Night. Only Night.

The red ball sank,
and the golden boomerang,
took over the dominion.
Nyx's reign had begun.

She brought along,
a swarm of cleaners,
fluffy, moist and laden,
to polish off all the remnants,
of the last occupant.

Scrubbing, washing,
rinsing, effacing,
all grimes of day,
they painted the night.

Pleased.
Proud.
Possessive.
Unwilling to share the limelight,
she closed the doors to stellar guests.

The board was black,
The board was clean.
Unadulterated by chalk-dust.
Yes, for once,
the black-beauty over-shadowed,
the eternal astral hotties.

The same eyes,
that shrunk looking up,
Widened to ingest,
All that radiance,
from the inkiness.

The same eyes,
that searched for,
the Orions and the Big Bears,
tonight were intoxicated,
by their own reflection.

The same eyes,
that yearned for,
the distant novas and remote shooters,
were uplifted,
by translucent nebular characters.

Characters that came to life,
from within my own eye.
Characters that came to life,
from the tear film over my eye.

P.S.: It was a really hot day in Bangalore yesterday, which was followed up with a refreshing shower and a dark night sky. The moon was visible for sometime and then it disappeared. There was a power cut too. The city went dark, my house went dark, and the sky went darker. Sometime we are forced into situations when we can do nothing. Its only during such time do we actually imagine, discover and reminisce. Normally when we look at up at the sky, we look for clouds, to put shapes to. We look for patterns among stars above. We search for planets or the brightest star above. It was only after yesterday did I realise that you did not need all these to keep yourself entertained. If you keep looking "closely" at a dark screen, you will be able to observe highly translucent amorphous objects on the tear film that surrounds your eyeball. These when projected on a dark canvas, like the sky, take the shape that you want them to take, and move around at the speeds that you want them to.

Sky, may not have limits.
Imagination, certainly has none.

L1Fe

One’s race track,
never is the race track of another.
Where one takes a right,
another takes left.
Part of the course though,
might be shared.

In this stretch,
a pit-stop for one,
might be the flying stretch for another.
Thinking of it,
the one who flew past,
is due for one ahead.

There sure is a winner.
The one,
who peeps at his rear-view mirror,
to savour the well run race.

There is a loser too.
The one-among-many,
who peeps at his rear-view mirror,
constantly threatened,
of being over-taken.

A loser,
ironically in a game of one,
defeated by himself,
as he was busy watching the race of another,
when he could have enjoyed his.

"L1Fe" may seem a Formula One race,
But never is it a,
"one formula" race.

Perplexed

You often get yourself caught in the weirdest of situations when you least expect it. This happens invariably when you try to be extra-careful and when you measure every letter of the word that you are going to utter.

This happened during my Gokarna trip. I was sitting on a chair, in Kudle Beach, eyes closed, listening to the waves crashing, feeling the moist salty wind and enjoying the weekend away from the hustle-bustle. I heard someone come and sit in the chair next to me. I opened my eyes to see to find this thin-tall-tanned-shirtless-foreigner sitting next to me.

He: Hi, I am Steve.

Me: Oh hi, I am Kripa.

He: (After making funny sounds that sounded like my name).So this your first time here?

Me: Ya. How about you?

He: I have been here twice before.

Me. Whoa! That’s cool! You must really like this place.

He: True. True. It’s very relaxing and the cheapest among all the places that I have been to in India. I frequent here a lot.

Me: By the way which country are you from?

He: New Zealand. I am from a beautiful city called Cairns. Heard of it?

Me: Yes. A friend of mine had been there last year. He showed some wonderful snaps of Cairns.

He: So where are you from?

Me: I am basically from Chennai (he nodded his head in approval, so I did not get into the details), but I work in Bangalore.

At this he said something that I will never forget.

He: (With a frown on his face) So you work for a living?

Me: !@#$%^#$%#$@#$@#$@#$%@%


P.S.: He went on to tell me that he used to work four years ago and that he had decided to stop working and tour the world. He had put all his money into travel. He told me he has finished touring Thailand, India and Europe in the last 3 years. He was back in India en-route to NewZealand. He added that he wanted to meet his family (parents), and go on to tour Japan & China. Steve was planning to find himself a job in China again so that he could build funds for his future trips. I was perplexed alright, but I got the hidden message. There is a whole new world with a whole new perspective out there.

e-Beat

It was 0220 Hrs on Sunday morning (or should I say Saturday Night), I was busy reading a book, when I heard the gate to my house open. “At 2:20 am???”, I was curious. So I ran to the door to check out who it was? And outside was this huge more-than-six-feet-tall guy, wearing a monkey cap, and a hat on top. He was wearing a green sweater and was carrying a four feet long rifle on his shoulder. I really cannot recollect what I was thinking then (Was I even thinking??). I just stool still, frozen by that fellow’s stare. He took out a device that looked like a Nokia 2100 phone (I could only see the back of the device) and pointed it to my window. I was curious, scared and am sure my face had gone pale. What was this guy upto?? What was he doing in front of my eyes?? Then he lowered the wool that was covering his mouth and gave me this wide all-teeth-showing smile and said “ebit saab”.
Me: What???
He: Hum rooz ek se che bajhe tak bit marthe haen (Phooof…only then did I realize that this guy was a cop and that his “bit” was actually “beat”…for those who do not understand Hindi, he said he does beats around the area from 1 a.m. to 6 a.m.)

During the conversation, he told me that they are a group of 3 constables who cover this area at night and that they do four to five beats. He added that, “out of these five beats one of the beats has to an e-Beat”.

During the eBeat, the cops carry a device (I did not have a camera then, so I could not take a pic of his device), which they call the recorder and which is the size of a mobile phone. All the houses in our area are fitted with this white-plate. In my house this thing is fixed to the window. Have a look at these pics.



That’s my window, and you can see the white plate at the bottom right.

Zoooooom!! Close up view.

When the cop points the mobile-like device on this plate, we hear three beeps and on the third beep a number gets recorded on his instrument. Cool huh!!
The police department is becoming hi-tech. I have heard of e-Mail, e-Business, e-Commerce, e-Ticket, e-Banking…….but "e-Beat", was something really novel. I was very impressed. A really useful idea to monitor and make sure the whole area is covered by these constables. At least we can be sure that they don’t get paid for dozing the night away.
It feels safe when you get to see the cops do such things, especially when you have got yourself a new bike. Hehehe…

Way to go Bangalore Cops!! Way to go!! Hats off to the Karnataka State Police Department.

LeoMus

It’s been a really long time since my last post. Seasons have passed, without a post. Finally I have decided to wake up from my hibernation. After all its spring time. I have been sprung-up from my winter sleep not by the mere sounds of blossoming flowers, but by the mighty roars of Leomus. Who is Leomus??? Read along...

I feel like kicking myself for not blogging those wonderful weekend-outings, and those wow-incidents. Anyway I will try to put them in when I find time. All said and done, I could not let this big thing go untold. This buy of my life cannot go un-blogged.

In my previous post I had this:
"Someone said "Aim for the stars and you will end up on the tree-top". That’s exactly what happened. I dreamt of getting myself an Enfield Thunderbird, and ended up with a different bird."

Well, if that be the case, I have reached the stars. Yes. I got myself a Royal Enfield’s Thunderbird this Monday, 20th Feb 2006. It’s been dream come true for me, and I have been blowing the trumpet in all directions, with my accelerator.

Have a look at this beauty:

For More ....

K tells me that my bike looks like a horse. Well....you have to ride this bird to realize that though she looks like a mustang, she has the heart of a lion. Aptly, I have decided to call her The LeoMus.

The way she roars to life.

The way she gallops, thundering along. (You should listen to her when I enter the underground parking in office. The whole parking-lot reverberates, and not a single head is left unturned).

The way she cruises along, leaving the city behind. (You actually forget the fact that you are riding on Bangalore roads.)

The way city auto drivers give way after hearing the bullet thuds from behind. (She has the bullet Electra’s silencer. Not to mention she has a horn that is louder than that of a truck)

The way she flies over Bangalore-potholes with ease. (Gas-Shock absorbers)

The feel of controlling a 350 CC engine thundering under your feet.

The feel of cruising at a 100 without a single tremble.

The pride in owning a Royal Enfield.

The confidence & belief that she is capable of taking you anywhere from Kanyakumari to Ladakh.

....It goes on and on.

Those who ride a bike just to get from one place to another will not understand what I am talking about.

She might be 2 ½ years old, but for me this is my first bike. And I doubt if I will ever get over this New-Bike-Syndrome.

Leomus...keep roaring the way you do.
Leomus...but keep me soaring higher and higher.

Gokarna - The Beach Paradise

I had been to Gokarna in last weekend (17th - 18th September). It’s a wonderful place to be. Especially for those who love the coast and the beach. It’s not as crowded as the beaches of Goa are, which are only a few miles away as this is place very close to the Goa border. It’s also much cheaper than a Goa trip. The experience is unforgettable. This post might be late, but I thought I will put up the details / travel tips so that it might me useful for others who want to do this trip.

It’s better I say nothing more. I will let these pictures do the talking.

Gokarna - Travel Tips:

To Gokarna (from Bangalore):
- KSRTC (actually it is NWKRTC (North West Karnataka Road Transport Corp)) Rajahamsa Class Bus. (I heard there is also a sleeper bus by Sugama Travels, Bangalore. Do check it out, but might be costlier.)
- Leaves Bangalore at 2100 hrs (daily)
- This is the only direct bus to gokarna, and it reaches Gokarna the next morning at around 0700 hrs (app 9-10 hrs journey). (if you miss the bus then u have to catch a bus to Mangalore and then go from there to gokarna. This extends the journey by another 3-4 hrs).

Fro:
- same KSRTC/NWKRTC bus.
- leaves Gokarna for Bangalore at 1900 hrs.

So you can plan you trip with this detail for 2/3 days.

Things to carry:
- a sleeping bag (available for rent at "GET OFF YOUR ASS", Indiranagar or "Wildcraft", koramangala)
- lots of change of clothes
- a bottle to carry water
- sun-tan / sun-screen lotion
- a small umbrella
- liquid soap / your own soap bar
- good powerful torch lights.
- Caps

Places to stay in gokarna:
I suggest you either take up Huts in "Sunset Cafe, Kudle Beach" or Rooms in"Namaste Cafe, Om Beach". Everything else is at least a 5 minute walk from the beach. In these 2 places, you can actually live on the beach.

From the bus stand, you can walk to Gokarna beach. That is the topmost and closest.
From there the path will be something like this:

Gokarna Beach
Hill
Kudle Beach
Hill
Om Beach
Hill
Half-Moon Beach
Hill
Paradise Beach

Have breakfast there and start your trek to Kudle. If you choose to put your stuff in Sunset cafe there, do so and play in water the rest of the day and have lunch there.
In the evening walk to the Om beach, have dinner and walk back in the moon-lit night (with torches) , or else you can play in Kudle beach and then goto Om beach and stay in the rooms in Namaste cafe.

The next day, get up early and trek to half moon and paradise beaches, and return to Om beach so that you can have lunch at Namaste cafe.
Take water and caps with you.

Laze around the rest of the day in the beach of your choice and then head back to the bus stop. Make sure you start your trek back to the bus stand by at least 1700 hrs, as the bus is at 1900 hrs.

That's about it. To read more about our trip, you can check out these links:
Anita’s Post
Anita’s Album
Anshul’s Pics
Tony’s Pics
Kavitha’s Post

En-cyclo-paedia

• FRAME:
• Brazed lugged track racer frame
• FORK:
• Swaged / Brazed crown type rugged fork with sleek Appearance & Sturdiness inherent in Design.
• HANDLE:
• Ergonomically designed drop-down racing style handlebar.
• Foam type Soft Synthetic Resin Grips.
• BRAKES:
• Cable operated Caliper type brakes.
• Friction-free cable casings for effective braking.
• Steel sheet formed brake levers for effective braking.
• MUDGUARDS
• Sleek Mudguards with longer length
• HUBS:
• Steel CP, Thin Barrel Hubs.
• PEDALS:
• Reflectorised molded-rubber type pedals with steel side plates.
• SADDLE:
• Ergonomically engineered extra cushy, Integral PU foam Molded
• STAND:
• Pistol type extra origid with Black powder coating finish.
• CHAIN WHEEL AND CRANK :
• 44 Teeth x 165mm Crank, Black.
• CHAIN COVER :
• Elegantly styled Steel half Chaincover with combination of rotating plastic chain disc.
• WHEEL SIZE :
• 27 * 1-1/4.
• RIM :
• Endric, Steel CP.
• CARRIER:
• Specially designed, stylishly engineered wire type carrier with Black powder coated finish
• OPTIONAL ACCESSORIES :
• Specially designed arm-rests for leisure riding. Arm-rests adjustable to many positions suitable to the rider.
• Water bottle.
• Hand operated pump.
• COLORS & GRAPHICS:
• Available in attractive Graphics & Colors.

Wondering why I am advertising the Hero Hawk in my Post? Well…I got myself another cycle.

Yup…Another…The list goes like this:

• BSA Champ (Blue) – 1^st Standard
• Street Cat GCX (Again Blue) - 6^th Standard
• Hercules MTB (Blue) – 9^th Standard
• Now, Hero Hawk Nu-Age (I broke the jinx, this time it’s a black and silver combo)– 18^th Standard (Hahahaha!!!)

Someone said “Aim for the stars and you will end up on the tree-top”. That’s exactly what happened. I dreamt of getting myself an Enfield Thunderbird, and ended up with a different bird. I am proud of this racer that I have now (despite the fact I’ve to transform myself into the engine of the bike, especially while going uphill….phooof..phhooof..pant…pant).

And you know what I cycled to office today (Source of inspiration: Kiruba ).11 kilometeres (That’s right. ELEVEN… 6 kms uphill and 5 kms downhill.The journey back should be 1 bit easier I guess), 50 minutes…I didn’t know cycling could be fun (I haven’t got over the new-cycle-syndrome yet I guess). I plugged in my earphones, listened to Shankar Mahadevan’s Breathless and cycled all the way (Psst..I realized I was singing on top of my voice, only when I saw the traffic policeman laughing at me)….I have decided I am gonna cycle to office regularly. Lets see…

Thank God I have 8% above...

It also said:

8% scored higher (more nerdy), and
92% scored lower (less nerdy).

What does this mean? Your nerdiness is:

Supreme Nerd. Apply for a professorship at MIT now!!!.

ROFL....
And you know why I got this so called “Supreme Nerd” appellation….

Ø I own none of these: microscope, telescope, graphing calci, laser printer, laptop.
Ø My office PC has 2 Gb RAM.
Ø I identified Issac Newton.
Ø I don’t subscribe to any magazine.
Ø I have 4 to 6 good friends.
Ø I use FireFox.
Ø I identified James Clerk Maxwell from his pic, with the other options being Einstein, Newton, Kepler & Plank.
Ø I knew the value of C (velocity of light).
Ø And answered some questions from 10th Class Science Text book….

Please don’t ever take the test.I am sure the site gave Pamela Anderson a 99%...
I have lots to blog, but no time to even log on....