LandLORD

I was passing through the pantry when I heard some new joiners referring to their flat owners as land lords.

I am not sure what is so Lord about them. We curse them more than we worship them. We convert our devoutness from one to another so very often. When our pockets are deep enough, we elevate ourselves to become one of them. Then we look around and feel so very common amongst the myriad Lords and crave to become an Overlord!

Jeez, can you please stop calling land/apartment owners Lords?

Around Ladakh

We spent a night at Ladakh's own valley of flowers named Nubra valley. It borders 100 Kms from Pakistan and also leads to the famous Siachen glacier.

To get to Nubra we had to cross Khardungla pass, the highest motorable road in the world
@ 18380 ft.

Wind me down

Sandunes of Nubra.

Off roadie commander

Smooth tarmac bisecting the desert.

We also visited Pangong Tso lake, the largest lake in Asia, 25% of which is in India and the remaining in China.

A spectacle with rain, mud, water, green, sunshine, mountains, snow, blue sky, clouds.

Snowfall at Changa La pass @ 17800 ft

Pangong Tso lake @ 10 Kms from China.

Our very affable Ladakhi driver Baldan told us that traders used to cross over this frozen lake onto China during the winter. There are talks going on between the governments to open up the border. Manasarowar lake and Mt. Kailash, the abode of Lord Siva are very close from here.

Manali - Leh road trip

A trip to Ladakh had been in the top of our to-travel list for quite some time. The movie Lakshya which portrayed the Kargil war showed some breathtaking shots of the place. A couple of years back a retired army colonel chalked a biking trip to Ladakh and just reading about it was jaw dropping. Some of the highest motorable passes in the world are in Ladakh. It is one place where a frost bite and a heat stroke is possible on the same day!

We spent a day at Manali(6000 ft) to acclimatize before the trip to Leh(11500 ft).

A shot of the Beas river.

We drove from Manali - Leh over a span of two days covering around 450 kms of mountainous terrain.

Rohtang pass (13500 ft).

The horses take you far of the road to scenic view points. Trekking takes a couple of hours and lots of effort considering the high altitude with less oxygen.

The landscape changes from green to brown after this.

Near Baralacha la pass (16000 ft).


Red mountains before Pang.

Morey plains. Desert at 15000 ft! We got stuck in the sand and had to wait for a bus to tow us out.


View from Tanglang la pass ( 17600 ft) and on the second highest motorable road in the world.


Cute Ladakhi kid and his sister. He was super excited to be photographed :)

Back from Ladakh

We spent around seven days there and witnessed some of the most scenic landscapes averaging altitudes of around 15000ft. The land of the lamas was at its exotic best.

Tennis draws

After a frustrating French open men's final, Wimbledon has really come alive. The match between Ivanovic and Dechy was nail biting with a net ball preventing an upset of the French open champion. Djokovic who was in the semifinal draw of Federer had a very poor game against the unpredictable Safin. Roddick lost a chance to meet Nadal in the semi final with a loss against Tipsarevich. The troubled Davydenko had an early first round exit.

The top four men's seeding in order are Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and Davydenko. Though it no longer matters, I wondered why Federer was pitched to play against Djokovic in the semi final and not Davydenko. Here is what I found out about the rules for constituting a draw. The top two seeds constitute two different halves. The next two seeds are placed in different halves chosen randomly constituting a quarter. The next four seeds are placed in different quarters chosen randomly and so on.

People of Indian origin

I was reading news of Bobby Jindal as a possible republican vice presidential candidate.

In recent times there has been extensive coverage of the Louisiana Governor in the Indian news media. He has been proudly shown as a person of Indian origin who has risen stupendously at such as an early age to the top of American politics. He has been elected as the Indian Abroad person of the year in 2005.

BTW, here are some of the things he believes in:

- Opposes human embryonic stem cell research and abortion in any form.
- Denounces gun control legislation
- Favors teaching of 'intelligent design' in schools as an alternative to evolution.
- Committed to the Christian religious right
- In 2006, Jindal sponsored the Deep Ocean Energy Resources Act, a bill to eliminate the moratorium on offshore oil and gas drilling. His rating on environmental issues is amongst the lowest in the congress.

Flight paths

I used to wonder why do planes take a route along the land mass when flying long distance. There were theories floating around such as the availability of land in case of an emergency, the strength of radars, etc. The correct reason is because it is along the path of the great circle i.e the shortest distance between two points on a sphere. Planes take the great circle route unless there is a jet stream in the direction of travel.



The shortest path between Tokyo and San Francisco would be along the great circle route. However when flying from Tokyo to San Francisco, planes fly along the jet stream route and flight times are much shorter.

Weight gain!

I have restarted cycling and went to the base of Sinhagad last weekend. Around 80 Kms to and fro. We started late around 6:30 AM and had to bear the brunt of the heat and traffic on our way back. Next time, we plan to start early around 4:00 AM.

I did some shoulder and triceps weight training yesterday. The disappointing thing is that I am not putting any bulk in spite of increasing good power lifts. The cycling and running has reduced my weight big time. The only healthy way to counter this is by having a good diet.

Weight loss solutions

Saw this board at Kothrud the day before yesterday and instantly clicked.

Wonder how do they plan to do it?

Liposuction: Take out all the fat you want, but why limit to 5kg/month?
Formula 1 racing: Heard you lose around 5 kg after a race. But then the board should read 5 kg/race.
Run away with your money: Most likely and yes you would definitely lose weight.

Whats next

There is a void left after you have finished something specially when there was a lot of enthusiasm leading up to it. Enduro did that to me. But not for long.

The annual 170 Kms Mumbai-Pune cycle race has been postponed to March 23. So that would give us ample time to recuperate from Enduro and start training for this. There will be many of India's top cycle racers participating and our goal would be to just complete the race. The race details are hard to come by. When I spoke to one of the organizers, he asked me to look out for news about this in the media sometime this week.

The no gear DTB cycle that I have would not be of much help. I will need to see if I can borrow a sleeker faster cycle.

We competed well

Enduro3 2008 is over and our team has completed the race albeit not in any of the top three prize winning position. Kanti had cramped early on the race within an hour of cycling. He had to keep stretching right through the two days. I am amazed at his resilience to complete and compete in spite of all this. We definitely needed better trekking practice. This time there was a lot of trekking involved. We got lost a number of times and slowed down on difficult trails. There was mandatory rest time of around 4 hours after the end of Day 1 before we restarted at 2 AM the next day. It did not help our team because we did not carry any blanket/sleeping bag to fight the cold. We were shivering right through that period! Before end of Day 1 there was rope river crossing across the freezing lake water. Kudos to Kanti for standing up and doing it for the team in spite of his soreness. Nitin's energy and motivation kept us going right through the two days. Thanks to him for introducing us to this event and preparing us for it. Without him we would have been in the blue throughout the race.

Today evening is when we get our participation certificates at a ceremony.

2 days to go

Enduro3 is almost there and our practice team is down with injuries. Prateem pulled his groin muscle while climbing up Sinhagad in the wee hours of Sunday morning the week before last. It was diagnosed to be a muscle inflammation that needed 1 month rest to heal by a sports medicine doctor. I felt bad for Prateem as he had been regularly practicing for a month and now he has to pull out of the race. Riyer got sick with flu for a whole week that has not yet healed fully. So he had to pull out too. Some of us are still recovering from illness due to the extreme climate change and hopefully there will not be any more incidents before the race starts. I am trying to be real careful by not eating outside food and taking adequate rest. I still need to work on the cycle for some alterations and servicing. I need to purchase some mandatory items that every participant needs to carry during the race.

Wish us luck!

More practice

Last weekend we had cycled to the famous Purandar fort. It is famous for the war between the Marathas under Shivaji and the Mughals under Aurangazeb. The Killedar(fort keeper) commander of Shivaji, Murar Baji Prabhu fought valiantly against the combined armies of Aurangazeb's general Dilir Khan and Rajput king Jai Singh but perished in the ensuing battle. It is said that the Killedar was far outnumbered before putting up a brave fight. His statue rests inside the first fort entrance. Purandar is also unique to have a fort inside a fort. To take control, both the difficult forts would have to be breached. Located at the summit of the inner fort is a Shiv temple.

We had a completely different experience this time round. After cycling the usual long distance we came across a road that climbed a hill all the way to the top. To reach Purandar,we had to cross this hill. We had to drag our cycles along the road for more than an hour to reach the top before we came downhill the other side. We encountered long stretches of gravel road along the way which was tough on our cycles and slowed us down considerably. After reaching the base village we parked our cycles and started the trek. We lost our way a couple of times before reaching Dilli darwaza(entrance to the first fort). This area is now an army training camp. We had poha and nimbu pani there before the climb to the inner fort. We decided to go to the temple located at the summit after we reached the inner fort. This was a good walk along a ridge with steep slopes on either side. We lost our way again before we made it to the top. The view at the summit was fantastic! We could spot no other hill taller than us and we could see a 360 degree view of the horizon.

We descended quickly and then started cycling back under the blazing sun. Prateem's cycle got punctured along the way while he was negotiating a stone road just after a down hill ride. We got it fixed and decided to go on a different route that had a better road. Prateem had be careful as the puncture had also ripped a part of his tire. In spite of fixing the puncture, he kept losing air gradually along the way and we kept pumping it up once in a while. We reached home at 6:00 PM. I was extremely tired and this was the most tortuous effort for me up to now.

Tonight we guys are planning to go back to Sinhagad fort. This time it is an all-nighter with a lot of walking. We plan to only cycle 12 Kms one way before we start the walk of around 30 Kms to reach the base village. We would climb up and come down before we walk back 30 Kms. We would then cycle back to reach home hopefully by 6:00 AM in the morning!

Enduro practice

Enduro is nearing and we have started our practice sessions.

Couple of weeks back we had cycled around 40 Kms to the Sinhagad fort, trekked up 2600 foot, came back down then cycled back home. We started around 5:00 AM in the morning and returned home around 1:00 PM i.e around 8 hours of rigorous physical activity.

This was good for a start considering Enduro spans a continuos 24 hours of cycling, walking, rope river crossing, rowing and rifle shooting. According to a friend of mine, there used to be rappelling but because of some accidents was scrapped.

We have a team of three and are participating in the corporate category. Our team leader has done this twice before and his experience has kept us motivated and prepared.

Last weekend we had been to Neelkantheshwar temple located on a hill. This was more rigorous compared to the Sinhagad trip. We cycled 50 Kms which included many uphill climbs. The last leg of cycling involved dragging our cycles up a steep climb till we reached the base village that was located half way up the hill. We parked our cycles and started a very steep climb to reach the steps of the temple. We took darshan at the Shiv temple, had some Kanda Poha after which we started back down. From the base village, we cycled with a lot of braking down the steep path filled with stones and sharp turns along the corners of the hill till we reached the bottom. our cycles took a lot of beating in the process and I lost one of the bolts attached to my pedal. It was peak noon by the time we started cycling back home. This was a big effort for all of us and spanned 12 hours of activity from 5:00 AM to 5:00 PM. We have achieved the Enduro cycling limits with this practice.

Next week we plan to scale 2300 feet to reach the Purandar fort after 40 Kms of cycling to reach it. The fort area is very broad and it includes a 1 hour walk along a ridge to reach a temple located at the summit. This should test our walking skills as it involves around 4 hours of up and downhill trekking.

More on it next week.

Taare Zameen Pe

A contemporary movie that is a touching account of a dyslexic child who faces the rat race of growing up in a world that does not understand him.

Darsheel Safary the child actor has performed brilliantly. After watching the movie, I imagined him to be a highly mature actor in the lines of Halley Joel Osment from the 'Sixth Sense' fame. On the contrary, he looked a playful naughty normal child during an interview by a CNN-IBN host. The music is simple and soothing. I just love Shankar Mahadevan and his slow numbers. Aamir Khan performed his role well as an actor/director. Considering the brilliant artist he is, he lived upto those expectations.

I watched this movie during a late night second show starting 9:45 PM after a long tiring day driving 200KM+ through traffic from Pune-Mumbai. I have very little patience to sit through long movies but this was an exception and was wide awake when it got over at 1:00 AM.

I would say that it was time well borrowed from my precious sleep.

Microsoft bots

Microsoft has a very broad base of worker personal computers spread across the Internet. The operating brain of these computers were written by the masters at Microsoft. They have made sure to not lose complete control over their prodigies.

I come to office after setting up background jobs yesterday ready to work on a carefully drafted environment only to find an annoying dialog box that tells me that the computer will be automatically restarted in 5 minutes. There are two buttons "Restart now" and "Restart later". I hit the obvious and continue working only to get the box again in 2 minutes telling me that the computer will be restarted in 5 minutes. After two/three tries, I give up and killed all my tasks/environment to restart the computer.

After the restart, I get a message that a critical update needs to be installed. I check the details and it happens to be Microsoft's genuine software verification tool to prevent piracy! Tell me how critical it is to force me to break my work. If they had issues with their previous tool, they should install it with little collateral damage.

After the install, it automatically takes you to a page that rants about the benefits of using genuine Microsoft software. Yeah the masters do not want to lose control and I get the picture!

First long distance race

I do not know what exactly were the sequence of events but I had registered for the Pune marathon held last Sunday.

Same time last year, my office was abuzz with talk about the marathon. A large contingent took part in the 4.5 Km dream run. They said that it was fun with crowds cheering and bands performing all the way. It was a very hectic period for me and my fiance then with just a couple of months to our marriage. But this time there was no excuse. This was something to be experienced. I opted for the 10 km run. Being a regular at the gym for half a year now, I felt that I was reasonably fit to run that distance with proper training. Me and a couple of colleagues from office ran for a week averaging 3 km a day. It was very hard for me to run beyond that without adequate rest. I felt that I was over enthusiastic to register for the long run. But I was determined to complete it without taking rest in between.

Race day comes and its a chilly December morning around 6 AM when I take my bike and travel 15 km to the location. A friend of mine joined me and we went searching for the start point of our category amidst hoardes of people spanning race, gender and age. We apparently had to submit a form and stamp our number card pinned to our t-shirt. Believe me, it was chaotic. Around 12000 participant had turned up and there was hardly room on the road to stand! We somehow made it to the 3rd row of the start line and finished our formalities only to wait for an hour to hear speeches by the organizers and celebrities who had come to flag the race. The crowd went berserk when Salman Khan stood up the podium. Sunil Gavaskar flagged off our race and we tried to go past the crowd of people who were still awestruck with the celebrities.

After the initial shoving and pushing, I started a slow run and with distance the crowd gradually spread. Within 2 km I started to pant and had serious doubts on completing the race. Around the 3km mark, I was pepped by drummers and people on the streets cheering. The initial part of the race was slightly uphill and tough. It only got easier later. I kept running and lo behold, it was the 9km mark! I did not even realize that I had run this far. My hearbeat increased with anticipation which only made me more physically exhausted. Then did I see the beautiful arch that said finish point for the mens 10km. I crossed it and stopped but my legs wanted to run more. Running had almost become an involuntary action by then and I had to force myself to sanity!

It was my first and a race to remember!!

Gymming in Chennai

After a long break from physical activity and no break from slumber, I decided to hit the gym one evening. Having paid around 10 grand for a year, I felt guilty of utilizing less than a third of it. The out of shape look did not thrill me either. This was around 6 months back and I have been pretty regular since then.

Recently, I had tried out some of the popular gyms in Chennai a day at a time over a period of a week.

The mecca of body building Gold's gym had a center close to my house in Chennai. The movie Pumping Iron starring Arnold featured Gold's gym prominently and was sure worth an experience. I was greeted by a friendly receptionist and the ambience looked promising. They charged me Rs 233/day and had a yearly rate of Rs. 15000. The workout area was on the ground floor with a locker room upstairs. The instruments were from Precor and in good working condition. The coaches let you work on your own if you knew what you were doing! I found the open floor space for stretching/abs pretty less.

Fitness One was bigger and costlier. It has a reputation in Chennai to adhere to the high income super rich class. They charged me Rs. 333/day and had a 3 month rate of Rs. 9000! I did my warmup and stretching on the first floor which had a poor air conditioner. The basement had all the weights and a separate room for aerobics. Half way through my workout, there came a model posing with instruments and a photographer with a lights guy clicking away. I have heard about their strong marketting!

Blue gym was much smaller and charged me Rs. 200/day. They have a monthly package of Rs. 1700. Surprisingly their yearly rate was 1700 * 12 without any discount! One thing that stands out here were the instructors. They were very friendly inspite of me being there just for a day. They corrected me when I was not lifting correctly. Overall I had a very nice and relaxed workout. It did not have some of the instruments that were a part of my schedule though.

Dimension was undergoing some repair work and had a makeshift place with a lot of instruments crammed together. They charged me Rs. 200/hour and had an annual rate of around Rs 12000. They offered me some deals if I was going to enroll with the next one week. I found the place the smallest and most in dearth of dumbells and other instruments. I went on a Sunday morning and so had to wait 15 minutes to just get to a cycle. The instruments were old and needed oiling.

Compared to my ABS gym in Pune, I found the Chennai gyms costlier and smaller. I see that gymming in Chennai has not really reached out to the middle class or it could just be that the cost of living in Chennai is far higher when compared to Pune!

Blood donation debacle

There was a blood donation camp recently near our office and we decided to go for it.

The last time I had donated was around 3 years back in the US. Apart from the 'feel-good' factor, goodies like t-shirts, key chains etc. used to be given to donors. The people handling the process are thorough professionals and make you feel comfortable throughout the process.

We went post noon just after having our lunch. The security guard stopped us near the entrance asking us to enter our names in their registry as our company did not belong to this building. We did so and went to the first floor following directions. It turned out to be an under construction floor with makeshift aluminium paritions and a number of people wandering in a haphahazard way. There were a couple of blood testing areas at the center with long lines leading to them. Towards the end of the area were some people donating blood lying down on iron beds.

We filled our questionnaires only to realize that we needed to fill a pink one if we wanted to stand in the shorter line. There were two different agencies collecting blood in the same hall. We filled the pink one and had our blood pressure checked. We were then asked to go towards a table near the iron beds manned by a compounder. There were many donors cluttered around depositing their questionnaires and collecting empty packets needed to collect blood. This place was clearly understaffed. There were around 7 iron beds and 1 doctor moving across them inserting the needle and pulling it out once done. She also kept multi tasking to the blood testing section. When we were finally noticed by the compounder he asked us to go to another table performing blood tests first. Another long line! When it was my turn my name was entered in the register and directed to another line performing the blood test. Line is a line mathematically but not in reality. Name a trick in the book and it is done. People keep cutting, sneaking and what not.

Then comes the final decisive blow. There is this guy who comes running with blood dripping from his forearm, shirt sleeves and onto the floor. Everybody rushes and tries to stem the blood
flow. We had seen enough. We rush out of the place and vow to never come back to this place again.

5 nutritious habits of the planet's healthiest countries

http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/diet.fitness/08/31/cl.worldly.advice/index.html

Take note of the healthy habits of the countries listed. India figures in the healthy spices list.

I like the following points,

- Try one new type of fruit from your local market each week.

- "hara hachi bu," which in Japanese translates to "eight parts out of 10" and means stop eating when 80 percent full. (Very difficult for me ;)

- Skip the prepared food aisles at the market and choose fresh, whole foods.