Hilarious!

I was browsing flipkart for some popular books when an ad caught my attention: 

India's answer to Dan Brown

"Nail Biting Suspense"

- Hindustan Times

decoding a murder has never been this interesting

Then I checked out the book called "The Shadow Throne" for which this much build-up was given. Reading books by new Indian authors is always a tricky thing and even known authors produce substandard quality material over the time. 

However, this one had a rating of 4.1/5 out of 75 ratings. I was surprised because high rating with a lot of reviews is rare as in the case of Game of Thrones series or Millenium Trilogy. Then I came across this superb review:

a review on reviews for this book

There are 14 reviews for this book before me. Out of 14 reviewer, only one person has reviewed 2 other items including one book. Rest 13 people have reviewed only one item on Flipkart and that item is THIS book with five star rating.

You must wonder what is going on here. I guess this book is on it's way to Sahitya academy, Booker and whatever you can think of.

May be Flipkart should have a better way of verifying review or at least have some information about what rank the book is selling at like some other international book sellers, which certainly would help Flipkart customers in making a informed decision.

Can you beat this? :D 

So I continued browsing and checked out JK Rowling's Casual Vacancy. It had mixed reviews and I understood that plots such as these were not my thing anymore. Then I spotted something on the side pane which made me laugh. It was listed that "Engineering Thermodynamics  by PK Nag" was most bought by customers who bought the “Casual Vacancy”. So the majority of online shoppers for this JKR book happened to be our own Engg crowd :D

Canon & Defy+ present: Bike trip to Gokarna

It was quite a long time since the last long bike trip in May 2011. A real opportunity came along when Srinath, my school friend and bike mate to the Laddakh trip in 2010, suggested a bike trip to Gokarna in the last 10 days of December 2011. I couldn't wait. And I didn't expect 9 more people to be joining us either. Totaal awesomeness

So this "RAW" trip was scheduled for 5 days: 24 - 28. But before going further, lets explore a bit into "RAW". Its something people forget about themselves over time... as life and people keep you "civilized". Raw is the true nature of things without dilution, corruption, makeup or build-up (TR-style rhyming!). RAW is explained succinctly by the following 2 pictures.

 

With salutations to our Captain for involuntarily agreeing to be the mascot of RAW, let-us-the- start-off.

DAY 1

Me, "Velakku" Srinath, Ajith, Hari and Vandana on 3 bikes, PK, Vivek and Dwara in 1 car left Bangalore at 7am from Velakku's house. Though we took different route to reach Shimoga, we lunched together at Shimoga.

RAW fist Velakku

Me and Ajith showing a RAW fist

We also went to an off-season Jog Falls at 5pm, which had only 10% water falling, if it can be seen in the background:

Vandana, Me, Ajith, Velakku, PK, Vivek

So we reached our hotel Kumta at ~8pm, settled, ate, talked, slept, full stop.

STORY of GOKARNA

In the old days, Pandavas and Kauravas were having a beach volleyball match. Karna was the star player who was thulping Padavas left-right-center! Some hippy tourists were searching for Goa when they heard the beautiful apsara-cheerleaders shout "Go-Karna!, Go-Karna!" and so they understood that this place was Gokarna and not Goa. This is the real history behind the name.

DAY 2

Ajith's sis, cousin and friend joined us: Madhu, Nimmu and Ramesh respectively (sounds like thesis language!). We wasted no time in the early morning of 11am and hit Murudeshwara for water sports.

LADIES and GENTLEMEN... presenting to you the latest and greatest yet... the subtle and stylish... rock solid... MOTOROLA DEFY+

Respect! It is also my fone, saar!

Raw gang: Hari, Vandana, Madhu, Nimmu, Ramesh, Ajith, PK, Vivek, Velakku

The Mighty Lord watches over

We did water scooter, banana ride and para-sailing. Some excerpts:

We lunched, headed back to Kumta, rested, headed to Om beach by 8pm. Yes... THE Om Beach!

This is a secluded beach where grass is greener on the same side... where a class of people head to and have a good time... with the food, beaches, music also. We stayed overnight at a "fully-booked" Namaste Cafe, thanks to Vandana. Namaste Cafe has one of the best foods served in the world catering to a variety of cultures... Indian, Italian, Chinese, Continental, Russian, Israeli etc. as equally diverse and hippy was the crowd.

We had nice long walks on the beach and lovely time with our good old friend Johny of the Walker family. We also played some 100 old pipers.

DAY 3

Breakfast Club@Namaste Cafe

The day was awesome... some of us trekked to Paradise beach, while some came by boat. Let the pictures do the talking:

uTake myTake

Yo Boys!

Y Nimmu cry?

Remember "Kadal Yeruma, Kadal Panni" ?

Ultimate Star Ajith

After all the fun we had in the sea most of us headed back to Gokarna in the evening, while Velakku, Ajith, Vivek and Dwara stayed back for taking some dusk photography. Madhu, Ramesh, Nimmu had to catch their return bus that evening so they left Gokarna by 5pm. Me, Hari and PK paid a visit to Mahabaleshwar temple and soon afterwards we picked Vandana to head back to Kumta. The boys who stayed back at Om beach took some of the best pics ever:

"Whattay pics I say...

To buy, 500 roobees you pay!"

- Thirukkural (translated)

DAY 4

The boys back in Om Beach stayed at a nice RAW cottage and came back in the morning and rested in Kumta. While Me, PK, HnV paid a visit to the great Kollur Mookambika temple. I didn't take a picture of the temple but this one is from wikipedia:

So we went back, relaxed, played cards, slept. Vandana had to catch bus so she left that night.

DAY 5

All of us got up early by 6am and got ready to leave. I learnt that Kumta is supposed to be a haunted town, as shown by this tree right outside the hotel:

We had breakfast and started at 7am and came back to Bangalore by 5:30pm via Hubli-Chitradurga-Tumkur-Bangalore route.

THE END

(and so... the RAW begins)

Atal Bihari Vajpayee

Being a big fan of Vajpayee, I constantly keep looking for videos of his speeches or articles throwing new light on his life and principles.

Today, I was reading the transcript of Karan Thapar's interview of Brajesh Mishra in 2009, who was the principal secretary of PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee (1999-2004). This excerpt was just brilliant:

Karan Thapar: What was the special quality that Mr Vajpayee had that allowed him to hold a party like the BJP together and a government of 24 members together without any real major problems?

Brajesh Mishra: The first quality that he has is that he is very generous at heart. He never denied anybody the opportunity to speak his or her mind even though it may be critical of him. He dominated the meetings through his silence. Innumerable meetings of the Cabinet, he would keep quiet. Every member who wanted to speak or say were allowed to speak their minds. At the end of session, Mr Vajpayee would say just one sentence -- 'Shall we do it this way?' And that was it. This quality of his was a rare one. That's why I call him a statesman and not a politician. He understands people, he gives them all the opportunity that they want. It's human nature that once you have been given the opportunity to put your say forward, then you tend to be more amiable to decisions being taken.

Karan Thapar:You are clearly saying that both by giving people opportunity to speak and also by his masterful silences where he withheld what he himself would be thinking was actually a master tactician?

Brajesh Mishra: If you want to call him a master tactician, I would say that was something inborn. That was within in nature. Perhaps this tactician business is a by-product of his nature rather than something which he has cultivated deliberately.

Karan Thapar: The second corollary, the first from what you are saying is that because of his character, he always got the better of the sort of person who wants to burst out and speak first.

Brajesh Mishra: Yes.

Karan Thapar: He was never scared of others jumping into the fray wanting to speak and voice their opinion?

Brajesh Mishra: No, never.

Karan Thapar: It seems he got the better of his entire Cabinet?

Brajesh Mishra: I gave you instances. He let everyone speak but at the end he finished it with one sentence.