Voices from Within

Back in Blore after a super lazy vacationing week at home.

May this day spread Light and Love in your hearts...
Have an awesome Diwali.. Remember... No crackers!

Not everyday, you go 'Ooooh-my-God'; Not very often you see something sooo beautiful.. so awesome.. that makes you feel so blissful and complete.

Its been a while, since I wrote here; Been busy with multiple things. But this is something, I'd like to look back and cherish.

It was during the past weekend, when I least expected it. It started out as a simple-trip to a colleague's wedding in a nearby town, Vellore. The journey was pleasant; We discussed random things from running, traffic, evolution, work, love, Indian marriages and even God.

Time permitting, we decided to visit the new Golden temple in Sripuram. We had to wait a while, and walk a mile.. And then the good trip turned greater-awesome.

Yeah. I'm not the temple guy. But this aint that. This is big dive, deep into awesomeness !! Some times you just need to see these to realize how beautiful life really is.

The fabulously lit Golden vimanas againt the evening grey and their reflections in the pond... Awwww....

I'm doing injustice to the place, by trying to explain it in words. Go there and feel it.

"Life is not the amount of breaths you take, it's the moments that take your breath away" - This is one such moment!

Until next time,

Happy living,

-Vinodh

He argued logic,
She spoke science,
They weren't good in Chemistry anyway.

Hah!

Wishing everyone a great 2010.

The news is, I just met a few folks after a looong time and guess what they remembered. They asked about our poems. I didn't know that I'm an unusually good writer, with a unique simple style, writing profound stuff. Well, they didn say all that.. but you get the point. :)

Well, I started writing basically to "communicate"... with a specific agenda and now, that its off-the-table, I didn't feel the need for posting stuff. But, if thats what the public wants???

I start 2010, eying on some seriously challenging stuff. The ride is going to be a lot more fun this time..

See you next-time,

Until then Rock your 2010, with awesomeness!!

Freeee finally!!!

I've been wanting to take a month break for a while and I settled for what I could possibly get.


10 days off!!


I don't have to set my alarms at chip-timing runs.. No cross-talk nightmares... No verilog talking .. No nothing..

I'll be with myself in totality.

Now is the time to do all the 'nothing' I always wanted to do.

Plan to visit a few places before heading home for New Year.

Happy holidays!

It started as a quite morning... No great morning runs/rides, nothing planned for the day.. The work-week hadn't spilled over the weekend too..

One of my friends needed a guinea-pig for recipe expts and invited me for lunch and I yessed In. After a good-simple meal, we sat down playing cards... Bluff is a super-simple game and It turned out to be so much fun.. I hadn't laughed like that in months.. 3 hrs of bluffing, and we were tired laughing out... cud n laugh anymore.. got hungry again..

Went out for ice-cream and..... died, a liberating "Death-by-Chocolate" - I wonder, who named it so and why? Its one of the best-est things ever... a big bowl - full of pure-awesomeness...

I love these chilly-winter morning rides... the morning drizzle was an extra topping.. Reached the station to catch an early train out to Tumkur. The trip was to support a Awareness-walk by an org for Special children and Early Intervention. It was a beautiful train journey in the misty morning.

The walk was flagged off by a big-shot and there was some press coverage. Our pics cud have been flashed in the local newspaper(Tumkur Times??? anyone????). It was a short walk and the weather was perfect. We gave out fliers with more info on the effort. The Tumkur-folks were unspoilt and very receptive. They respected the walk, took time to read the fliers. The walk ended with a informative presentation.

The return journey was even more fun. We had decided to travel un-reserved and got open-tickets.. And offcourse, the train was late by 40 min.. We went out to kill time... had cocunuts, saw a 'Super-speciality hospital' (with only a 2-foot entrance), lonely theatre, poori-rice walas..

For a small town, lot of things were happening at the station. A funny man on the mike.. testing it for along time... A huge crowd had gathered, to witness the change in the train-timings.. When the train arrived, we hopped on a random coach.

We were chatting Non-stop.. discussed various things from expensive-indian-weddings to piracy to best-biriyanis to ... a mini movie of Santhosh's 24 hr run.. We even planned a Con-job to loot a ...Shushh!!!

Reached Bangalore by 2:20 and another train had reached the platform at the exact time.. Two-train-full-peapuls trying to climb a narrow-stairway was quite a sight. No prize for guessing shiny-head :)

Lunched at a place closeby, sealed a super-day with icecreams..

(More pics - coming soon)

And Vinbot buys a bike!!

Here is my New Rockrider...

After weeks of research and test-rides, I finally bought a BTwin RockRider 5.1 today. She is so sleek, super-lite and Awesome. Here is more about her.


I'll get biking after 8 yrs.. It all started as - *envying* Sensei/Balu's 100K/Mysore ride... Crazy Balaji's western ghats trip and When I heard about crazier folks @ BBC riding 1000km+ over 2 weeks.... Wow!!! The tipping point was Cyclothon and TFN'09!!

I started with a simple Neon to Thunder MTB and zeroed-in on Rockrider 5.1!!!! I love her.. Totally!!

I'll ride her to work atleast 2-3 days a week.. and the much longed-for long rides... I'd like to ride to Chennai and back (350km*2) with in the first year... lets see...

I have a long week of 'dead'lines comingup. But right now, I'm all excited and hyper abt my new bike!!!

-Vinbot

Great run.. Awesome fun.. I wud hav kicked myself if I had wuss'd out of run for that silly sinus block.
---
Left for Mysore from Cubbon @ 4.30. The drive itself was so much fun.. Non-stop entertainment from Sensei 'n Balaji. PJs galore.. Had the historic(?) Maddur vada and great coffee on the way. Checked-in to a hotel.. had dinner and rested for the race.

Woke up feeling great on Sunday!! Got ready and headed to the race-location. Coach wasn't particularly happy that I had forgotten to collect the bib and had to take a detour on the race day... Over 700 runners crowded the start-point.

The Full-ers started first.. Sensei and Santhosh shot off..

I think, Half-Marathon is a sweet-distance.. 21K is a great test of fitness 'n endurance.. Doesn't take a lot out of you and less prone to injuries.. I wonder why these crazies run the full to get roasted..

Then we started.. With my (un)training, I knew I cudn't shoot for a personal best. The focus was to finish strong with out any injury.

The Trail was a beauty! Gorgeous Kaveri flowing on one side and brilliant-green fields on the other.

After the initial 2K or so, I was nice and loose.. felt good.. kept myself well hydrated.. Reached the turn around point with no fuss... The first half was eazy..


And then trail-beauty turned a smoking hottie.. The scorching sun was too much..When I was struggling and thought, I'm gonna walk the rest - I heard someone yell, "Common Vinodh - run!!". There she was.. The super-woman.. I ran with Sensei for a few kms.. She was saying, "I ran all the way.. Didn take a walk-break yet".

The last stretch was tough.. started cramping and Hamstring hurt.. It all meant only one-thing. I shd stop giving work excuses 'n turn-up at the Training sessions and hit the gym regularly..


And flew to the finish line. Not great timing. But awesome fun..

Celebrated the Run @ CCD with Sizzling brownies/Icecreams...

Photos: Courtesy of Balaji - link

How can ppl ever live in remote villages?? How can one be away frm the comfort of urban life?? Unplugged from the web? - Impossible.. No Cellphones? - Are you kidding?

I am a web-addict.. My Laptop and Ipod will figure in the most essential things I'' ever "need"....

And now, I'm reprioritizing... Thanks to Sanjeev/Anita who roped-me-in for the trip. I least expected to hav such a wonderful weekend.. (Actually, I paused for a moment - I'm cynophobic and Shifu is also travelling..)

Thulir is an Education Resource Centre for children and young adults at Sittilingi, a tribal village in Dharmapuri district,Tamilnadu, India.

• Building brick-walls. Learning how to stable walls.
• Playing with a Calf (You guessed it right, Lakshmi is her name..)
• Logic puzzles with kids..
• Gardening.. I cut a small tree.. ( Wait.. That was shading the solar panels. BTW, the whole school is solar powered..)

• Reading Chittu's comics (No. You cannot subscribe to Dirter, the stinky pig!! U'll need a different currency)
• Playing soccer with kids..
• Biking around the village..
• Visited a Coconut farm.. drank one right off a tree..
• When I enquired about Chilled water, Next town is 13 miles away..
• Building logic-gates from BJTs with Sanj.. (Been a long time since I played with transistors.. that was Fun.. I was pretty good.)
• Blinking lights with a multi-vibrator..[When you visit nexttime, Be prepared for Blinking-Thulir welcoming you...]

The Yellow Knights

We were a crazy-running bunch,
hanging out for a quick brunch..
until Sensei taught us to reverse-punch.

We learnt to block hard,
None can attack us off-guard..

Our own knife-hand-strike
- as mighty as a shark-bite!!

Mae-Giri, the front kick..
is not a simple trick..
You gotta be double-quick
and yet be as smooth as Indian-Silk

Kata - is it a dance or a fight?
With all its grace is an elegant sight
We did it right with a GI - white
and became Yellow-knight..

Arigato Sensei..

And Yeah.... Kiiiiah!!!

-Vinodh

How about serving food at the counter all day?? It sure sounds a boring job..
But, I was amazed to see how this guy made a difference..
He radiates hope, love and happiness!!!

This guy works in the restaurant chain - Adyar Anandha Bhavan (A2B), CMH road, Bangalore.

The rain had just stopped and after a long day, I stopped by to have a snack and cuppa coffee.. and This is what I got..

Well.. Saturdays don't get any better than this..

Woke up @ 5 am.. The day started with a Chilly ride to Ananya. I love these long-morning rides. The Orange Sunrise in Airport road is an incentive to get up early on a Saturday Mrng.. The roadside Chai seems to get better every week.

It was a tapering run just before the next-week's race. The weather was perfect for a great destressing run.. Played a bit of Ultimate-frisbee next.. Only 2-3 players each side, a small play area.. but it was great fun..

Ananya is a Magical place, and has so much to offer.. Today, It taught us farming. George was so enthusiastic to share with us the process/techniques. [Start->Programs->MicroSoft Farming??? - No] We ploughed the field, planted the Ginger/Bean sprouts, manured and watered them. This is the closest, I'll ever get to real-working for a while. Totally fulfilling experience. [I'm sure Sucksman will have something to say here..]

MiG21

Wow.. Bangalore is a great place.. I have fallen in love with this awesome city.. One can find anything here...

There is a club for every darn thing. You name it.. Its there.. In the past 4 yrs, I have googled and found these groups.. Running, Foreign language, Adventure, Charity, Rubik's cube, Effective Educational methods, Bhagavad Gita study group, Tin-Whistling, Start-ups, Poetry Writing, Robotics/AI, Vedic Math,.. and now.. Ultimate frisbee.. (the Laughter club shd be interesting to try out..)

Heard about Ultimate-Frisbee from Balu..... looked up online.. Wow.. there is a big group of hi-enthu folks playing right across my work-place...

Subscribed to the group, went in early this mrng and had an absolutely amazing time... I wasn't exceptionally great at it... But I didn suck! (OK.. I was caught running with the disk-twice.. I'll learn)

There is a lotta physics in Ultimate frisbee ebooks online.. Its certainly eazy to pickup.. Can prove tough to master!!

Hope I get better in the following weeks...

Its Frisbee fever this May... Are you guys game?

-Vinodh

Heard of this story??

Here is the list of things that I want to do before I turn 30. The next five years are the ones when I'll be in peak physical health, mental toughness and enjoy total freedom to do all of these..

The list in no particular order..

1. Running 4 Marathons in 4 weeks
2. Swimming in Deep sea
3. Publish some of my poems/short stories as a book!
4. Sky Diving
5. Scuba diving/Snorkeling
6. Skiing
   
7. Bungee Jumping - check :)! !!
   
8. Gamble - (I hav played poker.. This is about big money in Vegas.)
9. Getting Drunk..
10. Smoke a Cuban Cigar..