warm titles and covers, immediately makes one feel at home.

Since its been ages (or feels like) since I visited a book store, I spent quite a bit of time exploring the latest best sellers on prominent display. Since the store was almost deserted, one of the staff members came around asking if I was looking for anything specific.

I had just recently cleaned up and rebuilt my To-Read list in GoodReads and still had hundreds of books in my list. I wasn't sure if I would really read many of the newly added titles, so I cautiously read out names for him. Some of them were found tucked away, or had to be dug up. This went on for quite some time, until I had a very large bundle of books to carry.

But since my list was large, the books which were available were being brought forth. After a while of doing this, I finally decided to check out some new titles outside the list. I managed to pick a few small historical titles.

Then I dumped all the books on a table and sat to filter out mentally what I would like to read in short term and which ones I would anyway read in the long term. I finally ended just dropping just 2 out of the 20 odd books I had taken.

Phew, what a heavy load I ended up with. Even after shedding a few old books by returning them for 50% discount, the backpack was quite tightly packed. Then I rode all the way back home, marvelling on how I would read some of the titles.

Reaching home, I had the usual pile up after cleansing myself. My son made a 'building block' pile with the colourful books and then focussed on his new books, whereas I went ahead with arranging mine.

So I thinking I am loaded enough for quite some time with a variety of topics.

Reflections and Refractions - Part 2

With the ink flowing, one must quickly commit the thoughts to paper.
Otherwise the ability to think and judge would catch up with those words and dry up the ink as well.

1st June 2019:

In movies, before we jump into the new frame, new location and start the action, we need a break.
So did I and my family. So we set out to the very old frame, my hometown.

One might imagine a visit to ones hometown as a regular affair. But if the house is locked for almost a year, and visits are only 2-3 days long every year, one generates quite a lot of yearning for the old, dusted and capped memories and emotions.

Boooring...

Anyway, to not lose the focus of the story, I will just cut short by adding that it was a welcome break for my family. For me it was nothing but pure oxygen after surfacing from a deep dive. I needed it badly because I knew I had to go for another deep dive soon after.

With the razor sharp schedules of professional commitments and the house shifting, I didn't waste whatever time I got to recreate my life, one day at a time.

Once back to Bangalore, it took a couple of days filled with 12hrs of meetings at office, followed by packing to actually shift out. It actually took another month for some sort of relaxation and sense of settlement to arrive at our new doorsteps. In spite of such fluctuations, the new house gave a lot of joy due to the cleaner locality, better safety, conveniences, and presence of lots of open soil to work upon.

Maybe it is in the genes, but there is nothing like a walk among greenery to climb over any adversities in life. What else could one ask, if there was also a piece of soil to give life to? We all enjoyed the activities involved in cleaning up the yard and setting up a working garden in a matter of couple of months. Most hard at work was my father who saw this as a replacement for our now neglected garden back home, which he severely missed while being at Bangalore.

Before

 

Once the new schedules, routines and rigours were set in place, accompanied by crazy timings at the office, .. short pause.. there was still no time to relax. It was time to take life to the next level, and preparations were afoot at office and home on the professional and personal fronts respectively.

Soon with the crab having its tummy filled with one victim and having decided to let go of another for the time being, we started having more bright days. This was in spite of the wet and bone-chilling season. We too having been hardened by the events, decided to move on. Some very old support roles were withdrawn and it was time for the real responsibles to take over without dependencies. It was time to grow up, spread the wings and jump out of the tall tree nest.

So far, so good. That's what I can say about things which are in progress, and can take years to get a proper hind sight. Rays are still in the process getting bounced around like crazy, creating reflections,refraction, mirages and sometimes even hallucinations. One shouldn't take a judgemental view at this stage of life.

I badly want to squeeze some more events in here, but the paragraph above filters out most of the content. But let me cryptically add my appreciation for myself for taking some right decisions based on some random whims, and keeping those habits alive to date.

Now I should be allowed to shift my focus to more abstract expectations for the upcoming year based on reflections of this year.

First of all, the hard events have hardened the expectations and one only needs to guide the mind into accepting new responsibilities. So those should be relatively easy to accept if pushed upon.

The next thing is that events have shown that whatever happens, there are certain things in my primary responsibility. I cannot hold any one or any event accountable for not doing what I myself expect of me. So clearly, I need to spare quite a lot of time, passion, efforts and attention to do my best in the upcoming year.

There might be some boomerangs for short cuts taken this year, but as long as the mind is ready to accept it and walk over, there is no use crying over a swollen temple.

Gonna be a fun year ahead.
15th Dec 2019

Have a couple of weeks ahead, but for me the year is actually over for some weird reason :)

Reflections and Refractions - Part 1

Even though hind sight is perfect, all sight is based on reflected rays.

Some are reflections of what happened, but most of them are refracted at multiple surfaces before it gets reflected back to the eye.

There is no real way to know which is the case.

2019- The year that began just like 2014; With a broken leg, bedridden, dependent on others, biting down the pain and humiliation.

Anyway, as months passed, the pain of lying down gave way to pain of attempting to learn to walk, whereas the humiliation of depending on others just reduced as self sufficiency crept in slowly. It was a mix of self-sufficiency, self-pity, new hope, forgiveness and gratitude.

Through the year, as life always promises, events weren't simply monotonous or predictable. They weren't even in shades of white,grey or black. Each revisit and reinterpretation could give new colours, hence making the activity useless if one is only interested in painting them statically. As mentioned in the Kannada movie "Lifu Ishtene", those are DVDs worth watching again and again, giving various aromas & tastes at various stages of life.

One judgemental aspect is that those days give me a good idea of people around me and how the relationships are structured. On the other side, it also cut me off social connections & activities, isolated me from the buzz of work place & sent me into a personal disarray.

I even managed to catch up on my reading with some crazy reading schedule, having nothing else to do for couple of months. I was able to squeeze in a couple of months worth of reading into a couple of days.

But overall, I could say that my pain subsided and limited itself to some weird set of nerves, strength regained, dignity rebuilt & overall outlook towards myself & people around me transformed. This feat required the constant support and patience of my parents, my wife, my son, the household help, my physiotherapist, my books, the doctor, some friends and my physical trainers later on at the gym. Anyway, with me able to do mundane activities without support, 'officially' I had recovered, though I knew there were miles to go before I really recovered or made up for the incident.

But,  short pause.. ,( there is a always a but and a short pause ) before the pain reduced and recovery started, whatever hopes I had that things could only get better, were shown to be misplaced. This was done by a series of inroads the great crab made into my family, coming uninvited as it always does. With my own flesh throbbing with pain each day, I could really not accept the full physical and mental agony of those whose flesh was being bitten off daily, bit by bit. Even more difficult to deal with was the inability to extend a helping hand or leg for that matter.

My family, who had accepted the task of patiently taking care of me while dealing with my absence from key responsibilities, were dealt a double and triple blow with these culinary habits of the crustacean. Those were tough times when the days looked gloomy, but most importantly that was also a reminder for me to speed up the recovery cycles and stand up to face the new invader.

Needless to say, weakened already by physical and mental agony, the new invasion led to many sleepless nights sunk in gloomy thoughts and dealing with apprehensions. It took quite a bit of distractions by office work, physical exercises, and social visits to break out of this labyrinth. Those were one of those moments where only action can generate enough break the chains that can restrict even a mighty elephant.

Looking back, one can always paint even the smallest of struggles with glorious adverbs and comparisons to give a self satisfaction. So I might be giving myself too much credit where undeserved, but maybe some credit is due, I let such statements be.

It was in this condition that I turned my focus to the minor yet irritating affairs of the rented house in which we were living. I could easily make a list of problems like dirty water, cockroach infestation, crowded & dusty surroundings, absence of clean parking space, regular spikes in maintenance costs, arguments between residents, a case of theft etc. These are just regular matters in life in affordable rented apartments in Bangalore, and I would have let it be. But given the many problems we were facing, this was one that was under my control to address. So I jumped at the opportunity to make a difference.

So we quickly, without much preparation set up a plan to shift the house to somewhere 'ideal'. It was stressful to negotiate with the owner who didn't like the idea of a breaking of the agreement along with with neighbours who had tentatively agreed to take over for a relative, and finding the ideal home in the ideal location with 10s of filters. But I must admit, those involved planning activities with my family were rewarding distractions from the otherwise gloomy days. We really enjoyed the activity with even my parents who built networks with elderly people in the locality were able to identify lots of key properties and localities.

Needless to say, within a month, under a hectic set of negotiations, we were able to make a withdrawal with minimal losses. What awaited us was a refreshing new location and a new way of life. I was and am still thankful for the decision to move from that muck ( actual & imagined being merged here for creative purposes ) at that critical point of time.

30th May 2019

*INTERMISSION*

savouring SP Road

SP Road is famous for being the one stop electronics gadgets fix-it-modify-it-or-buy-new destination in all of Karnataka.

So it happened that I went there last saturday to get my huge list of broken gadgets back in action.

It was my first time there and took a while to find the right shops and haggle and tinker with stuff myself when the shopkeepers couldn't.

All this action tired us out by 1 PM and the sun was scorching. Scouting around the area we found a iced neembu paani shop which looked dubious but we decided to give it a go.

Then we stumbled upon this chat counter with Kadi being used as the 'masala' in samosa masala, kachori masala, bhajji masala etc. This caught my interest, as I am one who hates the masala thats sold in Karnataka in most shops, and I love Kadi :)

Even the Chilli Bhajji tasted awesome, cut up, and served with chopped onions, sweet and chilli chutneys :) Yum.

To top it up we had a cup of cold lassi too :)

And meanwhile I noticed that SP road had more electronic waste on the floor than paper or plastic, rightly so. Pic: Part of the complicated circuitry we stepped upon accidently.

For the Bangaloreans planning to hit SP road, I would recommend to check these outlets while you go hunting for the cheapest and best gadgetry in tech-savvy Bangalore.

all hail the rains

that was the best rain in recent times.. with the strong winds whooshing and swirling the thick clouds, covering up the entire view from the 10th floor windows.

We ran up to the roof top cafeteria in time to experience a wonderful sight with the cold spray drenching everyone up, and the heavy hailstones landing on anything exposed.

Soon people were running for cover as the crazy winds drove in large chunks of ice almost everywhere at dangerous velocities. The swirling wind kept up a blanket of fog all around and held everyone at awe.

The experience of getting drenched in a rapidly flooding and leaking cafeteria, with each window and shutter trembling loudly, threatening to tear off from its hinges - wonderful. It lasted for almost a whole half hour.

Now, after it all died out, all that remains is a broken company board and a thickly jammed Outer Ring Road outside Manyata!(The unbroken thick line of vehicles can stil be seen after more than an hour of the incident)

rain it must..

I want it to rain, and rain heavily it must.

My path back home should not be through pothole-filled roads where people fight with their egos and tension to move one inch ahead of the others.

I need a road that goes through open terrain where few walk with umbrellas, a few stand aside waiting of the rain to be over, many sit calmly in their seats in buses hoping that by the time they get off the bus, the rain would stop. I would love to see some crazy romantics on the road getting all drenched and energetically dancing all the way.

On that road, I wish to ride my cycle fast, without worry of laptop,wallet or phone. And no helmets either.

I rush home to get dried and reprimanded. And my home should be on the ground floor, with at least a small spot of green nearby for the rain drops to splash into, and for the frogs to showcase their skills. I wish to sit there, hearing the music of rain, feeling the tingling cold being relieved by the hot tea.

Slumber comes easily and unlike real slumber, here I wake up to the reality of what is real and what is not.

The time for summer heat and the vanquishing of it by the occasional rains is here. More tightly contested and enthusiastically discussed is this topic than any competition of politics or sports.

Conclusion
I love the homes in Kochi and Mysore where I received ample amounts of rain straight into my room, unlike the dusty,large,inhuman apartment in the dirt filled city. :-)

Aroma Of Nilgris - Chapter 1 (The Preparation)

I really can't believe that I didn't write about my cycling experience yet.
Its been almost a month now. but the experience was life changing, confirming and affirming :)

It was after my long vacation after father's 60th birthday. I was sitting in office, bored amidst a discussion. i casually opened up the gmail tab and saw Sallu(Salahudeen Razak) online
just as usual, on curiousity I asked him whether there were any trip plans. He simply replied with a URL asking "are u coming?"

It was the URL for a bike(bicycle) ride to Ooty titled "Aroma Of Nilgiris" conducted by a group of cycling enthuasists based in Bangalore called "Cycling and More" or CAM.
The ride cost was 4k per head with all transport, food, accommodation, and support services included. Suddenly, I felt the need to do it. I never had done such a long ride, and the last time I even rode a bit was already 4 months back. I felt it would be really challenging to take the chance, and do something worthwhile. I was truly bored and stifled with the continuous months of hectic work( but really hectic was in L&T). So after nearly 20 minutes of indecision, I finished the payment and enrolled myself. There were only 33 open positions, so I had to hurry. The ride was on the weekend of the republic day.

I was so unprepared and out of shape, that the fear of collapsing in between the ride was always present in the back of my mind. But my friends assured me there was nothing to worry about, as they were more experienced than me and would take me along. That was reassuring enough for me, for worst case. Nevertheless I made it a point to start some basic workouts to prevent major injuries.

But I really wanted to do a preparatory ride to warm up the muscles and bring the breathing in rhythm. It is highly important that these be in sync, so that you don't get injuries by normal exertion. Because, on the road, in a long trip, you don't get so many chances to recuperate well. Also, all such rides need a good starting to keep the motivation and energy to go on.

So on the Saturday before the ride, in the evening, I realized I had done nothing so far. I made up my mind to break my lazy attitude and get cracking. I decided I would ride till the Bangalore Internal Airport(BIAL) which was like 35 kms from my place and the road was believed to be good. I had never been so far or never been there before. So I just briefly check the maps and set off. The going was quite smooth and comfortable for the first 15kms. Then I started slowing down, checking the map intermittently, wondering how far the airport really was. It honestly didn't look so distant in the maps. I had no supplies other than some water in my bottle. So I had to conserve water, sync up the pedaling and ride slowly without exerting too much. It was slow, but I managed to proceed at an average pace. The sedentary lifestyle and lack of exercise for many months together was quite evident in every 200m I covered. But I just kept pushing, knowing that I could do better and thinking of what lay ahead the next week simply allowed me to tap into the spare reserves very quickly.

And so, in that fashion I rode up to the airport, saw it in all lights for first time, amazed quite many guards and travellers on my way in and enjoyed myself too. It was a great feeling to have achieved the target after 2 hours of puffing and struggling. And I ecstatically rode back in fashion, enjoying the scenery and often riding a bit too fast to fit in my original time schedule. On the way I called up Sallu and set up a ride for the very next day, to Nandi hills, which was 30 kms more from the airport. So I had to return quickly, get some rest and start again early in the morning. This quickened up my pace and I rode fast. But I guess there reached a point where I broke the limits of my physical endurance. The thighs started burning and a wrong twist of calf muscles ended up doubling the pain. I was in the middle of some highway, and it was already 7.30pm. There was at least 25kms more to cover. My water supply also was empty. I started riding back in short bursts, getting down every 10 minutes or so when the pain became unbearable. Each short break allowed me to carry on for another 500m or so. In that fashion, slowly and with concern I started coming home. In between, I had to try some gimmicks tying up my bike to the highway railings while I picked up a refill of water from the other side of the highway. Every step painful, every gulp of water like nectar and every gust of cool breeze a blessing. That was the combination I moved in. Finally I had to walk up most of the slopes in the route pushing my bike up and walking for a long distance to ease the pain. It was fun to watch the expressions on the face of many a shoppers in busy places, seeing a rider in full gear walking up with his bike :)

And in this fashion I rode for the entire route. I reached home by around 10.30, one hour behind the planned time. I just had some light dinner and settled down to sleep. But the pain, it was excruciating and being a Saturday there was quite a lot of noise in the house. I hardly slept well, and woke up by 3 in the morning for the next ride. Inspired by my heroics, even my roommates decided to go for a crazy trip at the same time, though on motorbikes.On the other hand, I was in a wrecked state, without sleep and pain lingering all over the body. But I was determined to not back out and believed that a slow ride would set it all up for me. After all, now Sallu the experienced rider was accompanying me. I seriously didn't believe I would be able to climb up the Nandi hills after such an exhaustive ride. But at least I wanted to ride to its foothills and wait for Sallu to finish the uphill stuff. So anyway I set off, generously loaded with warm clothes donated by my roommates who felt I was crazy but also were supportive for my cause. Also, I had just got over a few months long fever-cum-cold spree. Didn't want to the take the risk of getting sick before the big ride.

Fully clothed to fight the cold :P

The ride itself was quite comfortable, given the very free roads and cool air. The presence of Sallu who is a champ was quite motivating and the joy of riding with a company was welcome after the previous day's exertion. He even taught me how to optimize use of gears and energy utilizing the roads. I went on well until after Hebbal and the L&T campus in Bellary road, i.e around 20kms from my place. But as I went further, the pain in the legs start recurring and it started slowing me down greatly. I already was quite behind schedule, and Sallu had gone ahead after riding slowly for me for a long time. We had setup the flyover near the airport as the rendezvous point. But I seemed to be in no state to reach there in comfort;the exertions of the previous day were finally showing their full effects. I couldn't think straight, my head was drooping, and in spite of gritting my teeth and pushing and pumping, there simply wasn't enough energy left in my body to propel me and the bike forward. I knew then that I was defeated. To continue at this pace till Nandi hills and then to return the whole way back would at max put me in bed with injuries for a long time. And, that is exactly what I didn't want to happen. To hell with the ambitious goal, to hell with supporting Sallu. I had to return. I stopped and called up Sallu, whom I found to be waiting at the rendezvous point for nearly half an hour. I conveyed very clearly, that I had to return. He, initially tried to reason with me. But then he too saw no logic in getting me to push forward in my condition. It would be a headache for both of us on such roads if something untoward happened.He is far too experienced a rider to let his own goals take priority over safety of all riders in the group. I was silently picking up these qualities as well..

Anyway, I somehow made it to him, and we agreed to return. So after munching upon the Glucose Perk he had packed up, we set off in the opposite direction. There was a mixed feeling of regret and relief going all over me. Relieved that the struggle was coming to an end without mishaps,regret that I weighed upon Sallu and couldn't hit the ambitious goal. I also had the sense that I was asking for too much at that stage. For me, the 75km done the previous day was the longest I did in a day ever, that too at that high pace(almost 15kmph average). And here I was, 30kms away from home within a gap of 6 hours. So it was all right to just get back home and get a good rest. Fuelled by the perk, we made good pace until Hebbal, where I went out of fuel again. But by then we started riding slowly and skipping everything else .. "I came home, had a good breakfast, grinned widely to my inquiring roommates,and fell like dead wood, until the day after". End of Chapter..

(All images found from Google Images, hence copyrights belong to rightful owners)

My guide to the Bangalore city

when I moved to bangalore, people told me I will struggle to learn the major routes and shortcuts will be impossible to learn..so get a good smartphone with GPS in it.

I came here and saw many of my friends use it find new routes with ease. I realized it is a great tool to have with me, but I couldn't choose on a particular phone yet or allocate budget for it.

I had this plan to buy a smartphone for just the GPS for sometime. But in recent times, I actually started going out in bangalore, and to be frank, I never felt a reason to get a GPS.. or to even consult google maps everytime I went to a new locality.

Hell, I even stopped asking my friends for routes.. but I always ended up finding my routes properly with minor deviations and delays..

All this happened because.. I was able to leverage a particular feature of Bangalore city, which actually almost everyone hates. But I found use for it in finding my way through the concrete jungle.

Auto-wallahs!!! By checking the routes and directions with these tricky fellows either parked or in traffic signals and blocks, I keep on synchronizing my route with the one I wish to travel. And I have achieved 95% success rate as of now.

The help also came from shopkeepers and random strangers too :)

I was just wondering about this.. anyway I would still go for a smartphone sometime soon. But I have this one extra advantage that many of my contemporaries lack..the ability to speak in multiple languages that help me out getting the most out of people on the road.. and I am thankful to that for everything.. amen..

A newbie cyclist speaks out

As kids we all used to ride bikes(bicycles) everywhere and I am sure all had lots of fun and adventure.

But then in the process of growing up, people leave behind such indulgences and move to more sophisticated stuff suited to their lifestyles. And I speak with the conviction that more than 80% of the IT population don't take bike riding seriously, owing to various reasons ( major one being laziness ).

Alright. Getting to the point: I bought a BTwin Rockrider 5.1 last saturday .So I have been into cycling for about a week now. I just wanted to share some thoughts I had during this experience.

Preface:-
I use this beginner MTB model bicycle to cycle around the Outer Ring Road area of Bangalore , mostly after 7pm. Have cycled around just 70kms as of now. Have acquired some basic accessories, and more in pipeline.

Observations:-
(I can't resist noting the similarity to record books in school :P)
Health first
1. Higher lung capacity
2. Higher metabolic activity - burns more fat and improves appetite
3. Builds and conditions calves,knees,ankle and thighs
4. All the activity leaves you breathing through your skin
5. You can overexert and kill yourself

Enjoying a calm ride..

Moral perspective
1. You don't pollute (THE big morale booster)
2. You don't increase clutter on the road

No clutter on the road..

3. You can bash the polluters as much as you like on FB,twitter etc 

Logical
1. You reduce the fuel expenditure by reducing dependency on other modes of transport
2. Good health leads to good life overall
3. You save electricity by not being indoors for long periods of time

Yes the creepy addict..

4. More the time you spend on the road, lesser the time you get to post cheesy blogs, FB statuses/shares and stupid tweets. Good for mankind.

Special
1. You gain a lot of patience. The entire world will seem to shoot past you, while you crawl. Once you learn to live with it, you will enjoy every moment of your life.

2.  Finally you will learn the food chain of the road, where you would be just above the poor pedestrian. But then even they have more legal protection than a cyclist.

3. Learn to respect and fear the things on the street, especially the dogs. You will start planning your trips according to traffic situation, prefer places that allow to safely secure your bike and consider timings and ferocity of the dogs in the locations you plan to visit(V.important)

4. While you are involved in the constant struggle against friction, gravity and your own aching muscles, you forget every other problem in the world and can freely wander in your own world.

5. The feeling of triumph that accompanies each long route you complete, is more addictive than that gained from a motorcycle, because you are purely powered by your muscles, grit and determination.

6. Last but not least, you become the cool guy in the block and you can get to buy a lot of cooler accessories(provided you don't burn your pockets). I was shocked to see the level of sophistication that goes into the accessories.

just a few basic ones..

So get a bike , break free :)))))

Mysore - What I miss

I miss some things of Mysore.

But for places, I miss the Chamundi hills most. That is the place in Mysore I never got bored off.
It can be a quiet place to reflect, a crowded temple to squeeze into, a fun bike ride with friends, a calm bike ride alone, or a good workout climbing up, or a crazy move going in at midnight in thick fog. Chamundi hills rock! yeah... rocks..

But for other places, I miss my locality. From the vegetable angadi hassan wali akka, the chaiwallah anna from somewhere north Ktaka, Rajasthani mess ke bhai log, green hotelile kozhikode chettanmar, Vel's messile akka and anna from TN, chat wallah bhai from UP, churmuri wallah anna, paanipuri wallah bhai again from Lucknow and less lightly the fellows in the dhaba and Nandana & Hariprasad owners.

Readers might have noted that I mentioned only places related to food. This is not just because I am a foodie, but also because I am a foodie. I do miss other people too, but people who serve you food are the ones with whom you make stronger bonds. This is a lesson I learnt from life.

The above missings weren't expected, and hence comes as a pain. My mother used to lament how I lost weight due to the 'food problem' in Mysore. But the truth was that I had enough around me and only my late night office schedule left me hungry and undernourished at times(undernourished, me!! who will believe it , other than my poor mother). But as I had to walk or use the shitty bus service in Mysore, I had a good health condition there. Now, with the bike and being in Bangalore, all those are lost.

 Bangalore, though famous for the variety and quality of food isn't quite rewarding owing to the shit-like traffic condition, the dusty atmosphere and our special location plus the overall attitude prevailing among my roommates against venture fooding. On my own, I had an adventurous life in mysore ..sigh..

Overall I miss some people, some places, the atmosphere and mostly and very badly.. the me who was there.

Can't say I was 24 carat gold there. But I was far better in many terms. I wish to include those good things in what is good now.

I do wish many times that I could buy a plot of land in Mysore and move out later on. Bangalore doesn't suit me completely... for the records..

Mysooru-to-Bengaluru: A Tale of Two Cities

I started off my career in the city of Mysore 2 and a half years ago.

Hailing from a growing metro, and used to the certainty of being in the hometown for 10 long years, I was taken aback initially at what I got to experience.

After 2 years and 5 months of life there(an eventful one), I moved to Bangalore as part of a job change.

Let me try to put the vortex of my thoughts about the two cities in order here:-

Mysore was a laid back town. I hated it for the slow buses, irresponsible traffic, lack of modern facilities and early closure of shops. But now the hate has rightfully been replaced with a longing for what was good in that city. No doubt Mysore is a gem of town for living normal lives. But for youngsters hailing from top colleges and towns with exuberant energy and ambitions, the city proved to be a damper.

I have seen lots of friends and colleagues who came with lots of energy and promise, and crashed themselves against the dull wall that Mysore is. These people wish to do many things, but are unable to find the motivation to do them. Well, it is not the problem with the city in itself that people behave in such ways. But then it does form a major part. There are few opportunities to utilize the energy.

 Having said this, I hate many aspects of Bangalore too. It is dusty, crowded, and has no value for ethics or individuals. After all it is an amalgamation of people from all over the world, all worrying only about their own matters. As with all metros, it is bound to be void of human touch, and more of a sea of machines out here to print notes for themselves.
 
All the things mentioned above doesn't escape the naked eyes. What might is what comes next.

Mysore:-
It is not very difficult to get depressed and lazy in a city like Mysore. After all you can always think of at least a dozen things that suck big time.

But do all people behave so?Leave the residents who might not be able to find peace without the atmosphere that Mysore provides. The answer is NO.

People have fought this inertness and lethargy of the town by indulging themselves into things they wished to do. I admit that the town provides few modern facilities, but it ain't so bad in itself. If I want to list what you can do in Mysore to suit your taste, it will be a very big list. So I will skip that part.

Memories may fade but lessons don't

 The point in simple words is- Mysore makes you look into yourselves, discover what you want to do and pursue it with passion. The lack of all the noise makes you focus on things you value individually.

I greatly benefited from the life in Mysore. The solitude, the relative hardships and need for patience, all provide a good platform for focusing on what is good in life.

Running the Mysore Dasara Celebration Marathon

In Mysore, you generate the motivation and create the paths for using your energy, all by yourself. I remember the pull to go out on trips, undertake patient photo shoots, deep researches and long strolls, whenever some free time present itself to me. I am glad to admit I was able to tap into these opportunities quite well.

Bangalore:-
This city has a certain energy to it; be it the bustling crowds, the cluttered roads or the dusty construction sites.

People everywhere, moving to some destination or other. All having some or the other goals and ambitions. Even in a casual moment for one, hundreds around might be in an urgency or going through the most important moments in their lives.

To think of all these energies, just gives a channel of infinite energy and motivation.

I know lethargic people who started being more energetic after moving to Bangalore. So in spite of all the maddening stuff around, the city does prove to be a morale booster. People have definite targets, goals and are serious about them in this city. Maybe because in a competitive crowd, one can't afford to be complacent. I like to see it as a rat race, but now that I might also a part of it, I start to see how its designs and methods. Frankly I don't fancy the idea of getting caught in a rat race.

Perpetual motion

Everything in Bangalore seems to be coloured with the same shade of competition. A few words for the 'human touch' is required at this point. It might not be fully dead as many believe it to be. If you look for it , you can still see it lingering around you. It is just beliefs of people like you and me that it is dead, which actually makes it even truer. I have had some good experiences with people in this city. And I would credit my life in Mysore to have let me bring about that experience. After all people react in the same way you treat them...


Conclusion:-
The vortex is part of the vision. My experiences in one city strengthened and prepared me for what lies in store in the other, or rather for many more things ahead.

Time to fuse the learnings of the old with the challenges of the new to create ultimate weapons. If I manage to merge my will power induced motivations learnt in Mysore with the energy of this city, I believe I can propel myself to higher levels of competence and comfort :)

Trust me to never let a stub of thought to pass by without scrutinizing it. Adios amigos..

Diwali times...

This Diwali we had total of 3 days holiday,which included a monday. I am always happy when a monday is a holiday :)
So, I decided to pay my relatives@Bangalore a visit. Plus I had missed the Yahoo! and Subex boys the last time I visited Bangalore.Also, I was determined not to sit idly 3 days at Mysore,when majority of the people would either go home or be busy at their own homes.

So,I added the Bengaluru plan to my list by around Tuesday last week.I got time to search for many tourist spots,hiking and trekking areas of Karnataka. I was also involved in the community googling event of our team. We covered quite a lot of ground, and I was able to produce comprehensively relevant and detailed data on majority of the topics I got to handle. It was good to scrounge the web after quite some time.

Anyway, refreshed as well as rejuvenated by the extensive googling, I was eagerly waiting for the weekend to close in. On Saturday morning,I got into a volvo bus from the Maisooru Bus Stand at 8 am,and watched some kannada movie copied from Nadodikaatu series of Malayalam and dozed off,waking up somewhere near the outskirts of Bengaluru. Rest of the area, I observed ;)

At Bengaluru, I visited by cousin's place at Madivala.Also roamed around the smoky and war-torn city at night. The smoke was so tight by around 8 pm that we couldn't see the traffic signals clearly. Also, it was suffocating and stung my eyes. At that point,I swore to myself to encourage more and more people to stop bursting crackers for festivals. The sights and sounds of the metro during Diwali simply strengthened my cause.

Anyway,on account of the festival, we found many of the shops closed by around 7 pm and the famed Forum mall was almost vacant,and so were the numerous other malls and streets. That day, the crackers for me were provided by the Royal Challengers Bangalore,in the sizzling display of fireworks which didn't involve smoke.(Though the stadium wallahs were bursting many whenever a six was hit [:(] )

The next day, I had some 4-5 hours free, before I could visit my uncle's place at Kenkeri. So I decided to visit the Yahoo guys place a.k.a "Pulimada". Met them and went to Total Mall (erstwhile Kemp Fort),and saw the Shiva temple(cannot call it temple though). It resembled an amusement park made for 5 yr olds(or foolish adults),with all mechanical models of shivalingas.I felt ashamed seeing the kind of things they put up there in the name of God. It was fit for a good laugh,but as many people might be taking it seriously,I opted not to.After all religion is such an inflammable and sensitive issue ,wherever in India you are.

Then I went to Kenkeri satellite town, enjoying the outlying areas of Bengaluru on the way. That place is beautiful and serene compared to the nearby Metro. I enjoyed strolling out watching the crackers and celebrations in the area at night,until the smoke became too stifling.I got chance to explore the area further the next morning also.
Then was my first train journey in Karnataka(with start and end points within the state). I travelled from Kenkeri to Maisooru,a journey that took the precise 2 and half hours it was supposed to take. I always consider a train journey to be more rewarding than a bus or private vehicle,if you are interested in mingling with the local culture. And that is what I experienced also. I observed the differences and similarities when compared to a journey in Kerala.

By that my journey of the weekend almost came to an end. Its last part is just some funny incidents at my place,owing to the persistent efforts of the people in our area to fill up every dark corner of every house with the sound,smoke and light from their crackers. Woah,that was quite an effort, surviving the night without going deaf or blind...
Now back to the routine life of learning and earning,till the next weekend,when yet another adventure awaits me...