Life-cycle overview

Life on weekdays can be broadly classified into 3 -
1. Personal life
2. Office life
3. Bus life

Sleep consumes about 8 hours of a day.
Personal life will be consistant and predictable with same people around - 3 hours; Office life with high work load also remains pretty much predictable as even here you are interacting mostly with same set of people - 10 hours (including all breaks).

The third one, bus life where I spend almost 3 hours a day is the one with new people and things happening. Every other person in the bus feels like a strange character and as days goes by it only becomes clear that my initial thinking of character is indeed correct! :)

There are one set of people in the bus who are constant; every morning I board the bus, I am assured that I see those people sitting in the same seat everyday. We usually have a unique name for each of these characters. Then there is another set who are coming in the bus only temporarily. This set keeps on changing with time; some change residence, some change work location, some leave company and thousands other reasons. This changing set happens to be the most interesting pieces of the lot. The third set of course are random people who board different bus everyday, so there is nothing much to write about this set.

As I was talking, the second set - this is where I have seen lot of stranger(st) characters. By virtue of their characteristics, of course they get unique names (bean-1, tikla-1 etc.), but its amazing to see that these people live up to their names as long as they are coming in the bus. There are times when some people just want to come and sit next to me even though the whole of bus is empty, people just put all their weight on you and sleep with heavy snores (it was a tiring day in office after all).

And then there are some people in bus (esp. females) who I am terribly scared because of the angry looks they have all the time. Initially when I started going in bus, once or twice I flashed smile on some of these people, but the kind of cold response I got scared me and that was the last time I ever smiled at any stranger in the bus.

After much of search I managed to get a mobile with FM but no camera and now its mainly the FM (some station) and sleep along with economic times whenever I am awake that has become my companions for my bus life.
More on life cycle as life goes on ...

Karnataka-Goa Road Trip!

Mini Version!

The use of some catchy words especially "DushkarmigaLu" by our guide in Chitradurga fort, bad roads from davanagere, worst roads from dharwad to goa, beautiful beaches in Goa, surprisingly cleaner than expected beaches along the karnataka coast, tasty food in Gokarna mess, long long drives and much more were a part of our Karnataka-Goa Road Trip. Driving 1900 KMs over a period of 9 days doesn't seem like a big thing, it is hardly 211 Kms per day to take an average. The bad state of roads added to my fears of car performance and repairs but to my delight, the car was extremely good in good and bad roads and had absolutely no problems over the long drives.

Started from bangalore @7 in the morning and reached Chitradurga at 11.

<22-nov-2008>

Don't think, will continue as its almost an year... so posting whatever writtein :)

Karnataka-Goa Road Trip

Morning Blues in BTM!

After much negotiations with my laziness from 6:45 in the morning, I managed to get out of bed at 7:00 AM to get ready to catch 7:45 bus to Office. I had to run and stop the moving bus as I was slightly late, late by a minute to reach the bus stand which is next to my house. Looking at my discharged iPod, I thought I could sleep through for an hour to electronic city. One hour was the average time it used to take for 7:45 bus. When I opened my eyes, our bus was just few yards behind Jayadeva Flyover and traffic had stopped all the way till there. After sometime, I realized the road was choked all the way till Silk board and traffic hardly moving. It took over an hour to reach Silk board, a distance of 3-4KMs and I could see scores of IT people with badges hanging around their neck waiting for their company buses with available seating. Our Bus finally arrived at company campus after 2:15 mins travel.

Total Distance: 20 KM
Time Taken: 135 mins
From my high school knowledge, an average speed of 8.8 KM/Hr, pretty cool. The improvement in timing here could be result of lot of factors - continuous increase in people inflow to Bangalore, construction work on Hosur road, traffic (mis)management, (in)sensible driving etc. I heard from one of my friends that they have reduced the green signal time at silk board junction for traffic entering Hosur road to make Hosur road clearer. Well, I haven't stood there and measured the timings, but if that is the case then the recent increase in traffic on BTM road is well explained. As more traffic gathers on BTM road and less traffic is let out to Hosur Road, can we expect a day when traffic is still from Silk board all the way to Banashakari Temple? This could be something for Limca or even Guinness Book of Records.

America! America! - Part I

Posting this is a bit late though had written couple of months back :)
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The trip to Maine for white water rafting completed my 20th state visited in US out of the total 50. Wow! That feels good. I know I could have done better than this but 20 is not at all bad for 3 years and all these states are the ones where I have stayed atleast one day and/or one night.

Richmond happens be my second most favorite place to stay after Mysore not only because I got used to it after staying over 2 years but also for the wonderful group of friends I had there. My first 2-3 months in US was a hell; I had no idea what to do, where to go, I dint know much people and also am not very good with new people. Finally after this, I got a car and started to move around. I never took that car for a long drive though because of its old age, but got the momentum to go around the place. I dont recollect if my first big drive was Niagara falls or Indianapolis, I think its Niagara Falls. In US, I started driving from my second week of arrival and got local drivers license at the end of 2 months. Immediately after getting my drivers license, we (Soumik, Satya, Hemang) went for Virginia beach which was a 2 hr drive from Richmond. Before going for my first big trip, Niagara falls I had done quite a number of trips to Virginia beach. Niagara falls was followed by (I think) Indianapolis for Formula1 and then to West Virginia for white water rafting in New River the next weekend. Yup, that month with 3 back to back trips put life back in my life.


Niagara falls was a good trip and I was surprised to see so many Indians there. The place looked more like a tourist place in India with handful of non-indians. For every desi in US, Niagara falls is like mecca for muslims. Everyone would have seen this place, taken their parents once and/or any other conditions that can be imagined. The drive to Indy was more gruelling than Niagara. We were only 2 and I was the only one to drive. Watching F1 race at Indy was something I wanted to do for a long time and it finally happened June 2004. The race was amazing and I still remember Schumi overtaking Barrichello exactly in front of our stand which was on other side of pit-lane exit. FERRARI ROCKS! RED RULES!
The very next week, I went to white water rafting in West Virginia in New river where some of rapids in this were simply amazing. Infact our raft almost overturned in one of them. Couple of other rafts did overturn but somehow we managed to keep our raft straight. We also camped there the previous night and cooked in campfire. As usual, there was some struggle with veggie stuff but overall was fun and I surely would have enjoyed the serene beauty of Blue Ridge Mountains in West Virginia if I had stayed longer.

These trips were soon followed by New York and Atlantic City, my first time to a Casino. I had heard from others about the huge casino complexes but inside the casino, it was way bigger than anything I had seen or imagined. I started slow with slot machines of least denomination and losing some money, but then it got boring and I took to blackjack. I was reading and learning blackjack for more than week and that paid off. I indeed won a good amount in the begining but at the end lost. Well, I had a budget to lose and lost that plus some more.

The complete list of US states I have visited:
Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts,
Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia


First VA Beach Trip:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=6u3v4kzj.5jgbfhwn&x=0&y=oq5thg


New York Atlantic City - I
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=6u3v4kzj.cchm16yj&x=0&y=a797rs


Indianapolis - I
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=6u3v4kzj.1mdfe4sb&x=0&y=-q9jv41


New River Rafting
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=6u3v4kzj.btdgihh7&x=0&y=qndkxn

WIMBLEDON '07!

Bjorn Borg was probably confused on whether he should be sad or happy over Federer's record equalling 5 consecutive Wimbledon titles. Something struck Federer when trailing 5-1 on set 4 which gave him much needed confidence when he held his serve and started fresh in the next and final set. He came back twice in the final set from 15-40 down to finally win the set and the Championship.

This match undoubtedly happens to be the best match I have seen till now. A 5th set that eluded Federer for a long time came against a "Never give up" guy Nadal. The match was so much tensed that I took a couple of rest-room breaks and also was sweating by the time match ended. It was simly superb, the quality of tennis by both the players was amazing. Federer's strong point for this match happened to be his serve. Though Nadal broke Federer 4 times in the match, Federer's serve came handy during the crucial tie-breaks and also when was facing breakpoints in the final set.The final 2 sets seemed more like a mind game and the one with greater mental stability won the set sailing on unforced errors by his opponent.Now I look forward to more such Finals in coming Grand Slams.



















The whole Wimbledon championship this time was quite interesting with one match running 5 days (Nadal-Solderling 5 setter) and other 5 hours (Jokovic-Baghdatis)! This is no contrast though; the 5 day match was because of rain delays. The events that I found to be most intersting are: Serena's win against Hantuchova even after that terrible cramp she had on the court, Jokovic playing Nadal in the semi-finals even when he seemed almost dead from first second of the match, Bartoli somehow making it to the finals with her strange serving action and double handed forehand and backhand, players like Baghdatis, Jokovic, Nadal, Federer playing everyday (or really long matches) for last 3-4 days to offset the rain delay and finally Nadal pushing Federer to 5 setter (he almost won there).

All in all, it was a happy ending that made Federer cry again! He also cried in Australia when Rod Laver presented him the Championship trophy. Hope I get to see Federer match on a grass court live before he retires or starts his fall from the peak.

My list of players to watch for in tennis to come - Federer, Nadal, Sharapova, Serena Williams, Jokovic, Baghdatis, Davydenko and Ana Ivanovic.

Maine Weekend Getaway

A minivan was what we needed to throw all the stuff we had for the rafting and camping trip to Maine; Buick Tenzera, the lucky one was packed to the max. Six of us from Malden after much postponing and convincing finally left for Millinocket town in Maine on Saturday, June 15 at 8:30 AM. We were on track with our planned 6 AM start. It was almost 6 hours drive to the camping spot Big Moose Inn in Millinocket. Bad songs after bad songs continued to rock the van while I drove the car for 80% of the journey till 12:30 PM when we decided to stop for lunch at Milo's Pizza (name of the town was Milo). I think the chef over there got a unique opportunity to try our for the first time in her life a vegetarian pizza; yeah, the pizza was bad but somehow 3 of us managed to finish a large pizza.

Millinocket is a small town in Maine surrounded by forests, hills and mosquitoes. After checking in to the camp site, we pitched our tents and then left for Baxter State Park which was suggested to us by campground manager for hiking. The hike to Kathahdin Stream Falls was pretty easy one and took merely an hour to reach. I climbed down to a rock just beside the falls, it was a nice place to relax except again for the mosquitoes. A 20 minute descent down the hiking trail and we were back in the parking lot. We continued towards Daicey Pond and some other nearby ponds in the same park where we saw Moose. This was the first time I was seeing that animal and it looks like a strange combination of donkey and horse.



The camp fire at our camp site went on for a long time till the 2 logs of firewood burnt completely to ashes all the while eating, drinking, songs and arguing. After a quick bath in the morning, we started towards the start point for rafting in a bus arrange by North Country Rafting. They were the company whom we had booked the rafting with. The driver of the bus, a woman in may be late 30s greeting everyone with a warm smile, succeeded in starting the old bus after over 15 mins flop starts. That day also happened to be a random day picked by state officials to inspect the rafts for safety. They inspected the raft, suggested some changes and went away after ensuring their suggestions were implemented. It feels good that these people take safety seriously.

White water rafting trip on Penobscot river started with a class 3 rapid and then followed a class 4 rapid. This class 4 turned out to be best of the whole trip even better than the class 5 (thats what they said). The rapid was like a reduced balmuri falls and sitting in front is always exciting with water splashing with maximum force. The fall in rapid was followed by surfing when we took the raft against the direction of flow of the stream. At the point where water falls, it forms a circle which helps the raft to stay at the same position without being carried away by the stream flow. The class 4 rapid was followed dead water for more than an hour and we just enjoyed the slow raft pace and sceneries along the way. The water was very cold and could dive and stay in only for 2 mins before getting back into the raft. We went through a few more rapids of class 3-4 before breaking for lunch, a veggie burger and some pasta and we were all set to hit the class 5 rapid which was just at the start of second half. The second half started from the hydro station when they released 32000cc per second from the dam. I was expecting something more drastic and thrilling compared to first class 4 but the class 5 turned out to be a longer class 4. This was followed by a couple more class 4 and class 3s. The first half of 6mi took over 2 hours because of long stretches of dead water but the second 6mi took may be just over an hour. The second half was fast and exciting for the guys sitting in front. I moved to back of the raft in second half and it mostly felt like sitting in balcony and watching a rafting movie. The back seat is very stable and you hardly feel like falling off even in class 4s. Our guide(I forgot his name, starts with "S"!) was the best there and we felt he took us through best rapids of the 3 rafts that were in water there.

The return trip to Boston was smooth without any incidents and we ended a great trip with tasty food from Spice n Hot.

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Check out the photos at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/shivaram.ms/MaineRafting

Maine Rafting

India & US!

A good article on India and US, Indians and US etc...

http://lifestyle.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-2146444,curpg-1.cms

Addiction to Habits

Per dictionary, Habit is an acquired behavior pattern regularly followed until it has become almost involuntary.
The extent to which one acquires these is very interesting. Habits like getting up early in the morning, having a cup of coffee, reading a newspaper etc. are the ones which most people hardly want to change. But how about something like running to read newpaper first in the home no matter what or fighting to sit on the same seat everytime to watch TV. Habits like these not only makes less sense but sometimes also annoys other people.

Here is one such instance in my previous workplace. I was working in an agile project which recommends team members sit in a single room during work hours and also occasionaly (once in few days or so) change seats to improve their working relationships with other team members. A senior team member was against this and insisted to sit in the same place everyday and also argued that changing routine like that reduces his productivity. Well, that might not be main reason for others to think twice before approaching him but was one of them. Sitting in the same place had formed his habit and he could not get his mind to work independent of his seating place.

Some of the habits are not an addiction but feels like they are being done involuntary. Almost every afternoon at 3, I go to starbucks for latte. I am not a coffee drinker and I dont like coffee, but I drink cafe latte in starbucks. The reason may be that its become a routine, a habit. Some days even if I am feeling like not eating or drinking anything, I go to starbucks and drink latte. This is also true with me watching Scrubs every evening on comedy central after I am back from office. I think this is not an addiction because even on the days when I am not drinking latte or watching Scrubs as I had to do something else, I dont feel like I am missing anything. I guess they are mostly developed habits for lack of better work.

A habit is good if it is not affecting you negatively. If it is, then it's about time you re-think your priorities and develop new habits :)