I am free

I am currently at the 'I am free' sort of moments. I feel no obligations, no responsibilities, no strong emotions, no anxiety.

Life after this, seems full of choices.

I can decide to be in this comfort zone as much as I want to.  Or I can tear this all apart and jump back in. Or slowly play around.

It is super helpful to remind myself that 'life is short'.

It is a choice.

I am at this sweet unknown period of not knowing what to do.

Action solves uncertainty, ambiguity and anxiety.


"With my feet upon the ground I lose myself
between the sounds and open wide to suck it in.
I feel it move across my skin.
I'm reaching up and reaching out.
I'm reaching for the random or whatever will bewilder me.
Whatever will bewilder me.
And following our will and wind we may just go where no one's been.
We'll ride the spiral to the end and may just go where no one's been.

Spiral out. Keep going..."

ಕವಿತೆ

ರಾತ್ರಿಯ ಕನಸುಗಳು,
ಹಗಲಲ್ಲಿ  ಕಳೆದುಹೋಗುವುವು.

ಹಗಲಿನ ದಿನಕನಸುಗಳು
ರಾತ್ರಿಯ  ದುಃಸ್ವಪ್ನಗಳಾಗುವುವು. 

ಈ ಆಟದಲ್ಲಿ ಗೆಲುವಿಲ್ಲ
ಆಡದಿರುವುದೇ ಗೆಲುವಿನ ಮಾರ್ಗ!

Oh hi!

Knock, knock!

Is this thing on?

Analog pics

So, quite a while back I "borrowed" this awesome film camera from Uncle of mine.

I've already finished a roll of film, with not so great results. I think I got some 3 or 4 good pics out of that roll.

So, obviously I went and bought another roll, 400 ISO one from FujiFilm. This time I got these results ! Got it developed at GK Vales, who didn't bother cutting the each print properly.

Also, I don't have a scanner, hence shot the prints via phone camera. Well. That sucks.

Here it goes -

Umm. That's about it. Pics aren't that great, and I suck at composition.

Oooooooo, Look what I "borrowed" again : -

 

Goobe

It is , really

I step out of the house to find some thing to eat. Walk along the footpath towards The Forum. Its about 9 in the evening, traffic full with people desperately trying to find parking. Koramangala main road is full of life. Entire family, friends hanging out on weekend, odd couple trying hard not to overdo their PDA. Roadside dosawallas and paanipuri guys working hard. The veg/non-veg  momo guy trying to make a living. A couple haggling with auto guy. The Delhi boy with his BMW. All the cars and bikes trying claim their piece of road.

I just walk past these people, the chaos, the madness.

Neon lights everywhere. Smell of masala dose from some nearby Shanti Sagar. Empty cellphone show rooms. Airtel office is on its weekly off. Newly opened Van Heusen showroom, can't see any customers inside. The tender coconut guy is done  and closing his business for the day.




The Ganesha temple is all lit up.

As I walk past, a chilly thought runs through my head.

"Fuck, its cold. Should have worn the jacket"

"And like that, poof. He's gone"

Death is beautiful, death is misery. It is a full stop. Nothing beyond. Gone, gone forever. No traces. No funny jokes, none whatsoever.

Death leaves others with puzzle. Some worry, some take it easy.

For some, death of loved ones hits immediately; for some, it takes years. Some move on, some still hang on.

What's next after death, I don't know. It is beautiful, is all I know.

It's the time for ...

some random awesome song !

My guilty pleasure !

is listening to Eminem while working.

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 :)

:-)

Trip to Kanha Bandhavgarh

Phew !

An awesome week long vacation to Kanha and Bandhavgarh National parks !

And here comes the pictures :)


Lets start with state bird of Karnataka, the Indian Roller. Here is a profile pic of it.



After lunch one day, in Kanha, I see an Indian Roller sitting on a tree in front of our log hut. I had to take pics of it :)

It ended up me chasing the bird around the resort, clicking some 300 pics of the same bird !



It was like shooting a model, it went on posing, I went on clicking !



Only thing that was missing was, I just couldn't take a good pic of it flying :-( But, in Bandhavgarh, while waiting for a tiger to show up (it did not) , I get a chance to shoot this pic. This is Indian Roller, flying !



Another beautiful bird I loved is Shikra. It's a small (comparatively ) bird of prey.



Look at those glowing red eyes !

Here is another pic :



If anyone calls you Goobe in Kannada, never get upset anymore. They actually mean, 'you are cute' :-)

Here is a rare jungle owlet :



And common spotted owlets:



One more:



Birds of prey are always majestic to look at. Following are an Indian Vulture, Crested Serpent Eagle and Changeable Hawk Eagle respectively :







One rare sighting was that of a Porcupine ! Apparently they are nocturnal, and aren't easy to find in day light. But little fella graced us with his presence !



Though it looks cute n all, it is a very dangerous animal. Even tigers are known getting hurt by these !


Okay. Lets look at some Tigers !

Her name is Kankati, Kan = Ear in Hindi, kati =torn .

She is around 5 years old. Apparently, she got into a teritorial fight with other tigress and killed her. During that fight, she lost her left eye. Also her right ear is cut.



Here she is walking past our jeep ! She was walking very near to us !

Boy o Boy o Boy !




All in all, it was fantastic ! More picture are here in my flickr page:

Let me know what you think !