Published, again !

So, Vijaya Karnataka, local Kannada newspaper used one of my pics in their Saturday supplement.

Original pic here:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/mylittlefinger/5228477649/
















My only complaint is they did not attribute it :-(

Earlier case of similar story from Udayavani is here : http://mylittlefinger.blogspot.com/2010/11/published.html
 
I wonder if I can make some money out of these :)

We made an ad !

For BumsOnTheSaddle saddle bags !

Check this out !

BOTS wedgie ! from BumsOnTheSaddle on Vimeo.

Visit to Agumbe Rainforest Research Station

Me and Chirdeep went to a weekend workshop / trip to Agumbe Rainforest Research Station last weekend.

Needless to say, we saw heavy rain, lots of snakes, frogs etc.

Here are few pictures:

We bumped into quite a few of Common Vine Snake. This little handsome fella is quite harmless. It is venomous but not fatal to humans. When threatened it displays the different color of scales !



here is how it looks when its agitated:



Another view of the green vine snake:



Another common sight was Malabar Pit Viper. Now, this one is quite venomous, as the name says its seen in mostly in Malabar / Sahyadri / western Ghats.

Couple of pictures:



Here is an close up view:

Yes they do come in different colors.



I got bored on an afternoon, and went to explore the place around the research center. I came across this fella:




While we are looking at tiny creatures, how can I forget to mention this beautiful frog?
Oh boy, I love frogs. They are cold and cute :)



And this cricket was kind enough to pose for this macro shot:



Agumbe is a beautiful place with wonderful bio-diversity, and a perfect get-away for a weekend. This unknown waterfall is a testimony for that :)



All in all, the place, people and wildlife were amazing. I love Agumbe.

You can see more pictures from this trip here: [

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.180757041996509.45024.100001866448053&l=a57e8c6e40&type=1 ]

More Agumbe pics are here on my Flickr account: [ http://www.flickr.com/photos/mylittlefinger/sets/72157627414998257/ ]

As always, please let me know what you think :-)

New stuff

umm. I forgot to mention, I left ThoughtWorks and have joined Flipkart.

Moved on from generalist QA role to a specialist QA role.

Let me see how this gonna work out :-)

Almost famous

Couple of months back, a new joinee to office came to me and asked if I am 'Sri Harsha', apparently he knows me from my blog !

Today, while I was goofing around at BumsOnTheSaddle , a customer asked me if I am "Sri Harsha", apparently he knows me from facebook.


Huh !!

Bums On The Saddle ...

Selling anything is hard. Especially if you aren't selling just a commodity but an experience. That's what I learnt when I 'interned' at Bums On The Saddle.

Let me first just say this: Bums On The Saddle Rocks. Period. In BOTS you'd be never sold a bike, but an experience.

Okay, back to topic. I took a short break from all IT stuff and started working with BOTS with Rohan and Sid. I do have some retail selling experience as a cashier at a restaurant , as a waiter at a hotel and Salesman at an ice-cream shop. But boy was this different !

First, nothing goes just smooth. There will be a lot of things that aren't just going to fall in place. As a local bike shop guy, there are a hundred things you need to take care at any given point of time.

In this short period of time we :

Moved to a new place
Started designing the new set-up
Made a downhill training session happen ( big shout out to Nelly and Iggy !)
Made live streaming of Tour de France happen at the shop.
Put quite a few people on new cycles !
...


Thanks BOTS for the experience ! Love you guys :)

Tour de France 2011

Mother of all the cycling races is around the corner ! Tour de France starts on July 2nd.

Though all time favorite Lance is not racing this time around, I am totally rooting for Mark Cavendish, one of the best sprinter of our time. I can't wait to see Team HTC-Highroad leading him out to front and then Mark beating hell out of others :D

Imagine cycling at around 50 km/h for about 150-180 kilometers and then for the last 500 meters or so, sprinting at 70-80 km/h ! That is a treat to watch !


Here is old but informative article about all the questions you may have about Tour de France.

http://likeithateit.net/?p=240


Timings of stages as per IST here: [ http://goo.gl/MW4MM ]

[ https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?hl=en_US&hl=en_US&key=0Alpl9ukYBm8mdEY4SkFFMFFGSmpKejlxNHRlRnZJdkE&output=html ]

:-)

Offroading in Bangalore !

A short clip of photos and videos of our Bangalore Bicycle Championship's last race in namma Bengaluru. Shot and compiled by Sagar.






What a race !

Check out the photos I clicked here:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.145784058827141.35962.100001866448053&l=e7e82fec74

Check this out too : http://blog.bumsonthesaddle.com/2011/5/16/bbch-is-awesome

Mainstream trance track for the day ...

Commuting to office by cycle in Bangalore - Part 2

I've been commuting to office on a cycle for little more than 2 years now. Time to look back at the over all experience :)

I wrote about this long back, here.

Lets go through those again !

-> Distance I commute on bike -- It varied from 16 km to 10 km to 2 km, and now 6 km. (One way)

-> Time it takes -- Less than any motorbike or car. On a serious note, cycle is actually faster. Especially if the route is packed with other polluting vehicles (did you notice the smugness, hee hee)

-> How long I've been cycling to office : Little more than 2 years

-> What bike do I have: I have 2 bikes now. One is an awesome hard tail mountain bike (Trek 4300). Other one is a sexy road bike (Trek 1.5).

-> Where did I buy these mean machines? -- I bought both the bikes from Bums On the Saddle, The best bicycling shop in Bangalore. Those folks are actual bikers who know their stuff.

-> Okay, Isn't it kind of dangerous to cycle around in crazy Bangalore traffic ? No, not really. It's intimidating for sure. Once you understand how to mingle with the rest of the traffic, it gets easier.

-> How many times I've crashed due to other vehicles : zero

-> How many times I've crashed due to my own stupidity : Two (survived with minor bruises to body, big dent to my ego)

-> How many times I've got yelled at from other motorists? None. (Surprise)

-> How many times I've given the 'finger' to other motorists : quite a few. When I am on a bike, I am very aggressive and fast. Hence, me yelling at other slow moving vehicles is inevitable.

-> How many times kids have given me 'Thumbs up' : more than a few. Kids love bikes. I always smile at them when they keep staring at the bike / or my funny attire.

The number of bike commuters is increasing day by day in Bangalore. I regularly meet a lot of bikers on the road everyday. I can't wait to see Bangalore turning into Amsterdam :)

:-)