Happenings…

Phew, what a last couple of weeks. Hectic, busy at work all alone back in the home. My wife Sawani and my little one Arjun left for Pune to be at home. Arjun was just waiting for his summer holidays to start so that he could visit Pune and be with his grand-parents (both paternal and maternal). They left on April 14th so it’s been like 2 weeks (almost) since they have gone and I can’t tell how much I miss them. It’s amazing how life changes once you get married and so much more so once you have a child. Evenings without my Arjun in the house, it’s pretty boring. But hey, I do get a call from them almost daily updating about the happenings in Pune and what he did, what happened..etc. so it gets be back into a jolly mood.

So quite a lot has happened over the past 2 weeks. On the work front have been working on the Femto Controller requirements and things are shaping up pretty well.

My cycling has continued to be intermittent due to quite a lot of happenings.

April 10th: 20 kms
April 11th and 12th: I’m not sure if I cycled on that weekend. I think not. I guess I will have to keep doing this more regularly lest I forget.
April 13th: 20 kms
April 14th: No cycling. The day Arjun and Sawani left for Pune. I went to office by bus that day, Sawani in the afternoon came by car to my office (My office at Aiport road is along the way to the bus stand at Kalasipalyam) and then we drove together to the bus stand and I drove back to office and then later in the night back home.
April 15th, 16th, 17th: 20 kms each
April 18th: Decided to go on a ride towards Sarjapur. Went all the way upto Sarjapur village from Whitefield and further about 5-6 kms and then headed back via Bellandur - Outer Ring Road. This turns out to be around 50 kms ride. Pretty good really I completed most of it in about 2.15 hrs. Had a stopover at an eatery near Sarjapur, had delicious piping hot and spicy Idli-sambar-chutney alongwith a cup of tea. Had another stopover at my friends place at Outer Ring Road later since we were planning for a night dinner at my place (me and my office friends) interestingly most of them also are alone (wife and kid gone home) types so we decided to cook, drink and be merry that night. Here’s the route map of my ride

Came back home in the afternoon around 1:00 am and then went out to buy some mutton. Got about 3 kgs of mutton. We were about 6 of us (Chandra, Abhijit, Ajay, Suresh, Sarvesh and myself) There was one more guy whom I had invited, but he didn’t turn up (Satya) Well he almost never does. Chandra got some delicious home made chicken (about 2 kgs) and we gorged on it. All-in-all had a gala time later in the night, watching the IPL cricket matches, drinking and eating.

April 19th: No cycling. Recovering from the previous days party. Nothing much happened. Took to relaxing.

April 20th: 20 kms. It started raining in the evenings in Bangalore. Got completely drenched while coming back home. My cycle doesn’t even have tire guards, so you can imagine where and in which places I was completely drenched. So how/which is the best way to cycle even in the rain. Tire guards won’t look very cool in on my Merida. I guess the only option in front of me, if I have to continue cycling in the rains, is a good wet-suit (rain-coat) I guess. I need to get that sometime.

April 21, 22nd: Decided to go by car, due to the weather. Riding in the dark, with the rain is not safe. Better safe than never and hence decided it would be prudent to swallow my pride and go by car instead. April 23rd was declared a holiday at office due to the elections in Bangalore. Concept being, everyone must vote and there should be no excuse (had to work) to not go and cast your vote. Well, did I vote, no I haven’t. Why, I don’t have an election card here in Bangalore. Did I get one done ? No..Did I try to get one done? No. Is this a good thing? No ? Then why not ? Well, I read about the harrowing stories about trying to get the election card and then making sure that your name is listed in the voters list, I just grew tired thinking about it. It’s a lame excuse, I know. Maybe next year. So since 23rd was declared a holiday, we so-called-bachelor folks again decided to party. A very last moment kinda decision and we headed out to Satya’s place this time around. Suresh, Chandra, Satya and myself again cooked some chicken/mutton alongwith some whisky (got it through back-door channels since the liquor shops were officially closed) and IPL matches for company. Came back home by 12:00 am and signed out for the day.

April 23rd: Being a holiday, I decided to burn off the calories that I had put over the past day and due to not cycling was getting a bit restless. Decided to take a different route, went from Brookefield-Varthur-Hoodi-Sai-Baba-Ashram-Old-Madras-Road-Pai-Layout-and back to Brookefield.

Here’s the map: Distance covered as per the map: 35 kms

 

April 24th: No cycling due to weather. Went to office by car. We headed over to KFC for some fried chicken and burgers. It was a Friday so we office friends typically head out for lunch instead of having it in our office cafeteria. Interesting day became more interesting, since one of the consultants called me up later in the night saying that one of the telecom firms would like to interview me for a Pre-Sales Engineering Manager position the very next day, ie. for the 25th.

April 25th: Nothing much happened other than some basic brushing up in preparation for the interview. The interview was more of a discussion with the System Engineering folks at that company. Went all-right, but am not sure will get the job since the position may not be an exact match. Anyways it’s an interesting opening, so thought what’s the harm in going for a discussion. The company is doing pretty interesting work and has notched up several million dollars in venture funding. Came back home in the evening and was disappointed to see Mumbai Indians loosing to Deccan Chargers.

April 26th: Today: Posting this blog. May go out for a ride later. Have an interview scheduled with another company tomorrow.

Total Distance Covered on Merida: 974 Kms
Total Distance Covered on Cycle: 1544 Kms

Cheers,
Yogesh Ranade