Road Trip : Bangalore - Kabini (Rajiv Gandhi National Park) - Bangalore

Just completed another beautiful and interesting bike ride to Rajiv Gandhi National Park and back. The plan started with an email from Murali which I received while I was in Bhopal attending Avinash's marriage.
This was probably the simplest email with clear communication and a pleasure to receive.
___________________________________________________________

Let's go bike ride on 5th and 6th to Kabini (250km from BLR).

I checked with jungle lodge today. Tented accommodation  is available for 5th. 

Sachin / Clinton - pl call Jungle lodge, MG Road office and book before 10:30am tomorrow (I am in HYD for next 2 days).

Plan:

Sunday -

- Start home at 5:45am, meet at corporation circle at 6:00am

- Reach Mysore by 9:00 (BF break in between)

- Reach Kabini by 11:00am

 Sun 11:00am to Mon 11:00 am at Kabini (follow resorts schedule)

 Monday:

 - 11:00am start from Kabini

- 1:00pm Mysore, till 3:00pm at Ranganatittu bird sanctuary.

- start from Ranganatittu 3:00pm and reach BLR by 6:00pm.

  

Let's lock the plan?

_____________________________________________________

And as expected, Clinton and Sachin confirmed with "Sure" and "Doubly Done" and my reply was "Let's Ride". I reached Bangalore on Wednesday at 2 PM and my Avenger was at the service bay the next day.


Sunday, 4:45 AM, Bangalore

Clinton Called up to make sure everyone was ready and no one was late. We met at 5:30 AM near Diamond District and from there Clinton, Sachin, Divya and Sukesh rode on 'The Bull", Sachin's Pulsar and 1972 Royal Enfield 350cc of Sukesh to meet Murali at 5:45 AM at town hall. The morning was unusually cold or not I can;t say because it was first time in many months that I was up this early and there was no flight to catch.

I was literally shivering as I had a bad cold and fever and was on medication as well.

We rode with virtually no traffic into Mysore road and stopped for breakfast and for the first time in all these months didn't stop at McDonalds for breakfast. I did stop because I was feeling drowsy thanks to Cetrizine which somehow makes me sleepy. I was scared because I was falling asleep on the bike and almost dozed off three times ! I washed my face atl east three times and finally asked Sachin to ride behind me and to honk to make sure I don't doze off.

Lesson I : No medication of any sort before the bike ride even if it is on the previous afternoon or evening.

We crossed Mysore and headed to HD Kote and moved from SH17 to SH33. The road turned from four/six lanes of Bangalore Mysore Road (SH33) to a normal road with no dividers.


Sunday 10 AM, 17 Kms Past Mysore
Road trips always have surprised and Sukesh and Divya had an accident which involved a village biker who road into the state highway without too fast without really checking the traffic on the main road. As if this was not enough a truck was also passing and Sukesh didn't have another option but to ram the bullet into the truck and save the other rider.

Thank God no one was badly hurt but the front fork of the bullet was bent and though the engine fired up on first kick but no way any one could ride the bike. We again had to hire an APE Auto for INR 400 and sent the bike to Mysore to one of his relatives and after a break of about an hour continued our journey towards Kabini River Lodge,

We rode into HD Kote looking for a doctor and then continued on the road until we reached the resort. Interestingly this was the same route we took on our way back from Wayanad when we crossed the Kabini river on a manual row boat with our bikes on the boats ;)

Suday 1:30 PM, Kabini River Lodge
Checked into the lodge parked our bikes and we were ready. The rooms were beautifully done in english style and reminded me of FRI, Dehradun houses where I stayed almost all my school years before moving out of Dehradun. High deodar ceiling, fans hanging via long rods just above the bed, long verandas fireplace..in all timeless, beautiful and graceful without the pomp and show of today's architecture.

Straightaway headed for lunch and then I dozed off for half an hour. I was still feeling drowsy !

Sunday 4 PM, Jeep Safari
As the sun was setting we were escorted by our driver and safari co-coordinator towards the National Park. Ironically this was the time Murali started his journey back to Bangalore because of some emergency at home. Sad but that's how life is - things keep happening.

We were welcomed into the jungle by a beautiful tusker quitely enjoying his evening stroll. We moved into the forest and were greeted by a group of spotted deers every 5 minutes or so. Few things in this world as as beautiful as the way a deer walks. Malabar giant squirrels, serpent eagle, langurs kept meeting us every few yards until we were greeted by monkey sounds and our guide was quick to indicate that it is predator.

Between a group of wild boars they kept on scanning the jungle with binoculars until we saw a beautiful python. This was the first time I saw a Indian Rock Python.We saw a crocodile, few more deer herds, a brown fish owl before it was too dark. The last sigting of the day was sambhar and a mama elephant with a baby close to her.

Good fun and we returned to the resort which is actually just outside the reserve. We saw a herd of beautiful elephants just next to the road but some idiot driver honked and flashed the lights of a truck to push them back into the forest and we missed the chance of watching few more elephants.

Sunday 7 PM, John Wake Field Bar
One good thing about the resort was the British influence. The bar was one of the things. We sat in the Verandah poured us a glass and had a discussion recalling the incidences of the day. We continued the discussion around the dinner and bonfire.

The food was another interesting and we returned to the rooms.

Monday 6 AM, Boat Safari
We had opted for boat safari for the morning and I really loved the first look outside the door. There was a dense fog all around as and we boarded our safari boat. The reservoir looked even more beautiful rather like a painting.

We spotted a few mongoose, lots of kingfishers, Whitebellied Woodpecker, Osprey, two tuskers, corocodile, serpent eagle, falcon, wild boars, painted storks, I guess over 50 Indian cormorants some of them on the nests attending the young ones.


We returned back to the lodge around 9:30 and headed for buffet breakfast. The overall food was really nice.


We resumed our journey to Bangalore at around 11:00 AM and thankfully there were no incidences on our way back. Like all goods things in life the trip ended !


Summary




View Larger Map


Distance: 450 KMS
Roads: Above Average- Beware of Cows and Villagers on SH33. Try to avoid Sunday evening traffic returning to Bangalore.


Overall Recommendation: This is one place to visit again and again and may be once again !
Charges: INR 9000 per day for a double room including everything on the resort and meals.

Cost of an Indian Passport

We might have helped a lot of countries implement better systems for homeland secutiry, VISA, passports, biometrics or whatever but when it comes to serving Indians the state of the government machinery is still pathetic !

I was born in a government hospital on May 15, 1980. A birth certificate was never issued to me. It was not mandatory and no one asked for it. In India it is perfectly legitimate to use the school certificate as a birth certificate. This was Dehradun which apparently itself moved from being a small district head quarter in Uttar Pradesh to being a State Capital in the last few years. 1980 to 1998 I was a full time resident of Dehradun living with my parents.

Years passed by and I moved from Dehradun to my engineering school which was 350 KMS away. I have a degree with honors and almost all the proof from the university that I was a student there.  Between 1998 to 2002 I was just a student trying to complete my Bachelor in Engineering.

2002 I moved for graduate studies to IIT Kanpur and in the Apr of 2014 while I was a student there, I enrolled for a passport. I didn't have any address proof, no document or anything to state where I resided except a letter from the Dean of Student Welfare and a copy of my Identity Card issues by IIT. Getting a passport was as easy as 1-2-3.

I moved to Bangalore in 2004 and from Bangalore moved to Singapore and then moved back to Bangalore. During my stays in Bangalore I stayed with my sister and her family or with friends. All these years I kept on submitting my Income Taxes with a PAN Card which was again issued by Government of India and I have been paying at least a couple of hundred thousand Indian Rupees.

I have perfect legitimate bank accounts, credit cards, a car, a motorbike and countless other things on which I keep paying the state taxes and they never question where I stay and how. But today when I have run out of pages on my passport the whole world has come to a grinding halt !


Just because I work in Bangalore and I am single who doesn't have enough money to buy a house, nor has a bank account with a Nationalized bank nor do I know some one high up in the ranks of the government who can certify my identity, because I work for a company which is not public limited [publicly owned and listed in Indian stock markets] and because I stay at my sister's place - it is very difficult for me to get a passport !

Is it a crime to stay with your family? When government has no problem accepting my income tax returns in my native town, why is my address so important - what is the real threat?

When I compare it with the respect and processes, that I came across in Singapore when I took my Permanent Residence it was so simple and straightforward. When will the government really make it simple. When will it be my right to get a passport rather than a privilege?

Until how many years this sarkari way of work continue ..and how many years will people like me suffer :(

Drive Back in Time: Hampi

Have you ever driven back in time?

That too without jumping in a hole in the time continuum like in a Hollywood movie or using a time machine but simply by walking. Last night I returned back from one such trip and the place is no wonder a UNESCO world heritage site in northern Karnataka's Bellary district known well over the world as Hampi.

Thursday, Office@JDA

The bike trip for the long weekend was canceled due to whatever reasons not worth mentioning here and hence presented an opportunity to plan another one. Avinash jumped in and we were exploring options like Chikamangalur, Hampi, Wayanad and decided on Hampi.Some how the ruins had been calling us and it was just a matter of time when we would answer the call.

Friday 23:00 hrs

Hampi was decided upon and we decided to leave Bangalore at 0600hrs and follow NH4 (that is Tumkur - Chitradurga) and then NH13 to Hospet and then proceed to Hampi which is a small village. The original name was Hampa which is the alternate name for the Tung Bhadra river.


Saturday Morning: 0800 hrs: Day I

Avi: Are we going today morning or tomorrow?
Answer: Shit! We are late.

Nothing unusual.
It was 1000 hrs before we put our bags in the car and started driving towards Tumkur and it in order to keep us in good driving mood and avoid the hassles of crazy Bangalore traffic we diverted towards Electronic City via the elevated expressway and then took NECE road all the way to Tumkur road. We paid almost 110 INR extra but I was still very fresh when I hit the NH4.

We had stopped for breakfast at Electronic City as well and it was 10:30 when we started from EC near the Infosys campus despite of the fact that we live near Marathalli ! So you must be knowing by know how scared I am of the Bangalore traffic.


This was the plan for the trip based on whatever information we could gather on the internet.


View Original Hampi Plan in a larger map

Our first stoppage was before Chitradurga near the windmills and here are few pictures we clicked before we resumed towards Chitradurga.





The joy of the NH4 drive was short lived and soon we had to deviate to NH13. The board it self said "Go Slow". The start of the NH13 was not very exciting and soon it turned into something much more interesting. In the last three hours we had covered some 200 kilometers and Hospet was still 150.

The road soon deteriorated as much as it could. There was hardly any road for miles and the pot holes or rather craters were so bad that I was scared that the car will get stuck. Add to that the mining traffic and long trailers and rains which started to pour. I was just hoping to reach Hospet somehow but the clock on the dashboard was moving faster than the odometer it took us scary four hours to complete 150 kilometers.

The last stretch of Ghat road was so bad that I was literally scared to drive. Somehow we reached Hospet by 1800 hrs and headed to Hampi and straight to the KSTDC Hotel Mayura in Hampi. We couldn't find accommodation in Hampi and settled for dinner to get a hold of the treacherous drive and I handed over the car to Avinash to drive.

At around 2000 hrs we headed back to Hospet to find hotel and the KSTDC guys referred there sister concern near the Dam which was just 5 kms from Hospet and we decided to check it out.

This was the biggest mistake of our life. It took us almost 2.5 hrs to cover that last 5 kilometers as there was a huge traffic pile up and worst road plus rains. We were the only car on the road surrounded by mining trucks and it was really scary.

I could use my phone and use Google to find out Mallige hotel and they offered a double room at INR 2900. At this point of time I was willing to pay anything ! We checked in at around 2230 hrs and luckily got room for standard room for 1650 INR.

Finally something went right after almost 8 hrs of freaking scary drive.

Sunday Morning: 0800 hrs: Day II

I started the day with a tweet on facebook  at 0908 hrs "Irony of indian roads 120kmphr and 1kmphr in the same day...NH4 vs. NH13."

Originally until last night the plan was to get up at 0700 hrs and head for Hampi but as usual we woke up and by the time we finished the complimentary breakfast it was 1000 hrs.

We reached Hampi and thus began an interesting day of long walks, boat ride and what not.











And I gave my heart once more..Hampi conquered it!

Monday Morning: 1000 hrs: Day III

For the last two days we were gathering intelligence on the route back to Bangalore. We talked to almost every driver on the road and based on our experience reached on the consensus that what ever happens we are not going to take the same NH13 route.

We decided to drive to Bellary which was 60 kilometers away on NH63 and then either drive to Anantpur and follow NH7 or take the SH19 and head on to Hiriyur and NH4 back to Tumkur and Bangalore.

Avi was on the driving seat and I wanted to relax. The road to Bellary was again not good and it took us two hours to reach and then then we were not sure what is going to come up ! Based on the Google Maps, I made the decision that let's check out the SH19 and head to Hiriyur instead of NH7 plan.

And when we reached SH19 it was a real shocker ! We were greeted by beautiful roads. We changes driving seats and stopped on the way in Sunflower fields. All the bad roads were gone before and the landscape was amazingly serene and calm.



Soon we merged into NH4 at Hiriyur and after that the next stoppage was Dhaba after tumkur near the CCD. Another ladnmark is that there are two Kamat on both sides of the road. For INR 204 we had sumptuous dinner awesome dal makhani, roti in a trademark way of North Indian Dhabas, tea, lassi and again Avi stepped in to drive.

Soon we were on the NECE road and reached Bangalore at 2130hrs.
And like all the things this too passed away.


Suggestions and Recommendations

Total Distance: 840 KM


View Bangalore Hampi Bangalore in a larger map

Stay: Malligi Hotel - Value for Money but it is in Hospet. If possible book at KSTDC Mayura Guest house in Hampi (Kamlapur)

Must Eat at Tumkur Dhaba. Look out for Kamat on both sides of the road after crossing Tumkur on the way back. This is a small dhaba but don't get deceived by the looks. The place serves authentic dhabha food and is actually run by Dhillon family.

Must do in Hampi:
a) Boat Ride in Tung Bhadra : INR 450 for 1 hours (We didn't bargain)

Must Avoid : Don't drive in NH13 between Chitradurga and Hospet. If possible take a train to Hospet.

To close, I remember what I posted on Facebook

and when the roads start calling..I respond ..go out n meet them..they r b'ful like you n me n experiences r always awesome.

The First Four Digit Ride: Bangalore - Goa- Bangalore

The Prelude

It all started with the look at the office calendar and the holiday on October 7, 2010 which was interestingly a Thursday. I always had Goa as a destination on my mind and the four days were good enough to ride thousand plus kilometers.

The trip was dicey till the last minute. Clinton’s bike was with the service center until Wed evening and they only confirmed at 6 PM that it was ready for pickup. It’s a different story that the service was horribly bad and Clinton struggled all the time.

On the night before the ride incessant rains engulfed Bangalore and Clinton (who rides his Enfield aka the bull) and Sachin were stuck up due to a team outing and dinner. Until 2 am it was not clear if we will go or not as they were stuck in the rains and our plan to leave out at 4 AM was impossible. Too many logistics issues and a difficult ride considering none of us had done more than 350 KM in a day.

The Trip 

Day I

6:00 AM, Bangalore: Sachin calls up to check if the trip been canceled since I didn’t call him at 5 AM as planned. My bad but am not used to three hours sleep!

7:30 AM, Wind Tunnel Road, Bangalore: Morning coffee and Clinton and I waited for Sachin to join. We rolled off on the trip officially and next task at hand was to skim through the Bangalore morning traffic, reach Tumkur and follow the NH4 except for one glitch Sachin needed the asthma inhaler and none of the shops were open.

The planned route was to take NH4 all the way till Hubli and then follow the Hubli Karwar and then reach South Goa and take the NH406 on return via Shimoga and reach Tumkur and then Bangalore. Here is the Original Plan based on a trip itinerary picked from internet here.

9 AM, Tumkur Road: We reached the highway NH4 around 9 AM. The road was good four lanes and the traffic was less being a weekday. We took a detour into Tumkur city for the meds and immediately joined back.

2 PM, Kamadoda, Rannibennur (Rural): Except for a bad patch of about 60 KMS road were good and it was so much of heat that I was feeling sleepy. We stopped for twenty minutes somewhere after Chitradurga. The NH4 bypass were amazing and we were about 300 KMS away from Bangalore.

The windmills near Chitradurga look amazing though I was lazy not to pull out the camera thinking the light was too harsh.Again my bad :(.

We pulled out at Kamat Upachar, Reliance Petroleum Unit in Kamadoda District about 9 KMS before Rannebennur and about 115 KMS before Hubli. The three South Indian meals were charged only INR 225 and we were back on the road at 2:30 PM.

Rains welcomed us at Haveri by pass and it was so heavy that we thought we have to stop. We were blinded by the rains and the bikes were moving sideways on the flyover because of heavy wind. Totally drenched we couldn’t find a safe place and it stopped pouring in 15 minutes or so; the sun came out as we approached Hubli. I loved my new Cramster riding pants :) they were a pleasure to ride in.

5:15 PM, Hubli: Standing at the bypass we were not sure if we should ride into Karwar in the night. But it was too early to stop. We filled up the tanks and Sachin said let’s go to Belgaum and that Goa was only 30 KMS. We filled the tanks in Hubli and followed NH4 to Belgaum riding in the twilight.

First Deviation from the plan, we were in Belgaum which was not at all planned but the road was good and the ride was fun. NH4 brought back the memories of the drive to Nashik that I did couple of months back.

7:00 PM, Belgaum: Checked into Adarsh Palace on College Road. They charged us INR 1650 for room with room big enough for three people.

We had running HOT water – a boy ran into the evening when we requested for HOT water :) but believe me it was not bad experience.

We headed to the attached bar and restaurant for dinner. Smirnoff with Sprite and a beer and a couple of butter nan with some chicken and I was all set to hit the bed.


Day II

We left Belgaum at about 9:00 AM and realized that we were on a wrong route. Panaji was about 160 KMS and we accidentally went on a route which was about 30 KMS longer. This was an extension of NH4A. Sachin got lost and we wasted half an hour before we located him.

Probably one of the bad patches until we realized the road sucked. We rolled into Goa and crossed the border. The last stretch of the Ghats was beautiful and the moment we crossed the border we ran into mining area with lots of red dust and lots of trucks.

If rains yesterday were a problem this was worst until we rode into Panjim and headed to Calangute.

After lots of Ooh, Aah and Ouch we somehow completed the ordeal.

2:00 PM, Calangute:We checked into MIRA Hotel and they charged us INR 1500 for a double room about 10 minutes walk from the beach itself and freshened up with HOT bath. Those ten minutes in hot shower felt like heaven but it had just begun :)

3:30 PM, Infanteria, Calangute: Awesome lunch and couple of beers to relax.Amazing food slow service and relaxed open air atmosphere. After a happy meal and a little tingling we headed back to the room to pick up our bikes and head to the fort Augoda.

We realized Sachin’s Pulsar rear wheel was flat and it was a perfect place to have a flat. We got it fixed in an hour while we enjoyed a good cappuccino and resumed to Fort.

The fun continued all the way in the night. We had second round of beers and snacks on the Calangute beach itself sitting facing the sea and then walked back into hotel around mid-night.



Day III

7:30 AM, Baga Beach: Had a leisurely stroll on the beach in the morning and decided to head back; freshen up in the hotel and head to Infantria for breakfast.At 9:30 AM we were back on the road. We also met a rider from Mumbai who had come all alone to Goa.

9:30 AM, Augoda Fort and Light House: Strolled around but the sun was very strong and I was sweating like a pig. Sachin and Clinton were also not doing much better so we decided to roll out into Old Goa.

We had Fresh Lime and waited for thirty minutes to get the life back into ourself.

11:30 AM, Old Goa: Visited the Old Goa ruins my favorite from the trip before visiting the Bob Jesus Basilica and then we resumed our journey to Karwar. We were hit by heavy downpour after just before leaving Goa before we crossed the border.

We usually ride at 60 Km/hr in rains but this one was like a real surprise. It was so heavy that we had to stop for almost an hour.

After the rains I tried running the bike but it was not revving properly. I was scared that the engine will die. I guess the water had it effects on the bike and I just kept riding into Karwar.

3:16 PM, Karwar: We reached Karwar and after crossing into the town we stopped by the road just before the bridge. The confluence of the river and sea was beautiful and the place is very quiet. We decided to roll into Gokarna.

5:15 PM, Gokarna: We had our first view of the OM beach. It was hot and humid and we had no option but to check into the Namaste Guest House and there were no air-conditioned rooms available. After about 45 minutes of hike and drive I decided to check in and we called it a night stay.

We walked into the beach after changing and then into the beach shacks on the remote corner and ordered beer and snacks. Soon it was pitch dark, hardly ten people and there were no lights and water was coming up the beach and we soon had to start rushing back the guest house and it was a scary one hour because of the rocks and the water :) but may it was of too much of being safe approach that kicked in.

Second blunder  I didn't shoot long exposures of the beautiful beach and rocks !

We continued to party in the Namaste Guest house and it was a relaxing evening all the way into the night all the way past 11 PM. I liked the place, a perfect get away for the busy life and to do probably nothing! I will visit this place again for sure.



Day IV

7:00 AM, Gokarna Temple: A quick visit to the temple and we were back on the road riding on to the NH206 this time in the direction on Udupi. I loved the temple it is built out of the black rock in the same style probably as the Nashik’s Triyambak temple but I am not an expert in this field ;)

8:45 AM, Honavar: Stopped for breakfast and were back on the road in thirty minutes.

11:36 AM, Jog Falls: After two near misses, loads of bad roads, cows and terrible back ache and jerks we reached JOG falls. This was probably the worst patch until now and the NH4A was nothing when compared to this stretch of NH206.

Lots of Ghats but the good thing is that there were lots of Ghats and mighty JOG as the reward. We left JOG at about 1 PM and targeted to reach Shimoga by 2 PM.

2:30 PM, Shimoga: Pathetic roads. There was a kilometer stretch which looked as if it didn’t have any road laid on it ever. We were not even able to maintain 60 Km per hour and decided we will have to do the next three hours at a faster pace so that we can reach Tumkur in day light.

It was an overcast sky and some stretches of road were excellent while others had too many potholes. We stopped for two breaks at 4:15 PM and 5:30 PM each to stretch. It started to rain about 20 KMS before Tumkur.

6:58 PM, Tumkur: With Bangalore still 73 kilometers and it was already dark with drizzle going on I had to ask Clinton to ride in front of me so that I can follow him. The spectacles and the helmet visor make it difficult with everyone riding/driving on HIGH BEAM and my skills get crippled to almost zero.

Sachin disappeared and we wasted about half an hour locating him before we resumed into NH4 (finally) and left NH206. We kept looking for a place to eat but couldn’t find something interesting. We ran into evening traffic into Bangalore city and rains continued.

9 PM, Empire, Church Street Bangalore: We had dinner at Empire eating the famous shawarma rolls while the rain stopped about half an hour ago. I probably had braked more time in the last one hour then in the last four days.


The Conclusion

After 1500 KMS and four days we felt like we had been riding but were not sure where or when. The whole idea of the trip was riding and with just one puncture and thanks to reliability of our lovely bikes we had lots of it.  And one more surprising thing is there is not even a single penny of toll that we have to pay if you are riding. All those roads are for free!

Finally we ended up doing this route instead of the planned one but still it was an interesting ride worth all the four days !

Actual Trip Map (Click for Larger Map)

And to conclude I will quote Clinton

‎”7 cities, 6 meals, 5* tanks of fuel, 4 days, 3 bikes, 2 close shaves, 1 hell of a 1500 km adventure!”

*Avenger required 4 and Pulsar 150 had 3.5 tanks fills

Convert a TB external hardrive file system to FAT32 from NTFS

Well we all have run into issues with the file systems. You have an NTFS drive with all the movies but the DVD player or the TV or PS3 won't recognize the format. Now you need to connect it to laptop and then copy data on something else which has a FAT32 format ..so much pain.

So I took the decision that I should convert my drive file system to FAT32 but windows 7 or Vista or XP won't allow me to do it. There are so many options available when you Google but most people are suggesting and discussion so much information that i becomes a pain to identify what are they talking about.

Solution is simple on Windows platform. Download something called "fat32format" which is available here.

Installation is a breeze and the tool just change the allocation unit size to 4096. If you understand what it is please feel free to change it to what you feel is suitable for your needs.

**Disclaimer
All the data on the drive will be lost in the process and there is a file size limit of 4 GB on the FAT32.

Flash 001 : Working with Manual Flash..for new new new bees like ME!

About two months back I bought a manual LP160 flash to explore the world of flash photography with my Nikon D90. The flash arrived in a box with a strange looking cable which had the headphone jack (3.8mm) on one side and one strange looking jack on the other. Two similar ports were available on the flash.

I always wanted to buy a flash to explore the world of off camera photography. I knew something about D90 that it can be fired in a commander mode and that LP160 was able to work as slave but that's where all my knowledge ended.

It all started as an ordeal to figure out how to work with the flash. To be very frank I tried all the things but since I didn't have the opportunity to buy stuff easily online it took me a long long time to figure out the options irrespective of the fact that so much information was available on Storbist. Amazing tutorial but I guess I needed a lot more explanation to understand the basic terminology like Quad sync !

So I read more and at least now theoretically I understand how the set up works. So I thought I will write about it so that some one new (i doubt if there are people as novice as me !).

Making the Right Connections

Before I jump in to the details we are talking about Manual stuff. This is like using a lens mounted on a reversal ring. Everything needs to be adjusted manually and no NIKON iTTL will be available. Don't worry even if you don't know what it is. In fact it helps if you don't know it in some ways :). For those who are still interested it's like auto flash management system which integrated the flash with the camera

Nikon D90 allows any manual flash to be attached on the Hot Shoe. This works perfect but the real fun was to move the flash off-camera. This is straight out of the box and I guess one hardly needs any help on this one.

Other Off-Camera Flash Options

And when I say others I mean "FREE" or which require minimum investment. There are two broad categories wired options (messy but reliable) plus non-wired aka remote options.

Better aka Expensive Off-Camera Flash Options

Radio Triggers

To be contd.




External References and Links

1. Flash Triggering Excellent guide:
2. Discussion Forum Threads here , here and here

Rediscovering Self

Let me admit something self pride and beliefs are so easily built up and they take us by surprise when the point of concern is put to test. Well a confused thought yes it is but let me quote something personal.

I am not a sports person of any kind and probably if you are reading this blog - there is a very high probability that you have spent time with me in school or at work. I guess every one is a type and I always was the one not sweating in the sun. And after the easy job, comforts of the life and all the smoking that happened in between I thought yes I would have lost some stamina. The emphasis here was on "SOME" rather than "STAMINA" and when that was put to a test the emphasis shifted !

Being in the company of marathon runners at work, people who are always planning one activity or the other it was not too hard to get inspired and I did put on my running shoes last evening and believe me it was a shocker !

I couldn't run for 15 minutes. I was panting like a dog and yes I was not trying to run FAST. I was just trying to run. Just 30 years and I couldn't run for 10 minutes :(.

But that was day before yesterday. I resumed the run yesterday. Did a brisk walk for 15 minutes and then followed up with a jog for another 15 minutes and then in between bouts of walking and jogging.

Getting the body to do something is much more difficult then the mind to do something. Problems and IT issues are difficult to handle but they are fractional compared to teaching body to do something.

The plan stays the same at least half and hour for the next week. I know it is much harder with the hectic evening and the laziness but this time I want to do it.

Updated: 30 Sep 2010

There was no running since FRI. Was out of station and visited a family friend in Ahmadabad. There was no running even yesterday and today because of the rains :( Laziness at it's peak. Am surely going to run tomorrow !

Only a biker knows why a dog sticks his head out of a car window….

Once the rains start pouring into the Indian sub-continent, there are not many interesting places to consider as weekend getaways but Kerala and especially Wayanad are true exceptions and there is no better time to visit.

Day 1 – 20th Aug, 2010

The trip started with Sachin running out of fuel even before all of us met :) and as expected our start got delayed by almost an hour. At 7:30 AM, we met at HSBC call center on Bannerghatta road and with the newly bought saddle bags, jackets and all the other gear, we headed towards NECE road riding with Clinton riding his Royal Enfield (his bull as he lovingly calls it), Vikram on his newly bought Yamaha FZ, Sachin’s Pulsar and my Avenger.

The fresh air and little morning traffic made our life easier and with minutes we were on SH17 heading towards Mysore. We stopped at around 9:00 AM at the McDonalds for a quick breakfast cum lunch and even before we realized, we were back on the road. With overcast skies yet no sight of rains, it was just perfect weather to ride and we crossed Mysore and started riding on NH212.

There are three ways to reach Wayanad.

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Assuming that central governments usually have more money to manage then state governments, we decided to follow the National Highway and followed the OOTY road via. Nanjangud, Begur to Gundlupet. Except for a patch of about 15-20 km the road is just perfect and we were able to cruise at about 60 km/hr almost consistently.

Vikram and I decided to top up gas and we stopped at a HP gas station before Nanjangud. The pump operator was busy talking and filled the tank until there was petrol all over the bike and the tank full up to the brim. It resulted in a wait to find a suitable method to drain out the excess oil. Finally, Clinton managed to siphon off the extra fuel with less than 15 inches of a pipe and ended up drinking petrol in the process. With a 30 minute delay because of the stupidity of the pump operator, we resumed our journey.

After Gundulpet the road is really beautiful with marigold flowers blooming on both sides, very sparse traffic and with in no time we crossed the border into Kerala at around 1:45 PM.



We stopped for the first official tea break inside Kerala after riding through the bamboo forests. This is a small tea stall just next to some big temple and as per the team; the TEA was excellent and strong.



We passed lush green bamboo forests, much greener and serene than any other that I have recently seen, past the lines of trucks waiting for clearance, excise toll post, forest toll post around the border and a herd of wild elephants inside the National Park following strictly the NO PARKING, NO STOPPING and NO PICNIC signboards until we exited the National Park area.

We reached Sultan Bathery and the plan was to head to Edekkal Caves and then Kalpetta to the Green Gates hotel.

Edekkal cave carvings as people say were probably created during the Neolithic period of the Late Stone Age and date from about 1000BC. The route to the caves is pretty interesting to ride though village roads and only government controlled 4x4 jeeps are allowed for the last kilometer stretch. The last 500m or so is a quick trek through the forest and then inside the caves. We reached the caves at around 3:40 PM.

Entering the rock shelter and the sheer scale of the carving was a very humbling experience. Thankfully we had quite 20 minutes into the cave experiencing probably the rain soaking our skin as our ancestors would have felt. After twenty minutes into silence a swarm of kids and tourists walked into the cave. That was the good enough trigger to leave the place.

We decided to descend on foot and half way down Sachin pulled out the second surprise of the day. He couldn't find the keys of his Pulsar. Clinton and I ran down the hill jus to cross check if he left the keys on the bike while Sachin ran upwards back into the caves. Thankfully he had left the keys on the bike itself!

Imagine on a place like this without keys for the Bike am not sure what we could have done !

We followed the small village roads until we reached Kalpetta and checked into the hotel Green Gates at around 6:00 PM and just Two personal milestones....10k on the bike n 320 plus on the same day..



We spent some time around the pool enjoying the sounds of the nature, crickets, insects and birds creating a cacophony of sounds so refreshing and real that it was far better and stereophonic then the best of the spa music available for sale.

Day 2 – 21th Aug, 2010

Enfield and Yamaha got a day off and Clinton and I rode on Avenger and Sachin and Vikram on the pulsar to explore the place. I woke up with Pirsig’s words echoing in my head and I guess it was not a remote connection because “good time” was what we were looking for in the God’s Own Country.

“We want to make good time, but for us now this is measured with
emphasis on "good" rather than "time" and when you make that shift in
emphasis the whole approach changes. “


The plan was to keep it simple for the day and ride to Soochippara Waterfall and Pookot Lake. Soojippara is one of the most beautiful places in Wayanad. To reach the waterfalls you have to cross the green lush tea gardens which take you to Soochippara. Waterfalls which are a beautiful view can be seen from far. To reach the waterfall, one has to trek down 2kms through dense equatorial forest over steep rocks. Soochippara is located near Meppady. The water falls from 100 FT to 300ft heights which makes the place unique with its beauty. The pool below increases the adventure which allows swimming, water rafting etc. The tree top huts at Soochippara give a unique view of the valleys of the Western Ghats and the glimmering shallow waters of the surrounding springs.

If there was ever a place until now, where I felt like removing my helmet while riding (I know it is unsafe) and feel the rising mix of clouds and mist to take me over, this was it. Tea gardens with no one else on the road gush of wind in the face and silence of the empty roads except for the bikes felt like this was indeed God’s own country and at least for now our personal road to our own Shangri-la.

Day 3 - 22nd Aug,2010

The plan for day three was even simpler - have breakfast and head back to Bangalore following any of the other routes. We clicked the first all people picture before we started. Here is the ceremonial picture outside the hotel.


The plan was to visit Kabini Dam and then follow to Mysore and then Bangalore.

We started from Kalpetta on NH212 to Manthanwadi and officially the plan was to follow SH17D.

Very soon we were riding into jungle roads but apparently the directions were not clear. We reached Pulpally through a jungle road which went through the National park. Lush green and again we were the only traffic until we reached Pulpally.

The directions to the Kabini dam were complicated and no one on the road was very sure. I tried accessing the GPS but it was showing the current location in some green field and was not able to provide any assistance. There was no option but to rely on Sachin's translations until we reached a police station. I requested him to go inside and request for directions.

He came out and declared that we have come wrong way and the options are either to go back about 20kms or there is some boat or may be ferry about 10kms which will help us cross the river into Karnataka. The idea of putting my Avenger was really really alien to me. We decided to let's see and worst case will ride back. We had ample time to reach Bangalore and this would be just another detour.

And my heart literally skipped a beat when I first looked at the river and the boat we were being asked to use for crossing the river. I guess the pictures will explain all this best.















The boat was a row boat and in the middle of the river we were informed that the river was 45 feet deep. The balance was so fragile that I literally didn't even move my butt a single inch for the fear of dis-balancing the boat and the fear of the biked drowning. One hell of an experience !

We rejoined on the Karnataka side and started following the road into the jungle. The road was amazing for about 50kms and then after that all the roads into the Kabini were closed due to rains and we reached a spot after which there was no road. We waded our way out of the mud and holes for about a hour and half until we joined the SH17D again.

After the morning's river crossing and surviving it, nothing seem to matter not even the rains which soaked us wet twice head to toe. It was fun to ride in the rains for about 30 km until we entered Mysore. The rains rejoined us just outside Mysore until the McDonald's where we made our first pit stop at around 6 PM.

The trip was almost over, we had lunch cum snacks at the McDonald's, had a cup of coffee and started inching through the almost city like traffic and stream of cars returning to Bangalore.

Like all good things the ride ended but what it left behind was lot's of dirt on the bike, mud on the shoes, wet clothes and a whole lot of memories especially around the bike on the boat !

For few seconds we felt like explorers who found a fourth route to reach Bangalore from Wayanad:)

PS: And the heading is an anonymous quote picked up from interent

Random Rambling I

Sometimes thoughts arrive at random like the rains in summer or snowfall on Mar 15th in Mussoorie, sometimes we call them rambling and some times they just make us realize how we complicate simple things.

about a year back, Avi and I were on our way to Lepakshi driving on a road that was still under construction. There were patches of fresh metal road and the other stretches were still being laid out. It meant we had to to take numerous diversions and what not. And a thought occurred "When the road is good we drive so fast that we hardly notice anything. We just keep stepping on the gas and when we hit the bad patch we still keep thinking about the good patch cribbing about the bad roads; simply ignoring the fact that we have so much time now to look around."

And on the impact of quick fixes, solution, quick adoptions and roll outs a thought emerged - "First there was a problem. Then there was a solution and then there were more problems then ever before"

Thinking to Vikasjee couple of days back and talking about our constraints to go back, break away to do something that we want to do. perhaps study fine arts in some JNU college or as he put go back in some mining area to try to bring balance back. What we realized are the so called clamps and bonds that were keeping us ties back. And a thought occured " We look at the mud on our feet and we think that we are tied back and cannot fly. What we don't realize that we are so well connected and grounded that we have become a Tree ! So simple and yet me miss it out"

And am sure this will be the longest series of the posts.

The 40% Faster ATM’s

The talk about the HDFC 40% Faster Withdrawal at ATM's is all over the place in India. They are reaching out customers through all possible channels television, print media, and the local radio stations with the message. Interesting point here is that an ATM add on service is being marketed as a differentiation. Times are changing and people are becoming creative and why not. When Thumbs Up can taste like thunder for years now, axe can actually make people attractive and pull girls closer to them – why can’t an ATM be 40% faster.

Let's look at the details of this "40% Faster Feature". Most probably this would have implemented as a favorite amount to a customer profile. An ATM card belongs to a customer. We all know that it is very rare that more than one person operates a particular card (as per the standard SOP - only one person should be using any individual ATM card"). The significant point here is that usually there is a pattern around our ATM withdrawals. For example, I usually withdraw around two thousand bucks and typically there are four to five visits to the ATM in a month. The ATM prompts to save the transaction as favorite every time you withdraw and for example ideally speaking as per HDFC I should set this two thousand amount as my favorite amount. Next time when I am at this ATM, it gives me an option to perform my favorite withdrawal and saves me the hassle of keying in two thousand i.e. the number 2000 and pressing an enter key. My normal ATM transaction averages one minute and worst case one and half minutes. The point to note here is that the longer transactions are probably because of wrong credentials (PIN) or the problem with the card reader and sometimes network. It would be really interesting to know if this “40%” can change that one min transaction to 0.6 seconds.

Let’s look at a typical cash withdrawal cycle, when someone transacts at an ATM - we swipe/slot our card and proceed with providing the PIN. Next we need to identify the type of transaction we want to do. For a particular types of ATM this layout rarely changes and within seconds one clicks on "Cash Withdrawal" or "Fast Cash" and on is prompted a screen to enter the amount and confirm it. A request is sent to the bank and if the authentication goes through and ATM receives a confirmation that funds are available we are done.

This whole new feature is around saving this another attribute of favorite amount on the card or elsewhere and retrieving it when the card is used. The flow would have been modified but genuinely speaking this is much trivial or rather time saving as compared to hundred of bleeding edge things that we use to save our precious time.

Second part here is where the number “40%” faster comes from? People who were transacting first time at ATM’s, people who are not very computer or ATM friendly. There would be some small caption available somewhere based on some study. We have become so used to these calculated / invented /inferred statistics that rather than reading through the whole report and crunching numbers and break our head to verify the numbers, we just believe them.

Reminds me of the joke someone shared long time back in the market research class, based on the low number of people who wore shoes amongst a sample population two market research companies inferred that “since people hardly wore shoes there was no market for shoes” vs. “since people hardly wear shoes there was a huge potential market”. It’s interesting how HDFC is actually claiming this is a big differentiator that they have as part of great service. This service and investment changes the way they target there customer but hardly makes a difference to us most of the times.

There are more marketing gimmicks in the market today then the facts. Even the facts which are presented are so distorted a times and presented in way that they are always as interesting as a mini skirt which reveals so much to makes it interesting for the mind to fantasize about what it actually hides. The point is if Steve Jobs can do it over and over again why shouldn’t the HDFC try; it might not be a totally bogus game and could actually be few percent faster.

Today retailers are doing much more complicated things - they have much more complicated CRM which are assisting them target specific campaigns to us. The salesman in a high end specialty shoe retailer never asks for the shoe size or the collar size - all he needs to do is look into our buying history and retailers never tell us that they are doing this. It just happens silently and comes to us as a nice welcome gesture that "they know us". Retailer’s haven’t reached there but very soon the moment we walk into a store the salesman with a hand-held device would be able to know my size, my choices, my last five big ticket purchases and recommendation. Amazon is already there with their targeted e-mails – they keep bombarding me with high end camera accessories because I browsed them few times. Retailers are already doing closed door sales events where only people with specific buying patterns get invited.

Having said all that HDFC actually has statistics to quote their claims. I presume we all assumed they would have having these support statistics. The ATM’s have been supplied for NCR Corporations and the software they are using is “Aptra eMarketing”. Quoting (courtesy Google) Mr. Rahul Bhagat, Country Head for Retail Liabilities, Marketing and Direct Banking Channels for HDFC - “This initiative will shorten the time taken for cash withdrawals at our ATM sites since 45% of our customers use ATM services, 80% of them withdraw the same amount every time and 97% of ATM transactions are done either to withdraw cash or inquire account balances. On an average, each HDFC Bank ATM registers 310 transactions per day”. We will be able to target customers now with customer specific programs and messages but aren’t there things beyond that?
Have we ever wondered that we can leverage our ATM’s to sell phone cards, pre-paid recharge, pre-paid gift cards, train tickets, airline tickets, movie tickets, gift vouchers. All that can be displayed on the screen or printed on the receipt and for which payment needs to be collected – we have the facility to do all this. We already have the infrastructure and bandwidth – even if we don’t have we still have 3100 ATM’s and we can fix hours for these extra value services because all our ATM’s are empty in the nights and usually have staggered traffic patterns.

References:

a) HDFC Bank Upgrade- http://www.topnews.in/hdfc-bank-upgrade-atm-network-293033
b) Business Intelligence Journal - Impact Of ATM On Customer Satisfaction (A Comparative Study of SBI, ICICI & HDFC bank) - Sultan Singh, Ms. Komal, (Ph.D.) http://www.saycocorporativo.com/saycoUK/BIJ/journal/Vol2No2/article2.pdf