The best laid plans of man…

I’m progressing nicely with my cycling efforts now, despite my inherent laziness and resulting lack of regularity. When I started out, I would be tired within the hour. Now I can go for a couple of hours easy, and am actually starting to enjoy the ride, rather than huffing and puffing and dreaming of when its all going to end.

However, a wrench has been thrown into my plans to bike to work. We moved to a new location last week, which has no showers. Apparently some genius decided that showers in offices in California aren’t useful. As its about 9 miles from home to office, without showers at work I’m SOL. On the other hand, the new location has a cool game room with pool, ping-pong, darts and Foosball. Best of all, it has a video game room with a PS2, Game-Cube and XBOX 360. Its going to be difficult to be productive the next few weeks.

If I can’t bike to work, I’m thinking of lugging it in my car and getting in a few good rides in the evening directly from my office.

 

Ab Tak Chappan

Recently saw the movie again after its original release in 2004, and enjoyed it as much (if not more) as the first time. While watching it, I could not help but think that if Michael Mann were to make a Bollywood movie, this is how he would make it.

Kudos to the director – Shimit Amin – and the RGV “factory”. A fine addition to his Mumbai crime movies:

• Satya (the best of the lot)
• Company
• D
• Sarkar
• Shiva (yes, its not in Mumbai but is a crime movie)

 

Stuff of dreams

As a kid, I was obsessed with the game of golf. There are those in this world who don’t consider Golf to be a sport or a game. To them I say – try hitting a few balls, on the range not even on a course. Try hitting a few balls, see how badly you’ll suck at it (unless you’re Tiger Woods of course) and then come back to me.

Anyways as I was saying, its an interesting game and I wanted badly to play it back in India. The disadvantage of being interested in such an elite and expensive sport is that one never gets to play it. In the US of A, they have done a much better job of making it more accessible for the unwashed masses. Its still not cheap, but for 5 bucks or so, one can drive down to the local golf course and hit a few balls on the driving range; which is exactly what I’ve been doing for the 5 years or so that I’ve been in this country.

Today, I finally got the chance to play a round of golf on a course. There’s no good reason to explain this delay (other than my inertia, I think). Me and my buddy trotted out to the Pruneridge Golf Club in Santa Clara for a par-31 9-hole round. Considering that this was my first live round and that I ended up +12 at the end, I guess I didn’t do too bad; even got a couple of pars on two par 3s.
Next steps? Buy a cheap set of clubs, hit the range, practice more regularly, improve my game. Simple enough.

 

Fiddler of the car

My ride is a ’05 Scion TC. I’ve had it for about 1.5 years now, and that’s time enough for me to start thinking of spending some more money on it and put in a mod or two, viz.

• A new shift knob (OBX Autobahn Kraftwerks), bought for a deal on eBay
• A TWM performance short shifter, bought again from eBay; no deal this time though. The cool thing about this mod was that I installed it myself, courtesy this great HOWTO. The Internet is a good thing ™. Initially it was scary since I was going to be messing with the gear engagement and shift levers, but the detailed guide gave me confidence. I was a little handicapped by not having the right tools for each of the step. But as they say, necessity is the mother of invention. So after some improvization with whatever tools I had, a few scuff marks, a little spilt blood and lots of swearing, I have a short shifter 🙂

Why do this, you say? There’s no good logical reason other than “because”. After driving around a bit, I have to say it feels more like driving a sports coupe. The throws are quicker, more precise and the car feels more responsive in general. Browse the forums at ScionLife and ClubScionTC to see what other people have to say.

So if you drive a manual and don’t mind getting your hands dirty, get a short shifter!

 

Collateral

A lesson in fine film-making. Go watch it for an action thriller that’s also a character study.

Vincent: 17 million people. This (L.A.) is got to be the fifth biggest economy in the world and nobody knows each other. I read about this guy who gets on the MTA here, dies. Six hours he’s riding the subway before anybody notices his corpse doing laps around L.A., people on and off sitting next to him. Nobody notices.

 

Broadway west coast style

Marathi drama has a long and storied history, and I remember as a kid, watching a play was a regular thing (in sharp contrast to recent kids). Even today, there is a rich activity in this area. The net result being that I’ve always enjoyed theater. There is different charm and appeal to seeing raw, unedited histrionics and simple stories about regular people in everyday settings.

Recently, I had the chance to catch the Broadway play, Brooklyn Boy, at the local theatre. This is based on a book of the same name that tells a tale of the protagonist – a Jewish novelist suddenly thrust into a world of best-seller acclaim and Hollywood hustle. But revisiting the rowdy neighborhoods of his youth, he makes a deeply personal discovery: you can take the boy out of Brooklyn but you can’t take the Brooklyn out of the boy.

The play resonated with me for several reasons:

• It deals with the father-son dynamic in a very touching, yet not sentimental way
• I’m from Mumbai and have felt for a long time that you can’t take it out of you
• Decent script, acting and humor
• The nice cozy atmosphere of the local theater
• The great deal on tickets ($16 for a Broadway show)

The company that organizes these – TheatreWorks – seems like a great (and cheap) way of watching theater and I’m thinking of going for more of their shows. If I enjoy it as much as I enjoyed this play, I might become a member too.

 

Quote-a-rama

“I’m a PBS mind in an MTV world” – anonymous internet user

 

Intellectual fodder

Last week was movie week. I watched two bad ones, one pretty good one, and one awesome film – “An Incovenient Truth“. One of the indie-theaters in Palo Alto was having a promotion for a free screening of this documentary. Having learnt of this scoop and not being able to resist a deal, I set off on a weeknight to watch it with some friends. This was just after having played Ultimate Frisbee for two straight hours, but I digress…

The subject matter of the film – global warming – is one very close to my heart, having read about it as a kid. So none of the topics/data were new to me, but the film did affect me on many levels. As we grow up, we tend to lose the idealism of our childhood, and I must confess to having adopted a more wasteful lifestyle (especially in the States). This was a very good reminder for me. No one is going to accuse me of political activism so its unlikely I’ll join any of the organizations active in this area; I’m sure San Fransisco has one on every block.

What I can do is to try and change my habits to be a more ecologically responsible person. It amazes me how people refuse to see the obvious. Yes, global warming is a theory (as is every scientific “fact”, which is a theory unless proven otherwise). But all the data that we have supports it, all of the freakish weather we have experienced on a global scale indicates it and ultimately, temparatures are rising. You may have your reservation about this theory, but there can only be good consequences of living a sustainable lifestyle. So we must do as much as we can, irrespective of our beliefs or lack thereof in this theory.
About the documentary, sprinkled between the charts and raw data are moments of humor and emotion. Al Gore is a pleasant surprise. As with any documentary, not every fact is cited and backed up, etc., but I’ve seen nothing to indicate anything there is not factual. Anyways, I highly recommend seeing this movie. Even if you don’t agree with the premise, it’s a matter of being informed. Listen to the “other side” as much as you listen to “your side”, and you can form educated opinions. Do not view it through politically jaundiced eyes, and you will be the happier for it.

 

The Corporation

Finally got my hands on a DVD of The Corporation from the local public library (My Tax Dollars At Work). I had heard about this movie a zillion times and wanted to check it out. This is a documentary that takes an in-depth psychological examination of the corporate organizational model through various case studies.

Usually whenever I’m watching movies/documentaries of this genre, I go in with a skeptical attitude against any potential “propaganda”. This turned out to be a fairly well balanced and dispassionate look at corporations. As it turns out, legally, a corporation is a “person” and this type of “person” typically acts like a dangerously destructive psychopath without conscience. Furthermore, we see the profound threat this psychopath has for our world and our future, but also how the people with courage, intelligence and determination can do to stop it. They also look at other ways in which corporations have permeated and affected our daily life, viz. marketing, media manipulation, branding, environmental and ecological impact.

I highly recommed watching this if you care about this world we live in, and if you want to simultaneously be amazed, angered, saddened, frustrated and hopeful.

P.S Continuing in this vein of movie-watching, the next film I need to see is An Inconvenient Truth.

 

Biking and stuff

Recently, I treated myself to a shiny, new road bike – the TREK 1000. I know many who would describe a bike in more choice and unflattering terms, but I’ve always liked cycling. My body (legs) aren’t suited/tuned for longer street/trail running – I can do short runs (upto 2-3 miles) but anything longer than that and my leg muscles start tightening up, which isn’t fun if you’re running. The aerobic machines (treadmill etc.) in the gym are fine but I find myself bored when using them. So I figure cycling is a good exercise, and I’ve some background from India and UCDavis (in one of the premier bike towns in the States; pity I didn’t make full use of that when I was there).

I started off with some local runs in Sunnyvale (streets and Baylands Park). Today I felt a little more confident and took off for the Portola Valley Loop (colloquially referred to as The Loop by the local yokels) in Palo Alto. This is a 17 mile loop, which I unintentionally shortened by taking a turn that turned out to be a short cut. On the positive side, I really enjoyed myself and the trail is ideal for beginner/intermediate types – rolling hills, no steep climbs, paved roads with marked bike lanes, downhill stretches. I plan to make this a regular run – next time I just need to remember to take the long cut…

P.S. I still need to adjust the bike to suit my body and my riding style – my arms start to ache a bit at the end of the run; looks like this will be a trial and error process. Stay tuned for biking updates.