Longest bicycle ride.

I intended to take a break and lunch along the lakeside somewhere so I packed sandwiches and some fresh fruits. When I started riding, I didn’t feel like stopping. So, I didn’t.  After about 3 hrs and 10 mins of nonstop biking I returned home. I covered a distance of approximately 25 miles in the trip. This was my longest single bicycle ride . This is also my dullest post.

Simpsonized

This is how I look these days.

Exhilaration.

A sudden burst of energy and excitement.  Something that you would experience when you are just staring outside the window on a cloudy day and it begins to rain. Then you run 2 miles towards downtown in the torrential and cold downpour, stare at tornado winds and walk back slowly.

Similar Images Trial

I have been doing a lot of comparisons between Bing and Google searches for many days now.

Here is a trial from the Similar Images search engine from these.

—–

I search Sachin Tendulkar in Bing Images.

I click on Similar images for image (1,2).

Here is the result.

Now,in  Google’s Similar Images search,  I search for Sachin Tendulkar again.

I ask for Similar Images to image (1,4), the exact same image.

The result? Google agrees that Rehman and Sachin look similar.

Click below to enlarge.

Cycle Excursions

Minneapolis and St. Paul boast of great cycling tracks that run along some of the scenic locations I have ever seen in my life. This summer I will be discovering the Twin Cities through its bike trails.  My cheap walmart bike may not bear the rough terrain of the trails I have realised, but certainly I am ready to sweat and pedal through the cities’ landmarks.

Pleonasm – 1

Maagcha background, free gift, kesachi hairstyle, bad luck kharab… pakistani terrorist.

pain

pain bina chain kahaa re….

pain bina chain kahaa re…

RA nahi TA nahi

pain toh mila

arey pain sehale!

my body has started aching again!

Maha- “Trip to” Baleshwar

 

They say that the traveler has no intent of arriving at the destination but is interested with the journey itself.

Yesterday I was a traveler.

When the destination is just meant for the bus-driver to know in which direction to go, it’s the journey which the traveler wants.Perhaps the driver could’ve just taken me round and round around Pune and stopped at the same place 4 times for “sightseeing” and I would’ve enjoyed just as much.That’s what made yesterday special.

The journey.

My Maha-Trip to Mahabaleshwar.

(For those who don’t know, it was a trip of the teesa magazine committee for the stupendous success of the 2006 edition of the teesa magazine titled 'exponentials'.)

When the 18 of us started out, we knew something special was in store. As with every excursion a person undertakes, I learnt a few lessons too. The first lesson came in the first few hours in the bus itself.

Knowledge of bollywood songs is a must.

By knowledge I mean a large collection of songs and their lyrics in your memory, and the ability to sing it spontaneously. And by a large collection I mean a very large collection indeed. Right from Manna dey and Rafi to …..(cough)(cough) Himesh Reshammiya.

I bet my fellow travel mates would be oooooh-ing now!

And believe me 4 hours of Antakshari would certainly mean coarse voices any other day, but not on the 18^th of May. Antakshari was something I associated only with Close-up toothpaste, Zee TV and Anu Kapoor till yesterday. Things have certainly changed now. After playing the longest Antakshari of my life they had to.

I see the Antakshari in new light now, besides being a fabulous pastime in journeys. I see it as the carrier of emotions. So when, Amey was leaving for home and somebody started “chalte chalte…mere ye geet yaad rakhana…” we really meant it.

 

A typical bus scene in the morning.

‘

PJ : Ra aaya hai.

Pratap(instantaneously with typical singers’ hand movements): “ramaiyaa vata vayya…..”

Rest of em follow suit.

Pratap: Ya ala Ya

Sanika(in no time) : “Yaaron Sun lo zara haan…”

Everybody likes it and the voices get louder.

’

The first stop was at “Shree-ram best wada pav centre” for break fast. The Antakshari had to stop for a few minutes. (phew!)

Now started the series of the grandest PJs I’ve ever listened to or made them myself.

The P level of the jokes was reaching a new a high ( should I say low?) as time passed by. After Shriram bid goodbye to his wada-pav outsourcing partner, we resumed the journey and of-course the Antakshari.

An hour goes by, then two, then three! But the Antakshari doesn’t stop!

Not knowing to play the game well can make u lose interest doesn’t it?I was in a similar situation.Jus grinning and laughing had reduced me to a mere dummy. (had it?)Even Sneha and Sanika once said “ Just look at his face. He seems bored.”I grinned. Bollywood songs isn’t something I am too easy with.

Then with divine intervention the driver decided to stop at the Mahabaleshwar Temple. (I wonder whether its really called as the Mahabaleshwar Temple”, I jus dint bother to know.) and believe me, the last song stopped only when the driver hit the engine-kill switch.

A small group of us (including me) waited outside the temple “guarding” the footwear of people who had gone inside. I believe that was just the ideal excuse for us to “avoid” the Gods. (that says something considering it was my first visit to mahablaeshwar.) But as I said, Mahabaleshwar or omkareshwar. The place jus dint matter.

Anurags football was now the centre of all action. After a bit of practice in the temple grounds, we headed for some sightseeing.

Mahabaleshwars main tourist spot was the Arthur Point, which soon became apparent, not by witnessing the awesome views from up there but by the sheer number of people who had turned up there even in the afternoon sun.

Now it was time for some real sightseeing. I perceived it as just the ideal place for us to drift around.

The search for the echo-point was futile, and so we decide to indulge in some cheap(but damn cool) Ice-Gola’s! A lot of “suck”s followed and the everybody got for themselves a new lip-colur. Incidentally it was the same colour as what flavour golas they had!

<ok it was a sad pj. But I was trying to recreate the mood>

We were now sporting Orange or blood-sucking Vampire lips.

Ganar kept spotting the cuddling couples all along the garden. Somehow, he derived pleasure doing some snooping around.

Right beside was Mahabaleshwar’s most beautiful valley. I took some time just to stare at it. It really is a heavenly experience when the muddled mind searching for something he doesn’t know looks down the valley and up at the horizon. Just helps him realise that there are bigger things in life.

The Bombay-point was next on the list. Dicsussions galore about how great the Boimbay point amidst the now-heightened level of PJs.

<check this pj for starters: we will try to see pune from the Bombay-point which is in Mahabaleswar.>

 

As I wasn’t expecting it all, The Bombay point was isolated ! It was just our gang in the entire place. Now for some football. We started off with the desi version of dodge-ball; ‘madhla kavla”.!!! Soon turned to proper dodge-ball though and then football.

Now started the real rowdy part. Its not that I haven’t played footbball in the past., its just that I hadn’t played it wearing jeans, a short shirt and floaters! An hour of some really hard hitting football and the players still had little clue which team they belonged to. Unfortunately I ended up on the losing side.(really?)

Meanwhile The girls engaged themselves in more civilized sports.

My floaters were bottle green colour in colur when I landed on Bombay point. They were now covered in red-soil. So was my Jeans and hair, ears and ahem…nose!

The whole experience at Bombay point was exhilarating. Even in my wildest dreams I couldn’t have imagined I could be playing football atop the mountains of Mahabaleshwar with guys like Himanshu, Karan, Anurag , Piyush or Veeresh.

Boy, I don’t feel like washing my feet for I don’t want to lose even the slightest part of this experience.

Its Lunch Time!

Football had sapped us of our energy. We headed straight for the main market place and I believe even the driver was damn hungry. Not that he just drove fast, his hotel-bill at the end of the lunch was proof enough!!

Lunch was as typical as it can get in a Punjabi “ veg-family” restaurant.

Another lesson in this trip. Its tough to be waiter. When you are serving 18 hungry-people who have conveniently forgotten their manners.……. . I guess u have understood what I’m trying to say.

After Lunch and some ice-cream we left for the famous mapro-gardens.

The level of PJs was comparable to recent bull-run of the share markets.

(I jus had the news that the markets have now crashed!)

We had now started talking absolutely crap. And were laughing our guts out to such an extent that my jaws gave a twinge when I decided to keep my face in a rather suave expression!

At the Garden, we were interested in only two things; the free samples and the trampoline for 6 year-old kids! Priygun made the most innocent face I’ve ever seen him make and said “I want to be on that trampoline.” . Our shamelessness was exposed when we were asking for more free samples because “we dint get the taste.” !!

After some shopping at the Mapro store we were all now in the bus. It was 6.30 in the evening. Our water-bottles were empty. So now what to do?….

Nah, we dint refill them. We made our own music. Yes, u read it right, with empty plastic bottles we made our own music. How? Oh c’mon…..we jus beat them as hard as we could!! The Bottle Band lasted for about 15 mins and continued during the return journey too! (the driver wasn’t too pleased with it though!)

Then came what we were all there for – the felicitation.

We are a team.

A team that has created the magazine that would put other well-funded magazines to shame. Am effort that the department would be both proud of. And this feeling of being a team and a successful one at that is something I cherished. The moment was fantasy.

When Priygun gave the cd with the magazine printed on it, our jaws dropped. We just stood there. Cheered. Claaped. Oh boy! Our baby in digital format!!

Now it was time to return.

And believe it or not, the gang was now more energetic than ever.

Pratap and Priygun were in their own element when the driver put on the “marathi dance tracks”. This trip had been the trip of many firsts for me. Dancing in a moving bus on tracks like “dhagaala lagli kala” was just another, though I hardly danced.

Sometimes jus grinning and laughing at the back and watching others go in a frenzy when “mi baburao boltoy” began, can be enjoyable.

The entire journey the gang was dancing and enjoying.

Perhaps everybody would say “I enjoyed the most”.

But me…..

It was something beyond mere enjoyment, song and dance.

I was having the time of my life, secretly hoping that the journey would never end.

I was a traveler now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robotics or Gaming?

COEP's premier technical event , Fervor ended recently. Big names, big sponsors, big contests, big everything. And as in any symposium, the major crowd-pullers were the Robotics contest.
I watched one of the contests going on amidst loud music and cheering. A group of four (over)enthusiastic students were carefully maneuvering their "Robot" through a series of obstacles. The so-called robot ( and i would be calling it as a robot further for the lack of a better name) was controlled by using a " Two-button remote control".
Thats what the guy who built it used to describe the polyset tiffin-box he had in his hand with wires jutting out of it all over the place.
A big heavy duty power-supply system was used to drive 4 DC motors. Motors being attached to a a crudely cut aluminum sheet.
The two buttons in the operator's hands were merely controlling the directio n of th motors. And hence could control the robots direction.