Thus spoke the wise

I love quotes. At times when I have feelt I have no power left in me to fight, I have come across words so powerful that the very next moment I was back with full energy, trying to achieve what I thought I am not going to do.

Tia tagged me recently with a "list-5-of-ur-fav-quotes" tag. This is something I love to do, and here goes my favorite quotes.

1) “A man can be destroyed but not defeated.” From Old man And the Sea by Hemingway

2)"I stand at the end of no tradition.I may, perhaps, stand at the beginning of one"From The Fountainhead by AynRand

3)" I swear by my life, and my love of it, that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine" From Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

4) "I have what I have given" - Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco

5) "I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse" - Godfather by Mario Puzo


There are many more quotes which are near ot my heart from all these books, but I have limited myself by choosing one from each book. The next in this list will be Jonathan Livingston Seagull,Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Tao of Physics, Fathers and sons, The Prophet... the list goes on...

I tag WinniPoohie, Sameera, meghz, Preetz and ~nm. And cess, u r always tagged ;-)

Klueless 3

I was back to active blogging and was clearing my backlog slowly when I stumbled up on the link to Kluless3.
For those who are new to kluless, it is a puzzle game made by students of IIMI for their annual Management Festival - IRIS. This is the third iteration of the game and it is challenging and addictive to the core.
From the moment I got the link, I started playing around with it, but my monitor decided to play the spoil sport, so i had to call it quits after level 4 (or was it 5). Today I started cracking it again during the free time and by evening, I solved all the leavles. Now i can go hoem and sleep well :)
(thanks Meena and ~nm for teh two clues :) )

If you like solving puzzles, try this - it wont disappoint you.
Try playing it, and if you stuck at any level, ask for clues :)

Horsley Hills, a trip log.

Phew! it sure feels good to be back here. I know I have been neglecting this place so long that I can almost see cow webs hanging around.

Almost one month of a crazy schedule is over, and life is back to almost normal.
I was so looking forward for this weekend to take a break, and started making plans for a three day getaway. But all the initial plans came crashing down when I realized that I had to be around here coz I might be working on Friday, so we - me and my friend Sivaram, started re planning and scouting for possible routes.
The incessant rain made it sure that most of the plans I had will not be feasible, and then I saw a thread @ BN mailing list about a ride to Horsley hills. A quick call to Vasnath and I was all set for the ride.

The grouping point was hanging bridge near KR Puram, and I reached there by 5.25. Soon one by one, the nomads started arriving and after a set of quick hellos, we started the ride. The road was good, and early morning traffic was not heavy, but once we took the turn after Hoskote to Chintamni, the roads became smooth and inviting. Every one was in the rhythm, soaking up the sweet fresh early morning air and enjoying the smooth, traffic free roads.



After a small sutta break and some more miles behind, we stopped at a small village hotel for some delicious breakfast. Soon after Chintamani, the roads stated deteriorating, and the next few kilometers where pothole filled - the road was bumpy and almost resembled a caterpillar ride in an amusement park. Once we crossed the border and entered Andhra Pradesh, the roads became butter smooth, and soon our steeds started ripping the black ribbon.



A detour en-route took us to Rishi Valley School. I fell in love with the place the moment I saw it - If I can, I want my kids to study there. Click here and read more about the school. The place is calm and quiet, serene and green.





(This snap of white Lilly is for a blogger - I remember reading in a blog the author saying her favorite flower is white Lilly - I am sorry i forgot who it was, but this is for you, my drea blogmate.)





We met some of the students and saw the display of some of their talents. Some of us (I think it was professor, but I am not sure who it was) asked "what do the students generally choose as a career once they are out of the school" and Jitu, a 7th standard student gave a prompt reply - "Something like agriculture or other options." Imagine asking the same question to a student from most of the educational institutions, and I am sure you wont come across many who have the same answer.

After spending close to two hours exploring the campus, we traced our route back to the highway and then to Horsley hills. The road was better than when I visited last time, and we didn’t waste time but started devouring the twisties soon.





After a small on-the-rocks session and enjoying 'hot' chilli bajjis, we parked our bikes and started scouting the area.
After rounding it up by a nice buffet from the AP tourism hotel, we started our journey back by 2.30. This time, we took another route - around 50 kilometers extra - one of the best decisions we took that day. The tarmac was smooth, sprinkled with lot of nice curves (yeah, I love curves - cant get them enuf.. ;) ) We took fewer breaks on the way back, and before duck, we reached Hoskote. By 7.15, I reached home (Sorry Prof - lost you in traffic between Marathally and Sarjapur junction)

A nice ride, lot of enjoyable roads, nice scenery and cool weather - what more can I ask for to take a break from the daily work grind?

Click here for the Picasa album
PS: I have not startd visiting the blogs, but will start soon...

grey cells

grey cells, originally uploaded by -xh- aka aNoop.

As many of you might have guessed when you see this photo blog, I am still missing from action, coz of my hectic schedule @ work.
I don't want to keep this place without any new posts, so i though why dont I make you suffer with one more of my 'creative' photograph (creative being the operative word).

ps: a huge thanks to all who did the captions - what a verity of captions - all of there where exceptional and I laught till my lugs hurt, but Tys, anonymous and G - your's where outstanding.

Get creative...

I know itz been long time since I have visited all you pages and spammed your pages with my comments, but trust me, you wont get spared for much longer.
I am just waiting for this crazy spell at work to end (now I send so much time @ wrk that I am really thinking of getting a sleeping bag to wrk :P ) and then I will be back, spamming all you pages.

I took a much needed break last sunday, and me and my friend Jubi went for a ride to Kolar Gold Fields town and kotilingeswara temple. the ride was small, less than 230km round trip.

I will post a trip log and photos soon.
Now, I am posting a mug shot of yours truly, captured by Jubi, while I was trying to comb my hair. Go ahead and give it a tag line - funny, whacky,outlandish - get ur grey cells running, and let us have a laugh.

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Now playing: Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi - Hazaaron Khwaishen Aisi
via FoxyTunes

Tag of Books

Winne the poohi tagged me, and man, I love this tag.

The Rules are as follows:

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you really love (and strikethrough the ones you hate!).
4) Reprint this list in your own blog.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare (have read some, but not complete works - nt much of a shakespeare fan here.)
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo


My score is: 43/100 or shall i say, 43.5/100 since I have read many of Shakespeare? though exactly my kind of list, I had fun doing it. Now, who all are going to take it up?
Prasanth, Gazal, Pratz, Suma,Joy, Tia - game for it?

(I could not find a shortcut to underline in blogger, and too lazy to go to the code and do it... I like almost all the books I have read in this list)

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Now playing: Harold Faltermeyer - Top Gun Anthem via FoxyTunes

The role of Lady Luck...

"When you starts driving, you start with a pot full of luck and an empty pot of
experience. The art of driving safe is to fill your pot of experience without letting
the pot of luck go dry". I have read this line in a couple of biking/touring forums
and always wondered about it. It is so true. Though you may be an extremely careful
driver, sometimes, the sheer stupidity of others may put you into a position where
your experience cannot bail you out, but your lady luck may.

S is an extremely competent and safe driver. He have lot of expertise, and have done
quiet a lot of driving in various conditions. I can any day vouch for his driving, and
if I have to trust my life at ones driving, S is one guy I can blindly trust to take me
safe from anywhere to anywhere.
We have done many long trips (driving and riding) together, and
I have never seen him exceeding 100 kmph - he is a guy who always like to play it
safe. The only time I saw him pushing his ambassador to the maximum speed, well past
100 kmph; was when he was trying to take an accident victim to the hospital.

We where on the return leg of a long drive, on NH 47, and it was raining slightly. We
saw a white ambassador, with lights on and blaring horn, coming down very
fast, trying to overtake us. S promptly gave way for him and we both exchanged couple
of remarks about the foolishness of driving so fast on a wet road. We kept driving steadily, and soon we saw a big crowd in front of us, blocking the road. We stopped the car and saw that a tree
fell from the side, and it nearly crushed the car which over took us. But luckily, the
tree fell on the rear of the car, sparing the driver and passenger. The passenger
escaped unhurt, but the driver was bleeding, and so S took both of them to hospital -
and it is the only time I have seen him pushing the car to its limit.


The inroads - the roads which connects the villages - they are usually narrow and
winding in Kerala. Yesterday, S and G (wifi of S) where going for a long drive, and on
the way there is a series of curves which are kind of accident prone. It is very near
to the home of S, so he was very cautious and he took them as usual - slow and safe,
honking at each turn. A Mahindra Bolero was coming in the opposite direction, and it
was coming so fast that, when the driver heard the horn of S's car, he almost stood
on his break, and in the force, the jeep did a ninety degree turn and skidded and the
back of the jeep came and hit S's car between the right side tyre well and front door
hinges.
The guy was out of his mind to driving so fast in a narrow road like that, and
only by gods grace that the hit was on a spot where the shock was absorbed by the car
with minimal structural damage, isolating the passengers. If the hit had been on the
door, S could have been seriously injured, and if the hit have been on the tyre well
or on the side of the bonnet, S could easily could have lost control. By Gods grace,
what could have been a serious disaster turned out to be a not so serious accident.

It just sent me thinking - no matter how careful we are, some times, lady luck have
to smile on us. Experience alone cannot bail you out all the time.

PS: Yesterday I read in the newspaper about an accident. A bus was coming down a ghat
section and a tree fell on the bus. The driver saw the tree falling down, and he had
two options - stop the bus and get crushed, or take the bus so that he will be saved,
but passengers will get crushed. He chose to stop the bus, and the brave guy lost his
life, but saved the life of all the other people in the bus. I salute his spirit. If
only the people who are blasting the bombs and paying the horse trade in politics had
at least 10% of his conscience.

Suma, at last, I did break that jinx of drying out :)