On a busy Monday evening in Ghatkopar (Mumbai), a man was selling fish on the road side. He was seated on the road with fishes sprawled on a mat in front. When a customer came it, he took a big fish, scaled it, sliced it and then put it in a packet. Seated beside him was a clowder (collective noun for a bunch of cats) – hungry, furry cute four-legged friends! They were watching intently,…
Musings over Tea Time
A delightful interaction with Lalit three years ago gave birth to a column titled T-Talks in the new eZine Tea-time with Testers. And it has been a wonderful journey, to come up with something interesting every month. To celebrate the occasion of “Tea-time with Testers” crossing the 1000 day mark, I published this anthology containing some of my articles as “Musings over Tea-time”. It has been a journey of thinking, observing, reflecting, being inspired from the…
Smiley moon & the welcoming Sun
A beautiful crescent smiley moon today with a lone bright star just below said “Good morning”. My dog ack’ed with a big woof and off we went on a morning walk. Walk done, stretches and then commenced the run. Do not know why, my right leg was slightly wooden. Steady pace for the first 5 kms (5:22-5:26 pace) in my neighbourhood and then turned east to my morning date with the Sun. And there he…
Tristate 600
600 km brevet (606 reallyy) done in 36:55, 33 minutes faster than my last year’s timing. Goal was 36 hours, punctures slowed it. But heck, it was a great ride. By successfully completing this, I became a Super Randonneur (SR) this year. Yay! A on-the-dot start at 0700 on a wonderful Saturday morning, cutting through the city, arriving at the busy Kanakapura road and off we went. A nice non-stop ride to Sathanur approx 70kms,…
Auroville HM 2014
Auroville Marathon tag line is “Run for the joy of running”. And this is what I did today. And naturally achieved my new personal best today – HM in 1:51 @5:15 pace. A wave start for HM, and I started with the first wave at 6:15. The Sun was peeking lazily, countdown started and we were off at the exact time. A sea of runners on the cemented path, I slowly and steadily moved to…
Fourteen Poets 400 brevet 2014
“What is more interesting than a brevet with a hill climb? Obviously, a brevet with two climbs.” Trust IISc Randonneurs to spice up the ride! Karthikeyan, Vijay and Sandeep at the start. And 13 cyclists. A nice clear cool FRI night. 10pm start from IISc Gymkhana. Bone rattling start. Smooth and easy ride via Sankey, Infantry, Cubbon and Brigade. Onto Hosur road, busy at 11pm! Karnataka border arch shows up – Yey, off we go!…
Kolhapur 1200 brevet
I was awake before the alarm clock rang at 3:15am on THU the Eleventh of July. The excitement, tension and the slight fear was palpable. It was the longest brevet I was embarking, titled the ‘No-hype 1200’. After an hour I was ready, rode to the start point, the Khoday’s on Kanakapura road, a good 19km from my house. Bike check done, brevet card signed, cue card handed over by Chidambaran, eight of us are all…
Fourteen Poets 400 Brevet 2013
Enjoyed the Fourteen Poets 400km brevet, my first one with hill climbs. Completed it with 1:20 hours to spare. Hill climbing was a breeze, the village roads turned out to be the most difficult as there were no roads! In detail now… Started on Friday @2200 with Mahesh Kumar and Parag Patankar from IISc Gymkhana jostling the BLR traffic for about an hour only to encounter a bunch of trucks blocking the entry at Hosur. …
Belgaum 1000km brevet
Delighted to post that I completed the 1000km brevet (Bangalore-Belgaum-Bangalore) successfully with about 7.5 hours to spare. Ride started at 1600 hours THU, commencing with Rain God blessing us with a big shower as soon we left the start point at MG road! After couple of hours, rain ceased, and when the ride suddenly became rough, I realised that I had a flat. Fixed the puncture by replacing the tube at 2230 on the highway…
Start of my tryst with running
Started running as part of practice for the big ride next week. It is been really long since I ran, 36 yrs to be precise! After getting a feel of running over the last couple of days, did my debut run of 3.6kms in 22 mins today. Loved it. Especially when Julia, the voice of Runtastic iPhone app said 1km done and then 2km … Looking forward to getting to my first milestone – 5km.