Food for thought

I was at this lecture last week, at the Institute of Engineers, Mysore, it was called "our food", a talk which dealt with the concept of the Indian diet and just a curious-boy's look at why we, Indians eat what we eat, and how such a diet could've come to become out staple.


The talk dealt in quite some detail at how some less-than-apparent stuff, nutrients, if you can call that, have a major effect on how the body function at a genetic level. And how vegetables, fruits and plants containing these chemicals came to being used regularly, intentionally or purely coincidentally, as staple food apart from the regular body building, energy giving and protective food. And also to note, that, our forefathers, the ones who came up with the concept of such a diet, did it just cause eating such food was "good for health", and not specifically because food X is "anti cancer" or Y is "anti depressant" or Z is "anti oxidant" and so on. so, such an intricately marvellous diet, designed ages ago, is being destroyed now. And that's quite apparent! I myself am responsible for it too. but then that's where i wanna make an important point.


The point being, the talk i had been to, had an audience of pure oldies! none less than 60! except the speaker, some guys from the arranging committee, My friend and myself. That got me thinking. My observation showed that almost all of the oldies present there, every single retired person out of the 50 odd people present there, were almost beaming with good health! nobody looked to be suffering from anything more than just creeky joints and grey hair! hmmm..... had the talk, inevitably reached out to the wrong audience? i mean, they're not the people who should have been listening to that talk, they're already too healthy, and besides, even if they're not, pardon the expression, but all of them have no more than 20 more years to live, in which all that they'll probably do is buy every magazine and book they can afford out of their retirement money and read the hell outta them, and when they're done, they go and pray to God, meditate, sleep, Bliss! So, little use, having listened the lectures.


The ones who should've been listening, are people who're the present, who're the future of the world! they're the ones who're already suffering from problems, un-heard-of, as my granny's say , during their times. Look at most of the people in their mid 20's and you'll notice something similar in all, hair loss, premature aging signs, skin problems, obesity, restlessness, mood swings, tendency to turn various addictions, hair discoloration, harmone problems, tooth decays, eyesight problems. Well, you can say the oldies had it too, and that the people who did probably didn't make it this far! but then, I've heard the entire "grand father generation" exclaim in shock when they heard the news that someone died of a heart attack "at a young age of 55". I've heard people dying at 26! more than just one person, mind you! "they just drop dead" it was said in the newspaper. But then, the entire generation who probably needed the points said out in that talk, to be put to use in their everyday lives to ensure good health, were absent. It was a sad state of affairs, and i too didn't realise it till i saw the entire audience! heh! the wise oldies just extended their lives by ten more years listening to the talk! And we..... hmmm...... half of you will probably go grab a snack outside this evening, and that half might include me too! but this has surely made me think twice from now on! Cheers & live long!


Gecko

Extremes

Came across two bad incidents this evening, around early evening, two girls in a santro, knocked down a bike ( definitely due to reckless driving, but surely unintentional). Those two girls, still being very young, panicked and sped away, but those bikers, a father and son, son being quite young himself (but surely getting his shouting genes from his father), chased down the car, stopped them and is showing his full rage, scolding in a really uncivilized manner, along with a gang of fully grown men, which probably reflected which part of the state he is from! some stuff i overheard:
1. Magalu vayassu aagide, swalpa maryaade bedva (he's the one scolding her like a animal, being clearly over 30 years older than those two, maryade bere keltane)
2. nange baayalli heli abhyasa illa, bayalli ondu hallu ildiro hange hod'dre gottagutte (what gottagutte? that he's a brute who's just had is BP unexpectedly shot up)
3. Hennu anta sumne bittidini (hmmm... those two are crying their hearts out saying sorry, accepting the blame and agreeing to bear any charges that may arise, they've faces the words of a whole gang of men, in yen sumne bidodu?)
I couldn't see them cry that much, frankly they were probably creating too big a scene, yes it was a big accident, but then, i felt it was an unnecessary to make them cry so much, just take their mobile number, car number, house address, and poof. Friend of mine dealt with such a thing recently, for no fault of his own, it went really smooth! no mess! heh! wonder if the guy felt better scolding them for an hour! without first aid!

Second, At chat street, another minor collision perhaps and people gathered, some braveheart was shouting at the top of her voice, gang gathers, someone says something (as usual, gangs are very interested in other people quarrels, i have a first hand experience too) and this woman (clearly not for karnataka) says, "get out" to somebody, and then to her friend, taking out her cellphone, "wait i know how to f**k his happiness!" in a menacing tone while dialing someone's number!

Heh! wonder what the world's coming to!

Gecko.

G8 thoughts.

Despite the title, I happen to be the ignorant one when it comes to world or indian politics, with quite a few reason which i choose not to elaborate on. But i do happen to know that the G8 summit is happening somewhere in Italy. Don't ask me about the agenda or the proceedings. But it was strange to see a few photos of the summit in the newspapers an some captions given to it. Makes you wonder whether the photo was published just to catch the viewers attention or is it really a photos representative of the summit. The first photo i saw, is this:

A photo of a fine lady dressed in a black business suit, squatting in front of Mr. Obama and the other people standing looking of with a grin. The caption at the top said "Men will be Boys" and the caption at the bottom says "attraction or distraction?" Well, all said and done, if this photo was published in cosmopolitan or penthouse or vogue or any one of those glamour magazines, i would've been fine with it, infact enjoyed the humor, but this was in a freaking newspaper, makes you wonder to what lenghts they can go just to get the viewers attention or was is it something again the people standing there? I am sure the photographers were gifted with enough talent to get a photo more appropriately suited to the main focus of the G8.

The second photo which really made me decide to write this post.
The photo of a red-head's bottom poured elegantly into a wine reddish dress... oops, yeah, with leaders of two countries of the world looking at it! (sorry got distraced there myself, yeah yeah, i know, men! blah, blah). Captions: at the top - "Hunger's on G8 plate" and the bottom............. of the page sir, yes, eyes back on the text please...... "Watch out!"
But then, were such photos necessary? you may ask "well, they had to publish something, hadn't they?". Hmmmm... not very fancy if you ask me, two days in a row, well, either somebody at the news paper office is taking their job a little lightly these days or the world leaders are at the wrong summit! ;) You decide!

Gecko!

some poetry!

Some stuff which i made up while roaming around at a girl's store (with one) recently

Why are there narrow passages at a womens' store?
Women don't come narrow anymore!

Hello and goodbye to all the feminists out there! Shalom! :P

-Gecko.

Videos!

Some comedy, not to be taken seriously! :) have fun!

time management

recently, i bought this book called "teach yourself time management" and frankly, since my purchase, i haven't made the time to read past page three or to remember what i read in the first two pages! the question that i ask myself every time is, why? why can other people make so much time to do innumerable stuff, watch movies, read books, go out with friends, work, sleep, explore new stuff, be creative, learn something new... the whole nine yards of what I'm trying to do. Well, is that a problem? am i trying too hard to be 'them'? or have i got sloppy? i find it impossible to find the patience to gather up a good playlist for the music player on my computer! i blame this usually on my vast music collection of supposedly unwanted stuff, but then haven't had time to clean that up too! same for my room, closet, bookshelf and bike!


I don't want this to sound like a letter to an agony aunt of some magazine, but then, i can't help if this is inevitably sounding this way. It's been months since I've read a book for a decent amount of time in a day. or listened to one whole song, or wrote about one of the hundreds of topics that come to my mind when, occasionally, my mind does start to warm up a little, on my blog. I had plans of buying a camera, a fancy SLR, i even retired my old film SLR for that purpose, saying it's too much recurring investment for the film, the development and printing charges and what not. When i had the interest, i didn't have the money, the status quo has been maintained, but my interest is fading, so is my money which was never enough anyway. Friends, all have some camera or the other, quite impressive stuff, now they have the equipment and are using the time and interest very well, learning new stuff with the cameras, taking good pictures. Bikes, i still have plans of that, big plans for my bikes, but probably I'll end up selling both my bikes, again to raise money for my studies. I had plans of a new bore kit for the old RX and stockpiling spare parts for my bikes before i leave so that i can get started once i come back, but then, thinking sensible, as attached i am to my bike, i think it's sensible not to keep them, cause i don't know where I'm gonna end up! and thinking lightly, as long as i have these, my folks are not gonna let me buy a new one! so, that one's gone too.


Hmmmmm..... now i think time is not my only problem, it's money too, money has always been though, heh! show me a person for whom it is not! if it's not trouble in one way (read scarcity) then it's a problem in another (read abundance). but mostly it's a problem which lies upstairs where all the cooking takes place. I find things interesting, i get started on it, but for most, i don't stick to it. I either give up half way cause of my laziness or my inability to balance my work, studies, personal life, hobbies and social life. so i end up compromising on something way too far than i ideally should and in the long run, that's gonna cause me problems, the problem may be that i might have to end up giving up on a hobby, but then that's also a problem cause I'm sure that it will not end with just one hobby, and something is gonna begin creeping into something else when it probably shouldn't, or rather, i probably shouldn't have let it creep into.


So, Time management? well, i don't know. I don't wanna put the blame to age, no matter how old i am, if I'm old enough as long as i am standing on my own feet and thinking with my own mind. i guess the blame's on me. I just wrote this out as i felt it would help me in some way if i speak things out to the world about what's on my head. It a pretty crowded place up there! i can't keep things in it forever! Something's got to give, and if i empty the part of my mind which tells me why a Yamaha RX which is ported at the roof of the ports is better than a RX which is ported at the bottom of the ports, then chances are that, most of you will not understand, and those who do understand, will probably won't have nothing more to say that "oh, ok". At least with this, i get some suggestions and possibly a solution to my problems, a part of the solution to my problems or a solution to a part of my problems.


Anyway, That's it for now, i have to manage my time to sleep! till next time! cheers!

Gourd

The few weeks my uncle has been here, i've had some interesting conversations with him, one that i remember is, Over dinner we were having some bitter-gourd stuff, pickles, "gojju" etc, and uncle goes, "we really have to appreciate the person who first thought that something this bitter could be eaten and is ,in-fact, good for health, cause in any other country nobody will touch anything this bitter with a ten foot ruler!" And he's right, bitter-gourd has cancer fighting elements, it's something amazing how ppl here have already known about these things, maybe not as "anti-cancer" stuff, but just as food which is "good for health". some roots, some specific fruits "nallikai" or "maakli beru" or "shunti". Elders!

Sunfeast Open 10K 2009

After much training and preparation in all ways for the big run, everything was set and the day was nearing. Training was a little on and off during the week leading up to the race all thanks to some work, among other things. But the hard work had been done in the weeks leading up to the race. The last week was always meant to relax and build up the carbs, recover, stretch, etc etc you know, the usual stuff those "athletes" do.
The running numbers were in our inboxe and four of us from Mysore had planned to go together on Saturday, collect the running numbers, roam around b'lore, eat-up, get full, hit the bed, get up the next day and run like there's no tomorrow.
We all left Mysore at the 11AM Tippu Express; we were all hyped up and surely in no mood to catch up on some sleep, except, that is for Ajay who fell asleep even before the train left the platform. The remaining three of us spent time standing in a group and talking to each other, since we weren't lucky enough to get seats together on the train. Having reached b'lore, on foot almost all the way on the train, we'd worked up a good appetite and headed to the nearest kamath cafe and had a good meal for lunch, met subbu and collected his confirmation to collect the runnign number on his behalf since he was busy with some work which had come up just that afternoon. Then it was time to head to Kanteerava Stadium, where we were to collect our running numbers, and i, the extra timing chip to help me record my official time. Everyone got the running, and i got the chip too, having met the girl who'd given me and subbu the chip last year too (she was all smiles when i recognised her, and asked whether she was at the chip counter last year too, with some leg-pulling from her friends sitting next to her thinking i couldn't understand kannada)
Then it was destination Bangalore Central for some window shopping, which later turned in to a financial black hole for me since i ended up buying a pair of jeans and two very-fine shirts! every time i do such a thing i remind myself to remind myself about destroying my credit cards, but! heh! anyway, by the time we came out, it was too late to have lunch together and still reach home without having to pay through the nose for the ride back! so we just decided to split right there and meet up tomorrow at the start line.
The dawned all bright and clear. Subbu had done the nice job of preparing some electrolytes for me too, which we almost lost at a turn at the Rajajinagar powerhouse when the bottles flew out of the auto in the turn! i had to run and get them back, they were on their way back to vijayanagar! heh!
On reaching kanteerava, we were separated immediately as i was the only one among my friends who had taken the timing chip and such people were to start from a different group. The start... well, there was no actual gun shot and such, ppl just started running as soon as the gates opened, and once they crossed the start line, the time would start for them, since they had the chip, it was ok to do that. once i realised that was the start, i too started overtaking people left right and centre. i wanted to be ahead of a few before i crossed the start line. By the time i headed out of the staidum gates, i was almost at full speed and already working up a mild sweat. The overtaking kept on happening all the way till i left kasturba road and took a left. from there the other people started to pick up the pace too and so i could make up much positions. From there, the run was really smooth, never did i stop for water, took my first snack at the 3rd km, a square of Cadbury's Bournville, and then realised what a big mistake that was! my throat dried up and lost my rhythm for a kilometer or so, that makes it 4km, yeah? OK so after than there was this downhill hairpin left to take from where you start the journey back to the finish line. the 5Th kilometer was all up hill , nearly! and the sixth and the seventh was good.... i passed the point where my knee gave up last time! By the time i was in the 8Th kilometer, i was inside cubbon park and the atmosphere was calm and tranquil which gave me more spirit to run better... i started to pick up speed in the 8Th, and by the time i reached the 9Th, i was in full gallop again with my mouth open and my strides at it's full length again, overtaking a lot of people on the way, definitely more than 10 or 15 and finished 123rd with a time of 49 mins and 12 seconds for 10Km. It was a lovely feeling to finish! but the sad thing was that i still had energy, to stand, smile, walk around, talk to people, i didn't want to, all that energy i could've used up to run faster and just collapse after the finish line! well, i guess it'll take more time before i can gauge myself so accurately, running, for me, isn't that much of a calculated science yet!
Cheers!

Successful Runs

Had been to two successful run in the past month, both organized as a part of college fest of two different colleges. The first one in NIE college of engineering, was my first real big run this year after the highly unsuccessful (and quite painful) Times of India Bengaluru Midnight Marathon, a race which i'm still trying to forget! This, however was in the morning, and was supposedly 14km long, But as it measured out in Google Maps, it was around 13Km. The route is marked out in red below

The run was good till i reached ramakrishna nagar circle, from when it started going uphill, all the way till the water tank, downhill till Vijaya Bank, then up again till the lake, the up and down nature had taken away all the stamina i had, By the time i reached Hunsur Road, i was running slower than before and only a little faster than a walk. I was near to hitting "The Wall" on Kantaraj Urs road, but recovered after someone was kind enough to lend some glucose. Finished the whole thing in one hour and nine mins approx and in 35th place.

The second run in SJE college of engineering, was a different route, again using some parts from the route of the previous run.



This run was fine too, with very little problems, the usual one being lack on glucose half way through the run, so i had to struggle till my body could switch over to the slower burning fat. Then it was fine all the way. Did the whole thing in 47 mins approx, finishing 19th or so. Sadly, nobody kept time after the first 8 people reached the finish, so we were all left asking each other for timing and positions!
Anyway, nice preperation for the Sunfeast 10Km coming up at the end of May! Hope to keep it going and to get the timing better and better! the aim is to complete 10km in the early 40min zone. It still depends on how well i can practice this month. One month in counting! Till next time! Keep running! and, Peace!

Tadiyandamol on Wheels!

In recent times, there has been too much of talk about a big biking expedition, to the Himalayas, and at times when craziness reaches the zenith, to Dakar! One such time, after having watched Dakar 2009, there was a talk about doing an off road trip, partly though, just to get used to the feeling of riding on loose surfaces, to get more confidence on the bike and on our own riding. Added to this, we'd never been out for a long time, blame the recession, I guess. So we were all looking for a simple solution, something where we can ride and camp at the same time. Then someone, I don't remember,could've been me too, came up with the idea of going to Tadiyandamol on bikes! Sounded interesting enough, all we had to do was solve some minor logistical problems and we were set. We got the tents hired and summoned Subbu from Bangalore the previous evening. After a few coffees, we went around shopping for food, survival food, Glucose, electrolytes, Jam, chocolates, Bread and the like. Batteries for the torches, a must as was the emergency medicines. Then came the main course!Chapathi and Curry! yeah, and you though we could just survive on bread?

What I'd actually done is, I'd made the dough, that's after fixing the Fiero's rear brakes in a formula-one-in-the-dark style operation with the help of Subbu, asked mom and sister to prepare chapathis enough for Subbu and I for two days, and had gone out shopping, then to collect a camera from a friend who was kind enough to lend it and not ask it back till today! When I came back, mom gave me a shocker that chapathis was done, but, (you thought that was the shocker?) the curry wasn't cause she was too tired and couldn't find time to prepare it, so she asked us to dice five onions and five tomatoes and keep then in the fridge and she would get up and prepare the curry the next morning just before we left. But, as usual, things got a little delayed and it was around 11 when I sat to chop the onions, recruiting Subbu for the job too since we we short of time. We both were slightly hampered by the faulty equipment at our disposal although my knife was much better than Subbu's. But the knife was the least of our problems, half way through the first onion, I found out it was not my cup of tea! I was crying like crazy and knew of nothing that could stop it! Then Subbu came up with the idea that chewing gum would help us stop crying, so he went, dug around for a while in his bag and came back empty handed and teary eyed as usual! Right then, the feeling was worse than when you got out of water with your eyes open in the most chlorinated water you've ever been in your life! and it was getting worse! I was worrying about dicing my own fingers and Subbu was worrying about the size of the pieces, not of my hand, but of the onions! I figured, since it's only we both who're going to eat it, we don't mind some unusually sized pieces of onions in our curry! so, I diced, blind, 3 or 4 onions, and Subbu did about 1 or 2 but with exceptional quality! I ended up with a headache and had to pop a pill to bring it down so I can get some sleep cause it was certain that I'd have less then five hours of sleep with a hard day ahead!

As the alarm rang, we both got up and got ready, correction, he got ready in time, I was still in a towel when all the guys arrived at my place! After having breakfast at Mylary Hotel and a little more time spent in fastening the tents and the sleeping mats to the bikes, we were off on a sunny Saturday morning. The first stretch of road, 30km or so till Hunsur was silky smooth with big open curves and perfectly laid and painted roads. It was a pleasure to ride, I was a little cautious as I had just replaced the gaskets on my bike and I thought I hadn't given enough time for seating the piston rings again. But all that thought disappeared as we left Hunsur towards Virajpet through the village and the forest roads, it was just going with the rhythm, as fast as our senses and reaction time would allow us to ride safely through the crests, blind turns and sweeping curves. We were all enjoying the roads, then we reached Virajpet, and had a cup of tea discussing the roads, weather and the bikes. From Virajpet, it was pure mountain roads for 23 kilometres till we were just a kilometre or two away from Kakkabe, this was when things stepped up a notch on the craziness scale, I went ahead, soon had my mirrors full of a flaming helmet and ears full of a two stroke hum at high speeds, Aj had caught up to me and we both were riding in tandem overtaking each other almost at alternate corners and were a little on the limit on the braking, at least me, sliding under braking just to give him a pass (and a good scare). As we arrived at the sign post which pointed the way to Tadiyandamol, we were a little clear of the other three, then they arrived one by one, Pradeep on the Fiero, then Kitt, then Subbu who was not really liking riding on those roads owing to grip problems and a recent dent in his confidence and a large one in his petrol tank, which he got fixed!

This was another stop, time for lunch, we had chapathis and shared curry among ourselves, filled our stomachs, packed our bags again and started, it was nearly 4km of hill-climb style roads ahead, and right from the star Pradeep went ahead, myself behind him, Ajay behind me, Kitt followed and a nervous Subbu brought up the rear of the pack. Pradeep was taking revenge for all the hills he couldn't climb easily on his bike when it had lost compression! Ooty Episode, Kanyakumari Episode and maybe a little in Kemmangundi. He was on a roll now, shooting up the hill, looking at him, I panicked and tried to keep up, upshifting and downshifting too many time on one stretch and over heating my newly assembled engine! Then we came to a place where there was no road and the only track up the hill went 35 degrees to horizontal! We managed to get that up with ease and stopped waiting for the others, Ajay arrived complaining of an overheated and repeatedly stalling engine and Subbu and Kitt had nothing to say, cause the next stretch of road was even steeper and even rougher than the ones we just came by! It had boulders all the way! Sub went first, and got stuck after a few feet, he had to be pushed out after overheating the engine an losing out on torque, I went second, I got stuck in the same hole Subbu had dug with his tyre! While I was struggling to get out of the ditch and smelling my engine catch fire in the process, Kitt comes and waltzes past me on his bike as if it was his driveway and I was just sitting on a bench! We were all surprised looking at it. It was a good show of bike control from the big man! Ajay made it through with a screaming engine almost on fire,Pradeep came at last and also managed to make it look easy.

We camped soon after and still had a lot of light of the day, so thought we'll go exploring on the bikes. We wanted to test how far it was possible for a bike to get on that mountain. Started our bikes and took off, bouncing from one boulder to another, skidding and sliding almost all the way as the roads got narrower and the drop on the right hand side got steeper, the weather was getting foggier and we were getting crazier. We'd scaled rocks of enough height to count as the median or footpath kerbing on regular surfaced roads. All this came to an end when I was trying to scale a big rock, I got the front over it, and just when the middle of the bike was about to pass over the bike, I heard a loud "tung" and a grinding and then the bike passed over the bike, I knew exactly what it was, I immediately switched off the bike, got down and waved the others down. The bike's frame had hit a rock pretty hard and had chipped the rock. Although a later inspection revealed that nothing serious had happened, it was a scary moment and was enough to make me lose all the rush and put on a worried look on my face!

The problem now, was this: The bike was stuck in a narrow 2 foot wide track and we were supposed to turn it around to head back. On the left was a steep hill face with mountain grass and on the right was a few bushes beyond with lay a drop of a few hundred feet. Everyone helped a hand in turning each bike around by lifting one of the wheels off the ground and getting it faced the right direction, mine was the last bike to be turned around while a herd of hyper active cows waited for the path to clear so that they could go back home before dark too. We then came back when it was still bright, relaxed for a while, talked to some locals who broke the news that we were the people who'd motored the farthest on that hill, that got a sense of achievement in all of us and we were are very happy! We slept in mild rain, two of us slept indoors cause of the rain, myself and sub slept in one tent,Pradeep slept in the other.

Next morning, surprisingly, we were up by six, Sub and I were up talking right from 0530 or so. Woke up, brushed, half a loaf of bread and jam for an early morning breakfast while Ajay and the others packed the same thing to eat on the summit along with loads and loads of water, some glucose and a few chocolates. As we started, we were shocked, we were finding it difficult to go through those roads on foot, we had no clue how we could make it through those roads on a bike the previous evening. As we went along we saw a tent city with ten tents put up in a group. then saw people who'd camped on the top of the hill descending down after having dirtied the summit. We reached the summit in a shorter duration of time compared to the last time we were here. one hour and twenty seven minutes or so the clock read. The guys had breakfast, Sub and I had chocolates, we took some photos of the scenery. And headed back, after the steep parts of the hill, I found it easier to run than to walk, so I started running,Subbu joined me, and soon we both were bullying our way through the oncoming traffic of people. Soon, we'd broken away, and soon enough, Ajay had caught up to us just as silently as he'd catch up with us on his bike when we breakaway! We were running as a group now, and made it to the camp in 55minutes! That was a superb time considering we'd gone up the hill just a couple of hours ago. We then had breakfast and since Subbu was in a hurry, we both started dismantling the tents, packing them up and fastening them up to the bikes while the others either took a nap or took a bath.

After having tea prepared freshly by the local person taking care of the land, we started off, I was the first one to go and was in a good mood to enjoy the roads, skidding into the hairpins and going up and down the gears as fast as you could read one-two-three-four-five. By the time I reached the bottom, the bus stand, Ajay and Pradeep came and informed that the entire mountain was smelling of my engine! But still I managed to enjoy the roads almost till Virajpet, but lost the guys ahead of me soon.. and was riding last but one with Subbu at the end. We met up at Virajpet for lunch at a hotel and left soon afterwards, our minds firmly on reaching Mysore, and Subbu's on reaching Mysore and leaving for Bangalore immediately since he had to make it to work the next morning. Mysore wasn't far away and Subbu had taken the lead right after Virajpet and the next I saw him was in Hunsur for tea and then after tea, next we saw him was at the entrance of Mysore, he was riding like man possessed, maintaining high speeds all the way through. Once into Mysore, it was tough task to convince Subbu to come to a hotel and have coffee before leaving, we did manage that however, it would've saved him fifteen minutes had he agreed right away. We returned the tents and went home very pleased with the trip, our own riding, the bikes and the whole experience in total, The tool kit I had packed never came to use thankfully, so did the emergency medicines. What was used well, was the jam, my mom's cooking which was finished at breakfast, the bread, chocolates, torches, tissues and the water we'd taken at Virajpet. The riding spirit is firmly on all of us now! more trips are going to be planned soon! probably repeat ones, but it'll be much enjoyed for sure! Till then! Cheers!