Powercuts in Bangalore

Deficient water rains have forced the government to announce power cuts for 4 - 6 hours in Bangalore everyday. Actual power cut everyday is definitely more than this. Rural Karnataka probably will be seeing only a couple of hours of power everyday. People going to office often do not realize the problem. 6 hours power cut means there will not be power for quarter of the day, minimum. For jobless people like me, who quit office 20 days in advance to catch up on movies and read end up swatting mosquitoes. I have to keep my laptop charged for the hours of power cut. A few days back I had to call British Airways to enquire about transit visa requirement. When they asked me for my pnr number I had to tell them that I had it on my mail account and will have to call back when the power comes back! Lots of instances like this. Really frustrated!

How long is this going to continue. A the power we have wasted for so long, the irresponsibility of water usage is now showing up.

Chili and I cycled from Bangalore to Mysore. 150 km. 10 hrs. It is the most tired that I have been in the last 28 years! Thought I would need at least 5 days to recover. But no, I am back to normal after a good night's and a good day's sleep. :)

The best part of the adventure was when we saw the Welcome to Mysore board. There are so many things to write about the goods and the bads about cycling to Mysore. About the road, the people, the hotels on the way etc. But that would make the post too long. In short -

Terrain :
Bangalore to Maddur - 85 km - flat land, hardly upslope, few down slopes
Maddur to Mysore- 65 km. 1 km down slope. 55 km of slow uphill. Extremely frustrating and the slope seems never ending. That is what tests your mental and physical stamina.

Road
Excellent. A few humps where the highway passes throug Mandya and Maddur. Else, simply excellent!!

People
We got a lot of cheering from people on the road. People passed us with their thumbs up, or a loud shout cheering us. A few guys even offered us tender coconut and briefly talked to us asking why? where etc questions. That refilled the energy in us.

Hotels
Kamat LokaRuchi saved us. 60 km from Banagalore. Buffet breakfast for Rs 60. That is what kept us going for the remaining 110 km or so. Rest, mostly barren land from Banaglore to LokaRuchi and from Mandya to Srirangapattanam.

Finally, one more thing off my list. Really glad.

Sense falls below 13000. It is strange that I follow these values once in a while. I do not know why I do it. Because, my buying or selling does not depend on my analysis of the market. I do not follow it closely enough to analyse (speculate) it. It is only what my market expert friends ask me to buy or sell. I just follow instructions. Since January I have, in my portfolio, lost substantially. What pinches is that had I drawn out the money before Jan, I would have funded my MBA a little bit better. But now I will have to wait for another year (or a few years, or a life time) to see some green patches in my portfolio. But I am done with this game. Once I see 20% up on the stocks, I am going to sell all of it and swear never to enter it. But for that, I have to wait (for a year, 2 years or a life time). This game is not as interesting as people make it out to be. Yes, first year or even a couple of years it is fun to see that you, accidentally, made wise decisions, but it demands way too much attention.

Let me at least get my investment + interest that I could have earned back. I am out of it.

We completed the painting in the school today. It took us 3 weekends to complete it. This time it was Chili, Ameya, Kavya, Erica and I. After painting 3 walls with light yellow, one wall with bright yellow, the bottom strip of all the walls with white and the blackboard with black, Kavya bought a few bottles of acrylic paint. We called the kids from 1st to 5th, applied their favourite colour their palms and asked them to put their palm mark on the wall. The kids enjoyed it so much when we lifted them to reach the high ends of the walls. We also pulled in teachers to do this. They absolutely enjoyed it. It was a lot of fun. Kavya got the pinup boards fixed to the walls. It looked really nice, however, the HM did not seem to be very happy with the effort. We were happy and the kids were happy. Efforts worthwhile.
Children - Explore! Fill the room with your creativity! It is totally yours!

Now I can proudly say - yeah! We can paint a room. I am actually good at it. :)





Contributors - Chili, Kavya, Anitha, Anu, Erica, Prashanth, Ameya and I.
Great effort people.

Plan for the cycle trip to mysore is on. We are targeting this Sunday!

Foot in mouth moment.

My cousin had come home with her 1 year old baby. The baby peed in her diapers to which I said -
We guys never get to know how it feels to pee in a diaper. By the time we are old enough to know it, we are not wrapped with diapers.

... and my mom and cousin are giving me a can-you-listen-to-yourself?! look.

Its all about timing!

Wearing high heals is injurious to health. Don't people know that it is easy to break their ankle on high heals? But the British court decides to awarded USD 14,000! Read this.

Strange world.

I have contributed to the SkyLife product for the last 1.5 years but will not be around during the launch of the product. Also, I am losing out on all the bonus we get on successful launch of the product, party, drinks, appreciation mails and gifts.
Hmm...

Weekend.

A well planned weekend turned out to be a huge disappointment.

Chili, Dinesh and I were planning on a cycle trip to Mysore on Saturday. One way. We planned to ride a buss on the way back. All preparations were done. We bought Helmets, puncture repair kits, tubes, spanners, chain oil and pump. God was smiling as we were buying all these. He had other ways of foiling our plans. At 11 pm on Friday, as Dinesha was cycling from Indiranagar to my house, the cycle pedal came off. Of course, we could not think of that as a possibility. After that, all we could do is have a cup of tea and laugh at our lack of luck (Say this like a Gult. Sounds really funny). Happens.

Plan 2. Chili, Namratha and I had plans of doing Bunjee jumping in palace grounds. It was this Xtreme Zone organized bunjee jumping event. In simple words - we had to jump of from 125 feet with a thin rope tied to our waist. When I mailed this idea to the whole group, people did not consider the idea very interesting (for obvious reasons). Again, God was smiling as we were making plans. Remember, He had already decided to ruin my weekend. Evening 4:30 in the gym, I sprained my neck when I was doing abdomen work out. Strange - I would understand having a back sprain during abdomen work out or a hamstring when doing a leg work out. But God wanted to add some humor to the proceedings. And that is why he came and sat as a pain in my neck.

The only good thing about the weekend was the Evam play that we watched - Doubles, Triples And Quadruples. Really, really, really hilarious. Saving grace of the weekend, I must say. I find it rather strange that God did not look for completeness and spoil this too. Well, I am glad about that. :)

History repeats.

One month before I left US for the first time in Dec 2004, I was riding from Chicago to Milwaukee at 6 am. I was caught for breaking a law. They call it over-speeding.

Today, about 1 month before I am leaving for Canada, police towed my vehicle for parking in a no-parking.

Both the law breaking cost me the same (of course, not considering the conversion). 300 ($ once, Rs the next time).

deja vu in a sense.

I met this 15 year old boy who fixed the puncture of my bike. He is a boy from UP who has come to Bangalore after his 8th standard exams for a vacation. He did not know how to pass time and since he was accruing expense, he thought he might as well work. And he was working with a mechanic.

Ready to help with a brilliant smile on his face. Best of luck kid!