Mere Brother Ki Dulhan !!!!!!

It felt like having returned from some other universe. One complete week of no checking mail, no deadline worries, no assignment submission (thanks to my IIM-B team mates :) ), so much so as not even receiving calls or sms's thanks to our accommodation in an isolated village on the outskirts of Udupi. All this for my Brothers Wedding :). Below is my performance on D-day minus one. This took my 11pm to 1am slots every night for over 15 days. Thankfully non of the neighbors complained :P.

This performance was and is dedicated to Bhaiyya aur Bhaabhi :)

P.S> Dialogues in Kannada and Hindi. If the window is displayed as too small click on the youtube icon on the progress bar to directly take you to the site.

Cycling In Bangalore, A Guide

There is rather a cliched saying that whatever activity you do in the beginning of the New Year , you are pretty much guaranteed to do that for the rest of the 365/366 days. Well quite freakishly that was the case for me in the year 2011, so considering that I am predicting that I will be doing a lot more of cycling and blogging in the year 2012. Who knows I might be giving a blow by blow account of the events leading to the apocalypse of Dec 21 2012 :P.

Anyway here I am trying to list down all the important pointers a cyclist of Bengaluru might require to enjoy cycling in its vicinity. Majority of the pointers are from my experiences and may not necessarily work for others.

Some Pointers For Riding In Bangalore :
1. Maximize your visibility with bright cloths and front + back lights. Even if that means you look like a peacock :P. The more a cyclist is visible , the less the chances of accident. Atleast here in India when you are riding with all your cycling gear, other motorists actually slow down to have a glimpse. So a win win situation for both :P  Keep to the left and when riding through the footpaths (not sure whether legal in Blore , but abroad it is) ride slow since footpaths here in Blore will be broken at many places.
2. Avoid riding within the city in the evenings (6-8 pm). This is the time when the streets are polluted the most and cyclists suck in almost 3 times more the polluted air than a normal motorist. If unavoidable wear a face mask preferable with a replaceable filter. Also preferably cover ur eyes, ears , mouth and skin too. In short cover all your openings :P.
3. After a long ride remember to stretch the legs. Even though I found stretching to be maximum effective after a run, it doesnt harm after a bike ride too. After a long ride lie down with ur legs above your body for atleast 5-10 mins.
4. Climbing an elevation with the highest gear ratio doesn't really result in bigger and stronger leg muscles. It just results in straining the legs. Keep changing the gears according to the elevation.
5.  Keep the speed limit in the city within 35 kmph. Even though the aluminum framed bikes can go much faster, streets of Bangalore are so unpredictable that its safe to ride along with the traffic speed and not above it.
6. Keep exploring some inside narrow lanes etc for your daily commute. Use google map apps to find out those hidden routes.
7. Keep yourself properly hydrated even if for an office commute. Riders think since Blore's weather is pleasant majority of the time they wont loose much water content.
8. Dogs are another problem cyclists face here in Bangalore. The trick is not to over-react when they come chasing/barking at you. They get attracted the most at the pedaling feet , couple of options would be stop/slow pedaling and/or shout back at them. Works for me all the time :P. Also avoid wearing bright colored shoes, even though this contradicts with Pt no 1.
9. If you are buying a cycle for a first time or after a long hiatus and plan to do atleast some medium distance cycling, then get some tips and advice from the experienced folks.(Here is a good forum for cyclists of Blore - https://groups.google.com/group/Bangalore-bikers?hl=en)
10. Rainy season can be a mess for cyclists. So always get mudguards (either steel or fiber) to cover those wheels even if it kills the looks of your bike. With a already strained drainage system in Bangalore you never know what is getting into your face along with the rain water :P.  Better option is get those fixed from June to Oct months (Peak Monsoons) and remove for the rest of year. Also keep cycle properly oiled especially during this time.
11.One trick to reduce the fatigue of cycling against a headwind is to draft behind some bigger vehicles, preferably moving at your pace. Eg tractors, auto(do at ur own risk :P)
12. And last but not the least, keep yourself motivated. The easiest way is to get a GPS enabled smartphone and keep track of how far you cycled and the  time you took. At least in my case this keeps me highly motivated to keep on bettering my previous records.


3 External Factors which matter the most for cyclists:
1. Headwind
2. Elevation
3. Weather

So riding against a headwind and climbing a steep elevation in the middle of the day is pretty much the worst case scenario a cyclist can encounter. 


Headwind Direction depending on month (Courtesy : Wind Energy Resource Survey Of India - I) :

Climate Of Bangalore (Courtesy WikiPedia)

Elevation Profile Of Some Popular Routes(Courtesy : TFN & Bangalore Bike Rides)

Bangalore - Mysore Highway
Bangalore - Mysore (via Kanakpura)
Ooty - Mysore
Nandi Hills
Chikkatirupathi Circuit


Weekend Rides I have explored so far:
Pearl Valley 
Nandi Hills
Turahalli Forest
Hessarghatta Circuit
Bannerghatta Circuit
Chikkatirupathi Circuit
Manchanabele Reservoir

Routes Yet to explore : 
Siva's Road
Blore-Maddur-Malavalli-Kanakpura-Blore (Even though having done this n no of times in my motorcycle)


Checklist for a long ride :
1. Special Padded tights. (Even though most cyclists are uncomfortable wearing this, this is a must for long rides. A good measure against saddle sores. )
2. Gloves (you need some cushion for your hands with 1/3 of the body weight supported by it.)
3. Puncture kit (Handpump + Rubber patches + required tools)
4. Full arm t-shirt preferably of quick dry type. (Good for both winter and summer, very good measure against sun burns)
5. Helmet. (for protecting the processor)
6. Sunglasses/clear glasses depending on the time of the day.
7. Front and back lights. (As mentioned earlier more the visibility less the chances of an accident.)
8. Electoral sachets. (You need to replenish the salts you loose at regular intervals. )
9. High energy food, rich in carbs (bananas, energy bars etc) (To prevent hitting the wall)
10. Sunscreen
11. Water, but usually you get bottled water easily at many places along the road. So no need to carry more than 2 lts. Get a sipper + Bottle Cage installed in the bike.


Some Good Shops To Buy Cycling Gear in Bangalore :
1. Decathlon - Sarjapur Road + New One Started in Bannerghatta Road
2. Bums On Saddles Jayanagar
3. RR Cycles near Madivala.

Music That Inspires

They say music is without any boundaries either geographically or culturally. If this is not fact then how could one explain the fact of Indians shaking their legs for western music in Discos, Westerners doing an aerobic session for a Bollywood item number, or Chinki's gyrating to a Rajnikanth song and so forth. As expected in all the above scenarios the chances of an individual of actually understanding the lyrics right away is pretty slim , but what catches everyone's imagination is the music score accompanying the song.

Being a lazy person who literally finds some or the other reason to skip a workout in a freezing December morning, music that inspires is really a lifesaver. There is nothing more inspiring  (except if u have a few extra Kilos accumulated since the Diwali season :P ) for a person to run/cycle in those finger numbing temperatures than a good set of truly inspiring numbers. It wont be surprising if ones performance is actually improved when listening to those kind of music, hence resulting in me and my music player being inseparable during those tough times called "workout". Even though I am not a music person (I cant name all the members of the Metallica band, or for the matter of fact, not even a single person :P ), have come across some great numbers which I have "painstakingly" collected over a considerable period of time.

So here I am trying to list down some truly inspiring songs I have come across (And Kolaveri Song is not among the list , although it gave a tough competition :P). I would also be interested if the readers would recommend numbers which inspires them, hence increasing my arsenal. With 4 kgs of extra flab I have accumulated since the Diwali season it is time to get down to business. Have chalked out a rigorous session in middle of the winter and any help will be highly appreciated. Do some social service people :).

1. Dream On Aerosmith
 + a version by Eminem which is also pretty good

2. Sadda Haq - Rockstar

3 .American Flyers - The entire album is a must have.. A movie which inspired our desi version which is Joh Jeeta Wohi Sikander (The title track of which is also inspirational)

4. Back in The Saddle-Aerosmith (Default first track when I get to cycling after a long time :P)

5. Driving With The Top Down - Ramin Djawadi (A track used in Iron Man)

6. Dum Title Song  THe only good thing abt the forgetable movie. Watch with the video :)

7. Final Countdown

8. Right Here - Right Now : Fatboy Slim with some interesting video  

9. I want it all/ We Will Rock You- Sucker Punch The perfect mash up of 2 great classics from Queen

10. In the End - Linkin Park . Became a fan of Linkin Park after this song, even though their other numbers are not as good as this except a few.

11. Iron Man- Black Sabbath

12. Just Like You Imagined - Nine Inch Nails (Full heavy metal track)

13. Danger Zone - Kenny Loggins (Figher Jets... Sexxxxyyyy)

14. Kill Bill Theme Song - Wu Tang Clan

15. 3 Doors Open - Kryptonite

16. Numb - Linkin Park

17. Lose Urself - Eminem - Some intense lyrics from Eminem :P

18. MI Theme

19. Not Afraid - Eminem

20. Ride Of The Valkyries --- Variety is the spice of life... Orceshtra for u :P

21. Rock Climbing Music - Lakshya - Some Pretty good Moves and awesome music for an Indian Movie

22. Rock You Like A Hurricane - Scorpions

23. Rocky Soundtrack

24. Separate Ways- Journey

25. Stronger - Kayne West

26. Survivor - Eye of the Tiger : Another great track from Rocky stables.

27. Till I Collapse - Eminem : Yet another track from Eminem. Looks like I get inspired the most when I hear expletives :P.

28. Die Another Day - Madonna

29. Vandemataram- Lata Mangeshkar  A Truly inspirational number from the queen of Indian singers.

30. Azaadiyan - Udaan

31. Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana

Mission Impossible 4 : It Gets Better & Better

THIS POST DOESNT CONTAIN ANY SPOILERS : SPOILER CHECK PASSED :)

All the A-list action stars of Hollywood have atleast one major franchise from which they seem to be making endless movies. Arnold Had Terminator series until he got 'Governorated', Sylvester Stallone has Rocky and Rambo Series, Johnny Depp with his Pirates series, Bruce Willis has the Die Hard series, Jason Statham with the Transporter series (even though his A list status may be debated :P), Jackie Chan does his Rush Hour's with Chris Tucker, Harrison Ford with his Indiana Jone's, Downey Jr with his Iron Man, Christian Bale with the awesome Batman series, Hugh Jackman with X-men movies and last but not the least Tom Cruise with his Mission Impossible series. A kind of fallback safe money earners with minimum risks. Thats exactly what Tommy boy is doing over here , with him even producing the latest MI sequel.

If you don't really want to read my entire review but just want to know how the movie was in 3 words then my reply would be "almost good as the original" (Apologies for stretching my word limit :P ). Hence in short this is one best movies of the series if not better than the part I. Part 2 was the worst of the lot, which felt like a group of stunts strung together to make a movie just for the namesake. So does that mean MI4 is void of any stunts ??!!!!... Well you got to be kidding... MI movies without any gravity defying stunts are as if a body without a soul. The stunts are bigger and better... Especially the death defying free scaling stunts shown to be performed "out" of the Burj Towers (World Tallest in Dubai) and you start to wonder what is the fascination for Hollywood to take their stunts to the worlds tallest buildings (remember Entrapment on Petronas Tower's).

Story wise you got the usual settings of Russians, nukes, save the world kinda scenario which is pretty much foolproof with respect to entertainment quotient, with generous dose of car chases, gun fights, explosions and so on. The director Brad Bird (The Incredible's, Ratatouille, The Iron Giant) does a great job to leave behind his great animation legacy for his first full blown live action movie , which I can easily term as one of the best action movies of 2011.  The movie takes place primarily in 3 countries Russia, Dubai and the climax which was supposedly here in India. Tom Cruise is at his best action avatar. Even though in the previous MI movies he seemed like a one man army,  in this movie is a part of closely knit group consisting of Simon Pegg (Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead), Jeremy Renner (Hurt Locker, 28 Weeks Later) and the sexy Paula Patton. Simon Pegg's (The only major character continued from previous movies apart from Tom's) character provides some good comic relief at regular intervals of time and Paula Patton provides the oomph quotient. And if by any chance Mr. Tom Cruise is reading this blog, I would advice him not to go shirtless if he is pretty much out of shape. For those curious about Anil Kapoor's role in this movie... well he was absolutely wasted. He was supposed to play an rich Indian playboy , but seemed more like a sexual pervert, with his role not lasting more than 2 mins.

Now coming to FB chatter we had encountered a few months back about how they had created a Bangalore setup in Canada for the movie.. well after seeing this movie I was a bit disspointed. They have replaced Bangalore with Mumbai for the climax but surprisingly at many places you see Kannada signboards. I was like WTF!!!!! Kannada in Mumbai ???!!!... But the attention to detail given for the Indian setting was pretty good, but one word of advice to the moviemakers, if you want an Indian setting , come directly to India... It might turn out to be much cheaper.

Finally I would rate the movie 3.5/5 movie. A complete entertainer and full time pass movie. Go watch it in cinemas :).

The Adventures Of Tintin , Reviewed By Tintin

 Being a huge Tintin fan and having the same as an alias name (for obvious reasons) this movie was something which was not meant to be missed. Before I was caught on by the Harry Potter fever , was hooked big time to comics, with the jewel on the crown being Tintin and Asterix comics. Still remember the day in 6th grade when my friendly neighbourhood library started to stuff 2nd hand Tintin comics. Everyday I would be excited to pick up yet another book of the series paying 3 buck rental (against 1 buck for other books :P, demand & supply gap I presume :P) and when a "not so small" boy started to fantasize about some out of the world adventures (Destination Moon/Explorers on the Moon :) ). Still to this day I enjoy going through the entire collection I have in form of pdf documents, a return back straight to my childhood. Hence in short this movie was something more than any random movie that I was going to watch.

Now shifting focus to the actual movie. Frankly speaking I expected a lot more from this adaptation, and I presume it is the common consensus among Tintin fans. First and foremost the movie doesnt really captures the feel one gets while reading the comic strip. Even though the initial storyline was pretty faithful to the comic book, it was a tad too boring. Only from the 2nd quarter does the pace pick up. But on the other hand it has an awesome viewer experience with respect to motion capture technique adopted by Spielberg which brings life to the comic characters and an equally mesmerizing 3D content. So in short those who haven't read the comics before will enjoy the most as everything is completely new to them (my mom loved it :)), and it is not one of those movies like Harry Potter where you have to read the book before you see the movie to understand each and every angle. As expected Snowy (the dog) was at its comical best, to draw in more children/adult crowd alike.

The makers of the movie have tried to mash 3 books into one (Secrets of the Unicorn, Red Rackhams Treasure and Crab with the Golden claws), with a generous additions of their own to make the transitions seamless. This was done obviously since content of a single book (with just 62 pages of comic strip) was way below the content required to make a movie. So we can expect to get sequel movies for those comics which had continuity into another book (Destination Moon/Explorers on the Moon, Seven Crystal Balls/Prisoners of the Sun etc)

Overall I would rate the movie just above average at around 3.5/5, especially for its visual content than its storyline. But one undeniable fact is "Tintin literate" base is gonna swell and the comic sales is gonna soar because of this movie. A whole new generation is going to discover TINTIN :).