I want to ride my bicycle

दोस्तों, खरीद ली हैं हमने एक साइकिल। एकदम मस्त है और चलने मैं दमदार - पूरे २१ गियर हैं! और दाम भी कम - फिर कोई वो क्यूँ ले, ये न ले (वो से मतलब महेंगी वाली firefox/ trek)

इस साईकिल का नाम है - हीरो ओक्टैन (देखें फोटो)

No, this is not a reaction to the increase in fuel prices. But, just for the record, Mr. Chidambaram and Mr. Deora, it hurts!

This bike is supposed to complement the running. Had a recurring knee injury in the left leg due to my over-pronation and this bike is supposed to help me strengthen my knee and cross-train a little. Did some 25Km on it this weekend (along with a half marathon). Was good fun, coming back was little painful.

Have not taken this to office yet। Am too scared to cycle in Bangalore rush hour traffic. Someday!


Related Blog-post: Biking and etc

Big Brother is Watching

Remember Orwell's 1984?

I felt something like it is happening in most modern socities. I always knew that our online lives are monitored by security agencies. I guess the IBs and RAWs are running scripts on the net to find out what we read, what we write and what we do on the net. I think expecting privacy in an online world is akin to wishing for the moon expecially in terror ridden society of ours.

But when things like this happen, you wonder if you freedom to express yourself is under threat.

Here the issue is two-fold:

1. Error in the data being given by a mobile operator
2. Undue (?) use of force by Maharashtra Police

The first issue is an easy one. Given the terror backdrop that our law enforcement set-up works in, it is natural for them to ask the service provider to provide inputs that they consider critical to their function. However, the callousness with which the Mobile Service Provider (MSP) handled this particular request is incredible. They need to understand the repercussions of any error they make here. In this case, Lakshman Kailash spent 43 days in the Yerwada jail at Pune for no fault of his.

The MSP has spent a considerable amount of PR money to keep this matter under wraps. I hope the courts award a judgment in the favor of Lakshman Kailash directing the MSP to compensate him. And I hope the compensation is large enough to ensure that the MSPs exercise utmost care in providing such information.

The second issue is the most concerning one. Having lived in Mumbai for 4 years, I know that the Shivsena/ MNS/ BJP/ Congress set-up simply loves Shivaji. He is a deity of sorts. However, they just cannot go after anyone who has something derogatory to say about Shivaji. This is a free country and people are entitled to have their views. Putting someone behind bars for more than fourty days for writing something about a maratha warlord is something I find hard to digest. People write so many derogatory things about Mahatma Gandhi but I doubt any of them is subjected to this treatment. Why?

The answer is simple: Vote-bank politics! Shivaji seems to be the top draw in marathi political scenario. The Shivaji mania is so visible in whatever Marathi Polticos do. However, the entire idea of Bangalore police co-operating with the Maharashtra police to catch the 'criminal' who wrote something 'abominable' about Shivaji seems laughable to me. Today it is Shivaji, tomorrow it might be Bal thakrey (Incidentally it did cause a furor of sorts sometime back) and who knows it might be considered bad to bad-mouth Arun Gawli and Chotta Rajan in times to come.

We are a democracy and we have the right to hold our opinions and convictions. They might not be what the establishment would have us believe. But it’s ok! As long as our expression is peaceful in nature.

But even as I write this, I have this lurking fear that my blog might be put on some kind of watch-list and tomorrow they might be knocking at my door to take me to a trip to Yerwada, Pune. So friends, Banloreans and Countrymen (and countrywomen as well), keep your eyes and ears open, I might need your help!

Search Words

While I was away, this web-page had a continuous flow of traffic all the time. Initially, the increasing count on gostats made me think that I have a group of regular readers and I was really smug about it for a while. But as most of you might know or intuitively understand that such a constant stream of visitors is difficult to maintain if no updates are being made to the web-site. Unless the traffic is driven by a search engine.

And hence I started on this analysis of the visits in 2008, trying to figure out the drivers of this traffic. Search words/ Specific pages. Yes, I do such things inspite of the much avowed work-eating-any-free-time-that-I-have syndrome. As for the results, they were very interesting to say the least.

Some blogs were more popular than the others. And the posts that I like the most were hardly there. May be people do not want to hear what I'd really like to tell them.

Anyway, here goes the juice of my analysis.

Hate Hindu(s): This one was the most popular by far. Did not realize that so many people hate hindus. And this site was getting so much traffic because of this. I believe I need to put another post clarifying my position on these matters.

Cure for Drowsiness: It was a distant Second but very strong at being second. Guess a lot of people struggle with post lunch drowsiness.

Aaj Tak/ Surendra Pratap Singh/ Khabrein: SP did leave a strong impact on a certain generation. But what are they looking for?

Anupam Biswas: That fictitious guy from IITB figures in a lot of search results. Just reveals the power of chain mails.

Airtel Desh ki awaaz: I do not know why this is here. Do not remember writing about this ever. Guess it might be because I have ‘awaaz’ in the the name of the blog.

Mrig Trishna Meaning: I like this post. And like the word even more.

Pancham Songs (Various Songs at Various frequencies): This is because of the two listings of my favorite Pancham Da’s songs. But is totally unexpected because they should be totally buried in the thousands of results thrown by Google.

And all this got me interested in SEO (Search Engine Optimization). I think any organization that wants to be successful should get some understanding on SEO. Have enclosed a link on SEO. If you are as uninitiated as I was on this subject, this would be helpful.

Of runners

Lately a lot of my conversations with a set of people I know have been centered around running. Cannot help it at all. And if you are a runner, you will understand.

Got this link a few days back from a runner friend. This was a Adidas campaign some time back. All of these are so true. Most of the runners would have done some of these at some point in time.

http://www.chayden.net/Runs/Adidas/index.htm

Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Back on popular demand

Actually far from it. Yes there were those handful visitors who missed me. But the traffic to this web page did not die down in the last 5-6 months. Sounds unbelievable in a way. This period of no blogging started with pre-occupation with other stuff, then manifested itself into inertia and then the need to write just disappeared.

Anyway, this post started with a visit to Chadha's blog. Read what his profile said and I felt like writing again. Chadha, I do not know if that was for me but it has certainly helped me get back to blogging. Your profile did remind me of those IIT days and the email signature that I used to have at that time.

Meanwhile, people tell me that blogging is passe and there is something new called twitter that is gaining favour with the net. I have realized that the pace at which net is changing is much faster than the rate at which I adapt these days. Finally, after half of the world had gotten a facebook ID, I got one as well. I remained an island for a while and then people started adding me. But the level of involvement till now is much lower than the initial days of Orkut.

Speaking of Orkut, I finally deleted my orkut ID. I think it was taking a lot of my time. Though I would miss the good birthday calendar that it had become.

Rest later!