Let them figure out

Posted by Santh

As a parent or a manager or even an individual, we become leaders and make decisions from time to time. There are different leadership styles to deal with situations and these two quotes drive my philosophy:

  • Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.
  • That which does not kill us makes us stronger – Friedrich Nietzsche

These quotes are in conflict with the widely prevalent leadership style of being over-protective. Being over-protective gives the leader an illusion of control as the leader tends to make most of the decisions. And the team feels happy about having a strong leader who will always back them up irrespective of the situation. And it is more appealing when you consider the possibility of hero worship!

But there are several pitfalls for the team. Teams that are led by over-protective leaders tend to:

  • Be perennially dependent on the leader and cannot act independently
  • Think they will be backed up even if they make mistakes and become reckless
  • Will not understand risk – reward dynamics
  • Do not take accountability for their actions and results
  • Eventually be left unprepared for the future – it is a tough world out there!

Does this mean it is fine NOT to back up our team all the time? Absolutely NO. There will be times when the team needs the leader to back them up to the hilt, particularly when they have put in their best effort but could not achieve expected results due to factors beyond their control.

Teams have to make several decisions every day being fully aware that there is risk involved in each one of them and that they can be judged the wrong way if desired results are not delivered. Failure to back them up when required or reluctance to pick up the battle during critical times will result in the leader losing trust of the team.

So, what can a leader do? Coach people on the basics, let them figure the rest on their own, let them learn through their mistakes and get strong in the process. All of this will build a good team and leadership – continue challenging them and pushing the limits to make them stronger. But when the need arises, step in and support them!

Ultimately, it all boils down to what the situation demands and leaders should use their judgment and decide what should be done – let the team be on their own vs. push them hard vs. step in to support.

Thinking, fast and slow

Posted by Santh

I have read several thought provoking books but this one by Nobel prize winner Daniel Kahneman gives insights into our very own thought process itself. We keep hearing about stepping back to rethink and are encouraged to “think through” before acting – this book explains why they are required.

All my life, I was under the impression that intuition is a talent and a gift. After reading this book, I realized that we should be careful about our intuition and that common sense typically produces ordinary results!

My biggest learning from this book is that there are two systems that help us think and make decisions:

  • System 1 – the fast paced “automatic operation” or “intuitive thought” driven by amygdala, a primitive part of our brain.
  • System 2 – relatively slow paced “controlled operation” or “deliberate thought” driven by neo-cortex, the most distinctively human feature of our brain.

While invoking system 2 for any decision will ensure thorough analysis and reduce mistakes, we may not always have the luxury of time and energy required for it. So, we will have to rely on intuition for a number of day to day decisions. And this is where understanding the two types of intuition comes in handy.

  • Expert intuition: Thousands of hours of practice leads to expertise – Malcom Gladwell’s “Outliers” explains this well through the 10,000 hour rule. While this rule is contested by some, it is still a good framework for understanding expertise. Now, any situation where we need to make a decision will invariably provide a cue that an expert will sub-consciously detect. This cue gives the expert access to information stored in memory and the information provides the answer. Expert intuition is just recognition!
  • Heuristic intuition: When faced with a difficult question, we often substitute the original question with an easier one without noticing the substitution. The resulting easier question will be one for which we readily have an answer, which will invariably be based on our biases. I have observed many leaders form “perceptions” about people and now I understand it should be because of their heuristic intuition!

Whenever I have an intuition or gut feel nowadays, I ask myself if this is due to expert intuition or if this is influenced by heuristics or biases. Expert intuition is good – in fact, what is the point of earning expertise through hard practice if we are not going to use it! But heuristic intuition is bad, leading to bad decisions that leaders in particular should avoid as it can adversely impact their people! So, the healthy alternate is switch to slower, more deliberate and effortful form of thinking whenever we suspect heuristic intuition.

This book is a beauty and took more than a couple of months for a slow reader like me to complete. It will be a long blog post and will take several hours for me to write about everything I learnt. So, I will summarize with some quick pointers to key concepts:

  • Law of least effort – if there are several ways of achieving the same goal, we will eventually gravitate to the least demanding course of action. Laziness is built deep into out nature.
  • Cognitive Ease – when we are in a good mood, we are likely to be casual and superficial in our thinking. Don’t get “carried away”!
  • Jumping to conclusions is efficient if the conclusions are likely to be correct and the costs of an occasional mistake is acceptable, and if the jump saves much time and effort. It is risky when the situation is unfamiliar and the stakes are high.
  • The law of small numbers – statistics can help when the sample size is large enough and comprehensively representative. Conclusions made based on small numbers will not be prudent as they assume a simpler world than reality and ignore that many facts are due to “chance”.
  • Regression to the mean – whenever someone produces extraordinary and outstanding results, an element of chance is likely to be one of the reasons. Over a period of time, the results will converge towards the average.
  • Illusion of understanding – hindsight information is often misunderstood as prophetic knowledge. A number of books that analyze past events and postulate a recipe for future success have fallen flat over a period of time. A classic example will be “Build to last” – the gap in corporate profitability and stock returns between the outstanding and the less successful firms studied in this book shrank to almost nothing subsequently! How about this? – the CEO of a successful company is likely to be called flexible, methodical and decisive. If the firm slips the next year, the same executive will be called confused, rigid and authoritarian! The same actions can be conveniently depicted in positive or negative terms creating an illusion of profound understanding of the presenter!
  • Prospect theory, loss aversion & the endowment effect – These are profound concepts:
    • Reference points exist – A specific amount of money does not have the same value for everyone. A person earning $1000 a month will be a lot more excited about $100 than someone who earns $10,000 a month. This explains why hikes are measured in % rather than absolute amounts!
    • Losses loom larger than gains – we give up on gains more readily than incur losses. A reason why people cling on to losing propositions for long and end of losing even more rather than exit early to cut losses!
    • A luxury becomes a necessity over a period of time as we get used to it.

There is a lot more to read and learn from this book, which is currently #1 best seller under Cognitive Psychology eTextbooks in Amazon. I have just provided an appetizer here and the book will be the main course. And I promise the main course will be much better than the appetizer. Go for it!

Iberian Peninsula

Posted by Santh

I was looking for a good destination to spend some time during the summer of 2018 and surveyed different European regions. Finally settled on the Iberian Peninsula, the land of Visigoths and Moorish conquests as I had read from Edward Gibbon’s classic on the decline of Roman empire and “The Crusades” by Thomas Asbridge. The plan was to spend six days in Spain covering Madrid, Valencia and Barcelona on a group tour and three days at Portugal covering Lisbon and Sintra on my own.

Day 1 – Travel to Madrid. It was a tiring 14 hour journey from Hyderabad including a couple of hours at Dubai. Got some good night sleep at a Novotel near Madrid airport on arrival and prepared for the long tour ahead!

Day 2 – Madrid:

I wanted to start the day with my usual morning run and did not have to look very far for a good place. Google maps showed a Juan Carlos Park beside the hotel and I was there right when it opened at 7AM. The large park beat my expectations and I could not cover the entire park with my 6 Km run. But could not do more as I had to get back to the airport and meet with the rest of the group to start on the Spectacular Spain tour!

    

After checking into a hotel at a south western suburb (Leganes), we started on Madrid city tour. We met the guide at Plaza Espana who talked about Spanish pride around Don Quixote and took us on a panoramic bus tour of Madrid covering the Bull Ring among other places.

      

We finally spent some time at the Royal Palace and wrapped up the day after dinner at a nice Indian restaurant.

  

Day 3: Madrid

One aspect I love about Europe and the US is the pleasant weather during summer and the running trails that show up even at the remotest of places. While the hotel at Leganes was in the middle of an industrial estate where you would not expect a running trail, Google Maps showed a trail about one km away. I followed the map and was surprised to find a lovely trail where you would least expect it! A 5 Km run prepared me for the long day ahead.

  

We started on Madrid city tour with the exciting news that Real Madrid has won the Champions League the previous evening. What a day to be in a football crazy city the day after they won a big cup! It was a great feeling seeing the celebration all around but that also meant extensive street closures and cancelation of night tour of the city.

We started with the historic Atocha station, Prada Museum, spent a couple of hours walking around Retiro Park and clicking some pictures of monuments around.

                

We then went to the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, that was getting decked up for the Real Madrid team to arrive later that afternoon for the big celebration for Champions League! It was a great feeling to visit on that special day!

      

After a short visit to the Egyptian temple that was reassembled at Madrid, we went on a walking tour along the old city shopping arcades covering Gran Via, Sol, Plaza Mayor and returned to Plaza Espana to wrap up the day and go back to out hotel.

          

Day 4: Valencia

Started day 3 with a run along the same trail as the day before and embarked on the journey towards Valencia – it was a 5 hour drive with a short break enroute.

      

Went on a short stroll along the vegetable farms near the hotel we checked-in and got a glimpse of rural Europe for the first time! Felt very much like India!!! I noticed that most of the shops were closed and it was around 2:30PM. I told myself that it should be siesta time and got to see it in action for the first time!

    

We then went on Valencia city tour. The guide walked us through how Valencia was settled first by early tribes, followed by Romans and Goths, all the way to modern times. As we listened to him standing next to one of the surviving city gates (Torres de Serranos), he pointed to the adjacent park with a few bridges and said it is river Turia. It was interesting to learn how Valencia had changed course of the river to city outskirts after a devastating flood in 1957!

      

We then walked through the narrow alleys of the old city listening about the royal palace, Spanish national dish paella, and spent some time at the Basilica, Cathedral and the fresh food market.

                      

We wrapped up the old city walking tour and went to the new city where the imposing Opera and Oceanografic are located.

    

Day 5: Valencia

Valencia is on Mediterranean coast and it was a pity that the beach was not in our tour itinerary. So, I decided to do a long run to the beach in the morning. It turned out to be a 10K run but well worth it running along the farms again and also along the Mediterranean for a few kms.

              

We then spent half a day at Oceanografic, supposedly one of the largest aquariums in the world. It was interesting to see some exotic aminals, particularly from the polar regions, but nothing beyond to rave about. After lunch, it was time to drive up to Barcelona, the capital of Catalonia!

After a quick dinner, we went to the famous Flamingo show at Barcelona. For folks who were looking for flamingoes to dance, it was a disappointment. It was just a couple of agile and nimble dancers tapping their feet to some fast music, by no means an easy one. And with a few expert singers using their hands and vocal chords to create a variety of sounds, it was a great show indeed!

Day 6: Barcelona

As will be the case with all group tours at all locations, we stayed at one of the suburbs of Barcelona but I still managed to find a small park for my morning run. It was a bit of a hilly terrain and had to deal with some elevation during the short morning run of 3 km.

    

After breakfast, it was time for Barcelona city tour. If you were from anywhere else in the world, you might not have heard about Antoni Gaudi. But at Barcelona, it feels like the entire city belongs to him even almost 100 years after he died. His distinct architecture that emphasized on natural shapes and shunned other geometrical ones like straight lines and sharp corners has created a number of unique buildings in Barcelona. The fact that the Barcelona cathedral (La Sagrada Familia) continues to be built long after his death and expected to complete in 2026 to commemorate his 100th death anniversary and become the tallest religious structure in Europe speaks volumes for the influence he continues to have on the city!

    

We then proceeded to Parc Guell, another masterpiece that was designed as a villa community to the rich ended up becoming a park as the location was far from the city by 100 years back standards.

          

It was now time for us to visit the Mediterranean beach resort – Costa Brava! I have seen many beaches in my life but this one was among the most amazing of them. We were there on a perfect day for beach goers, pleasant sunny day and the crowds did not disappoint. I didn’t spend much time on the beach though. I found a trail along the beach meandering through the rocky terrain along the beach and it was a beautiful trek for about two hours. It was a privilege to enjoy some of the most spectacular views!

                  

Day 7: Barcelona

It was the last day of the Spain leg and I was too exhausted for a morning run. So, after a relaxed breakfast, we packed our bags and went to the Olympic quarter of Barcelona. We took some pictures at the stadia built for 1992 Olympics and went to the Montjuïc Castle. While it was not an imposing castle, the events there during Spanish civil war were quite intriguing.

                          

After a quick lunch, we went to La Rambla and the Gothic quarter of Barcelona for a stroll along the historic streets and shopping areas!

                

It was time to bid adieu to Spain and fly to Portugal! The view of Lisbon from the plane as we landed was fantastic with well maintained buildings of predominantly white walls and red tiled roof! We arrived at Lisbon late in the evening and could feel a distinct change in the climate and culture!

Day 8: Lisbon

We stayed at a Marriot near the University of Lisbon and Santa Maria Hospital and went on a morning run around these areas.

      

We then began our Lisbon city tour with the historic Alfama district. The old buildings with Moorish architecture and narrow alleys took us to a different era. We walked through Alfama streets for about an hour and also caught the great sight of Tram 28 slowing moving through the streets.

        

We then proceeded to one of the most historic places in Europe, Belem Tower at the mouth of River Tagus where it joins the Atlantic Ocean. This is the place from where the great voyages to the East, including Vasco Da Gama’s journey to India originated. Also walked to the nearby Padrão dos Descobrimentos, another waterfront monument opened in 1960 to mark 500 years since Henry the Navigator’s death.

          

The next stop was the majestic Jerónimos Monastery. The long line for tickets at Belem Tower and Monastery was annoying and as we neared the counter, it turned to surprise to see the agents were working at a leisurely pace. No one seems to be concerned at the inefficiency and it appeared that every one involved was happy to wait!

        

That wrapped up the itinerary with the tour guide and I asked him to drop us back at Alfama to stroll along the historic district. And it was easily the best part of the city!

              

The guide had showed us the George castle from a distance and said it will close around 6PM. It took a while to figure out its entrance despite directions from Google Maps and reminded that there is more work to be done by Google on their maps, particularly on hilly terrain where roads could potentially be layered one above another as they wind up the hills! It was a little past 6PM when we reached the castle and luckily for us, it was scheduled to be open till 9PM during summer. This 11th-century, hilltop Moorish castle & royal residence with palace ruins & archaeological museum was a breathtaking place and would have been a shame if we missed it! Finally, we had dinner at an Indian restaurant and took a cab back to the hotel.

          

Day 9: Sintra & Cascais

We were into the final day of our tour and the destination for the day was one that I had researched and selected over what the travel agency had originally proposed. We set off early in the morning towards the famous hill station near Lisbon – Sintra. As we neared the Palace of Pena at Sintra, the temperature and visibility dropped significantly with the entire area covered with fog. It looked like we entered the clouds and among them stood the beautiful Pena Palace! I was among the most beautiful places we experienced in the tour. We walked inside the palace with an audio guide in hand, listening to the impressive history of the place!

                    

After spending a couple of hours at the palace, we proceeded to Quinta da Regaleira, a park with winding walking trails amid the hills.

                          

After a quick lunch, we headed to the Western most point of Continental Europe – Cabo Da Roca. It is a very windy place in the middle of nowhere! It felt like the wind will lift me all the way into the Atlantic Ocean!!!

        

We then drove along the Atlantic Coast back to Lisbon, but not before covering a bit of Cascais – the beach resort beside Lisbon. After a brief stop at the Lisbon Basilica, I asked the guide to drop us off at Liberdade Avenue. It is the upmarket shopping avenue at Lisbon and wrapped up the day with a few pictures of magnificent statues along the avenue.

            

Day 10: Back to India!

It was time to bid adieu to the Iberian peninsula and head back home. I have now covered several places at South Europe and can see one thing in common – it is a region where people take pride in their glorious past and preserve it well while greeting you with great hospitality!

Sapiens & Home Deus: Amazing duo

Posted by Santh

The first book I read on anthropology was Guns, Germs & Steel, way back in 2005. While I enjoyed the insights and talked about it for a long time, it was not yet time for me to develop my reading habit. So, it took half a dozen years before I started on the next anthropology book – Collapse, incidentally by the same author Jared Diamond. By this time I was quite deep into reading non-fiction and a steady stream of great books enriched my knowledge across history and anthropology. Special mention among them would go to The Naked Ape and Origin of Species for being focused on anthropology.

By the end of 2017, I became a believer of science and encountered two enlightening books by Yuval Noah Harari that took my understanding to the next level. Sapiens gave concrete shape to the vague idea I had around how humans came to rule the world. And its sequel Home Deus painted a plausible picture of what future holds for us! It was sheer awesomeness to realize that the beginning of history was only 70,000 years ago with cognitive revolution. And how lucky we are to have gotten the accidental genetic mutations that changed inner wiring of our brains! It is difficult to comprehend that before cognitive revolution, history was just biology, with human life following predetermined pattern like any other animal – dictated by instructions encoded in their DNA!

One should read the book to appreciate the profoundness. The insights at the end of the book are compelling, comparing conventional thinking with contemporary science.

Conventional Thinking Data Science
I am an individual Organisms (including us) are algorithms
My authentic self is completely free My decisions are shaped by genes and environmental pressures
I know things about myself that no one else can discover An external algorithm can theoretically know me better than I know myself

Now that I am wiser, what next? Time to embrace the prophecy and prepare for the future! I started learning TensorFlow and instantly understood that the future of programming is in machine learning. As I started appreciating science, I also realized that Mathematics enables science. Math skills are becoming increasingly key to success in computer science and programming.  And Math skills are fundamental to machine learning! Lot more to learn and that keeps life interesting!!!

Project Euler

Posted by Santh

After updating my personal programming environment in August 2017, I was looking for opportunities to keep myself in touch with technology. That’s when one of my colleagues mentioned about Project Euler – a series of challenging problems that require mathematical and programming skills. It is named after Leonhard Euler, a Swiss mathematician, physicist, astronomer, logician and engineer, who made important and influential discoveries in many branches of mathematics, such as infinitesimal calculus and graph theory.

What started as a sub-section on mathschallenge.net in October 2001 has become an independent domain with more than 780,000 registered users having solved at least one problem. The site currently has 623 problems with a new problem added every fortnight. While most of the problems are straightforward, it is practically impossible to solve them without a computer because of the large numbers and computations involved. So, it is a marriage of mathematics and programming – bingo, what I was looking for!

Now then, one can choose to use any programming language to solve the problems. With Java and Python in my toolkit, I started with solving the problems using both of them. After just a couple of solutions, I realized that Python was way more effective and efficient. A solution in Java typically took twice as much time as Python due to several reasons – code verbosity, compilation / run time, functional programming and relatively vast math libraries available in Python, among others. So, I quickly dropped Java and stuck to writing code only in Python. Every problem expects a specific number as an answer, you type it in the answer box and eureka – you got it!

I don’t consider myself a quick programmer, my forte is discipline, patience and perseverance. I may take twice or even longer time than others to complete anything. But once I put my mind onto something, determination takes over and I invariably get it done. I usually don’t expect my programs to compile and run perfectly the first time. But the Project Euler answer box accepted my response as the right one in the first attempt for several problems. After all, I am a better programmer that I imagined!

I started with solving the first problem on 25th August 2017 and was solving at least 8 problems every weekend initially. That was when the difficulty level was at 5%. As the difficulty level went up, the rate of solving problems kept going down. That’s fine, I am not a Math genius and I was learning new Math concepts and Python libraries. By October 20th, I had solved 57 problems that put me in the Top 5% in terms of the number of problems solved.

My solutions are usually the brute force type. The purists will not like them. I will get there one day when I put my mind to it. For now, I just enjoy the excitement of seeing me getting the right answer.

Finally, why am I posting this now? After 20th October, I went into hibernation from Project Euler with my weekends taken up for the brevet season starting November 2017 to January 2018. After a gap of five months, I solved a couple of problems during the last week of March 2018 and this time wanted to jot down my experience before it becomes too stale. With the complexity level of problems having significantly increased and with so many conflicting priorities requiring my attention, I am not sure how many I will get to solve.

There are so many things to do and so little time in hand… Santh – that’s life and learn to deal with it!!!

Books 2017

Posted by Santh

As I wrote the blog on books I enjoyed in 2016, the realization stuck that I had slipped from reading habit during the previous year and a half. After finishing more than two dozen books each in 2013 and 2014, I had read only a couple of them in 2015. While I thought it was primarily due to extensive time spent during the weekends for cycling / running / recovery time, it also coincided with my taking up a new job towards the end of 2014. It took another year to sense knowledge debt building up again as my effectiveness as a speaker and motivator for my teams diminished a bit. When I read a book on leadership or anthropology, I immediately relate it to events around me and apply some of the learnings. This happens sub-consciously and I realized it only when while introspecting on recently diminished effectiveness.

In April 2017, I made efforts to restart my reading habit and made one of the best investments in recent times when I bought Kindle Paperwhite. I would later know from “The Everything Store” on strategic thought process from Jeff Bezos and Amazon that went in building an eBook Reader that would be affordable with a comprehensive book store behind it. I can vouch for it after using it for about ten months. You can pretty much find any English book ever published  and at a price that is most competitive! With backlight, I can now read without disturbing the rest of my family and e-ink technology lets Kindle run for days together on a single charge! I might sound like an Amazon marketer, but really admire the value Kindle brings with it!!!

I started with “Great by Choice”, a book by Jim Collins whose “Good to Great” was one of the books that got me interested in non-fiction. It was on familiar Jim Collins style and I could relate to some of the principles that I always followed in my life. No wonder I am great! – just kidding. It was just reassuring to know that some of my principles are good for long-term success. The quote from Roald Amundsen, the first man to The South Pole will always be etched in my memory: “Victory awaits him who has everything in order – luck people call it. Defeat is certain for him who has neglected to take the necessary precaution in time; this is called bad luck”.

From “Great by  Choice”, I got reference to another couple of fantastic books that demonstrated Jim Collin’s theory about the best leaders being more disciplined, more empirical and more paranoid. They were the next books I read – “Scott And Amundsen: The Last Place on Earth” and “Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Everest Disaster”.

It was then time for “Losing the Signal: The Untold Story Behind the Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall of BlackBerry”. I got this from reading recommendations given by one of the senior leaders in my organization.

After my Europe trip, I wanted to know more about the history of Europe and particularly on what happened to Roman Civilization. It took almost four months to complete all the six volumes of “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire” written by Edward Gibbon in 1770. A true classic like “The Origin of Species” by Charles Darwin and worth the effort.

After immersing in history for several months, I wanted to read about some contemporary achievements and went back to the reading recommendations. I read books on two of the modern great companies on Technology space – “The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon” and “The Google Story”. In between, I also finished “Hit Refresh: The Quest to Rediscover Microsoft’s Soul and Imagine a Better Future for Everyone” within a few weeks of Satya Nadella releasing it. All of them reinforced the need for discipline, work ethic and team work – there is no short cut to success! That rounded up 2017, a fulfilling year for reading good books. As I write this, I already finished reading “The Great Convergence” that I got referred from Hit Refresh. More about that when I write about by 2018 experience.

My reading list from 2017:

Hit Refresh: The Quest to Rediscover Microsoft’s Soul and Imagine a Better Future for Everyone Satya Nadella
The Google Story David A. Vise
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Edited and Abridged): Abridged Edition Edward Gibbon
The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon Brad Stone
Losing the Signal: The Untold Story Behind the Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall of BlackBerry Jacquie McNish
Sean Silcoff
Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Everest Disaster Jon Krakauer
Scott And Amundsen: The Last Place on Earth Roland Huntford
Great by Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos and Luck – Why Some Thrive Despite Them All Jim Collins

The cycling season – Sep ’17 to Jan ’18

Posted by Santh

I have been looking forward to every September during the last four years – that’s when Hyderabad turns ideal for cycling, with the monsoon coming to an end and winter starting to set in allowing for long rides. With bountiful rains last monsoon season, the lakes around Hyderabad were brimming with water and the scenic routes were a delight to the eyes! I had good company in Aditya and thanks to his Google Pixel phone, we captured some fantastic views.

We started in September with Bakaram and Musi river upstream from Hyderabad!

      

We rode around Himayat Sagar during the first weekend of October:

        

More beautiful Shamirpet lake the next weekend!

          

Finally, Patancheru and Ordnance Factory:

    

Now was the time for brevet season. After finishing up as a Super Randonneur in December 2016, I had told myself that I will try to repeat it during the next winter season.

200 BRM – Heaven & Hell:

Unlike my previous brevets, I decided to cycle to the start point at HBC Station that would add another 20 Km. I thought this would prepare me better for the longer brevets coming up. I had company of Aditya for the first 120 Km but after that I stopped pushing myself and slowed down significantly. I could sense a bit of over confidence creeping in and had to endure a minor scare of not finishing on time. Finally, managed to complete with about 5 minutes to spare!

            

300 BRM – Tour of Neelagiri:

After the scare of finishing 200 BRM late, I told myself that I should overcome complacency and ride faster. It had the desired effect. Though I took an hour longer than the last time, I was still in time with more than an hour to spare.

        

400 BRM – Nizamabad & Armoor:

I had to do it alone with Aditya deciding to focus on racing with his new road bike. I finished with about 40 minutes left, but not a lot of pictures!

    

600 BRM – the Two States:

The first weekend of January 2018 brought the ultimate challenge of completing 600 Km brevet to become a Super Randonneur again. It was a different route this time, all along the Bangalore Highway till Gooty and back. I started strong and rode at good pace for the first 65 Kms as we crossed Jadcherla at almost 25 Km/Hr. The first problem stuck around 80 Km. I felt my rear wheel drag on but carried on for a few minutes. Then I decided to stop and check. It was a shock as my rear tyre was flat in the middle of nowhere – and this was the first time in more than three years of long rides that I had to deal with a flat. Just as I was preparing to fix it, a couple of riders were kind enough to stop and help me. It took about 30 minutes to change the tube and start riding again. We stopped for dinner break at 120 Km and I got the punctured tube fixed. Now the second problem – as we were around 140 Km mark, we saw a young rider standing on the side of the road appearing clueless. He had a flat and had no idea or tools to deal with it. Along with the two angels who helped me, we fixed his flat and got moving after about 30 minutes. Net-net, I lost an hour and that meant I could not take any rest at mid point at Gooty. When I started from the mid-point, I only had about an hour buffer that appeared insufficient given the uphills that I had to deal with.

The return journey under the hot sun was tough. After a short lunch break and relentless riding, I reached Kurnool around 6:15PM. Another 200 Km to go and under 14 hours left. I started to feel sleepy around 7:30PM and had to take a power nap at one of the road side tea shops for about 30 minutes before riding again. Then I made the final mistake – while taking a dinner break was a wise move, the duration of that break was atrocious. When I started after dinner break, I had to cover almost 150 Km with under 8.5 hours left – almost impossible given my energy levels and the impending uphill! I gave it my shot riding fast for the next one hour gaining some time. But just before Jadcherla, the uphill started and slowed me down significantly. I reached the checkpoint at Jadcherla later by about 45 minutes. I now had about 3.5 hours to cover 70 Km, pretty much impossible. Instead of hitting the wall trying to push too hard, I decided to just finish late. After a tea break just before dawn, I dragged myself towards the finish point.

I completed 600 Km in about 41 hours, more than an hour later than allotted time. Net-net, I finished a brevet late for the first time after 13 successful attempts. But who cares – I did complete riding 600 Km and consider completing the last 60+ Km knowing fully well that I will not finish on time as an achievement in itself! The thought of giving up and getting onto a bus or a mini truck to get back to my car crossed my mind several times. It required immense will power to complete in this scenario and glad I was able to do it.

  

A winter vacation at UAE

Posted by Santh

I have transit through the middle east several times while traveling to the US during the last 15 years. But my experience of the Arabian deserts was limited to aerial views while landing and takeoff from Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha. That changed this winter when we visited the UAE during Christmas time. And my dear friend Sudeep and his family made it a trip to cherish forever!

I usually plan my trip with day to day details well in advance but with my friend around for more than half the trip, I decided to take it as it comes. We landed at Dubai after a 3 hour flight, whizzed part immigration, collected our baggage and met my friend at the arrival. After a quick check-in at Towers Rotana in Dubai Downtown, we went for a fantastic drive around Dubai. It was a foggy day and with cold weather, it was difficult to imagine that we were in the middle of a desert!

The first stop was Atlantis and it was exciting to watch our progress through Palm Jumeirah on Google Maps. An absolute dream on a man-made wonder!

  

The next stop was Jumeirah beach beside Burj-Al-Arab. The fog that day made it look like a haunted tower!

It was then time for the show at Dolphinarium, a great experience seeing three dolphins perform some amazing tricks! After dinner at Saravana Bhavan, which became our regular dining place for the entire trip, we wrapped up the day for some well deserved rest!

I woke up the next day keeping my fingers crossed on fog conditions! I had booked tickets online for Burj Khalifa at 10:30AM and it would be worthwhile only if I could see the city from the top of the Burj! I went for a run on the treadmill and saw the dawn through a bit of fog. I hoped that the sun would clear-up the fog but it turned out to be wishful thinking. As we headed out to Dubai mall, the fog got worse and as we got to the top of Burj Khalifa, we only got to see the shadow of Burj Khalifa on the clouds below! Still, the experience of traveling up the tower on high speed elevator and just being inside the top of the tower in itself were moments to cherish. I have seen several tall buildings around the world but I should admit that Burj Khalifa is the epitome of modern architecture. The sight of a thin tower rising beyond the clouds is awe-inspiring!

      

We spent the rest of the day at Dubai mall – a true shoppers paradise. You name a top global brand and you will find it at this mall in all its glory. Dubai mall is not just about shopping – the gold BMW, Fashion Avenue, human waterfall, dinosaur display and a lot more makes it an indoor theme park! We watched the Dubai Fountain and called it a day.

    

Having covered modern Dubai for two days, it was time to explore old Dubai on day three. We headed towards Dubai creek and started with Gold Souk. It was a fascinating sight to see rows of gold shops with display of huge gold jewelry, they were not ornaments but full size dresses made out of gold! A 5-kg gold ring with a Guinness certificate accompanying it was the highlight. We continued onto Spice Souk. I could not recognize most of the spices from all over the middle east that were of all vibrant colors. We then took an abra, a traditional boat across the creek and walked along the creek to the sight of a heritage village under construction. We then walked through Textile Souk and surprised to see a Hindu temple beside a mosque. We spent some time at Dubai museum and walked through beautiful lanes in Al-Fahidi historical area.

            

After some rest in the afternoon, we headed again to Dubai mall for dinner at The Cheesecake Factory and night view of Burj Khalifa.

We headed to Abu Dhabi the next day and my friend drove through a foggy morning to pick us up enroute to the capital city of UAE. We had booked an overnight stay at the Emirates Zoo, for what promised to be an exciting stay beside the giraffe and zebra enclosure! But before that, we headed to the Emirates Auto museum to take a look at the fabulous collection of cars owned by the Rainbow Sheik! The drive along Sheik Zayad Road or E11, the most important highway running North-South along the entire length of UAE was amazing. It was an experience driving through the newly widened road with Google Maps still showing the old exits. And that led to us missing an exit and we ended up driving an extra 100Km in pursuit of the next exit! I felt guilty as the failed navigator but we saw some extraordinary sights of the barren desert during this drive!

          

After lunch at Yas Mall and a sneak peek into Ferrari World, we were back at the zoo to enjoy the rest of the day. We started early the next day to Ras-Al-Khaimah to get an amazing insight into real Arab heritage. As we drove through E11, the white desert sands of Abu Dhabi gave way to the red tinge of RAK sands! I have seen stray dogs and stray cows on Indian roads but never stray camels!!!

    

After spending some time at my friends place at the beautiful Al-Hamra village, we headed towards Jebel-Jais, the tallest mountains of the UAE. It felt like we landed on the moon, it was moonscape at its very best!

      

We then headed for the final program of our trip – for an evening in the real desert at Bedouin Oasis. Had a great time with dune bashing, sand boarding and some belly dancing!

      

After a long morning walk with my friend along the coastline of Ras-Al-Khaimah, it was time to head to the airport to board my flight back to India. A great winter vacation to one of the largest deserts in the world made prosperous by global oil-economy!

Autumn weekend at Goa

Posted by Santh

I was looking for a destination to relax and reenergize while wrapping up Dussera vacation. After exploring a few options, settled down on Goa – a place that always has something new to offer even after several visits during the last fifteen years. For the uninitiated, Goa is a narrow strip of land sandwiched between Arabian Sea and Western Ghats, boasting a combination of pristine and party beaches. With its history of being a Portuguese colony for several centuries, you get a very different feel from the rest of India. It is truly an Indian paradise for visitors with its tourist friendly environment and the small state being entirely dependent on tourism helps as well.

Goa has two distinct halves. North Goa with the beaches of Candolim, Calangute and Baga is highly commercialized and ideal for party goers. South Goa is relatively quiet with the beaches of Colva, Benaulim and Mobor ideal for a family vacation. The only time I visited North Goa was almost ten years back as part of a business offsite. South Goa was more familiar to me and I decided to explore a bit of the North this time.

We landed at Goa airport on a Friday evening and surprised to see the relatively new airport already bursting at its seams with holiday crowd arriving for the long weekend! it took almost two hours to cover less than 35 Km from the airport to my hotel at Candolim with bumper to bumper traffic particularly around the Goan capital, Panaji. It was past 9:30PM and was wondering if we will be able to get some dinner but how wrong I was! The night was still young and as we were enjoying dinner at a Grill with a live band, we could see young couples on ubiquitous Honda Activas riding towards their party destinations.

I am not the party type but a runner! I had planned to run along North Goa beaches during the two mornings of stay. Covered 5 Km on the first morning running from Candolim to Aguada and back. After breakfast and a break, decided to walk along the beach again to Aguada fort. Stopped at one of the beach side shacks for a tasty lunch of fresh seafood. It was the fag end of monsoon season and rain was always in the air. While the sun held on all morning, it started drizzling towards the evening and had to hurry up to cover Aguada fort before the rain. I remember the fort from my visit ten years back and the imposing views made it a worthwhile visit again.

      

Took a local bus back from Aguada to Candolim and it was an interesting experience seeing how the local transport economy worked. Finally, had dinner at a trendy restaurant on Candolim Beach Road with the highlight being the Goan dessert called bebinca.

The next morning was time to cover the other side of Candolim – ran about 7 Km from Candolim covering Calangute and Baga. The persistent drizzle made it a bit difficult but more painful was the sight of garbage strewn all along the beaches. I wish the tourists are a bit more sensible and conscious about keeping the surroundings clean. I hope we learn this aspect from the west even as we adopt other cultural and aspirational aspects.

After breakfast, it was time to wrap up and head to the airport. The same distance took much lesser time now. Said good bye to Goa with some memories to cherish till the next visit – hope it does not take another five years like this time!