Manish and the art of FZ-S

Hey there, a few words appear on MD's space after a long time..somebody else's shells and pebbles on his sand....it was one of those ideas which came up over our endless discussions of evening tea and the promise of one post was decided..but as this blog is fated for quarterly procrastination , the topics for which I should post kept on changing depending on changing events of his life and now its finally settled up on his new love , I hope it gets posted without lot of editorial slashes :P

Though I have known this guy as next-cubicle-guy for a couple of years, its been recently that we happened to be part of a nice group at work, and spent some time together..and one of the first things that you noticed about this guy's worldly possessions was the lack of utter disregard for any respectable means of transportation. He came to office on his pair of well-worn shoes, or a grunting Fiero or an even older but faithful family CT100. When we mocked him about these fine wheels, he regaled us with some tales of an even ancient no-seat-scooter from his Cisco days with perverse glee, I'm sure his B'lore friends will attest to this fact and if those stories are even remotely true, those who traveled on that contraption -- you are his true friends guyz!

So its a huge surprise when one fine day this guy just zooms in a .....waaaaaaaaaait for it.....a sexy stylish yellow-black Yamaha FZ-S. The bike is everything that AutoDrive and other bike magazines drool about. The bike is very sporty with a macho silhouette and Prince MD looks really dashing on his iron horse. :) The front aerodynamic design with two color styling adds to the appeal of the bike. As far as pillion rider (moi) could ascertain, the ride is much smoother city traffic than other 150 cc bikes in this segment. The digital front display is impressive too and the rear view mirrors are back on his bike after a really long time. A girlie bird chirps that taller and well built (Manish,though u look great, get started on the gym thing asap) guyz would suit this bike. ;)

(Interested parties, please contact Manish for full size image. Manish, I get a treat if cute girls ask for it)

While, seriously there is no dearth of better reviews of FZ-S and its finer features, something else strikes me about this particular 1347 FZ-S....this bike isn't just a luxurious point in an upward vehicular trajectory for a regular guy, it is the first real indulgence of a man who feels responsible for everybody's happiness & well-being around him and puts their fancies ahead of his...every time he looks at his girl (I agree with Pratik, bikes are always female, their muscular styling notwithstanding), he looks at her with absolute fondness and grins almost disbelievingly..Wow..and the people around him smile with his smile. :)..buddy you do deserve all these best things in life and many more to come..

So Manish, as your favorite season is on its way....drive safe (its lot easier on slippery rainy roads with that fat tyre) and hit the high winding roads and wide highways with your beauty with the wind on your face and a song on your lips( or headphones, whatever suits you) .
Here's one for your Road from this ferris wheel rider..hope you get to write some diaries of your own :)


P.S. Yay, an emoticon in every paragraph of a post on manish's blog >:)

Fun at a cost...

Work hard Party harder...

I have been having a lot of fun lately.
Diveagar, Sinhagad Trek, Mahabaleshwar Trip, Friday the 13th & on...

I meetup with my school-gang once a month or so (they all meet much often).
Because of hectic and busy stuff going on recently, I ditched them on a couple of meets and got kicked badly,
The new rules of my group are,

To invite Dusa to the GT is our duty (kartavya)
He is not turning up for the GT is our expectation (apeksha)
and to kick his butt for this it our right (Hakka)

and they are good at implementing this 'right', by turning up at my office and taking my case...

What are friends for .... ? :)

Sundance, Robert Redford, Slumdog Millionaire and Me

[I scribbled this entry at SLC airport on 29/1/9, could only post it now.]


It is 7:00pm in my watch california time (PST). It is 8:26am (IST) on my laptop. It is 8:00pm local time at Salt Lake City airport.

I am sitting tired at gate B-6, waiting for my 9:00pm flight. Today was hectic (not unlike last week), tiring but fullfilling (unlike last week).

Got up at 7, tried to access office ftp server. The connection was slow, dropped the idea. got ready and had breakfast by 8:30, and was ready to go to the Certification Labs. As I stepped out realized there was frost (?) - a layer of ice on my everywhere on my rented car - windshields, doors, boot, bonet.




It was 9 am and a warm day, but my car was parked in the shadow, scraped some ice using a news paper off the windshield, enough so i can drive and move the car in sun. The lifegiver melt the snow in about 5 mins, when I was burning some lung cells and taking pics.

Fed the office address in GPS. As i expected, it started off with wrong direction (it had older maps). I knew the road though, so ignored GPS. Reached the Lab in about 5 mins. Had some critical images to download. Luckily the bandwidth at the Lab was oc-2/oc-3. The downloads and verification took about 5 mins. (I appreciate such an infrastructure where employee time is valued). Worked with the good guys at the Lab, sometimes probably pushing them to complete the tests. Hmm and we were done by 1:30. Nice... Talked to the mgr there, sorted out a couple of
issues by talking to my office back in SJ and by 1:45 / 2 i was done and out of the Lab.

I was in Lindon and the return flight was at 9pm from SaltLakeCity. I had a lot of time to kill. Thanks to Chris from the Lab, who went out of his way and informed me about a couple of places nearby, even went and got me a map to Sundance Resorts, which were 'up in the mountains'. I said I was skeptical to drive in the snow. He looked up the weather and road conditions online and confirmed its 'dry' and good to go. So there, I decided to check out this Robert Redfords' Sundance Resort in the mountains.

It was about 13 miles away and google said 25 mins. Fed the address in GPS and as expected it misbehaved. I had the printout (w/o detail directions though). So just drove in logical directions. Bought camera batteries (thx to gopa) at a petrol pump and confirmed directions and there I was moving along E 800 N took a left on 189-S, and .... it was beautiful. Had never seen snow in my life and the drive was awesome. I was so engrossed in the scenic drive that I missed the Sundance turn and went ahead 8 miles till Deer Creek Cafe (?). Took a U turn on 189-S and took right into Sundance Resorts. This was even better. The small road went through the valley. There was no sunlight and it was colder (that means i was shivering in my skiing jacket, gloves and cap(all 3 thx to gopa)). Awesome place, could not try snow-boarding/skiing there. Just took a quick 'foot pass' and rode the Ski-lifts up to the mountains and back. It was great to see very small cute kids skiing.
I took a young 4yr old Cambrillas photo. Her mom told me she is skiing from the age 3 and wants to become a model :). The 45 min ride up was 'cold'er again. Took some videos on the way. (thx to gopa for loaning the camera, i should buy one !!! ).

Once I got back from the ride (at around 4:30pm) there was nothing much to do, had lunch at 'Sundance DELY', (why is it Deli and not Daily ?), clicked photos and decided to head to SLC and check out the 'Temple' if I have time. It was cold so was smoking near the car just before leaving, when a facilities dude at SDR said 'would you have another cigarette ?'. I obliged and we got on talking. He was Andrew and asked me if I am from India. I said yes. He : Oh ! I could not have told. Then he mentioned about 'bob', saying we are not supposed to talk about him, but what
the hell, he stays up here, owns these 2 mountains, he is environmentalist, he started the resort. We see him once in a while, more in summer, because we have to ride on horses ensuring hunters dont kill the antelopes which migrate to these sides of the mountain. If you go up the ride you could see his property - the biggest house up there, Bob is a big-deal here. etc etc etc … ... .. . A talkative american, this was little unexpected for me.

I asked about Sundance Film Festival. He informed it used to be here , but now moved to a place nearby.
On hearing that i am into software development. He talked about his love for music and how he wants to get a software designed that will automatically pick up beats and generate music. He composes some music and said music is all mathematical, so a computer AI program (as he called it :)) should be able to generate good music. ( I smiled wondering isn’t music and art in general is all about pouring your heart out).

Then he asked about India. After hearing me for some time, he says, but India is a poor country right ? and before I could finish that’s not completely true, he said, Have you seen Slumdog Millionaire ? I was stumped and went all :)). I said that's just a side of story, there is lot of divide in India - economically, socially and culturally. etc. Then we talked about some movies like 'Life less ordinary' and other absolute timepass stuff. I asked him click a couple of my snaps.


His girlfriend came along when I was asking him about return directions. I was planning to go to Lindon and the take I-15 to SLC. But Andrew suggested take the road to Haber city (from where he is) up the mountains, its takes the same amount of time, but is scenic. I was already amazed by the US 189-S and took his advice which i did not repent. Reached SLC at around 6:30pm. was tired (because of the monotonous and focused driving for 1 Hr. I guess doing 70mph on avg looses its fun after first time. ). Decided to drop the SLC Temple visit and returned the Car at SLC airport.

Got 'randomly' selected for screening at the airport. Since then getting bored sitting at B-6. In hindsight probably i should have visited the Temple.

Its 7:45pm in my watch, thats 8:45pm SLC time, and I hope they would start boarding soon. At SJ airport I have to pick up a car, have dinner (alone), go to aptmnt (and post this blog)
before i sleep tonight.

Update:
Great ! They announced the flight is late by 15 mins.


What a Day !


Update: while posting…
I reached SJ late that night, went to Gopas place on his insistence, where renu cooked and I had dinner at 11:30 pm. Left Gopas place at 12:30 ish and reached aptmnt at 1:00am.

Bombay'ed

Alistair got married on Sunday, 15th Feb to Margaret.
Congratulations and Best wishes to both of them !

After a late night party and broken internet at home on Fri night. Got up early on Saturday, came to office, sent a couple of pending mails and i was on my way to Bombay at 11:00 am.

My first trip on the Expressway and was exited to try it out. Hemant from office suggested to the tyre pressure lower, on Bombay Pune Expressway. I obliged.

On my way to expressway, I realised my WagonR is not co-operating, I thought probably because of my recent exploits with smooth corolla in US, I am finding it difficult. Still decided to check and Murphy shined on me from heavens, there was indeed had a flat (ok, the 'indian' puncture ! ), when i was less than 2 kms from expressway... Good, I said ! . It was 11:30am

By 12:15, the tyre was replaced and I was good to go. Expressway ride was good and as boring as it gets driving on lonely freeways in US. Again I found my car is jumpy and esp at winding turns of Lonavala it difficult to control. Stopped at a food mall and checked the air pressure, in all 4 tyres the airpressure was above 45 psi. The smart dude who changed my tyre, did it. I thanked god the tyre didnt burst when i was doing 100 kmph, earlier. Set it back to 28 psi on all 4 wheels and moved along.

Rest of the ride was uneventful and reached bombay (Vashi) at 1:35 pm. Now I had to go to Malad taking jogeshwari link road over IIT Pawai. Traffic Jams and a few wrong turns later, I reached Alistairs place at 4 pm. Ayush and rest of the gang from Bangalore was already there. Freshed up, had lunch and moved to the guest house.

We - ayush and me - had decided to check out LePold and Taj. So took a fast local train from Malad to Churchgate. Roamed around in Colaba. Gateway of India and Taj Hotel was amazing as always. It was Valentines Day, and there wasn't as much of crowd as we expected... good.

After 2 security checks, entered Taj 2, explored Taj-1, Taj-2 and settled for a hot chocolate at the Coffee shop. They will not serve us any cakes, pastries as they 'd some valentines spl dinner combo. Ayush was disappointed. :).

Nonetheless, next went to Leo Pold Cafe for dinner, jam-packed. We decided to ditch it and find out the Pizzeria on Marine Drive, that we had tried at Rohan's wedding. Ayush decided to try GPS on his 'fundoo' cell phone and ofcourse we failed to locate Pizzeria. After couple of kms of wandering, called up just dial and got the address. Its opposite Ambassador Hotel on Marine Drive.
At pizzeria and most other hotels we tried there was a waiting of 1 Hr. We gave up, had a pizza and salad at Ambassador coffe shop (yes their restaurents were full as well) and walked into Churchgate station, just in time to catch fast local to Malad.

Reached at the guest house (near Inorbit Mall, Malad) at 1am. Got up early the next day. Dropped ayush at his uncles place in Lokhandwals, had nice breakfast, thanks to his Uncle and Aunt and moved to Chembur. On my way back picked up ayush and we reached the Church in time at 5pm.

It was a simple, sweet, quick wedding. We (me, ayush, alistairs parents) picked up 'the' Cake and reached the Reception location near Mad island (the road was bad). Good Fun, good food later, called it a day and left the venue at 12. Dropped bala at Kandivali Station and 4 of us (Sridhar and Gaurav) reached guest-house at 1:30 ish. Got up at around 4 am, dropped Ayush, Sridhar at Airport at 5:30 am and Me and Gaurav were on the way to Pune.
Reached at home by 8:30 and at office by 10:00 am.

A very tiring, 'Bombay'ed 2 day trip.

Last Year...

giving into the frenzy of new year wishes, here is wishing all a very happy new year !

New year eve are the times we think about last year and see how to go about next year.

My last year has been interesting, not as productive as i would have wanted it though.

Run Run Run

I participated in 10Km run on 7th Dec 2008, scheduled alongwith Pune International Marathon. After seeing Alistair completing a couple of Marathons across the country, I thought I would give it a try too. The timeline was more like ,

3/12 :- Someone from office posted about Marathon.

4/12 :- I thought I would also participate, and signed in for 10 Km run (more like 10.5 Km). Thought i have 3 days to practice and would make most of it. and I will give a message. I will run for a cause.

5/12 :- Damn forgot to run last night. would do it today for sure. Also what should be the message ?

6/12 :- Damn ! haven't practised, I am not going to be able to make 10Kms if i dont try it today.

Night of 6/12 :- Good I got the message Printed. Its too late and i dont want to fail in test run, so heck lets do it tomorrow morning. I ll buy some electrolyte, just in case. I ll sleep early to wake up early. Got the tag stapled front and the message stapled on the back. My mom says 'you will not run a single km '. Damn ! now i have to.

7/12 6am : Where are my shoes, shorts ? I'd take Ravi's cell- it has FM. Its cold, I'll take car.

Parked Car near Chitale and walked to KhandojiBaba Chowk (thats Deccan Chowk). 'Registered' and got my message (the printout stapled on my back) tored in the rush.Was waiting for the run to start, when I met Pratik, Sonal and Vinay from office.

Vinay : Manish, how much do you run everyday ?
Me : As much as Satish (My Mgr) makes me, which is not much, he he...

chitchatted little more. Topic was ofcourse, will you be able to make it ? I could sense, it was rather if I will be able to make it ?

There were some stupid speeches going on, I took the opportunity to go and get another printout from car. (Smart : backup printout and parked car near chitale), looked around for a couple of safety-pins and Pratik helped me put it on back. Ohk ! The 'message' was :

Running...

HELPLESS,
FRUSTRATED,
& SCARED !

Well, I had to say it ! Dont really care if anyone read it though.

Started at 7:55, (not bad only 25 mins later than scheduled !). Moved at my own pace. Honestly the experience is too wonderful to narrate. and I can now relate why running is addiction to a few of my friends. Every major chowk and corner had people clapping for and cheering up the runners, playing patriotic songs, Students from schools shouting slogans.Kids waiting for your high-fives.

I was skeptical and underestimated my stamina (or overestimated the 10 Kms:) ). I was running really slow to save energy ! First 5 kms were a complete breeze and didn't even realise till saw the mark. Next couple of kms was when i started to get little tired (probably because we were now on the big road and out of crowded and non-sunny lanes of the city center and facing the sun), stopped at a couple of places to get water and electrolyte. After 7kms decided to make it non-stop and wasn't difficult at all, had crossed that initial 'tipping point' I guess. By the time I reached the finish line, where Pratik and Sonal were waiting for me, was not tired. I am sure I could have run another 5 kms. Pratik also shared the same feelings.

Instead of stopping right away we started walking, taking inner road to Madhuban for breakfast, Vinay was there with his friends, for the same noble cause. Sonal, pratik and me took and auto to Deccan said our byes and reached home. Sonal picked up our certificates from Nehru Stadium later !

It is difficult to explain why it feels so euphoric run together with many unknown faces. Everyone with his own reasons and agendas take the same road, generating so much momentum that others who doubt themselves, make it to the end. Others who do not participate turn up to cheer up and help up those who do. I wish life was like that, or isn't it ?
I guess crowd mentality put to good use can do wonders.

I can only imagine how it would be to be a part of movement, where people with the same agenda and goals get together.

To list the winners from AirTight:

Mens 10 Km:
- Vinay (53 min),
- Pratik (59mins),
- Sonal (1Hr, 6mins),
- Manish (1hr, 15min)

Aids charity run: (4.5 Kms)
- Charuta and Vinaya
- Lalit : This dude is a great sport. He got into a serious accident injuring his leg couple of months ago and had to be fitted with some screws. We call him Roddy now (for rods in the leg). He completed the 4.5 km run, thought mostly walking But amazing !

Bottomline : I am running full marathon next year !

We are like that only...

The things I do in the morning, is get out of bed, pick up my spects, cell (alarm clock) and laptop from my room, leave cell and laptop in the living room, go to wash basin, pick up brush, apply toothpaste, come back to living room and start with newspapers. I _can_not_ do without morning newspapers, unless i have finished the papers and coffee/tea, i don't talk to anyone. No wonder my mood is really bad these days going over all the depressing news first thing in the morning.

I visited US for a small amount of time and the first thing that impressed me most about that country is the concern, sheer concern for the people. The thought that has gone in everything - from roads to reserved parking for firetrucks. Everywhere you go the word concern is written. Let that be reserved parking, special toilets or special access ramps for the disabled. (they are even concerned not to call them handicapped). Everywhere an effort seem to be made to accomodate the less fortunate and make their lives as easy as possible.

Yesterday while going over Pune Mirror (A semi-tabloid), I found a news where a pune-mirror lensman/reporter, watched a blind lady trying to catch a Bus at Bus Stop for about one hr. She can not prepare herself to get into the bus unless she can hear it coming well in advance. By the time she runs at a Bus, it would leave. She apparently started crying trying for an hour, that is when the reporter stopped a Bus and helped her get in.

I am glad the reporter helped her, But I wonder why the he had to wait an hour, watching her suffer like that.

It is a pity how a simple task of catching a public transport is so difficult in this place. I am ashamed I belong here, ashamed at the current status of the things. Can I / Am I going to do anything about it, probably not. or Probably will stop reading PuneMirror and turn my back towards incidents like this.

Being incrementally insensitive to others seem to be a part of growing up in India. Must be the case, no wonder none of the senior members at elected houses seem to be doing anything.

We can not just put a line like this and assume our job is done. Something needs to be done about this. But what ? There have been many times the same question mark had popped up without answers.