So its been a long time since I wrote on my space here. The mundane routine of juggling between work and other essential things had kept me from coming here for so long. As I stare out of my window looking at the lush green plants, the droplets of water on the leaves and the butterflies making their way to the flowers, I realize the manic city life is getting to me.
I am a person who loves change and its interesting how a place can get to you once you get stuck in a cobweb. A routine of just sailing through the day. Such are the times that makes me want to breakfree from the routine, pack my bags and go on a never ending vacation in the midst of nature!
But despite the thoughts that pop up, as I look around to see my loved ones and all the stuff around that I am familiar with, it gives me a sense of reassurance and makes me realize I love what I have.
Today was my longest ride on the cycle so far. Had always heard from Vikram how beautiful long bike rides are, but had never really made an attempt fearing my stamina. This morning, we just head out early in the morning on our respective cycles.
We decided to complete the route we had left unfinished a while ago – Padmanabhanagar towards Kanakapura to Bannerghatta and back. Needless to say, the experience was mindblowing! Half the route was along the country side and we edged the Bannerghatta national park. The serenity of the place was definitely worth my early morning sleep! Here is the snapshot of the route from my Garmin:
It was the usual mundane work at office midst of the dark, wet, cold gloomy weather in the peak winter of Brussels. I was getting fidgety about doing something exciting, so decided to take a long walk in the woods to grab some fresh air. I had long heard people talk endlessly about the woods close to my office, but I had never got an opportunity to explore it.
I was, rather waiting for the spring to set in to explore the woods. But the boredom got to me and decided to take a walk into the woods. I pulled over my overcoat, a woolen cap and geared myself with enough warm clothes as if I was going to the alps!
I plugged in my favorite numbers from my all-time companion – my ipod, and set my foot towards the woods. The temperature was around 3 degrees Celsius and the wind was howling as I stepped into the woods. There was a beaten path that I decided to take. I carefully watched the caution signboards with drawings of deers, some wild animals that resembled wild dogs or something at every few meters from the entrance. I had a secret conversation with God and thought to myself, how I only wish I witness atleast one of these animals!!
Well, I just to move on and walked deep into the woods to witness some spectacular scenes – from huge wide green trunked trees to little flowers on the trunk. It was getting to be lot of fun while I chased little butterflies, saw some slimy worms crawling on the tree trunks and yellowed leaves lying all over the place.
The only sound I could hear was my own steps, deep and clear. However, as I was walking close to a turning, I could hear something – the crushing of leaves and deep heavy breaths. My heart sunk, again had a close conversation with God and told him I was just kidding when I wished to witness those animals. To my surprise, it was someone who was jogging in the woods! We were both surprised to see each other in the middle of nowhere. We exchanged a quick smile and carried on.
I walked till I started to feel thirsty, but didnt want to take the same way back. Trusting my sense of direction, I decided to take another route which I hoped would lead to my office. I got back to the mode of enjoying the nature again and kept walking. After a while, I noticed a large area to my right. Curiosity grabbed the best of me, and I trekked through some wet, slimy, slippery leafy path to landed myself at a race course pitch! I was astonished and looked far into the field and noticed buildings on the other end of the ground. I thought this was my best chance to get to civilization, and crossed the ground. All the offices were locked and looked like there had been no operations for quite a while now. Just then, I could hear the horses and walked towards them. They were all locked in stables, which opened to a busy street.
My next idea was to find an opening into the street and walk back to the office. Unfortunately, I noticed that there was fencing all around the race ground. My attention was grabbed by the stables, where there was an opening on the top. I must tell you – those horses are one smelly creatures! They looked nothing like how they are pictured in movies – clean, fluffy hair and nicely groomed. Anyways, my goal was now to get back somehow. To my luck, I found one stable which was empty, but the opening was pretty high. I gave a nervous smile to all the other horses, and pulled myself up to the opening and jumped on to the street. People passing by the street stopped to give me a weird look. Well, I just got up, and started walking as if I never noticed them
As I followed the street to my office, I found that there was this huge gate which directly opened to the race course grounds!!!! I had a hearty laugh and finally got back to the office, as good as new.
Art : Glass Painting
I picked up a square glass with a dimension of 10X10 and drew a black outline of the intended figure and kept for drying for a day or two. The following day, I filled the drawing with colors!
It was heartening to see thousands of cycling enthusiasts in Bangalore at India’s fist Cyclothon! The sheer number and the diversity of the participants that spanned between Ages 8 – 80 years, along with families and friends who had come to cheer their loved ones set the excitement of the massive event.
Raghu Dixit and his crew rock started the event with ‘Mysore se aayi woh’ – Pumped me up further as I am a native Mysorean My husband and I had a nice time swaying to his tunes before we set off on our respective rides.
I did a satisfied 25Km in an hour and 5 minutes, with an average pace of 22.5 km/hr. The NICE corridor resembled any freeway in a western country – spotless, toned and smooth. Little children cheering on the pathways, green lawns next to the road, great weather and people riding great bikes were all accompaniments. The journey was eventful as I met some interesting people during the ride and was fun taking to them. Since it wasn’t a race, the environment was relaxed and people were riding just for the spirit of cycling.
My take home from the ride : http://connect.garmin.com/activity/15853059
One of the most efficient ways to relax my mind is to set off on a cycling ride with Vikram to an unknown destination. Today was one of those days ….
We just head out of home and decided to take off on our respective bikes for a while. The best I enjoy is biking through the country side, along the endless narrow roads, looking at the houses around and greeting the villagers and little children as we pass by them. After a long day, hearing to the birds chirp, viewing the sunset by a hill or watching a goat crank its neck to eat a tiny little leaf is just too soothing.
And whats best? These little pieces of heaven is so close to home! All it takes is a few miles of tolerating roaring traffic and the noise around.
It is also reassuring that you donot have to remember the route back home as it is almost impossible to get lost with the GPS around your wrist. The Garmin forerunner 205 is not only a life saver, it also gives you fancy statistics about the distance, time, speed and calories burnt! Voila!! Throw the gym membership away and invest in a Garmin today! Sounds like a nice tagline for publicizing Garmin, doest it? But its totally worth it …
Below are the statistics from today’s eventful cycling ride :
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/15389542
They say that the courtship period is the most exciting phase of a relationship. But coming to think of it, post marriage seems even more fun! Not only do you get to spend most time with your best friend, you also get all the importance and the attention you have ever been craving for! Let alone a whole new wardrobe for yourself
Retrospecting the ‘event-of-a-lifetime’, it now feels like things got over at the wink of an eye with – the shopping spree to awaiting for the near and dear ones to arrive home to the ruckus we made together. To sum up, it is the indeed the people around who really made the event so eventful. Thanks so much to all those who made it a happy one I will relish the moments forever …
My trip to China was one of my most anticipated travel. Having known so little about China and the Chinese, I was very curious to see the dragonland and learn more about the place. I was in Beijing for 4 weeks and was amazed to see the city they have built. It looked like any advanced city of the west.
Other than the magnificent infrastructure that Beijing has put up, there are some unique things I loved about Chinese and their capital.
1) This was my first visit to Chinaland. Beijing is a metropolitan and is up and ahead in fashion. It is one place where I never caught a sun rise while I was there. I made an attempt to keep the alarm as early as 5:30 am, anticipating to view the sunrise, but to my surprise, the dawn had broken already!
2) There are some unique attributes to Beijing. There are electric buses that run in the middle of the city. The buildings have creative architecture, other than the bird’s nest Olympic megastructure.
3) The Beijing metro is the most used to commute and needless to say is the most crowded. But there is something fascinating about it – There is pin drop silence inside the metro. Interestingly, most people dont listen to music, read, nor chit chat while commuting! And No, ipods or music players are not widely seen unlike in Singapore and in the west.
4) Everybody knows Bollywood. Atleast, everyone’s heard about it. A chinese colleague and I were talking about bollywood and I was taken aback when he started singing ‘awara hoon’ – an old rajkapoor’s song of the 1950s!
5) Almost every commercial and residential building is atleast 10 stories high and outside each office, in the corridors you can see people doing yogasanas during office hours! I am told the HR spread the awareness of yoga and it has become a fashion lately. Yoga instructors are in high demand in China
6) The part I enjoyed the most were my long walks, gazing the colorful streets of Beijing. I would try hard to recognize a pattern – to make sense of atleast one Chinese character by observing billboards, but all I could finally figure were the entry and the exit signs . The roads looked terrific, wide, flawless and smooth. People biking on the pathways, lawns next to the road, people smartly dressed, the huzzling and buzzling city life were all mere accompaniments.
7) Chinese are very warm and humble people. I made some very good friends during the 4 weeks of my stay there. They were all given English names so that its easier to address them, but when you make an attempt to call them with their Chinese names and they really appreciate it. English is rarely spoken and its most important to emphasize on the keywords in a sentence. Since I am a pure vegetarian, I found it tough to navigate my way through until I learnt the golden phrase ‘ ho chi su’ which means ‘I am vegetarian’ in Chinese. Roasted ducks and Shellfish were amoung the top favorites.
Beijing is in a different league from the rest of China. I hope to see more of China sometime and learn more about rural Chinese. All in all, an awesome experience and a place that must not be missed by any traveler.
I was thinking of old friends today And how many have slipped away
Stopped calling, got married, lost touch Found new friends, got busy or just moved on.
Friends come and go, but the precious few always hold on The list of thick friends is always slim And its those who remain prominent.
Reminds me of a train journey with destination unknown People get on, people get off And there are some who travel till the end
With crackling laughter and colours bold I cherish the times spent together – forever
This one’s for All you wonderful people I have met so far!
I have tried to put together some moments and memories captured. Please click here to view them
