That Funny Feeling

Its pitch black outside and stunningly silent. The only sound I can hear right now is of the insects. (its something like a high frequency kkkkkkkkrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr).

Inside, the TV is loud and family glued to it, getting ready for dinner to be served. Some of them talking about good old times. I however; prefer sitting out in the dark and hitting my laptop keyboard hard and fast (to type this down). The place is my hometown Mangalore, the time is 10pm, its few hours before my train leaves for Mumbai, and its That Funny Feeling again.

I have always enjoyed traveling to Mangalore. This was one short [totally unplanned] vacation trip and like all trips, it’s almost over……….well not yet though, but almost over. This Funny Feeling will be over too, I guess once I reach Mumbai, so thought might as well capture it here, before it vanishes after seeing the crowds and busy streets of Mumbai.

It’s “That Funny Feeling” which always comes up as any vacation nears its end. However short and unplanned this vacation maybe, I am going to miss this place, the people I met, the food I relished and all those small moments that were enjoyable and relaxing enough to unwind me from my daily work routine. Cheers to all!

The kkkkkkkkkrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr volume is increasing, guess they are attracted to my laptop screen in the dark. Its time to go indoors and continue, since I haven’t captured “That Funny Feeling” yet.

Drifting slightly from the main topic (the insects diverted my mind I guess)…

The only complain I had from this trip is meeting so many relatives in such less time. Well, simply meeting them was not actually a complain; in fact was good to catch up with so many of them. The real annoying aspects of meeting relatives were the two questions that were constantly bombarded at me at each house. 1) What’s your age, and 2) when are you getting married? Puffff !!! I am immune to it now. During my 4 days here, I think it was asked exactly 137 times each. One more question came close third and was asked about a moderate 43 times. 3) So you came to Mangalore to see proposals is it?

Well I am not going to answer any of the above here. Although I do remember I gave a different answer for each instance any of those questions were asked.

Apart from these annoying instances, everything else is a well cherished memory.

And I wish to be back more frequently and quite often.

Before I log off….Treat yourself to this spontaneous poetry.

Change is the only permanent thing they say,

And that feelings in this ever changing world no longer stay!

But it’s That Funny Feeling which keeps coming up every now and then.

Especially when the train leaves tomorrow; and now its 10!

What attract me most to my hometown are the colors of nature – lush Green acres of fields, Red soil, Blue skies, White beach sand.

In my city however, the colors still exist, but not of nature; only artificial by man.

Here, every sound, smell, touch, sight is soothing!

There, most of it is polluting.

Words fall short to express what I have to say

Feel free to interpret this in your own preferred way.

For the rest of this night me going to shut off my thinking,

And prefer being a little while longer with That Funny Feeling.

Know Your Traffic!

The term “Traffic Update” is usually associated with FM Radio where jazzy RJ’s keep yapping about daily traffic jams in the city. It’s a good thing they do, but the major drawback is –

• You need to wait and keep listening to the radio for traffic updates
• You cannot ask for an update on your route
• You don’t get the update when you want it. Correct?

In a city like Mumbai, we always wish there would be a real time traffic update system that lets one know which roads are congested and which are free to travel. Well, the wait is over, as Google has nailed it!

Google Maps shows real time traffic updates in major cities like Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, Chennai and it’s awesomely accurate. I have tested it on various routes while travelling in the city. It helps plan the best possible route.

On your phone (ofcourse you need a phone with Google Maps installed on it), launch Google Maps. There is a “Layers” option, mostly in the application Menu. Select “Traffic” there, like in the screen bellow –

Launch Google Maps - Select "Layers" from Menu

And Eureka! You have the city traffic update in your hand.

Know the color codes –

Green – Free flow. Few vehicles. Zooooom with ease

Yellow – Moving traffic. A little more vehicles

Red – Lots of traffic. Slow moving

Dark Red – Bumper to Bumper stop and slow moving traffic

No Color – No traffic update…..yet

Check out few screens below.

Traffic on Western Express Highway
near my home - Today, 10PM

 

Traffic at Bandra, Sealink - Today, 11PM

Now check out the traffic at Marine Drive, Queens Neckless today at 11PM in the screen below. All roads in this screen show no traffic but Marine Drive shows Red, indicates traffic jam or slow moving vehicles. Can you guess why? Common...Guess Guess! (Answer below the screen)

Marine Drive Traffic today at 11PM

Its Diwali season, so people at this time bursting firecrackers at Marine Drive. So many cars stop by to see firecrackers, hence the slow moving traffic jam J

Isn’t it amazing we have the entire map, with live traffic feeds in our hands!  Well this piece of technology is not something recent or new. It’s been used in USA, Europe, and many other countries. But this is one thing that Mumbai really needed........isn’t it? J

So now you can plan / estimate your travel times with ease. But as we use this service or technology, its a wonder to know how Google manages to get these updates? What method do they use to calculate traffic at real times? Let me know what you think. 

Oye......Gaadi Rok!!!

We have so many traffic rules…….. we hardly follow few…….. and never bother to know them all J.

I was driving on the highway once on the leftmost lane. Saw a signal turn red and halted like a responsible citizenJ. There was a left turn at the signal, but I didn’t want to take it as I had to go straight. The signal light turned green, and I accelerated, only to find a traffic cop blocking my way and ordering me to park at the side.

As I turned the wheel left to park I started to think if I had jumped the signal, and maybe that’s why he asked me to stop. But soon realized that I did see the signal turn green. Nearing my side of the window he asked in the usual Mumbai Police istyle “chala license kaada”. I handed him my license and asked what fault I did.

Just then I got a phone call (I didn’t notice it as my phone is always on silent when I drive). The cop saw it and smiled quirkily “You broke 2 rules – One is you were on the left lane when you wanted to go straight and Two is that you are using your phone and getting calls while driving” .  

Well rule one did make sense and I agreed he can book me for lane cutting. But the second rule was simply hilarious J J J ……. Another cop came near and started to write a receipt for a fine. And below is the transcript of the exact conversation:

Cop 1: Book him for lane cutting and talking on phone

Me : (with a naughty smile) Sirji, you know that I was not talking on the phone. Yes I was on the wrong lane, so I’ll pay the fine.

Cop2: You seem like a bright kid. But you see, if I give you a receipt, then I take your license and you have to come the next day to collect it. So much trouble to you.

Me: So what should we do? (I knew where this was heading J )

Cop1: He was talking on the phone!

Cop2: You tell me what should we do?

Me: No you tell me!

Cop2: Ok. Your normal fine is Rs200. Pay me less here and leave.

Me: (Thinking…….shall I give him less and leave …….. or……… damm….tough choice)

Me: Sirji, I don’t feel its right so you can take my license and write me a receipt.

He then started to write a receipt. But a similar incident happened when I was in South Africa with my uncle. So taking some tips from there I bluntly requested the cop, “Can you let me go please? I haven’t committed a grave offence. I usually follow all rules and I am sorry I was on the wrong lane. Can you let me go please? “

There was no reply. He simply handed over the license to me nodded me to leave. Wow! That was a relief………and an instant learning as well. - If you don’t ask………..you don’t get !!! J

And when I was all set to leave, the cop who caught me said “You seem like a good man. Pray for us”. We don’t like to take bribe either. But it’s a tough job that we do”

I wished him luck and left. It was so true what he shared. Traffic policemen are never respected by citizens. All we think is that they take bribes. But that’s not true. Imagine what would happen if Traffic cops went on strike for a day…………would be total Chaos in the city right! They do work, and it is indeed a tough, tiring and thankless job. Hope the government provides good facilities to those who make sure our travel is easy. But till then, would be nice to just wish a traffic cop next time you meet one. A “Namaste”, “Good Morning”, or festive wishes, or just one statement of praise like “you’re doing a really good job”. He too will feel good for that one moment you greet him J

Jumping from a Plane!!!

Had written this article a long time back. Thought of sharing it on this blog....

Summer of 2008, Oulu, Finland

Heights have never been my strengths. Friends who really know me well can vouch for it. It’s not that I am afraid of heights, but kind of a phobia where in I get a tingling sensation in my legs when I look down from few feet above ground. And if I am standing on a rooftop and looking downwards, then I need something to hold on to, else, I’ll never go near the edge J

So here I was in Oulu during the winters and while exploring this new place, found out a skydiving school nearby. Upon enquiry, they told me there are two types of jumps:

1) Self jump, that needs a training of 7 hours and one can jump on his own from a height of 1 km’s above the ground. (3281 feet)

2) Tandem jump, needs just 30 min’s of training and one can jump along with the instructor, but from a height of 3.7km’s above the ground. (12139 feet)

That’s it. I just enquired and thought, let it be. Not something I should get involved in J

One fine summer day, few others who were working with me started planning for skydive and asked me if I would like to join in. They were just pulling my leg…….they knew my height disorders ;)

However, I agreed to their request. It later on so happened that the others where a little chickened out and I had to really convince them to go for it J. So out of so many of my friends, only 4 agreed to go for it.

Now the next question, Self jump or Tandem? I opted for a Tandem, simply because it was from a greater height. Well, it’s not that I was all brave to challenge myself. But the Tandem jump had a greater free fall time. Free fall as the term implies, is that part of a skydiving jump, where you just fall before opening the parachute. For Tandem jump it was 50 sec’s and for a Self jump it was 3 sec’s.

So I opted for 50 sec’s ;). I still don’t know why, but it was the best choice I made.

I made the bookings and visited the facility. The instructor was Petteri Korhonen, a Finnish local, who by profession is a Software Engineer, and does this as a hobby. He had done about 5000 jumps then. Wow! Could you believe that……..so many jumps and he has still survived. Guess that made me feel more safe and put aside all the nonsense thoughts I had in my mind.

Then there was a brief training session that had me lying down on my tummy on a skateboard with arms and legs in air so I could balance my body against the aerodynamics during the jump. A little bit of theory about the parachute and how it needs to be handled.

Cool, so training was over and we headed for the jump site. I had a personal camera man too who would jump with me and record it. We got into the small Cessna plane, ready to take off. My final instruction given by the instructor was simple…..”Roland….don’t do anything silly. Just Jump!” J

As the plane gained altitude, I started to have a strange sensation in my tummy. The pilot and my instructor kept asking me how I felt. I just smiled like an idiot and said I am fine, enjoying the view. In reality……..I was not fine. I was nervous and scared. I just pretended like I was calm. Thought of asking them, “Well, can we take a U-turn and go back please, I don’t think I can do this”. But I didn’t. And thank God I didn’t

I closed my eyes for few moments and talked to myself “Come what may, I will jump. With total trust, let’s jump”. Then I started to enjoy the awesome view around. There was land and sea all around. Everything seemed so tiny. The skies were clear with few clouds around. From the window, I could see the vast horizon. All I could hear was the engine of the Cessna, like the starting of an induction motor from 3 idiots.”DDhhurrrrrrrrrrrrr…..”

It took us nearly 20 min’s to reach the height of 3.7 km’s. They opened the plane door. My instructor did a final round of checking that the parachute was correctly attached to him. He checked the four hooks with which I was attached to his body. Yes, that’s all that would hold me until we landed……..those four hooks.

The altitude gauge showed a reading of 3.7 km’s and a temp of -4 C.

I slowly moved to the open door, one baby step at a time. The wind was gushing at my face. It felt refreshing but the fear I had earlier, returned. The more I moved closer to the door, the more my mind started looking for reasons to not jump. My cameraman was already out holding on to one of the plane wing ready to shoot my jump. I managed to get to edge of the door with my one leg outside by now, hanging in air. I had to gently getup and standup with my instructor behind me and move outwards near the plane wing. That’s when I looked down upon the earth. Well it did look all gorgeous and beautiful, but it didn’t interest me then. My feet were shaking, my tummy was tingling. Slowly, taking support of the plane wall, I managed to reach the wing.

I was facing my Ultimate Fear! Then I heard a count “1……2……3……jump”

And………… can’t explain

We somersaulted and I could see the plane fly past away from us. And I was falling at speed of 220 km’s/hr.

And that was it. Fear had been kicked out. Then there was total ecstasy during the fall. It felt like ultimate freedom. Everything seized to exist in those moments of free fall. I couldn’t feel my body though I was breathing, my mind was clear, and the intellect wasn’t doing anything, felt like there was no memory of anything before the fall. All I could feel was that Moment.

Everything felt like it just vanished. No thoughts, just being with the fall. It was bliss!

While having a fall from that altitude, one has nothing to lose, nothing to hold on to. All I remember I had was happiness. Yes I was scared before I jumped, but a small push was indeed needed for this experience J

Then I heard one more count “1………2…….3……parachute”

And Whooosssshhhh……the parachute opened and pulled us upwards due to the air pocket it creates. That’s when I realized the beauty of the skydive………”You fall first, and later enjoy the view J”

Everything around was serene and pure beauty. We guided our parachute to the nearby clouds, then moved swiftly over the nearby sea. I was still attached to my instructor with those four hooks J. We then made way to the landing area, and bump, we were on the ground. I looked up and thanked for this experience.

Summer 2010, New Jersey, USA

Again I got a chance to jump in New Jersey on 4^th of July. This time from a height of 5.4 km’s (17717 feet) and free fall extended to 70 sec’s J.

It’s not that my height phobia has gone away and that I am not scared during skydiving. I still am. And every time fear is only the moment I stand at the open plane door. Once I jump, it all goes away and it is freedom. The experience is worthwhile. :)

Check out the video:

Skydive in Oulu

Skydive in New Jersey

Attaching few pics.

Horn............Ok.........Please?

For last few days, i have been travelling a lot by road. Mostly using the Western Express highway from Borivali to Andheri and back. Its actually after a long long time that I started riding my bike daily...........on the road ofcourse :P

To speak about the traffic, well, Mumbai traffic is the best among the worst traffic we get in our country..............isin't it? The roads are rarely empty.

While riding, one thing that used to irritate or bother me was the excessive honking by other riders / drivers. (we Ride a bike....and we Drive a car -- for those who don't know the difference!!!) . I am sure even you must have observed this. We are at a red signal, and people behind pressing that horn franticly. We are stuck in a jam packed traffic, still people behind us, to the right, left and in front of us keep honking. Yeah as if the more number of times they honk, that many vehicles will be reduced on the road........like the traffic would just vanish :). And to be honest, there were moments when this honking did bother me.

So i started playing a game :). And that was to simply ignore the excessive honking. And boy that did wonders. Like if there a car behind me honking desperately, i just ignore it. Infact i also reduce my speed for few seconds. Now its not that by doing so the car driver stopped honking. In some cases they honked even more. But simply by ignoring it, made me more peaceful. It made me enjoy my ride much better, even in the traffic, even in the pollution :).

People may not change............but i can surely change myself...........to some extent :)

I recommend that someday you too play this game when u ride........or drive :P

Graceful white surprise ...

Its time for me to leave Finland for the moment and go back to India ;). So for the past few days i was involved in clearing stuff over here and also packing my bags. It has been a wonderful experience of learning and sharing. Lots of stories and memories :). 

Also, the winters are fast approaching, with temperatures touching zero degrees. (and even goes below zero at night). Till yesterday it was all green outside. The skies were cloudy, and the weather was windy. Nice and pleasent for a long walk with special people ;). But today, it started to snow in the afternoon. And it snowed heavily for about 2 hours, thus everything outside was all white. Everything was covered in snow..........the cars, trees, bikes and even people. The roads that were clear and visible till yesterday were covered under thick lush yet soft snow. 

The entire place looked different after the transition/addition of snow. I was all excited to see the first snow this year, so took out my bike and went for a nice chilled bike ride ;). And just looking around, observing everything, i could feel the soft snow falling upon me from the endless skies above. The wind flowing would ocassionally make innovative designs of the snow flakes floating in the air. And with everything so pure and white around me, i could only feel grateful to the Divine for giving me this oppurtunity to experience His abundance presence all around us. Truely Magnificent !!! :)

Here's a pic of the first snow fall that i clicked.

Tasty Surprise

I had been to Switzerland and Germany two weeks back. Both places are simply awesome with their own natural beauty, culture, tradition and people. Well, i am not going to give a detail explanation about my trip in this blog............may be some other time. But will share regarding the lovely food we had in Switzerland.

As we all know, Swiss is a place of high hills and valleys. (and lots and lots of cows. the ratio of cows to people living there is 3:1). The peak parts of Alps range is also in Swiss. So my friends and me decided to visit a peak Mount Titlis. Its at a height of 3100 m above sea level. And tourists are taken to the top via a cable car that takes 45 minutes.

When we reached at the base of Mt. Titlis we were excited to see the natural beauty around. High mountains with their peaks covered in snow. Clicked many pictures there. Before boarding the cable car, we decided to eat some stuff so that we won't get hungry later on. Now eating outside in Europe is a big trouble if your an Indian.........and even more trouble if your a Veggie Indian :). We spotted a take away joint near the base. Hoping that it served good food, we rushed towards it.

And to our delight........guess what it turned out to be. It was an Indian food stall.......yieppe!!!
And to top it all...........our Indian flag was hoisted there too. Well........it is so true.........we Indians have our presence everywhere...........even in the high Alps. The stall attendent was a noble man from Rajesthan but living in Switzerland for the past 30 years. When we looked at the menu............we were even more thrilled. They served Vada Pav, Idli, Pav Bhaji........and even Gajjar ka Halwa :) . We ordered all of them. And i ate it as if it was my last meal ;). I had not eaten these items for the past 11 months since my stay in Finland. So it was a treat for me.

aaaaahhhhh.........I just cant imagine life without vada pav....... ;) (pun intended!!!)

India vs Finland - Volleyball !!! :-) .... Chak De style.

There are so many stories about how a person who is considered as an underdog rises to his tasks and achieves his goals merely by his desire and belief to win. Take for example the stories shown in Chak De India and Lagaan. But these are just reel stories. What i have to tell is not a reel, but a Real Story. :)

The day was 29^th August 2008 on a beachside. That’s where a beach volleyball tournament was to be held for all Elektrobit (Oulu, Finland……that’s the company where I work) employees and sub contractors and all entries were to be given 2 weeks before the date. So we decided to participate and send in our entry. Total number of players in a team was 7 and all were Indians. The team name was selected as Just4Kicks!

Great, so we had our team we had a funky name, and now the big question was, how to play the game. Well, for those of you who do not know, the Finnish people play volleyball in their country as we play Cricket in India. So they are well versed with all kinds of tactics and strategies. And to top it all, the average height of a Finnish person is 6 feet 2 inches and they have a very strong and muscular physic. More like the WWE people. Now just imagine us standing among these huge dudes. Its like Rajpal Yadav standing among a group of Dara Singhs :). So it was evident that our team had no chance to win even a point in the game, forget winning a game.

For the next two weeks, we practiced regularly for 2 hours after office, thinking that its fine if we loose, but we will not loose without a fight. We learned a few basic tactics during our practice sessions and had a simple game plan – that come what may, we have to give our 100% and pass the ball to the opponent’s court. We all felt good about the practice sessions as we took it like a temporary exercise to this software body of ours.

So the day came, 29^th of August. It was a Friday and many employees were ready at the venue. Some to see the games and some to participate in their teams. There were 5 teams including ours, that made it 4 Finnish teams and 1 Indian team. And from the Finnish teams, there were 5 players who were national level players. While we were warming up before the games, our Finnish colleagues challenged us that we wouldn’t even win a Set. As a matter of fact, that’s what we all felt when we seen the Finnish people or Finn’s practicing. Their game was so perfect, and so strong. Unfortunately for us, the temperature that day was 7 degree Celsius. The temperature did not matter for the Finn’s as they are used to extreme cold temperatures.

Well, with all odds against us, we said to ourselves, let’s enjoy the game and win some hearts :). The games started with a huge applause from the crowd. Luckily, we started our game with a bang. We got 3 straight points on our serve. So we were leading from the start. It was a best of 3 Set matches. So the team who won 2 Sets would get points added in the table. We were doing very well in the first Set, and guess what, we actually won it. This gave us confidence that if we just calm down and focus on the game, we can do better than we expected. The match continued and we performed even better and won the firs match. Wow! But there was a weird silence in the crowd. The Finn’s never expected us to win, but we did. So this became a prestige issue for them. And they started cheering all the Finnish teams against us.

Our second match was against a team named Godzilla. And likely so, all players were huge:). But we had one thing in mind, not to go down without a fight. And fight we did. We won the first Set. Seeing us perform so well with such enthusiasm and high levels of energy, few of the Finn’s from the crowd started cheering up for our team. And we really liked it. The game went on. We lost the second Set, but won the third Set comfortably thus winning the match against the mighty Godzilla. And the crowd cheered even more for us.

Then was time for a third match. We stumbled at the start but won that match too in the end. So with 3 wins to our team, we were now going to play a last match, which was the final. Now could you believe that? Well, we couldn’t at that time. With no chance to win even a point, here we were winning 3 continues matches against some of the best players and now even had a chance to win the finals. That itself is some achievement, isn’t it?

The whistle was blown and the tournament finals started. We were playing good, but the opponents were even better. We gave everything, but it didn’t matter, they were just too good. We lost the finals. But it was still a close match, with just a difference of couple of points.

But too our amazement, everyone from the crowd was just saying our name Just4Kicks……Just4Kicks :). Most of them came and talked to us, saying that they liked our style of playing the game, it was unique and different. Even the Finnish players came and applauded us. Everyone was in total surprise that how could a bunch of Indian guys manage to give such a great performance when they had all odds against them.

We lost the finals, but it didn’t matter, as we had accomplished what we had aimed for – to win hearts! And we had done it in style:). We won the silver medal and we felt like winners, not the reel way, but the Real way.