“The Panda” at Kung Fu Panda 3 Premiere Show

A few weeks ago I had posted the Kung Fu Panda 3 trailer and wanted to watch the movie soon. Little did I know the wish would be granted by an old friend. Mayur Amminbhavi, an old friend from KLESCET works with DreamWorks Animation and he got me and my cousin two passes to watch the World Premiere of the movie at PVR, Phoenix Market City today.

Mayur Amminbhavi (Left) and Anvith K.S. (The Kung Fu Chacha)
Mayur Amminbhavi (Left) and Anvith K.S. (The Kung Fu Chacha)

I hadn’t met Mayur in years and he actually called me and gave me the passes. Thanks Mayur. You really are a great guy and a good friend.

The movie was amazing and lived up to my expectations. The story line was nice and tight. The gags, as usual, were spot on. The 3D work was top notch and the visuals, the visuals deserve a special mention. Each and every frame was breathtaking and it well thought – out.

Ride to Swapnavel – First ride on “The Conquistador”

Nobody gonna take my head, I got speed inside my brain
Nobody gonna steal my head, Now that I’m on the road again
Oooh I’m in heaven again I’ve got everything, Like a moving ground an open road
And everything…

Coming Soon…

Velo Trippers – Belgaum

Velo Trippers Are Us
Velo Trippers Are Us

Did you enjoy cycling as a kid?

Did you enjoy jumping over speed bumps and riding in the mud and call it “Mountain biking”?

Did you stop cycling because it’s something which only kids are supposed to do?

Do you still feel the urge to pedal away on a cycle when you see one?

Are you fascinated by the two wheeled, engine-less fun machine that is the bicycle?

You’re not alone!!

WE ARE HERE!!

We’re a bunch of regular guys, call us Weekend warriors if you must, who enjoy riding bicycles and are not embarrassed about it.

We are Velo Trippers.

We ride to places around Belgaum and have a whole lot of fun. Along the way we eat , click photos and make merry.

Whatever your reason, being eco-friendly, saving fossil fuels, burning those excess kilos or just having a good time, we’re ready to be a part of it.

With a couple of rides under our belt and also more and more people becoming aware about cycles and cycling in general we want to share the joy and benefit with all those who are interested.

With the opening of the Firefox Bikes Station opp. Millennium Gardens, and the existing BSA Go Showroom at Samadevi Galli, the people of Belgaum are open to pick from Trek, Schwinn, Canondale, Bianci and BSA-Hercules range of high-performance bicycles.

If you are interested in riding, chatting, inquiring about bikes (how, when, where etc.), or just having a good time with like-minded people, give us a buzz.

Contact us

Find Me on Facebook

Belgaum – Vaijyanath Temple – Belgaum Bicycle Ride with Belgaum Cyclists.

Hi guys /Gals [if any – notice the capitalisation of the G, any feminists reading ?? ]
Ok enough of the lame jokes and let the report begin.

Belgaum Cyclists - "Velo" are us.
Belgaum Cyclists - "Velo" are us.

As planned I did the Belgaum to Vaijnath and back trip today. But I was in for a pleasant surprise. The night before, ie. yesterday I get calls from three people asking whether they can join me on the trip. One was a BZ’er raghu mohan, the other was Amit revankar and Rohit Shezekan. Rohit didn’t have his cycle in condition so he backed out [but I’m enabling him slowly] . raghu rides a Trek 4300 [from BOTS] and Amit a ACT109. I was more than elated to find people who share my passion about cycling and the ride to Vaijnath was a fun ride.
I got up early in the morning [read 06:45 on a sunday [sadists I say] – yeah I had to get up early this time], and got down to preparations.
Water Bottle – Check
water in water bottle – Check
Electral – check
Chikkis – check
Bread – check
Peanut butter and Jam sandwiches – ermmm Check
Lock – check
Key – ermmm check [I think]
Puncture kit – Check
ittyadi ittyadi ittyadi [etc. etc. etc.]
With everything ready and in place I started the ride to the meeting place [Arun Theatre / Panchamruth restaurant ] . i called up amit and raghu and both said they’ll be there in ten min [IST] so I got down to some serious business [read – Eat breakfast]. Amit arrived and he helped himself to some breakfast too. I gave him some cycling gyaan and showered him with BZ Jargon[it’s fun watch people’s faces light up on hearing the fun that goes on here] . Raghu arrived by then and he too had something to eat. By the time everyone was done with breakfast it was 09:00 hours. With a few starting line pics we decided to start off the journey.
At this point raghu suggested an alternate route instead of the State Highway which I had mapped the earlier day. He said there’s no traffic and its shorter. So we said Aye!! lets go. What e failed to mention was that this aforementioned shortcut was a offroad trail. It was AWE-FREAKIN-SOME!! We rode the trails, took lots of pics found some nice rock quarries / dried up ponds and rode around them. Did some fake photo ops and gave our collective egos some boost and then headed on till we met the State highway. Up until this point there was no traffic and we rode at out own pace [On tarmac i was uncatchable, off road raghu was riding like he couldn’t care less, and Amit, well the guy had a really short seat post and the seat couldn’t be raised to optimum level. He was having a tough time riding but still managed to hold on for dear life.
Once we reached the highway we tried to maintain Indian file, slowing down to catch up with the stragglers, or getting off road when @$$hole mining truckers tried to run us over.
After riding on the SH for about 6-7 kms we came across the turn to Vaijnath. We rode on for another 2km before we reached the base of the hill. Here we stopped for drinks and to regain composure and generally discuss how to go about climbing. Amit is new to cycling, so he was bushed by the time he caught up with us. He said he’ll try to ride it but will walk from where he couldn’t. So me and raghu decided to ride at our pace and try and tackle the uphill ride. I started off strong and kept the middle gear ratios. usually the center cog on the front and the two cogs in the center on a 7-speed cassette. [Pardon my ignorance, but I still cannot remember the gear ratios / teeth etc thingie ] . The climb starts off gradually and keeps increasing with a couple of blind turns. The problem with these blind turns is that, once you see the other side you want to go back to the time where you hadn’t seen it. The sheer anticipation of the climb saps you out. I had to shift down to the smallest cog in the front and second largest cog behind. Today was probably my most HTFU-mantra Jap day. At some point in time I remembered bikeyvenky’s climb of Nandi. He had mentioned that at times he just saw 4 feet ahead of him and concentrated on his pedaling. I did the same, and it worked. [Thanks bikeyvenky!! ] The only problem was riding continuously uphill is a pain [and I do not mean it figuratively] . Hats off to the pro’s who climb miles together.
Just when I could see the temple premises I started feeling like I was about to die!! The road loops around the temple and the entrance is on the other side. I could see the loop but again [Blind Turn !!] I couldn’t see beyond so stopped for the guys to catch up.At this point I was pretty happy with myself. In a month I have been able to cycle uphill and that too 25km away from the city . In 5 min raghu was with me. He rode leisurely at low gearing. I did some photo-ops and then we saw Amit. The guy really climbed [walked] all the way and that is commendable considering the fact that people chicken out soon, perseverance in any form deserves Kudos.
Once he reached us we rode on to the temple, and this is where I realised that I had stopped just about 100m from the entrance. [Damn you blind U-turn!! ]
We locked our bikes together, cracked some jokes on the “macho” ACT109 trying to get naughty with my Schwinn Hybrid and the Trek just leaning in.:P This is where I realised that I had packed my long 6-feet lock alright, but forgot to carry the keys [So much for pre ride checklist – Check [ for next ride ]] [See i love my parentheses] . Then we went into the temple to pay obeisance. Vaijnath temple is a temple dedicated to Lord Shiva. there is a Shiva Ling and the Nandi Bull [So can we call this the Nandi of Belgaum?] we did what we do [devouts prayed, agnostics thought about what they are praying to, Atheists were thinking of what to do when they get back. ]
we came out of the temple and did a photo-op again. raghu asked us if we were interested in riding even more uphill, as there was a fort from the Shivaji era called Mahipal Gadh. I said Aye, but Amit had to get back home soon so we decided to turn back . Mahipal Gadh got added to the wishlist.
The ride downhill was awesome fun. As usual I let the Schwinn go and did it go or what…Zoomed all the way downhill and had to stop for a baraat [Yeah I was dancing atop my saddle to “Kala Kawwa Kaat khayega sach bol” ] . We rode all the way to the junction with the SH and from there decided against taking the same off road route back as we wanted to head back via the city. On the way we saw this old lady and her grandson selling mangoes. We turned in unison without informing each other [Yeah mangoes do that to every Indian I guess!! ] . Bought a couple of dozen of good mangoes and asked the lady to freshly cut two for us there to eat. At this point I remembered I had packed sandwiches and go em out. I distributed them among all [had packed two sandwiches per head] and when I started distributing seconds i realised I hadn’t applied either PB or J to one set. Luckily raghu [or was it amit ] said no to another and I ate two.
gave a sandwich to the grandson who was very intrigued by the bikes and the strange fat man with a helmet and backpack. He looked happy [which made me happy] .
The mangoes very simple superb. I mean there is a difference in the mangoes you get in the city and those you find in the villages. The one’s in the city usually are ripened artificially or adulterated with some agents. After thanking the lady we rode off and kept riding until we cam across this “Rasavanti Gruh ” [Juice Center or House] Ordered for fresh Sugar cane juice had it and left from there. Somewhere on the outskirts of Belgaum, in Hindalga we encountered a gradual but pretty long incline Rode it all the way and felt like it was Mount Everest.
We reached the city from here on and the first stop was the BSA Go Showroom. Amit gave his bike for servicing and asked for the seat post to be changed and we left for the day after saying our goodbyes.
All in all, the first ride of Belgaum Cyclists [Still thinking of good name for the club I intend to start] . Some things I learnt from the ride :
1. Checklist is very important : really!!
2. Riding in a group is slower but fun.
3. Better equipment does translate to better performance [Whilst raghu and me were pretty comfy [barrring my tale of the sliding seat post] Amit was having a tough time]
4. Inner roads are better than Highways.
5. HTFU works all the time.
6.Amit needs a new bike [hehehe..I’ve been at it the whole day. If Amit reads this he’s going to roll his eyes]

Distance Covered : roughly 40-45 kms yet to map the revised route and dunno if i’ll be able to map the off road sections.
Time Taken : 4.5 hours with 1.5 hours of stoppages.
Pictures :

Belgaum Cyclists
Belgaum Cyclists
The Rides
The Rides
Me and Raghu pottering around the dry pond.
Me and Raghu pottering around the dry pond.
Raghu giving the Trek much deserved treatment.
Raghu giving the Trek much deserved treatment.
Poser Attack!!
Poser Attack!!
Poser No. 2
Poser No. 2
Big Red Riding Fat Ass
Big Red Riding Fat Ass
Raghu in Action
Raghu in Action
The-Searcher - Enroute Destination Vaijyanath.
The-Searcher - Enroute Destination Vaijyanath.
The-Searcher - After climbing up the Vaijyanath-Hill.
The-Searcher - After climbing up the Vaijyanath-Hill.
We came from down there.
We came from down there.
Very Happy we are!!
Very Happy we are!!
The Setting Sun & The Searcher.
The Setting Sun & The Searcher.

::beercheers
Anvith

PS : The all important PS. I reached home by around 3 and freshened up and took rest till 18:00. Then i started feeling hungry as we mostly had fluids in the morning. So decided to head out to grab a bite to eat. As I was headed to Bogar Ves [main city center], I saw the time and realised the sun was about to set. I headed back to Blackhole [Nanawadi] which was on the same route as the morning ride. This is a open stretch of land which has many ruts and some rock ponds etc. Also houses the army commando training Center. I was in a race against time as the sun was setting fast so I sprinted all the way there. Reached just in time and took some pics. Pottered around for a while and tried my hand at offroading, although I was apprehensive whether my tires / rims would take it. My apprehensions were allayed with the first bump i took and from then on I kept on riding. After I had enough of riding on tractor ruts and grassland I headed towards Bogar Ves. I encountered a bunch of friends who I hadn’t met for a while, so showered some Gyaan there too..:D The usual how much , why, couldn’t you buy a bike, and then let me try happened and then I headed to Bogar Ves [ finally!!! ] Met Amit again who had come to collect his bike [Didn’t happen] and both of us decided to eat faloodas. Enjoyed a good half falooda and then headed back home. I had some dinner and hurried home cause I wanted to write this report when all the memories were fresh in my mind. The pics are coming soon.
[Daayyaammm!! thats a long PS]

Belgaum – Jamboti – Belgaum Bicycle Ride with Rajiv on 15th May 2011

Woo Hoo!!! W00t w00t!!! Yipee aiee aiee!!! Yipee aiee aiee!!!

Webmaster Cyclist

I did my first half century ride. The location was picture perfect. Beautiful roads (uncharacteristically still in good condition after enduring two rain seasons.), awesome scenery all around and most importantly I wasn’t zipping past in a bus or 4 wheeler thinking “Damn! If only I had my camera, and we could stop here”. I had my camera, and I stopped wherever I felt like it. Took a whole lot of pics.
Other than this being my first real long ride, it was also my first ride with a partner. Rajiv Belikati joined me with his Hercules Ultima 6-Speed [Piece of shit edition – courtesy shankarbn (not the bike – the phrase)] and I respect him for that. It was like trying to climb Mount Everest by using a table fork as a pick axe.
The morning started early for me (read 8am on Sunday) and I was all excited to go on my first long ride. But alas I was in for bad news. My RD started giving me trouble and the chain wouldn’t mount the largest gear. I looked up BZ and youtube, found a couple of DIY links and tried to tinker with my RD settings and Managed to screw it up bad. I had to call my LBS mechanic (turns out he’s good with bikes. Knows his stuff and more than that he’s genuinely interested in bikes) and take the bike there. He fixed it for me, Lubed it properly and gave both our bikes a final looksie and off we went.

The Open Road, Quaint Hills and "The Searcher"

The time was 12 noon by then, but the weather gods were very generous with us. The day was cloudy and windy. Drizzled a bit but all in all it was great to ride without getting exhausted soon.
We rode along and encountered 4-5 hills along the way. Where we couldn’t ride we walked (well it was our first ride, so we took it easy) and clicked away at the aforementioned picture perfect spots. Got some weird looks from people (I was in helmet, gloves, full sleeves jersey on a “Racing/Geared bike”). Had a couple of people wave at us from 4-wheelers and give us the thumbs up, which felt good and gave us a sense of pride (until we encountered the next steep hill..:P)
We carried 4.5 liters of water between us and had a good heavy breakfast before leaving so hunger and thirst wasn’t a problem. Carried chikki’s with us for snacking along the way.
Jamboti is a forest, situated on the western ghats, roughly 25kms away form Belgaum city on the way to Goa (Alternate route). When we reached the forest area it was like we entered an air-conditioned environment. The temperature dropped some 6-8 degrees. The difference in oxygen levels was evident. We could ride hills which we would have otherwise walked…:P
We reached Jamboti around 14:30 and had lunch at the lone decent looking hotel there. The Bhaji Pav (and not Pav Bhaji) tasted like gourmet Cuisine to us. After gulping down the last of our water bottles we bought three liters of chilled mineral water and headed back towards Belgaum.
The ride back was fun, as we coasted most of the way. We went up the the steepest of hills we had encountered on the way up to Jamboti, so going downhill in rolling terrain was beautiful.
A word on the Schwinn at this point : The bike flies. I mean roadies may be sniggering, but a 96 kg fat guy on a bike hurtling downhill (atleat doing 40kmph – No cyclocomp to verify) overtaking triple seat riding mo-bikers on the way is no mean feat. The road grip of the tyres was too good. The braking is spot on and responsive. I felt so much more comfortable and confident (also the helmet helped).
We took some breaks in between, did some photo ops in burst mode and finally reached Belgaum city at 18:00.

All in all a very memorable first long ride, and my first half century. I am finally living my school boy dream of riding a “Mountain bike” (will happen soon ) on the trails abroad (will happen in good time)

Pictures : Pictures Uploaded to Facebook – Public Link

::beercheers
Anvith

Jyotiba - Mechanic Par Excellance
We came up here...
and went up there...
The Cashew Fruit
The Searcher
"The Searcher" with "the piece of shit edition" Ultima - Time to upgrade Rajiv..:D

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PS : On the way back, we were pretty tired. But what I saw next was scary. I thought we were hallucinating. I mean take a look…

No Passport; No Visa; No Flight; and its closer than Belgaum too..:D..TII(This Is India!!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Unusual Culprits  - Anvith (Helmet) Rajiv (No- Helmet)
The Unusual Culprits - Anvith (Helmet) Rajiv (No- Helmet)
"The Searcher" - A parting shot.
"The Searcher" - A parting shot.

 

 
The Route map :
[iframe width=”640″ height=”350px” src=”http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/render_route_video?route_key=815130552592238523&site=mapmyride.com”]

Of Friend’s & Friendships

Ashley’s wedding day was an eye opener for me. That was the day i realised i really had made friends for life.

We say it a lot of times, talk about how we’ll remain friends for life et al, but seldom is life so kind to us. ‘Life’ just happens to us. Just when you think everything is hunky dory it throws newer obstacles in your path. Priorities change, friends change, people change, you change.

At ashley’s wedding a few of us from the glorious batch of 2002, mgm puc met each other. And for some reason even after all these years it was as if we just got out of class and headed to the nearest hangout. Rehashing old memories, talkin about how we’re no longer the same person, bitching about people we hate, who’s in touch with who, who’s married, who’s not, the list goes on. What started off as a wedding reception quickly turned into a mini reunion:-)

Ten Years. Thats how long we’ve known each other. A decade. In this day and age where friendships are defined by the no of people in your facebook list or the no of people following your tweets, i feel proud to say that i have known people for ten years, and i am their friend. Ten years is not a very easy feat. People don’t talk as much as they would like to now, work takes up most of the time, the rest is taken up by family. But then small gestures like a pizza treat, or an unexpected call go a long way. It shows that we still care, may be not as much as we would like to, but in our own way we try. I’ve always been told that you can have only one best friend. But i always begged to differ. How can a person have just one best friend. The term best is a superlative. And when all your friends are the best people you know you don’t give them individual monikers like best friend.

You may have a limited number of confidant’s but you can never have only one best friend:-)

i know that because i have best friends for life:-)

here’s to the 42ers:-)

class of 2002, room no 42 and 56, mgm college, udupi.

PS: Please ignore any typos. Its 3 am and cellphone’s aren’t exactly meant for blogging. There’s so much more I want to write, but I’m afraidit’ll ahve to wait. I’m mixing up words and typos are increasing. Its time to sleep..:D

Webmaster Motu and The Machines of Human Suffering

Webmaster Motu is back.. and he is Banging….:P.. That sounds corny, but hey, life is like a bowl of sweet corn vegetable soup, the best bits are all lying at the bottom. The subject line refers to those dreaded places us mere mortals decide to visit when the seams of our best shirt seem to be coming apart like noodles, and you just don’t fit into that new expensive pair of jeans that you bought. The girl’s give you a second look, cause they can’t believe a human being can actually wobble, roll and yaw at the same time. The old uncles (Any male above the age of 30 and not related to you directly as Father, Brother , automatically becomes your “Uncle” ; Oh! how i love ye, the queen’s language with the Indian Tadka!) are looking at you and thinking “What is this world coming to?  I wonder how he’ll look when he’s my age? Shaa!! This young hip hop generation all they do is eat junk food and drink carbonated poison” .

Yes! You guessed right! {If you did not Shame on you || (referred to as or in programming languages) you really don’t  need to visit this place( which is  a good thing)} (See!! nested parentheses. I love them :-))

I’m talking about the Gymnasium, or “The Gym”.

Its done !!! After 4 years of procrastination(For people who think that means advanced castration, it means delaying something by making up reasons..:P) , I have finally enrolled myself into one. Let me explain to you, how.

It all started when I woke up one day and realized I’m fat. End of story. The next day I was at the nearest Gym (Less effort to walk to and from) and joined up. The gym-owner was pretty convincing (made me pay 3 months advance fees (well he knows I wouldn’t continue if I didn’t have the ceremonial carrot (I mean which Indian would want to waste hard earned money))). This brings us to the night before D-day (first day of gym). I, knowing full well, that I would have to control my diet (Stop eating sweets and chocolates) and the binge eating (Stress eating, eating for fun, eating in sadness, Eating because it’s time to eat, eating because someone said its time to eat, eating because there’s something to eat, eating because no one else is eating,Eating because its a party, Eating because its free, eating because……Well you get a rough idea..:-P) I decided to go out with a friend of mine and did all the eating and merry making I could ( OK may be not all but yeah add Eating because a friend is giving you company to the list). I reached home around 12 and thought to myself “Damn!! how am I going to get up tomorrow morning.?” Well the next thing I did is try to put on an old T shirt of mine and it just wouldn’t fit. Well that was the final straw. The gym would never see a more gruesome site. I had declared war on it ( And decided I could have one last chocolate before I stopped for good (Last chocolate ever)) .

 

Time :05:00 am.

Day 1.

I woke up with a start, I had this dream that a giant dumbbell was rolling down the road and I was running ahead of it.Just when I was about to be crushed under I woke up and realized there’s still 15 minutes to spare before my alarm went off. So I did the most logical thing, Changed the alarm to half an hour ahead and went to sleep.

The next time I woke up, was to the incessant ringing of my alarm tone. I promptly snoozed the alarm ( may be a couple of times but finally better reasoning prevailed (it was probably my bowels crying foul, but I’s like to see myself as the hero here. so better reasoning prevailed it is). I was up and prepared myself for the long arduous walk / run to the gym for the first time in my life. I was in a pair of shorts and a T shirt and carried my kit with me. Little did I realize that the December/ January season isn’t called Winter season or the cold season for the heck of it. The Cold was excruciating. My feet and hands and face were numb by the time I got to the gym. The warm air inside thawed me out, and I was back  in the mood.

Now to think that joining a gym is a walk in the park or a piece  of cake (That i wouldn’t mind..:-P), is not really the best thing to do. It’s like joining a new school in the middle of the school year. You’re the new kid and everyone’s looking at you as if you just soiled your pants. I met the trainer and he asked me to change in to my gear (which was just wearing a pair of canvas shoes I had purchased for this very purpose about 2 years ago). The next thing he asked me is have you attended a gym before or done any kind of exercise? (Now looking at me any body will feel the same), and I promptly replied “Yes! I used to play football and cricket in college. I used to train hard every morning.” What I failed to mention was that was a long time ago. But hey, I did so that’s what I told him. The trainers aren’t dumb. They know who is in how much water ( A direct translation of the Hindi adage “Kaun Kitna Paani Mein Hai“). He was as prompt as me in replying, Hit the floor give me ten push-ups. At this point all my enthusiasm vanished. Ten Push-ups !!! Ten!!! I’d be lucky if I could get past three. So I took out my age old tried and tested weapon of choice – “My shoulder is dislocated”,  I said. “Thrice” I added jsut to be on the safer side. Then I got the usual barrage of questions – when, how why..etc. etc.etc. The trainer asked me to start off with stretches and some light skipping. I managed to stretch parts of my legs I didn’t know I had. That’s when the fun started (Not if you were me).

The trainer demonstrated how to skip, and he was doing a good job too. He was doing some 100 RPM i believe. Then he handed me the skip rope and asked me to do the same. I started skipping, or so I thought. All I could do was one lousy skip. The next rotation I got tangled in the rope, and this continued for the next ten times. All this time the other members of the gym were staring at me like I was some kind of fresh meat at the prison (Its like when a new inmate arrives, who gets to be his fatherly figure of the “Who’s your Daddy”? kind…;-P).

A word about the other members. There are the pros – these people couldn’t care less, who’s making a fool of themselves. They partner up with other Gym buddies and carry on with their regime, occasionally giving you the look and smile. Then there are those who are just below pro but not amateurs. You’ll find a lot of these at the gym. They hang out in groups, all the time cracking jokes about who did less sets or who’s next in line for the bench. These guys usually loo at you and make you feel miserable just by looking. (Didn’t work with me. I still went the next day.) Some of these guys will give you pointers. They tell you how to go about the first week. Most of them sit back and enjoy the show. (fat dude trying to skip jiggling his belly.!! Now that you have that image in your mind lets move on). Then there are the amateurs – These guys have either joined the week before or a month and act as if they’ve been exercising there for years. they are the wannabe’s who keep checking for those non-existent biceps. The next category is the Uncles (Please refer above for definition). The gym uncles are a class apart.  they are usually the pot bellied T shirt wearing uncles who aren’t getting the chance to get naughty because of the spare tractor tires they’re carrying. They’re there because someone has dangled a Get-naughty-with-me-if-you-lose-the-Tyre carrot in front of them. They look at someone  like me and think “If only better sense had prevailed and I had joined the gym at his age.” or ” He must not be getting to do naughty-naughty too” . They’ll do a few stretches, some twisting on the twister and then start walking on the treadmill. They start sweating in the first two minutes and are gasping for breath in the next five. (I may be exaggerating a bit here. No offense meant to  any of the uncles who’re reading. (Self Preservation is all)).

With the circus over (The amazing skipping Hippo) the trainer asked me to climb aboard the twister. This is a machine where you can learn to twist.(The dance style where you twist at the waist whilst keeping your upper body straight) No explanation needed there. I twisted for ten minutes until I started feeling woozy. The trainer put me in the treadmill next. He explained how to use the tread mill (Yes. you have to learn how to use one. there are different buttons and presets and setting. You should do a RTFM (Read The Freaking Manual) before you use one) I started walking and the pace was very slow. So I increased the speed. Slowly but steadily I brought the speed up-to normal walking speed. Walking on a treadmill can be tricky. You have to concentrate on your steps, or end up trying to balance yourself and fall flat on your face with a mouth full of treadmill. Now this particular treadmill has a incline setting. So I being the enthusiastic gymmer and all, increased the incline to a higher setting. After about 3 minutes I realized I was actually finding it difficult to keep my next step straight. I started feeling dizzy cause the treadmill makes you walk continuously in a repetitive manner, which can cause you to lose your footing (Just like you get disoriented after turning around in circle very fast. I got off the treadmill after about ten minutes and immediately felt like I was still running. My head was still spinning and weirdly not in a circular motion but an elliptical one. (I leave it as an exercise for the readers to figure out the meaning of this statement) At this point the trainer saw me and said “that’s enough  for day one, Take it slow the first week and then we can start light weights.” Boy was I relieved or what. I packed up my gear (Took off my shoes) and took a sip of water ( yeah i carried that with me) and immediately went to the weighing machine. One day of exercise (45 min to be precise) and I was hoping to have shed a few grams at least. When i stood on the machine I got a shock. I was weighing more than I was at the time of admission the day before. Then I realized it must be all the food I had the night before, saying its going to be my last splurge before the “gymbargo” (Just like guys and girls get naughty giving going away for a long time as the reason). Well I wasn’t happy. I expected to shed at least a few grams. So I went downstairs and had breakfast (Did I mention Eating because you aren’t happy in the list?)

That pretty much sums up my first day at the gym.

What will happen in the coming days only time will tell (with a little help from Facebook of course ). Till then this is Webmaster Motu signing off.

Ctrl-Alt-Del.

 

 

 

 

PS: As you might have noticed I love to use my parentheses, and as every programmer should do I believe in proper nesting of statements {(Like for (example))}.

One Wild Night at Benaulim – The Story

Few years ago, when i was in Goa, visiting some of my friends, we decided to chill out at the beach. Lets call these friends Eenie, Meanie, Mynie and Me. Eenie and Meanie had a lot of work so Mynie and Me helped out and by the time we were done it was 8 pm. We were all tired and wanted to wind out so we drove down to Benaulim beach. this beach is located in south Goa and is a lovely place to spend time with friends.

Now we reached this beach around 8:30pm and immediately started looking for the nearest watering hole (read beach shack). We landed at Roger’s Shack (Inset) and grabbed the last table, where the waves met the shore. We didn’t waste any time and got down to business right away (meaning water from the watering hole…You get my drift..).

BEER COUNT : 4 +

It had been a long day so we were feeling good right away. The cool breeze, the chilled beer, the comfortable cane chairs and the beautiful ladies were having their effect. We were doing a lot of CB(refer CB Radio 101)and the night wore on.

BEER COUNT : 8+

At this point we happened to see that there were many musical instruments lying around on a stage like area. Now, Eenie plays the guitar and sings too. So we asked the waiter to get the guitar for us. As luck would have it, the strings were all broken and there weren’t any new strings so were kinda disappointed. This is when we met our host for the evening, Roger himself. Roger is a chilled out character. Loves the beach, loves Goa, loves his beer and loves his music. He told us that a live band performed every Saturday (or Tuesday.. I don’t’ remember.. at this point i had reached a happy place..:D) and that the gear belonged to them. He said he could arrange a guitar for us if we wanted to play some music. We agreed and he asked one of his waiter’s to get the guitar.

BEER COUNT : 15+

This is where the wild night commenced. It was about 10:30pm by the time we got the guitar. We started singing our all time favourites, Hotel California, Summer of ’69, Alice, Country Roads, Roobaroo so and so forth. By this time the Beer count was over 20 and Mynie was feeling happy..:). Roger was attending to other customers and by around 11:30 pm most of the other customers were winding up. We on the other hand had just started. Roger grabbed a beer and a chair himself and joined us. Now this dude started strumming a tune on the guitar and boy did he do a great job. We were all clapping along and singing along and having a great time. Then Roger went inside to attend to some other stragglers like us.

BEER COUNT : 20+

We started singing authentic Goan songs like Mando’s , “Haanv Saiba Poltoddi Voita, some more which at this point had become all the same for me. Mynie was getting happier and Eenie was playing louder. Meanie and me were singing at the top of our voices. At this point Mynie decided to remix all the songs. Whichever song we started ended with the world famous “Sutta song. CB was at its height and we were planning on taking over the world with the empty bottles of beer..:D

BEER COUNT : 25+

The tide was rising and the waves were lapping at our feet now, but we couldn’t care less. We were having the time of our lives. But then some sense prevailed and we pulled the table a little behind( nobody likes soggy socks..:D). Roger must have thought we’ll drown in the high tide because he came and offered us to sit inside the shack. Now at this point Eenie had about 3.5 beers in him. I probably had a beer and a half (Yeah… i was done..:D) and meanie and Mynie had the rest. So we were all superman or spider-man and nobody could tell us what to do. So we said “Eh.. Noooooooo!!! We ain’t comin in maaan. We be the children of the ocean . Bring us our drink and begone with you.” (I’m pretty sure we just looked at Roger with glazed eyes. I’m just speculating what was going through our collective minds at this point..:D)

BEER COUNT : 30+

This is where everything gets foggy. Roger came to our table and told us that there were some pretty ladies in the shack who wanted to listen to some authentic Goan songs. We refused the first time around but the ladies were very convincing (Now which superhero can refuse his Lois Lane or Mary Jane..:D) We reluctantly agreed and went inside the shack. The time was around 12:30-1:00 am and we were on cloud number 9 and counting. The beers kept coming and i lost count at this point ( at this point that was all i did, keep count) Meanie and Mynie were ordering beers left and right,even though the bar-tender had shut down the bar. Roger wasn’t complaining and so weren’t my dear friends.

BEER COUNT : 35+

Roger introduced the ladies to us and us to them.There were two of them. Names were exchanged and we inquired about their nationalities. Now these ladies told us they were from Palestine on a tour of the country and had spent 9 months all over. They had just got in from Pune and had brought a friend of theirs with them. This friend was a guy, an Indian, but a Wannabe ( you know fake accent, three fourth’s, goatee et all). Mynie heard Palestine and the next thing he says is “Israel? Israel?” We must have come out as total nut-jobs, nincompoops really cause the girls exchanged looks and corrected us “Not Israel. Palestine. Different Country” (Middle eastern accented English implied)For some reason they did not ask us to leave. They wanted to listen to Goan songs and we were the only channel on at night…:D So we started singing some Mando’s. We made up all the lyrics and sang whatever we felt like and Roger knew that but he couldn’t care less. his customers were having a good time and buying more booze. Meanie and Mynie had by now made an arrangement with one of the waiters and all they asked him to do was get beers and he made them appear. Meanie also had a few beers tucked away in the sand just in-case the bar ran out..:D How thoughtful…!!

BEER COUNT : Why bother!!!!!

Now the aforementioned wannabe friend of the ladies was being a PIA (Pain In the place where the sun don’t shine ). He had this sour look on his face like he was about to give birth or something and all of us collectively disliked him. so we decided to teach him a lesson. We asked him to start singing with us and whenever he would start singing Mynie would start the chorus of the Sutta song “BC sutta, mujhe sutta na mila” at the top of his voice and the ladies followed suit for the first two three times but they had been in India long enough to realize that it was some expletive and then they just giggled and smiled. This was irritating the PIA even more. But we were having a ball and decided to remix just about any song. This went on for a long time and before you knew it the ladies called it a night,. they thanked us for the good time and left. We didn’t even realize they left, cause the party was on. We sat there for another half hour or so and decided to grab one for the road. So Meanie and Mynie got out the beer’s from the sand and passed around the beers.

BEER COUNT : really now..!!!!

The time was around 2:30 am (I think) and we were all Happy (Meanie and Mynie were more than happy and Eenie was the designated driver, yeah we are responsible drinkers, and I was well lets just say if I was a bird i would be an Eagle) Roger decided we had had enough and asked us to drive safely. (He didn’t want to ask us to leave outright) well we took the hint and started stumbling to the car. Now weren’t done just yet. We climbed on the embankment and decided to hold a pissing contest ( cut us some slack ok. we were all loaded and needed to relieve ourselves. What better way. Guy’s you’re with me on this one right…:D.. sorry gals we can be uncouth). well with no decisive winner ( we were all too drunk anyway )we decided to drive back home. How we reached home none of us remembers accurately, I was asleep and when we reached home i just got down from the car and dropped on the bed. Eenie helped meanie to his bed and Mynie probably found his way to his bed. All we know is we got up late the next morning and tried to recall where we were.

Till today whenever the four of us meet we still reminisce about that night. Although we didn’t do anything crazy like get a tramp stamp or a piercing the sheer number of beer’s between 4 guys is enough to compensate for the craziness..:D Whenever we head back to Benaulim we make it a point to sit at Roger’s and grab a beer or two. This was one of those “There are some things Money can’t buy “ situations and bought us a little closer to each other. Like I said earlier “All you need is a little CB to bring people together and hold them together”

 

 

 

 

This is the story of how we made it through One Wild Night at Benaulim Beach.

 

 

 

This is Me signing off…

Cheers!!!

 

 

 

PS: Up until we got the guitar everything is fact. After that a lot of it is fact and as recalled by Eenie, Meanie, Mynie and Me but quite a lot is pure conjecture. We just put two and two together and hoped to god that it turned out to be four..:D

 

PPS : The number of beers is also pure conjecture but we know for a fact that we had 45+ beers. Please bear with any typo’s.

 

PPPS : Drunk driving is dangerous, Please don’t drink and drive. Always have a designated driver at parties.

One Wild Night at Benaulim – Theatrical Preview

Reviews :

 

“My life has never been the same after seeing the carnage that took place one night at benaulim beach.” – Eenie.

“It was the best day of my life.” – Meanie.

“I’ll never drink so much….I Swear..” – Mynie

 

Based on a True Story.

Four Friends…

One Night…

A shack on The Beach…

and 50 Beers….

 

Experience how four friends made it through “One Wild Night at Benaulim Beach

Coming soon…