A rainy day romance

The haze covered everything from the myopic vision right under my nose till the farthest extent that filled my sights. At a little distance the warm yellow of the sodium vapour lights hanging on the lamp post highlighted the rich density of the rain drops falling per square unit of the tarred road below it.

As always, umbrellas are redundant when rains lashes hard in Mumbai and suburbs. All that can be saved from getting wet are few strands of hair right under the umbrella skeleton; that too if the strong breeze doesn’t turn your umbrella upside down and dismantling the frame work. This time around I was lucky enough that the wind wasn’t merciless. However, it was strong enough to allow rain drops the slanting path wetting a good 80 percent of my pant, much of my shoulders and shirt-arms with a few droplets even landing on my cheeks and nose.

It was long that I had ventured out in such a heavy Mumbai rain. I must correct myself; “it was long since I had ventured out in such a heavy Mumbai rain and that too leisurely. No rush to catch the train or attend a meet, no obligation, no timeline, no committment to fulfil. It was an idyllic stroll. And it was this moment, this stroll that reignited a long dampened flame, a desire to drench in the rain that was always subdued with the urban chores and the illusionary comfort of staying clean and dry under the roof, either office or home.

This stroll brought out the old charm of feeling the droplets, small shining droplets on the end of the strands of my hair, on my arms, on the eyebrows and the wisp of cool air making me long for something warm, much warmer than the gelaming sodium vapour overhead.

The tip-tip of the rain on my umbrella grew louder as I realised that I was no more bothered about getting drenched, even though I held the umbrella firm and tried hard to save my shoulders from getting wet. A paradox, a pleasure. I was humming on some of the favourite tunes of Kishore Kumar, Sonu Nigam and few more and it was really a pleasant surprise that I could recollect most of the lyrics of those archived memories! The tunes seem to hit the perfect chords and suddenly sigin was never seemed so wonderful – an unchained melody. My voice, the lyrics, the tip-tip decibels of rains, the whizzing sound of fast rolling tyres on the wet tarmak and intermittent honking of horns all seemed perfect.

As I strolled further with my singing hitting the higher decibels I noticed a few passer-by’s glancing on their way. I noticed the road-side bhajji wala and the chai-wala at nukkad, these were inviting. Even more conspicuous was the steam emanating from the tea kettle. I ignored both of them, with some difficulty as I continued.

A 30 minutes stroll in the rain completely cleared the settled dust. The dust settled on my mind. The dust which forced me to close my eyes. I thought rains to essential for farmers and as a nuisance to the daily commuters. However, the rain was just too strong to allow misconceptions rule my mind. Rains are equally essential for a parched urban soul as it is for a parched cultivable land. Perhaps the soul needs it more than anything else.

Aaj jaane ki jidd na karo… another humming that filled my mind as I walked on through the puddles, wet trousers, drops on my arms, face … aaj jaane ki jidd na karo…

Why the term ‘lazy bones’?

Is laziness permeating our life to an extent so much so that the fabric called life has become visibly frayed? Well most probably it is and not only is it limited to fabric, but also permeates our skins & flesh and hence the deep within hidden lazy bones are clearly visible on the surface – thats is where perhaps the term ‘lazy bones’ comes from I guess!

Metonymy apart, here are few thngs that have abetted us in our crimes -

Remember we used to be crib about getting up and reducing the volume of our TV sets when it was blaringly loud? But we still use to get up and do it.
Now it is done reclining in our couch and  just by hitting the remote button.

Remember we used to walk up and down the stairs of shopping complexes?
Now escalators are helping us to make our limbs a victim of disuse atrophy.

Remember how we used to pedal our way across the lanes of our town or just walk, not too long ago?
Now we just hit the electric start and rev the throttle.

Remember how we stood in the long queues for hours and hours at the banks and bill payment counters?
Now we hit the submit button from our couch and deal via online banking and direct debits

Remember we used to queue up at STD booths after 11.00 PM to call our distant relatives?
Now Vodafones and Airtels make it simpler from our bedrooms

Remember as a kid we all used to play gilli-danda and bhanvra and cricket and lukka chuppi and vish-amrut and pakda-pakdi?
Now is theAge of Empires, FIFA, Medal of Honours and so on.

The list is endles and the harder we try and remember the way things were done a decade ago, we will realise how technology has simplified our lifestyles and accentuated our lazy instincts further.

Remember the quote “Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler”?
- Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

Now you are most welcome to add your own remembrances in the comment section.

Cheers.

Shri Ballaleshwara at Pali & Sarasgad – Mobiking

I had a leisurely bike ride (a bit too leisurely) and a small hike to the hill-fort of Sarasgad near Pali last week. Shri Ballaleshwara Ganapati at Pali being one of the sacred Ashtavinayak deity, the religious sentiment attached couldn’t be underplayed.

The group comprised of 6 riders and 5 pillions, most of them more of trekker and less of rider. As we always did on our previous rides, we decided to meet up at Panvel bus stand at 11.30 PM on Saturday night. The time schedule was surprisingly not manipulated too much and we managed to set the throttle revving at 11.45 PM. Some of the indolent ones managed to skip their home made meals and forced a halt at Palaspa naka, famously known as the Dutta Snacks junction.

Some Chinese menu was quickly savoured and we moved on towards Pen, taking one of my favourite routes, NH 17 linking Panvel in Maharashtra with Edapally in Kerala. This 1269 km long road passes through the western coastline of Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka and Kerala. However, we had not even 10 percent of this route to be covered and we quietly moved through the smooth boulevards.

As such most part of the route is good and enjoyable, but the curvatures and banking offered by the stretch of road as one approaches Karnala is surely one of the best rides and a treat for any rider. Not only is this portion specklessly smooth, but it also offers ample of curvatures with wide flanks to run-in hard and enjoy the tilt. Couple that with the undulating gradients and it just is… Awesome! Also this stretch of the road is peculiarly characterized by cooler ambiance.

Passed the stretch in in a jiffy and moved on further. Another few minutes of revving and came Pen. Aniket, one of the pillion, has a weekend home (which is reduced to year-end home) at Pen. We decided to take a nap and move on towards Pali early in the morning. 11 trekker, riding over a weekend, a night halt, all geared up for a trek after a long time and did I think of having a quick nap? Absurd! Most of the time went by chirping away at some pointless banters. And when the sleep penetrated the ambiance, it was already 6 AM. 22 sleepy eyes freshened up and hit the saddle.

Rolled leisurely till Wadkhal, helped ourself with some misal pav and tea and then rolled even more leisurely till Pali. It was 8.00 AM by the time we reached there and a further delay of 30 minutes saw us stepping out to climb Sarasgad just when the Sun was starting to get hotter. Cameras were out, and I was busy with my handycam. SOme photos, some masti and the stroll kept on nearing the Sarasgad bastion, which appeared atleast somewhat closer than what it did 30 minutes earlier then. The sun was shining harsh on us by the time we managed to scramble up the upper slopes and enter the fort through the wonderfully carved entrance.

We reached the base of the upper cliff and lay for a cooler break under shadow cast by the overlooking massif. Lying nearby is a huge water tank scarped in the belly of Sarasgad massif. The tank does hold water, but is not potable anymore thanks to   the mindless visitor who have converted this place in to a dumping ground for plastics. It was just 10.00 AM now and we had plenty of time in our hands to manipulate the schedule as required. We decided to make the best use of time on hands by indulging ourselves in the tank cleaning process. The water was shallow which allowed us to enter the tank without much trouble. We tried and removed as much plastic we could then – it amounted to 3 big bag-full of plastic. We removed substantial amount of waste from the tank and packed it in plastic bags so that we could easily carry it till the base for disposal. We could not clean the tank completely, but we definitely removed a hell lot of plastic debris and initiated a small process towards it, thereby feeling good.

We moved on further circumnavigating the massif. There are numerous rock hewn caves, some big and some small in the belly of the massif along the circumference. The fortified walls and crumbling bastions evoked a blended emotions flavoured with the nostalgic pride and neglected present of such magnificence. After completing the circuit we moved up to the top of the massif by 1.30 PM. It was really hot and humid then. We paid our obeisance to Lord Shankar in a temple atop and later relaxed for a while under the shade enjoying the cool breeze. Off went the sweaty T-shirts and it was just pure pleasure to enjoy the cool breeze bare bodied. After some wafer and other snacks being gulped, we started on our descent. The descent was nothing to write about, under the hot sun, over the scree slopes and some thorny bushes. We completed the descent and reached Pali at around 3.00 PM; visited the temple and soaked ourselves in the sanctity of the place.

Lime juice, buttermilk, amla juice and so on rehydrated our parched souls as we recuperated ourselves. Got a pack of Kandi pedha as Prasad and moved on towards our parked bikes to hit the saddle once again. We embarked on our return journey at around 4.30 PM and by then the sun was getting mellow. The ride was quite steady and pleasant with stopovers at Pen for the famous Ramwadi tea. As always riding through the Karnala boulevard was a pleasant experience once again.

Reached Kalyan at around 8.00 PM and after a cold shower hit the bed to drench into the rigmarole awaiting me on Monday. The memories as always are ever fresh!

Biker and mo-biker

Being a passionate mo-biker and biker  in not easy. Why? Read on..

1. I keep on tapping the right pedal with my toe whenever I intend to brake the bike.
2. I frantically search for the button on my left handle bar to turn on the indicator before taking a turn; however later just extend my arms out and make the signal [just wondering if I can get some illuminated / radium arm band to signal at night;)]
3. Before overtaking at night, I search for the pass light and later giggle about my all-in-vain efforts.
4. For the unmindful pedestrians who take the biker granted, I always intend to have a harsh honking horn in their faces, but then grudingly vent out all the frustration through the tring tring that my modest bell manages.
5. Last but not the least – I love mo-biking as I rev up the throttle and I love my biking too as I rev up the gears, not compromising on my cadence though.

Cycling – Cadence vs Gear Ratios

Just had an interesting 45 minutes -

Did 8 Kms of cycling in 30 minutes flat; time inclusive of some idiots who pay no heed to approaching cycle thus disturbing the rhythm, cadence and energy and some suffocating traffic for about 5 minutes that stagnated the pedalling.

During the better part of the ride I managed to stick to what Sheldon Brown says, don’t have a slower cadence in bargain for higher gears, rather say on a rhythmic cadence by shifting to proper gear ratios. This helps in -

1. Conserving energy
2. Better muscle training
3. Lesser muscle injury

Secondly intermittently did not know what exactly was niggling -

1. Bums
2. Thighs
3. or the lower back

Stopped at an ATM to withdraw some cash while returning, parked the bike, locked it and went inside the ATM cabin. Somehow, wasn’t completely assured and constantly keep peeping out of the glass door through the non-frosted parts to have a look at my still-not-stolen-bike Was happy to get my bum back on the saddle and pedal back home.

Sweaty and not-so-stinking self while writing this one. Clicking the post button just as I am rushing to have the shower.

Cheers ~

Note -

Cadence – The speed / rhythm of pedalling. In crude terms number of revolutions per unit time.

Higher gears result in more pedalling power and hence suually slower cadence. It is always better to maintain the cadence by down shifting than to have higher gears and slower / disturbed cadence.

WordPress Timestamp

Very often a blogger faces a situation wherein he foresees himself busy for the next few days and is very well aware that he cannot post new contents to his blog. This is where the Timestamp feature of WordPress comes in handy.

It allows the user to compose a blog post anytime and then post it on a pred-defined date and time automatically. Well, that is really a useful tool. I am writing this blog post well after the sunset at around 7.20 PM on 11th of January 2009 and would be setting it to be automatically posted tomorrow, i.e 12th June 2009 at 10. 00 AM in the morning, probably because I foresee myself busy with routine office chores.

However, note that the Timestamp feature doesn’t only allow post-dated posts, but also allows you to to re-wind the time line and actually set a passe date from the calendar. So I could have very well posted this message somewhere on 15th November 2006.

Well, they say time and tide wait for none; but Timestamp allows us to set the time for the tide to turn!

Why do I blog?

Since the time I started analyzing the blog stats vis-a-vis the topics on which I wrote, I found it intriguing that more popular the topic like iPhone 3G S or latest controversy or news like Mumbai attacks and so on, the more hits my blog received.

The point of concern is that more popular news / articles are always teeming in plenty on the blogosphere and still they hog the limelight. Where ason lesser known or less important topics, the blog attracted lesser hits – only from the niche category.

As any blogger would want, I too like to have greater hits and higher Google rankings. But I noticed that ever since I graduated from blogging about popular topics to the one that I really like to speak about, the traffic has been a been lesser than what it used to be.

My niche would predominantly be travel and adventure tourism in Maharashtra specifically and India on a broader canvas, photo essays, travelogues, some notes on web2.0 –> web3.0 and occasionally some random thoughts. I know that these are quite diverse topics to blog about, but then these are my favoured ones and I ‘enjoy’ blogging on these topics.

Maximum satisfaction is derived when I have more readers on my these (my favourite) topics and not the popular ones, which is a bit distorted demand to make. Eventually it grinds to a point where the question is – why do I blog? For self or for people? Probably the key lies in answer to this question.

By the way, the following figures aren’t too bad I guess -

• Blogging since 3.5 years
• Total hits 1.2 Lakhs and counting
• Visits per year – 34343 (interesting number)
• Vists per month – 2795
• Visits per week – 651
• Visits per day – 93 (Would like to touch the 3-figure mark)

All these stats when I had deserted my wordpress blog in favour of blogger, was away from blogging and some other hindrances marring my wordpress blog for nearly 15 months.

All said and done and now I am just evolving as a blogger and am really happy and satisfied – probably I have found the key.

Strings attached? Elasticize them!

One of the most pertinent dilemmas in an outdoor enthusiasts life is to balance the outdoor activities and domestic responsibilities. This becomes even more of an important issue in country like India where domestic bonding and attached responsibilities stake a greater claim on ones life than everything else. How many times do we find a trekker complaining that he did not find the time to satiate his hunger for outdoor quotients? Probably a zillion of times.

Finding the right balance isn’t always the easiest thing to do when you are pulled bilaterally with equivalent forces – inevitably though time tells which of the force would incline you to their side. And more often than not it is the domestic pull that wins the tug of war. However, I don’t find it surprising that domestic pull is greater – not only it is the societal pressure but also a in-vivo conscience that leads one to attend to domestic chores first.

Usually one thinks that once the domestic responsibilities are taken care of, (when one is well beyond 40) he can fulfill his long cherished dream of undertaking a travel spree. But then what about the children – SSC, HSC, Graduation and so one – the unending cycle continues.

When can a true outdoorsy soul lead his life and cherish his desire unbound with no strings attached? Only when there are no strings attached. This doesn’t necessarily mean to severe the strings; but one need to learn to have elastic strings and if it is already too late to elasticize, one can always learn to append extension slings.

Social Media – Know where to draw the line!

Contemporaneous times and it seems that one can never over-emphasize the importance of social media. Reaching out to the intended consumer is the mantra and word of mouth marketing (BzzAgent), Twitter, Facebook, Orkut, Blogs, Forums and other platforms are all the handy tools that an online marketing executive looks to explore and ‘hopes’ for maximum benefits.

With the surging tide of social media nearly all are turning upto to social media – albeit they don’t have a clue of how to proceed with it. Clueless find someone who has a clue or someone who claims that he has the clue – The so called social media experts. Learn why you shouldn’t call yourself a social media expert here)

The very intriguing point about investing time and money in social media marketing is the obscurity of ROI – it is not easily computable like Pay per clicks or SEO. If you have 3673 fans on your facebook page or 39 blog comments and 237 diggs you still cannot decipher the actual implications of these numbers on your sales and revenue. [But - But new measuring tools like Radian 6 and ClearSaleing are starting to make things a little easier]

You cannot exactly estimate the time and money invested versus the return ratios in terms of social media marketing. And the very important fact of the matter is that the conversion rate of these numbers in actual revenue generation is ‘unpredictable’ and inconsistencies are inevitable.

What is the overarching goal of social media? Essentially it is a one-to-one interaction with potential or actual buyers. Social media is used to generate sales leads in the form of opt-in followers. It is therefore the goal of any social media effort to generate followers and it is the generation of these that is a measurable parameter of social media marketing goals. But statistics about the conversion of potential buyer to buyer is not clearly elucidated by social media marketing.

Knowledge Network survey claims that only 16%” are more likely to buy from companies that advertise on social sites. This is relatively on the lesser side considering the hype and attention that social media is hogging away from conventional marketing practices.

The essence is one, as a marketer, must know where to draw the line and use social media as an aid to traditional media – relying on social media along won’t do the business. You must go out, meet, discuss and exchange – Face-to-Face in real world.

Underdogs vs Favourites

I always want to be a favourite. Everyone does. However, I enjoy the performance ‘the most’ when I am the underdog in any contest. I enjoy each and every beat of the performance being an underdog and I am nervous laden with expectation each and every time when I am the favourite.

Is confidence the key here? Does it mean that underdogs are coated with sugary sweet word called as confidence and favourites are robbed of it? Or it is just that the free spirits with zero expectations makes you much lighter and hence you can make a better vertical flight.

Being an underdog means that you don’t have to bother about the post-performance consequences. A underdog already knows that failure doesn’t bring in disappointment to his supporters, who can be any one – friend, family or well-wishers. So and underdog is never bothered about disappointment or sullen faces after his failure. All he can see is “try harder next time”. And the best of the underdog is always set free to unleash its performance.

An underdog also in his hindsight always is able to look at the brighter side of things – The celebrations. Celebrations if he happen to out-perform the favourite. The magnitude and intensity of those celebrations in his fore-sight is infectious. Infection bringing out better performance. Optimism.

On the contrary, a favourite always has celebrations in his fore-sight. But the intensity of the celebration in his fore-sight doesn’t match that of the underdog. “It was always expected” is what the dull intensity shouts out loud. This robs the favourite of the essence of his victory.

Infact, more powerful and bothering is the disappointment in a favourite’s fore-sight. “It was not expected” overshadows “It was expected” and that is what we call as burdens of expectations. The best of the favourite struggles to free itself from the burden. Pessimism.

So what is better – being and underdog or a favourite? Infact I would like to reframe it and ask, in any contest what should you be looking at – Victory celebrations or defeat consolations?