Hogenakkal trip..

This is a good example of my laziness... I started writing this one around 1 year back and left in between... Now I dont remember all the details so well... so posting by just adding some pics :D

This trip was not at all a planned trip. My friend Shoubhodeep's was getting married in Coimbatore and we were going there to attend the function.
We were eight people Atul, Body, Harry, Manoj, Rocket, Vimal, Vinay and Me... Marriage was on Monday but the reception was scheduled on Sunday... and we started our journey on Saturday morning itself.
We had hired one Innova for this. that has place for only 7 but we adjusted... We started at 7 in the morning from Takel's apartment... Road was the same familiar NH7 and steering was in Body's hand. Good road and fantastic weather, there was no stopping for Body and that reflected in the speedo when it was crossing 160km/hr so many times...
We took our first break after Hosur at Adyar Anand Bhavan (A2B) and had breakfast... We tried Masala Dosa and Idli bada there... was kinda ok... didn't find anything special...
After breakfast, we again hit the road. In the meantime, we were discussing where to go.... One option was that we go to Coimbtore and then try to cover Kodaikanal and other option we thought was Hogenakkal.
We chose Hogenakkal because it was on the way and we could cover it on the same day and next day would be free. So we took the diversion to Hogenakkal and what a place it was.
The falls there were really amazing. We took coracles (that's what they call the local form of small boat ;)) to go around the water there.
One more very interesting thing of the place was little kids... who would jump off from so much heights in the water for just 10/- and leave you open-mouthed.
Some more pics are here.

Tenosynovitis 2....

Well, it's been a long time since I wrote first part of this problem... Ok, here I am again to tell what happened next...
After my visit to Hosmat Hospital, I returned home and searched internet for this word "Tenosynovitis" and found out that this could be cured by just giving the hand full rest. I bought a bandage and tried it for a week, left riding my bike, thanks to Dorjee for giving me lift everyday for my office.. But after 1 week, there was no improvement. So decided to goto some other doctor... Again google told me that Ossicare is the nearest orthopedics center from my house... Got appointment and met the doc.
Doc: Hi, What happened to you?
Me: I have pain in bending my wrist and thumb.
Doc: Ok. Show me your hand...
(took my hand and inspecting something) looks like some liquid accumulated... we have to do an X-ray।

Me: sir, X-ray is done.
Doc: Oh...
Me: (showing him the reports got from Hosmat)I went to Hosmat and there the doc told me that I have to undergo surgery and I wanted to check other options so I am here.
Doc: Ashok, this is a very common problem nowadays... in most cases you dont need a surgery.. I'll give some medicines and a splint that will keep your hand from hurting again and you will have to come for Physiotherapy daily..
I started as doctor had advised. In Physiotherapy, they were doing some ultasound massage and wax bath... This continued for 15 days... I felt some improvement.. so doctor said that it would be ok in next 15 days.. In next 15 days, same treatment kept going but i found no improvement. Now in this appointment with doc....
Doc: So how is your hand now?
Me: I dont feel much improvement from the last time visit.
Doc: Ek kaam karte hain Ashok, Operation karwa lo...
Me: (ohhh f**k) hmmm.....
Doc: You never had surgery? It's normal to be afraid of... but it's really small one... it will take only one day of hospitalization.
Me: hmm... Is there no other option?
Doc: See, we tried so much... and I feel pity for you that you are struggling for so long by this..
Me: OK. Done. Let's do it on this saturday.
Doc: Ok. before that you have to undergo some tests..
I had blood test, urine test and X-ray of chest that day and got one appointment letter of Manipal for surgery.
Next day, I went to clinic to collect my test reports and met the doctor again.
Me: Sir, What if I dont go for surgery now... Will it be worse?
Doc: So, you dont wanna go for surgery. Ok... let's see for some more time. I will give you some injection and let's see if it improves...
Me: Thank you sir.
From that day, my physiotherapist changes his therapy a bit. In place of ultrasound massage
, now he was giving me some shock therapy. And after 1 week, I felt a lot of improvement. 15 days after when I met doctor...
Doc: How is your hand now?
Me: I think it's fine now...
Doc: So waiting for some days paid you. No pain now?
Me: Only in extreme stretching condition.
Doc: That's fine. Now just take care for atleast one month. Dont stress it too much... no gripping, no grabbing, no ball throwing.
Me: Ok sir. Thank you very much.
I thanked the physiotherapy guy and walked happily. It's almost a month now but still sometimes I bend my thumb just to check if there is pain...

Traffic police

Have you ever noticed this person in white and khaki uniform called traffic police? Well, I'm not talking about those fat-ass policewalas standing near their cars with an alcohol-meter in some one-way road and stopping all bikes, checking for papers and boozes and making money... I'm talking about this hapless guy standing right in the middle of the cross-roads where dust, dirt and honking noise is so much that you get irritated in just 2 minutes waiting for the signal. But this guy stands right there with probably a nose mask and tries to control the traffic or let's see what exactly he is doing...
There is this cross-road on outer ring road where the employee from Eco-space tech park cross the ring road to go for Marathahalli or people coming from other directions cross this ring road to go to eco-space. There were some plans to make the service road alongside the eco-space one-way, but that was a total flop-show resulting in big traffic jam.
Ok, so here I'm waiting on my bike on service road for our hero to stop the traffic on ring road so that I can cross it. Our hero is standing in front of me waving the traffic on ring road to pass. Suddenly there is this cab came from my behind and stands besides me ( I always wonder about these cabs how there driving precision is always in centimeters). Now this cab starts inching on the ring road while our policewala is still signalling the ring-road traffic to pass. Slowly this cab has covered half of the ring road and the traffic of ring road is taking a curve path to pass this a**h*le cabbie. Now suddenly the cabbie finds gap in the ring road traffic and crosses it. Behind him, goes another cab and then another. I also cross behind these cab and after crossing I looked at our hero, now he was waving the traffic on service road to cross the ring road. He hand signal direction has been changed. Did that cab change the direction of his signals?? I'm driving my bike still confused about that and I reached another cross-road. There again is another traffic police standing in the middle of the road controlling the traffic and also perhaps controlled by it.

Autowalas

Anybody traveling/living in Bangalore must be aware of a phenomenon called auto short for auto-rickshaw. These yellow and black 3 wheelers are meant for public transport, to help public reach their destination conveniently. But sometimes, I wonder who are the people traveling by autos and how on earth could they negotiate the fair fare if at all they could convince auto-wala to go to their desired place. In Bangalore, its better to ask autowalas where he is going and if you happen to go somewhere in the way, its ok else look for another auto. And for the fare, I have already seen a rise of 40% in their fare in last 2 years.

Yesterday, I had to take an auto or bus to reach my office as DK with whom I used to go office after my wrist problem has gone to his home. Sometimes back, I had tried auto to go to office and it costed my 90 bucks one side. From my apartment's parking to office's parking measures around 11.2 kms according to my bike making a proper auto fare of 11.2*7 = 78.2. That too from my apartment's to office's parking. But 90 was all that I could negotiate with. So yesterday I thought of using bus but to get to HAL bus stand I have to travel around 2 kms. I asked one autowala. 30 bucks was the answer. bhainch**... next to that auto was another one without meter. He was going to HAL for 5 bucks only but would take more passenger than you. That was good, I reached HAL for 5 bucks only with other 2 persons and we could have accommodated 1 more person without any problem. While returning from office, it was 6:30 in the evening when I reached HAL. There were 3 autos waiting. Here's my conversation with them-

ME - Bhaiya, BEML chaloge??
Autowala1 - 50 Rupees.
ME-(to myself: behench** ek hi din mein ameer hoga kya be!) - Kyon bhaiya. 2 kms to hai. 15 rupaye lagte hain.
Autowala1 - saar rain hone wala hai..
ME-(to myself: to haraamkhor kya ship ya boat mein le jaayega) - abhi to nahi ho raha hai na bhaiya...
Autowala2 - saar abhi traffic bahut hai udhar..
ME - lekin bhaiya 15 ka 50 to bahut hai. kuchh to kam karo...
Autowala3 - theek hai saar 40 de do.. chalo.
ME-(to myself: mada****d, saale, &*@*%$^&*(# )

So I waited there till it started raining and got drenched. Then came one auto that got ready for 25 bucks.... I reached home saving my 25 bucks... Feels good.:)
Same day I went to doc and asked if I could drive my bike. Doc said yes if it doesn't hurt you. So now I am riding my bike for office, of course its not hurting more than the process of autos.

Tenosynovitis

WTF. That's exactly what I would have thought had I heard this term before 1 month or so. But now I know that this is a kind of Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI) now becoming common to software professionals. It started suddenly.. no knocking on the door, no formalities, no early symptoms, nothing, just started. I was driving my bike for Yercaud and when we took break on our way, I felt my thumb got stiffened and there was pain in bending it. I tried to ignore it because it might have happened for any reason. But this pain continued for a week and sometimes my thumb was used to stuck in a stretched position and I had to use my other hand to bring it to normal position. Now, I thought, was the time to visit some doctor. I googled a bit and found Hosmat is considered to be hospital for orthopedic problems. I went to Hosmat and waited for my appointment. Here's the conversation with doc-

Doc: Hi Ashok, What hapened?
Me: I'm having pain in my thumb near wrist.
Doc: For how long?
Me: I think a week.
Doc: Did you hurt it? any accident?
Me: No, not that I remember.
Doc: (held my thumb in a stretched position) Now try bending your thumb.
Me: It pains.
Doc: Operation karna padega.
Me: OPERATION????
Doc: See Ashok. Aisa hota hai ki there are these tendons passing through this tunnel. By some reasons sometimes this tunnel gets blocked. so.......
Me: But OPERATION?
Doc: It's not that BIG operation. Ok. Let's get an X-ray of this incase you having doubts.
I went and got my X-ray done. Returned with the report.
Me: Sir, report.
Doc: (Looking at X-ray film) See, there is no problem in bones.
Me: (Saala, I have seen only frog's internals, how the hell I can comprehend anything on this x-ray). Ok sir. But operation???
Doc: (Smiling) So you want to be sure about this. Go and get ultasound report.
I left and got my ultrasound done. In that report, it was written in BOLD CAPITAL letter "TENOSYNOVITIS of abductor pollicis is suspected". Returned to doctor and showed him the report.
Doc: See. It is the same thing. So when do you want to have this surgery?
Me: Is there other option?
Doc: Hmm.... I can do the plaster but then It may return again.
Me: OK sir, Let me think. By the way, what will be the cost of this SMALL operation?
Doc: If you have shared room, it will come around 16K bucks.
Me: Ok sir, I will think and decide. Thank you.
Doc: Ok.

Well, I left and did some googling on tenosynovitis and found a lot of stuff there. Some interesting ones were from handsuniversity and wiki. Finally I dropped the idea of having surgery so soon as one of my friend told me that in Hosmat, they prescribe surgery for everything... Rest story I will write some other time.

Muthathi, Bheemeshwari / Cauvery fishing camp trip

It was Ugadi's long weekend... Nothing planned... then on saturday, at 10:00AM DK called me if I would be interested in going to Muthathi... With no weekend plan at hand, I immediately agreed.
At around 10:30AM we started from Bangalore, took Kanakpura road and had lunch after we were outside the city... With me and DK were Jimmy and Shrine. Road to Kanakpura is good... and from Kanakpura we took diversion towards Cauvery Fishing camp... Road from Kanakpura onwards is not good but not bad either... After around 15kms from Kanakpura, took a left turn for Cauvery Fishing camp(had to watch for direction)... After that, the ride was very refreshing.... It was around 15Kms of stretch in hills.... The view at Muthathi was scenic... A lotta locals were also cooking and eating there... dont know if it was picnic or some of their rituals......

Fast Facts about Muthathi:-

Distance from Bangalore: 100 Kms
Route: Kanakpura Road -> Cauvery Fishing Camp (NH209)
Road condition: Till Kanakpura good, after that OK types last 15 kms goood..
Destination type: Riverside picnic
Days: 1 day

Fir milenge Ankur aka Ranga aka Bade Bhaiya....

So, finally yesterday was the last day of Ankur aka Ranga aka Bade bhaiya in Bangalore... First time, met him in Philips when he joined our Audio team there... became colleague... then table tennis partners.. then friend.. roommates... good friends... and then byebye at Bangalore airport... but that's what life is all about. He is joining a firm in NCR to be at home.... Wish him all the best for his future... As they say world is small and round so fir milenge...
Waise among other things, we, B2waasi, will miss his puliogare rice...

Bike trip to Yercaud...

Last weekend was a long one as we had friday off. Myself and Dorjee were earlier planning to goto Kanyakumari but the fact that it's very far and unavailability of train-tickets made us to change the plan. It had been long time since our last bike-trip. So we decided to go on a bike-trip and we chose the place to be Yercaud. 230 kms from Bangalore, situated in Tamilnadu, this place is called poor-men's Ooty. Initially, we were only 2 people but then Ankur, Atul, Body, Paurush and Shankar joined us totalling 7 of us.We decided to leave from Bangalore on friday early in the morning at 5 AM so that we can beat frustrating city traffic.

At 4:30, when I got up, weather was really nice and sky was very clear. I called everyone to get ready but by the time we started from Thippasandra, it was already 6AM. We picked Paurush from Silk Board and started our trip. We had 2 Unicorns, 1 thunderbird and 1 Karizma on this trip. By the time, we reached Hosur, it started drizzling but we thought it as Bangalore rain, very localized and we keep driving. But it started pouring heavily later so we had to stop for sometime and waited for the rain to stop or slow down atleast. It slowed down after a while and we hit the road again. Now it was great road NH7 ahead. It was still drizzling and we were all drenched still our speedo was reading atleast 80. A very exciting drive till Krishnagiri. There we decided to have breakfast and then move. We stopped at a very small Dosa stop had breakfast there and started again. Now the road was not good. A lot of construction work was going on. At many places the road became single lane. It was the same till milestones started reading Salem 30kms.. From there again it was great road. We reached Salem (Pronounced as Selam) at around 12:00 in the noon. We had our lunch there and there started to climb for Yercaud. From there it's only 24 kms of climb with 20 hair-pin bends. This drive was very pleasant with a lot of picturesque scenes on the way. We stopped at 2-3 places to admire the nature and of course to capture it in our cameras.

We reached Yercaud at around 3 PM and decided first to see Kiliyur falls and then look for accomodation. It was 3-4 kms away from Yercaud lake and we had to walk around 0.5 kms. Since it was raining, all the way it got very slippery and only Dorjee, Atul and me decided to climb down. Others went to look for hotel. Killiyur fall was good but not worth risking our lives that we did while descending that slippery way...:). By this time other guys had settled Hotel Shevaroys for staying. We went to hotel, rested for sometime and then went to see Lady's seat. We reached there at around 7:30PM .The night view of Selam city from there was very beautiful. After that searched for daaru but only to know that this was a dry day. Still we managed to get it from Shevaroy's Hotel.

Next day, all daarubaz got up early in the morning to see sunrise from Pagoda point. We reached there but it was a lot of fog there and there was no chance of sunrise before 8 or 9 o'clock. Still it was very nice walk in the foggy weather. We returned to hotel and again went to Pagoda point at 8:30. It was magnificient view from there. Then we went to Shevarayan Temple. This was the highest point in Yercaud I think. Again it had got great view of the Hills around Yercaud. After this we went to Yercaud Lake, did some boating. After that we had lunch at Silver Oak restaurant in Shevaroys and started back. Downhill ride was great. I turned off bike's engine and rolled down. Till almost 20 kms I didn't have to turn it on. After that we had a small break in Salem, then Dharmapuri. After Dharmapuri, there was a Y junction where I took the wrong road. DK was with me. We asked a few persons if the road goes to Bangalore, they all said YES.. but we knew this is not the road we came by. It was painted like car rally road. All the trees besides the road was colored in black & white checkers. After quite long distance, we got a signboard that was written also in English. By that we came to know that the road surely goes to Hosur and Bangalore but not to Krishnagiri. By the way road was great, far better than the NH7 stretch between Krishnagiri and Dharmapuri and very low traffic on that. But we decided to get back to NH7 because of 2 reasons. First was that we dont how long this is gonna be a good road. And secondly it was getting late and there was no traffic, very few people. So if something happens, we would have had a problem. So from Palacode we took the diversion to Krishnagiri thinking that it was only 16 kms of diversion but turned out to be 31kms. We joined our gang again in Krishnagiri and started for Hosur. In Hosur it started raining again but didn't stop. We finally reached Thippasandra at around 8:00PM. Overall it was a great getaway for a change.

Fast Facts about Yercaud:-
Distance from Bangalore : 230Kms
Route : Bangalore -> Hosur -> Krishnagiri -> Dharmapuri -> Salem -> Yercaud
Road condition : Hosur to Krishnagiri Great expressway. Krishnagiri to 30kms before Salem (not so great but still good)
Destination type : Hill stationTrip type - Weekend getaway

Fly 2080, My new phone...

I had Motorola V3i Razr earlier but lost it. Thanks to the Junta of Bombay Junta mail express. Then I thought of buying a rather cheap phone instead of going for another Razr of the like of. I sort-listed a few within the range of 5k bucks. These are Sony Ericsson w200i, Motorola w230 and Nokia 2630. I went to the shop and asked the person to show me w200i but instead of showing me w200i, he started saar there is this new phone Fly2080 and started showing all the functionalities of this phone. I found it quite kool for 5.8k bucks so bought it. Here is my experience with this phone.

This phone's got kool looks for it has a quite big screen and a thickness of only 12 mm. Keypads are also quite kool and easy to use. Comes with 256 MB memory card and is expandable upto 1 GB. Featurewise it's quite loaded for this price range. It has got touch screen, Mp3, mp4 player, video player, 1.3MP camera, GPRS, Bluetooth, unlimited (of course limited to memory size) video recording, e-mail client and ofcourse all basic phone features of sms, mms etc. Has support for Java. Touch screen is quite fast and reponds very well to inputs. Speakers are quite loud for audio and video player.
What I don't like about this phone is it's interface. It's so user-unfriendly. For example, If you have to goto next image while viewing images, it's 5 way process.. goto back->back->down->options->view. Although there is an Image viewer program in this phone that can goto next picture just by pressing down key, this is not set as default program to open the pictures and atleast I didn't find a way to set this as a default. Second bad thing about this phone is the HandsFree quality. It's really bad. You almost can't talk in loudspeaker mode by this phone. Here's how I'd rate this phone...

Design 9/10
Features 8/10
Voice quality(ear phone) 8/10
Voice quality(speaker phone) 4/10
Ease of use 4/10
Value for money 8/10

So overall I think it's a good deal for the price it comes.