Vodka - I am loving it

It all began during Rajesh's Bangalore visit in Jan this year. Organized a get together with Nitya, Ibrahim, Dev and N on a Saturday afternoon. These fellows started ordering beer. My eyes were wide open. Rajesh came up with his usual dialogue "yen aagangilla togo le". Ibrahim suggested "Screw driver", its vodka and orange juice combination. Till then I had tasted beer a couple of times, but had never liked the odor and taste, always wondered how the hell people drink which has such a bad taste.

But then Screw driver was totally orange flavored, because vodka doesn't have it's own taste neither does it smell bad. All went well, sip after sip I finished the first peg. Started with second one. Before I could finish 1/4th, started feeling its kick. A slight headache, felt like I have started loosing control. That was the first time.

A few months later.....

as we visit Navneet's home often, he pushed a little to join him for drinks. And there it started. Again the screw driver. It became a trend there after. Every alternative weekend, I enjoyed vodka's kick. Then slowly it became every weekend. I have screw driver and we stayed back at Navneet's home.

Recently, mom had been to Kukunoor during Ganesh Chaturti. We invited Navneet to our home. That was an awesome get together. I gulped a quarter of screw driver, the max till now. And the experience was amazing. For the first time I had lost control over my body. I had realized why people drink. I am yet to experience the next stage :)

I just want to experience it, not that I will get addicted. 

Teaching getting tougher

I always think, how did I learn reading, numbers, number names, rhymes etc etc. Don't remember mom or dad spending so much time with my studies. 

And now if we don't give time to Chinni, she just lags back. During the last month, she had written exam of 3 letter words. She has written 3 or 4 words correctly. When we inquired, got to know that she is weak in phonics. We didn't teach her phonics!!! How bad.

Just getting her home work done isn't enough. The lessons taught have to revised at home, only then she will get well versed. Some how I have to take care of "teaching", N being busy and short tempered, there is no escaping for me.

Chinni is now good at numbers and their names. Sometimes she gets them wrong, otherwise she is consistent. After teaching phonics, she is getting familiar and is able spell the words properly. She learns what we teach, her mind is fresh, it fills in what we pour.

Ride to Kanakapura

It all started with an alarm at 4 am on a Saturday morning, 20th Sept, 2014. But I had planned to be part of the Bangalore Unity Ride long back. Believe me, I went through the Yes, No, Yes, No in between.

Preparation:

Got my bike serviced on the previous day. Got a pair of glasses and a bag to hold stuff.

Packed the bag with chocolate bars, puncture kit, a shirt, 2 bottles of water and my wallet. I knew I forget.

Woke at 4 am, had a hot water bath to warm up myself and started off. Just when I crossed a couple of kms, I realized I had forgotten helmet and hand gloves.

Kickoff:
I reached the starting point well before the scheduled time 5.03 am :)

Anil Kadsur's welcome and cycle enthusiasts at the venue boosted my confidence. The strength was around 42-45. At around 5.20 am, people couldn't hold back and the first batch took off. It was still dark and hardly few street lights. I still had no concrete plans on how will I get back. I didn't wanted ride to Mysore either.

As the marathon begun, people started ride in groups of 2-3. I didn't know anybody, kept peddling thinking to find somebody down the line. After a km or two, I found this guy riding alone, said "hi", he responded "hi" and the conversation never stopped till Kanakapura. Thanks a lot Naveen for accompanying me all along.

It was a slow start, for couple of kms, until I crossed the metro junction, the road was shabby. But then the road was totally smooth. In fact the road were smoother as I crossed Bangalore. The pace was steady, I didn't wanted to race as I had to complete a stretch of 50 kms. Along the way, me and Naveen got familiar with each other. He had been on the ride the previous year and hence learnt a lot of things from him.

The road was almost sloppy, most of the times we just rolled without effort. I realized that if I had to peddle back it was a himalayan task. My mind kept on saying "let's not ride back". But beyond that thought I started enjoying the ride. The trees, the wind, the open ride, clean air all pushed me till Kanakapura. 

There were ascents too, short ones but what kept me pushing was the descent after that. The cool breeze during the descents killed my stress. Around past 25 kms, I felt like taking a rest for some time. Naveen agreed too. We sat for 10 mins looking at riders pass by. There weren't many riders behind us. What's a point in just riding all the way without enjoying the nature ? After all it was a ride to enjoy and no goals to achieve.

We kept on strolling slowly, ups and downs, very few vehicles crossing us. After sometime, we started seeing the distance reduce. I remember the "Kanakapura 15 kms" board and I started having goose bumps. It kept on reducing "Kanakapura 10 kms", then "5 kms" and we were almost there.

After I crossed 40 kms, I just wanted a speedy ride, so shifted gears ups. Looks like I attained a speed of 35 km/hr for that short duration. Totally enjoyed that stretch.

And there was the Vasu hotel, cyclists hogging on yummy dosas. I just parked my bike and had a delicious masala dosa. Naveen's comment was "anything after a tiring course will be yummy", I agree :)

So I started finding how do I return. Checked with KSRTC, but none of buses had a top to carry my bike. Looked around for private buses to carry by bike, there weren't any. What do I do ? The thought of "himalayan task" riding back was written in bold in my mind. I was confused. Stood on road for around 5 minutes thinking should I try or no? should I try or no? darn, it was so difficult to decide. For a moment thought of calling up wife and ask what should I do? But then how would she analyse my situation? I am the best person to suggest and take a decision.

When I had asked the same question to Naveen, he had suggested to ride back with breaks in between. Had also talked to an elderly person(Ravindra) who gave an inspiring thought "go for the ride just because you want to ride and not because you want to reach a goal". I mixed up both a suggestions and decided to ride back. And I started off.

I just kept on going. I couldn't measure my performance for some time, neither did I had watch nor wanted to open mobile to keep a watch on performance. So I just kept riding. Again there were ascents and descents. There were several instances when I wanted to stop, when I saw an ascent it meant there was a descent ahead. This kept me going and going.

At some time felt like taking a break, opened up mobile and I was astonished. I had covered 10 kms in 38 minutes. Wow!!! The pace was quite good, confidence grew, decided to reach Jayanagar on cycle. Again I started.

As soon as I reached Harohalli, my left leg knee started complaining and got acute pain. Stopped and sipped plenty of water. Started riding, pain didn't recede. Just looked around and found a truck. Talked to driver and he agreed to drop me till nice road. Hence the ride got split.

Thanks to the ride from Harohalli till nice road, I got a good rest and knee had also recovered. Again I started peddling towards Jayanagar. I maintained a good pace, traffic was a bit on higher side in the city as I neared Banashankari.

Reached the starting point and felt accomplished of taking a longer route than I normally ride. But regretted of not completing 100 kms. A century on debut is always special, isn't it ? But then "Jaan hai to Jahan hai" ;)

Overall Stats:
Distance : 75.3 kms
Duration : 4 hours 37 minutes
Calories burnt : around 3000
Feeling : Awesome

Special thanks to Anil for organizing the ride. Naveen who accompanied all the way till Kanakapura.