Planning....

"Entha vishayathayum plan pannama pannakkoodathu.."
Eng trans: "Dont do anything without planning.."

This is our Team Motto.. (Here "our Team" means, our OBA DBA Team). Actually we were planning for this trip for about a month ago. But every weekend there will be some other appointment for us and even the trip was postponed because of Karantaka State Election. So, after all these delays, we were so determined to go for that trip last saturday. Prabhu and Thiagarajan has the bikes. And most importantly, only those two know driving bike. As usual, all the preparation for the trip were done only on the last day before the trip ie. on friday. By friday afternoon, prabhu completely planned the route or the places we're going to cover in this trip (though these informations were sent previously by Thiagarajan, prabhu deviced a plan for the trip). Me and Mohan planned to stay in Prabhu and Thiagarajan's houses resp. So, all is set and we planned to start our trip on Saturday morning by 4:30am**** (wondering why these stars... just check for these stars in later part, so that you can compare...)

2 Mysore...

As planned, we all got ready and we started our trip from Prabhu's house at 5:15 am****. We packed one set of clothes along with very few snacks... really very few... From bangalore, we took the Kanakpura Road and reached kanakpura at around 5:45am. At 6:10am, we stopped at a place called "kaggalipuram" for tea break. Had tea and continued our journey. We decided to take breaks at regular intervals of around 20-25 kms. In the first break after Tea, we had the Little Hearts biscuit. Oh man.. how sweet those tiny little biscuits are.. I have never enjoyed eating Little Hearts Biscuits like that before... damn sweet since we were traveling in the morning chill wind..

Another break after another 20 km.. this time, its Banana chips Break. It was near a garden of lush green plants. As we stopped in those places, we named those places after the items which we had in that place. So, this place is called "Banana Chips Park".


Then we reached the second town (first being kanakpura) called Malavalli. There we just went in the road which seems to be most frequently used and checked bike tyres air.. But finally we realized that, that road actually takes to channapatna, and thereby to Bangalore (back to square one.. ) thanks to Mohan for reading the boards at the crucial place, otherwise we would have never realised that we're goin in wrong route.. And then inquired the local ppl to know that we need to take a left turn just near the Malavalli bus-stand, which is around 2 km before. So, took a u turn, and reached that place where we needed to take the diversion. But there was no signs/boards or any kind of indication that we need to take diversion here for Mysore. The only thing which says that it leads to mysore was the name boards in the local shops showing "Mysore Road". We continued our journey in that road for another 20kms, where we stopped again. this time its was "murukku" break. Prabhu then praised the road as till now the road was really good. So, then after some 5-10 kms, the road turned from good to worst.. to say it clearly, there was no road at all. we were just going at the mud area on the sides of the road. the laying of thar road is actually in progress. we could see the road being layed which is about 30cm high than the normal road.


All three looked at Prabhu. Prabhu didnt have any words to reply. This kind of raod continued for about 5 -6 kms.. but that burnt more energy than the previous all distance combined. Then the road turned from worst to bad (good improvement..) the road is like a big jigsaw puzzle being laid in-front of us. We need to choose pit which is of lesser depth and go thru that. really tough... Thiagarajan will just go straight thru the pits, as his bike was new one. But prabhu will make sure that he doesnt run thru the pits, as he has great experience during his last trip to nandhi hills... the result of that is about 3-5 kms difference between thiagarajan's and prabhu's distance readings.. :) ... But hats-off to Prabhu and Thiagarajan (Great driving guys...). Similarly, we had about 6-7 breaks in between and finally reached Mysore.

Bangalore - Kanakpura - Malavalli - Mysore City: 150-155kms

@ Mysore...


As we reached Mysore, as per our plans , first place to visit was Chamundi hills. This is about 15kms from the Centre of the City. This is famous for the Temple for Goddess Chamudeeshwari. This is situated at about 3000+ feets from the sea level. From this place, we can have a beautiful arial view of Mysore city. We reached the temple and as a ritual, we*(i think u know why this * here) went to temple for worshiping.. But there we had naming ceremony for Mohan as "Mr. Tharmagartha". Had few snaps of the temple, had breakfast and me and prabhu bought a wooden car (since we cant imagine to get a real car now.....)


The next plan was to go to "Mysore Palace" which situated at the center of the city. So, good ride downhill (without even switching the engine ON), some right's and left's... thus we reached Mysore Palace. (but we didnt ask anyone for the way to reach palace, as there were ample sign boards directing towards it.. kudos to the Mysore Municipality.) . The entry fee is around Rs. 20 per head for indian national adults and the one which really surprised us is that the entry fee for foreign nationals is about Rs 100... (dont know y this partiality...) The most important thing to notice there is that, none is allowed to take photos inside the Palace premises. There was a separate place for keeping our cameras in safe, with a nominal fee of Rs. 5. And they were really strict about that.. i mean VERY STRICT.. wondering y this much stress on this point. caz the guard inside the palace seized my mobile phone for taking photo ( after taking some 10 pics... :( ..)


I had to pay him Rs 100 for getting back my mobile. But the real point here is not the money. Its the way they treat us when we're caught, till u offer him some (but i deserve that for the wrong attitude i had). and the most stupid thing which i did was, i didnt switch-off me mobile phone at that time.. after some 2 mins, when we're climbing to upstairs, i suddenly realized that i didnt switch-off, and took it out, just to switch it off. there was another guard, who saw me taking my mobile out and seized it, after seeing the photos taken. We had to explain him for a very long time that, i already paid for those to another guard at the front. (i really deserve it... ) after long quarrel, he gave my mobile back and from then onwards, i didnt take my mobile out till we left the palace premise. (really scared...)


We had papaya fruit and also sugarcane juice at the parking place of the palace and our next plan is to go to a water body called "Balmuri" which is near KRS (the world famous "Brindavan Gardens") . We asked a local person there for the way to reach Balmuri. He started explaining us each and every landmark on the way to reach there. He almost told about 10-15 landmarks( and Balmuri is about 13kms from Palace). Actually this place is on the route to Bangalore. (perfect planning... ) It was around 1:30pm, but we (except prabhu) were not hungry. So on the way we stopped at this restaurant named "Coastal Gardens". Mohan ordered ChickB, Prabhu a south indian meals (which was too heavy for him, as usual... ) , Me an Egg-Fried Rice (as usual) and Thiagarajan a Chicken Noodles. Wondering y i'm listing our orders... just to say that each of us ordered different varieties, and each food item was very very Tasty, damn tasty... After having very nice lunch (thanks to prabhu again...), we continued our journey towards Balmuri. Thiagarajan n mohan were going ahead of us.. but everytime, they were asking the way for reaching KRS.. Only after reaching KRS, we came to know that we had to return back since we need to take a right about 3km before KRS... (So if you're planning to go to Balmuri, remember an Arch having "Balamuri Kshetra" written on that. You need to take a right there).


We always thought that, Balmuri is a less know place to tourists and hence there wont be much of crowd. But when we reached there, we were forced to think again. Not that much of crowd, as we could find a good place for us to get into water. Water was damn chill (when compared to the temperature under the hot afternoon sun..)


After relaxing a lot there, we started at around 4:30pm to our next Destination, Srirangapatna. As you know, Srirangapatna is a historical town. Tipu Sultan lived and died there. Our plan is to visit Tipu Sultan's Palace. Srirangapatna was about 15kms from Balmuri. Its again on the route to Bangalore. After 20mins travel, we stopped at a board which mentioned "LalMahal - Tipu Sultan Palace". But we couldnt find any building at that place. When we enquired the locals at that place, they said that ' there used to be a palace here, but was completely destroyed". All three again looked at Prabhu. And the interesting thing is that, all the way he was saying he has visited Tipu Sultan's Palace few years ago. i think now u got y we 3 looked at prabhu ;) ... then he remembered that the palace he visited was Tipu Sultan's Summer Palace. So, we started to enquire about that palace and go towards that.


En route, there was a board with the words "Tipu's Death Place". It was just a few meters wide park, where at the center there was a little stone with the inscription "THE BODY OF TIPPU SULTAN WAS FOUND HERE". The gate was locked and so we just took pics from out. Then finally we found the actual palace which we were looking for, "Tipu Sultan's Summer Palace". It was called as "Dariya Daulat Bagh" locally. We reached there exactly at 5pm, but the visiting time for that palace ends 5pm. We didnt get much disappointment caz we didnt have much expectation about that place. But Prabhu told us that, this palace covers very huge area and is very beautiful inside with wonderful gardens. We were satisfied that we could atleast find that place.

Mysore City - 15kms - Chamundi Hills -15kms- Mysore Palace -13kms- Balmuri -15kms- Srirangapatna


2 Bangalore....


Thus we visited all the places we planned to visit. So, we started back to Bangalore at about 5:15 pm from Srirangapatna. We took the Mysore-Bangalore Highway, which is called as the "Road for Prosperity". Superb road that was. We never lowered our speeds less that 70kmph. Hence we could cover great distances between breaks. We had traffics only when we crossed two of the major towns in that road, the The Silk City - Mandya and The Sugarcane City - Ramanagaram.


For the second break, we stopped near a tender coconut shop. for the kind of journey we had, the coconut seemed to be really sweet. The next stop was about 60kms from that "Tender Coconut Cafe", since we were in so desperate situation that we cant continue without a break. At this time, we passed WonderLa and were roughly about 4 kms before the NICE highway. And this 4 kms, really made frustrated us. The traffic was so much that, we had to go only at the speed of 15kmph and has to stop for every few meters.


Just entering NICE highway, we took another break. We were so tired for just this 4kms, than that 60km stretch. Had some biscuits and then started again. As we got relieved from Traffic, we faced another threat - Rain!!!!!!!!. Though we had jackets (except Mohan.. what to do, always there are exceptions...), driving in rain would be dangerous. As we entered the kankpura Road inside the city, its started raining heavily. We were lucky that we stopped at a place, where there was a small Bajji-Bonda shop. We tried all the varieties of snacks that he prepared. It was a lucky day for that shop owner ( but since i was in Diet, i had ONLY little). Once the rain stopped, we started to experience the usual Bangalore Traffic (after 12 hours..). We reached our Oracle Office at Shopper Stop at about 9pm.

Srirangapatna - Mandya - Ramanagaram - Bangalore : 130kms

We covered around 350 kms in 15 hours in bike. (ya.. only in bike... )That to without taking any other rests apart from few in-between breaks. It was really tiring, for the drivers and also the riders. We were so tired that we really thought that we wont get up from bed the next day... (Now u got y this post is dedicated to prabhu and thiagarajan... And its unfair not to mention Mohan. Mohan - i dedicate this to you too...)

Let me finish with a small note on what to carry on going for a Bike Trip:
> one set of clothes (just incase u're goin to get into water or if there's possibility of rain)
> eatables (Water must and some snacks...)
> Eye-Gear (if you're wearing specs, then ok.. else dont forget to take your coolers...)
> Map of the city you're going to visit (if possible, map which covers the entire route..)
> Last but not the least, details of each places you're planning to visit (very gud prior planning is neccessary..)
Always remember the golden rule, you should not dump too much in your bag. you should not feel that your bag heavy.. not even 0.1% ....

Thus our wonderful, amazing Mysore Bike Trip ended.

For more photos, http://picasaweb.google.com/redthil/Mysore_Bike_Trip_20080524

இதுவரை நினைத்ததில்லை …

இதுவரை தோன்றியதில்லை …
பூத்துக்குளுங்கும் மலர்களைவிட
சுற்றியிருக்கும் இலைகள் அழகென்று …

இதுவரை புரிந்ததில்லை …
கடற்கரை தென்றலைவிட
ஆளைத்தூக்கும் ஆடிக்காற்று சுகமென்று …

இதுவரை அறிந்ததில்லை …
நிலவொளி நிறைந்திருக்கும் பௌர்ணமியைவிட
நட்சத்திரங்கள் மட்டும் மின்னும் அம்மாவாசை கவர்ச்சியென்று …

இதுவரை கவணித்ததில்லை …
விலையுயர்ந்த வைரத்தைவிட
குழந்தையின் கண்கள் அதிகம் ஜொலிக்குமென்று …

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பொன்போன்ற காலத்தால்
என் கண்ணோட்டத்தை மாற்ற இயலுமென்று …

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அவளைப்பற்றிய என் நினைப்பை மாற்ற இயலுமென்று …

Dont wonder that some girl looked at me (not even thinking that i'm weird)... This has no relevance with that context...

Today, during my regular early morning walk, on my way back home, i had a glance at this girl... hurrying to catch her company bus, which was due to come. The one which made my day was not that girl.. but the T-shirt she was wearing.

To the most of my surprise, She was wearing Our college (for those who forgot which college we studied - its "PSG Tech") Hostel Day T-shirt, which had the "Hostel Council" Logo.. not to mention, that Logo and the T-Shirt was designed by a guy called Senthil Kumar C (it happened accidentally). On seeing that, i felt so refreshed, happy, you can call it whatever you want... no words to describe.. I never thought that i would ever see any person wearing those T-shirts outside our College/Hostel premises. For that matter, even i rarely wear that T-shirt, that too only at my home. I dont know who she is or which batch she belongs to... but thanks to her and this incident really made my day today.

One of the most taken for granted part of the body is actually the eye. Nowadays, people are more concerned about losing weight, etc. rather than thinking of ways to care for their precious eyes

With so many of us spending lots of time in front of the computer every day it comes to no surprise that research is showing a rise in visual problems. What can one do? here are some tips that can be followed in our daily life without any special instruments or cost...

Positioning is everything

Correct positioning of our computer, keyboard and typing copy is essential. Screen should be positioned about an arm’s length from our eyes and 20 degrees below eye level. Consider foot and wrist rests for added comfort.

While computer use won’t harm your eyes in the long term, experts say, working at a computer can cause eye fatigue and symptoms such as tired, dry, itchy or burning eyes. The screen shouldn’t be inches away (too close) or so far that you cannot see the print, easily.


Lighting can make all the difference

Room lighting should be diffuse, not direct, to reduce glare and reflections from computer screen. Look into an internal or external glare screen and be sure to set your colour, contrast and brightness levels to suit us.

Glare can create eye strain. People can combat glare at work with antireflective coatings on their computer screens as well as antireflective coatings on their glasses.

To help with the strain that artificial lighting can cause on the eyes, its recommended to convert to incandescent light from a regular soft white lightbulb or have lamps on our desks with incandescent light that illuminates the work area evenly.

A little extra help from our glasses

Anti-reflective coatings on the lenses of our glasses can be applied by optometrist to reduce discomfort and to ease reduced vision from bright and/or flickering light sources such as VDTs and fluorescent lights. And don’t forget, doctor of optometry can talk to you about eyeglasses designed specifically for people who use computers a lot.

It is a known fact that looking directly at the sun, lasers or any strong source of light for an extended period of time can make us go blind. However, not many are aware that mere but frequent exposure to sunlight, especially during midday, can cause real damage to the eyes in the long run. That is why, whenever we are driving or walking under the sun, we should always wear sunglasses with good UVA And UVB protection.

We really do not have to buy ultra-expensive sunglasses. Cheap ones that are available in warehouse store counters are already sufficient. But before we buy cheap sunglasses, we have to ensure that it truly protects your eyes from the harmful rays of the sun or other strong light sources.


Palming

Sit straight at workstation and rub our palms against each other till we feel them warm. The warmth of our palms helps soothe and relax tired eyes. Then, lightly cup our eyes with our palms and relax for 60 seconds. Count the seconds in mind. Repeat this exercise two to three times whenever our eyes feel tired, or as often as we want. While palming, we can either rest our elbows on our desk or keep away from the desk and cup our eyes. Both ways are fine.

Eat foods that are rich in vitamins A, C and E

Incorporate Vitamins A, C, and E on a daily basis; eat citrus fruits, green leafy veggies, tomatoes, spinach, poultry and dairy products. Pack a box of chopped carrots, cucumber and fresh fruits and munch in-between meals at the office.

Foods that are rich in Vitamin A, which is a source of eye-building nutrient beta-carotene, include carrots, squash, apricot, deep orange produce, cod liver oil, and green leafy vegetables such as spinach.

Vitamin C-rich foods include citrus fruits, mango, broccoli, strawberries and cauliflower.

Meanwhile, good sources of Vitamin E are eggs, peanuts, almonds, and sunflower seeds.


Splash water on your face

During breaks, splash water on our face while closing your eyes. This has an overall relaxing effect and helps us feel refreshed.


Drink Plenty of Water

Waste products and toxins that are not properly eliminated actually affect our eyes indirectly. If we love our eyes, we ought to make sure that our body is able to effectively get rid of the toxins and waste products we get from the things that we eat and other environmental factors. Drink at least eight to twelve glasses of water everyday for successful waste elimination.

Of course, don’t smoke!

Smoking increases the risk for eye diseases and vision problems, according to research. Smoking damages blood vessels, causing them to constrict and form atherosclerotic plaques — which can deprive the eye tissue of oxygen.

Take time out, 20-20-20 rule

Step I :-
After every 20 minutes of looking into the computer screen, turn our head and try to look at any object placed at least 20 feet away. This changes the focal length of our eyes, a must-do for the tired eyes.

Step II :-
Try and blink our eyes for 20 times in succession, to moisten them.

Step III :-
Time permitting of course, one should walk 20 paces after every 20 minutes of sitting in one particular posture. Helps blood circulation for entire body..It’s all in the blinking

Did you know that on average we blink 12 times per minute? But wait, did you know that when we’re on the computer we only blink 5 times per minute? That can add up to dry eyes. Relieve the discomfort by using artificial tear drops or gels and remember to blink!


Use tea bags

Keep two used tea bags in the refrigerator before we leave for work. Once we are home, place the tea bags on our eyes for a few minutes as we relax. This not only soothes tired eyes, but also reduces puffiness.


perfumes

If our eyes are sensitive, flagrance can make them red,. To diminish this effect without giving up scent, avoid classic spots-like behind your ears--that are too close to our eyes.


medical prescriptions

High blood pressure medicines and antihistamines for allergies can dry our eyes. Rehydrate with drops sans preservatives (they can be irritating) and, if we wear contacts, a moisturizing cleaning solution.


while exercising

When sweat drips into our eyes, so do dirt and oils-and rubbing our eyes with our fingers can start an infection. Instead, dab sweat with a towel and try to wear a sweatband.