Target for this November

Ride 1000 training kilometers. 3 Nandi rides. 1 Krishnagiri ride. Nothing particular for the rest.

The Pondicherry Ride

One fine day, Ganesh and I decided to ride to Pondicherry non-stop and we did it last weekend. We wanted to avoid riding in the night but since it was going to take us around 20 hrs, we had no choice. So we started at around 6 PM on Friday. It was the first time I was riding my cycle loaded. It slowed me down by a good 4-5 kmph I thought.

At my place before the start

We reached Krishnagiri by about 10.30 or so and took the diversion towards Tiruvannamalai. The roads upto Tiruvannamali are pathetic and if we had known this, we would never even have thought of doing this stretch in the dark. It was insanely slow riding (~10-15kmph) and my wrists, back and shoulders bore the brunt of the damage. I imagine that Ganesh, who was riding my MTB, didn't have as much trouble since that road was perfect MTB terrain. At about 1 AM, Ganesh had a puncture. The roads weren't improving one bit and that was driving me crazy. I can't stress enough how frustrating it is to ride a loaded road bike in the dark. I'm never going to ride in the night unless I'm sure the roads are top notch. It was just plain stupid. Anyway, we finished my homemade cheese sandwiches by about 3 AM and we still weren't seeing good roads.

At McD after dinner. Sleep setting in.

At about 4.30 AM or so, Ganesh had a fall and bruised his knee. We had had enough by then. We were thinking of just taking a bus to Pondi and getting it over with. But in the end we decided to take an hour's break and ride once the sun is out. Turns out, it was a good decision. We rested for an hour in a bus shelter in some random village and started off again at 6 AM. In about half an hour, we reached a small town and had a really nice breakfast of Idli, Vada and Pongal. We weren't feeling so down anymore and rode on to Tiruvannamalai. Ganesh had another puncture and since I was ahead of him, I had to cycle back a km or two. It turned out that the evil glass particle which had caused the puncture before was still in there. We got rid of it, fixed the puncture (amid a huge gang of onlookers) and rode on. The roads after Tiruvannamalai got a little better but weren't the smooth type I'd have liked. We had by now run out of cash and were on the lookout for an ATM. So we spent carefully until we reached Gingee and we again had the luxury of spending thoughtlessly. We were only about 50-60 km away now but had reasonably strong headwinds. We were practically crawling when we decided we must stop to eat lunch. We had some Sambar Rice and reached Thindivanam by about 3 PM I think. Here, we got on to the NH66 and whoa, what a relief! What a road! Massively spirit lifting. Here, a kind gentleman on a moped rode up to us and perhaps thought we would drop dead if we didn't get something to eat and so gave us a banana each. A very kind gesture which lifted our spirits a little more. We were about 25km away when I stopped (right on a nail) to reply to Rahul's (who rode to Auroville the previous day) message that I had a puncture. I cursed my luck and fixed the puncture amid another big group of people who sprang up from nowhere. We rode on and reached Auroville by 6 PM, had a much needed bath, ate some food and crashed for the night.

At the Pondi beach

Wish I had remembered to take our picture when we reached. Damn. We checked out the Pondi beach the next day, ate some pizza and returned back by Volvo. Great fun, overall.

The story of how I got my first Android phone ...

I'm a gadget freak. And I didn't want to deprive myself any longer of all the cool things happening with smartphones. I decided to get myself an Android phone. While I wanted to get an HTC, I found a good deal for a Galaxy Note on Homeshop18 and bought it. And then the tamasha began. Since I was going to be out of station when they were going to deliver it to me, I asked them to deliver it a day later. They went ahead and delivered the package anyway. I opened the package when I got back two days after and found a small crack at the bottom of the phone. Without any delay, I lodged a complaint with Homeshop18. I was told that since I complained 3 days after the date of delivery, they wouldn't replace it. I was obviously pissed. It was they who screwed up with the delivery date and I told them this clearly. After calling and shouting at them and emailing them everyday for a couple of weeks, they agreed to replace the phone. I was told to courier the package to a Bangalore address and I was given just the address. The courier people said they will need a phone number and a contact person if they will deliver it. So I told Homeshop18 this. I was told that I didn't need to go to a courier service to send the phone and that they had arranged a pickup. After another two days, I got an SMS saying this specific pickup was 'resolved'. I immediately called them up and said WTF. They said they didn't have a pickup service in Bangalore and so they resolved the complaint. I shouted WTF. I was told again to courier the phone and this time I was given a name of the company and a phone number who I had to send it to. I did that and the next day I get a call from the courier people saying the addressee wasn't accepting the package. I was even shouted at. Major WTF now. LOL. This had gotten  so ridiculous that I actually laughed hard. I really did. I couldn't believe this was actually happening to me. Every fucking thing went wrong every fucking time.

I've given up now. I sent a last email to Homeshop18 telling them to fuck off. I neither have the energy nor the patience or time to deal with this any longer. I will get the phone back from the courier people today and will start using it once I'm back from my Pondi trip this weekend. Being someone who loves playing around with gadgets, I've kept myself from using the phone for more than 3 weeks. That's a lot. I don't want to any longer. I don't see why I should because I don't believe that these jerks can solve this. I feel cheated.

Edit: My complaint on their facebook page has been deleted. What else was I expecting?

The Fall

So, I recently bought 'clipless' pedals and shoes for my 220 (for the uninitiated: clipless pedals are special pedals that have a provision for your shoes to lock onto them so that the pedaling efficiency increases as power is transferred onto the pedals even on the upstroke). I'm just back after a not so long ride to Chikka Tirupati (~80km to and fro). First non-trivial clipless ride. A different experience, indeed. The riding style has to change a little and you have to be alert to unclip your show when stopping which didn't happen on one occasion and I fell off the cycle at 0 kmph :P. I laughed to myself, dusted myself off, smiled meekishly at the curious onlooking villagers and sped off as quick as I could to minimise the embarassment. haha. Once I hit the city traffic, I kept my left foot unclipped and that certainly felt safer. I have to make some adjustments to the shoes to find the most comfortable spot that would lock onto the pedal. Overall, a very nice (first not-so-long solo) ride and I'm happy with my ride stats. today. Averaged 22 or so kmph for the whole trip and above 25 outside the city. A picture of my cycle on today's ride (doesn't do justice to the brilliant spot, though).

The auto-wallah

The other day (the day before yesterday, actually) I was riding back home from Manchinbele dam. I had just entered the city limits and was as usual cursing every retarded motorist when this auto-wallah pulled up beside me and asked me where I was coming from. I answered him in my broken Kannada and he asked me if it was just a training ride or a race (pretty sure he's been seeing lots of fancy attired cyclists of late). I told him it was just a pleasure ride and he smiled and said  "keep it up" or something and drove off. Today, while I was on my way to Wheelsports, the same (YES. SAME.) auto-wallah spotted me, pulled up beside me, said hello and asked me if I was returning from Manchinbele :P. After asking me a few more questions, he wished me good luck and drove off. Pretty cool to experience something that's statistically so unlikely.

The Obsession Hop

It's strange. I seem to be obsessed with one thing at a time (and one girl at a time but that story later :P). Well, sometimes two or three (no, not girls. Only things). When I'm obsessed, all my life revolves around that one (or two or three) thing(s) and all the other things become second priority. I end up spending all my time reading/thinking about, making plans, researching and purchasing things to feed the obsession. I like doing all that. But for some strange reason, not many of these obsessions have remained obsessions for too long. I really hope the current ones will, though.