Blending Away

Since I was a kid, there was something about art that always fascinated me, was good at drawing/sketching craft etc. Later on I loved computer games at my aunt's house and always fancied me being a developer for one of those games. Time zipped by and in college days was always in love with Computer graphics and loved the 3D aspect of things. As fate had it I ended up working on Financial/Trading products and eventually on database related concepts.
The Graphics aspect never quit, I still continued playing games and kept sketching did some graphics programing and also got pretty comfortable with Adobe Photoshop, and then I stumbled upon Blender . I never really was a big fan of modeling 3 dimensional objects using tools since I believed anything could be created from code. But a few trials did convince me of the power this simple open source platform packed. As days went by I was regular at learning the various concepts of 3d art development and 3d in general and getting accustomed to the terms from the graphics industry. Having a PS3 at home and being an avid gamer got me more interested in the realism infused into the gaming world.

As time went by I was getting more and more comfortable developing such models- still life that is. BlenderGuru was one of my regular hunt spots and I would spend hours over the tutorials mimicking the same.

My aim, though, is to create natural human/life figures and get them animated in a realistic sequence. This would possibly take a long time to conceive.

For the time being enjoy a couple of renders I could manage from this fantastic software.

To Ride A Dream...

The adrenalin was running high, the skies shone blue and the distant valley held a dried river. The black tarmac seemed never to end and the line of trucks ahead was never ending. Blaring the horn through my tight glove hurt my knuckles and overtaking from the blind lefts seemed pretty foolish. Soon Gautham steered slow and stayed back as I looked at him from the far curve ahead. The momentum refused to cease, the air blew hard and the sweat dared to take a trickle as I squint the eye and leaned to the left and took over a truck over a blind steep turn over a gorge. Trailing a white Innova, I honked and eventually got ahead and curved ahead to the right, the speedo read at 70 or so I guess. Soon got a clearing as I took a steep left and throttled to the steep right U turn ahead, the rubble at the crub was loose.. I braked and engine braked down to a dead 20 as I “hard” steered to the right but the momentum got the better of us over the curb as I skid and bang fell on my knee as I held the ground and bump over my helmet and lay bewildered on the black tarmac. The adrenalin took some time to retreat as my heavy breaths were the only audible notes in the shell. My knee hurt and I was sure of a bleed, but what worried me more was my machine as I instantaneously got up and made vein attempts to get the 180kg monster to its wheels. A few daring pushes and up she stood as I heard a screech behind. The Innova guys came rushing out "Drive slow on these roads sir... these loose pebbles on the side and along the road are very dangerous... you please overtake slowly" said the Tibet-ian driver "You ok Mate... you are bleeding... I see a fuel leak” said a concerned tourist who came running at me "I'm all right... all OK . The vehicle seems just fine... just a bend" I bluffed. My knee hurt and 'was all of a sudden too tired. Soon got over my steed and kicked her to life and rode on at a mellow 40 :).
A ride is for man and machine to be one ... that day I realized it to be true: a dent to machine meant a tear and bang for me :). The ride for over 2500 kilometers over the northern most borders of India is a dream for any adventurer at heart and for me too. Crossing green and beautiful valleys at Kashmir to the rugged landscapes around Ladkak to the "so said" world’s highest motor able road to the high saltwater lake divided between India and China. This was a ride to stay for long in my heart.

For those 15 days I rode my dream...."

na na na, I would not bore you with detailed accounts of the ride, for all I know... I don’t know what I am going to blog of this ride... possibly would end up with trip logs or nothing at all ... it’s just too difficult to get the volume of experiences to compact blogging data. It was my dream and I am happy I could live through it.

Shantaram

Reading novels/story books had re-caught my fancy after a long beak somewhere in 2005/6 I guess. Started with short stories, eventually could never keep my eyes off the fat book with a rusty-red and blue front cover.

My regular visits to crosswords would confirm two to three minutes spent near the shelf holding that book. Eventually one fine day, got it off the rack billed it home. The book was huge. My recent stints with Ayan Rand[1] were not so good- The Fountainhead completed halfway and Atlas Shrugged simply shrugged untouched in my book cabinet.

Before purchasing the same, a few reviews did catch my fancy. They spoke about a live story and always on the edge of your seat kind’ a read. I was a bit wary before starting it though- I mean it’s a fat book! Never before had I read -rather completed -anything that fat.

So I started following the footsteps of this Australian along the shores of Mumbai. Soon in about 2-3 hours a decent set of pages were flung left. I was fast. The story was well narrated and did seem lively. I was easy to imagine all the characters and the plot - like a movie/daily soap playing in front of your eyes.

In a few weeks I did cover good ground, and had no urge to let it down as my protagonist learnt the Marathi language and visited villages. I was good. Then out of habit, I started giving my sessions a pass... soon not a single page was flipped for over 2 weeks. But when I got back to it, it was all back like the soap played into the next episode.

Eventually my lethargy got me addicted to other books, weird but true. Read a few book in-between and eventually would be back to the novel in burst of 2 three sessions in a month or so. This went on… for over 3 years.

Eventually some 2 months back with over roughly three hundred pages left, I got on to it like a leach. And today it stands completed.

Marvelous, got to travel all over Mumbai to "Sunder" village to Goa to Pakistan to Afghanistan, then randomly to US UK Iran Spain etc... it was fabulous! One of the review said, "...was too quick to reach the end of the novel , that I deliberately slowed down and gave huge gaps in reading out of fear that the story might come to an end..." how true. Gripping and fantastic.

I always wanted to finish this novel before the movie was made.
Now I am happy.

Shantaram[1] is a beautiful piece of work and a standing ovation would be an understatement to the author Gregory D Roberts.

Heavy Rain Demo

Heavy Rain was one of the most anticipated games since Uncharted2. Ravi spoke a lot about this game, Srib too was pretty exited to play that. Thus following the Playstation blogs etc finally the demo was launched mid of Feb. The demo took endless to download ~2 weeks with ~2hrs a day. 1.8GB does not come fast.

So eventually the download completed, ready to be played... how was it . Wonderful. Controls were cool, and it felt different from other games, not the usual point and shoot. It was more of an interrogative game, where you build conversations and piece up on evidence. Graphics were top notch... the low contrast played well for the reality factor.(It was too short though)

What I hated about the demo(Spoiler!): It reveals the murderer. At a crime scene you discover pollen and the other part of the demo shows one of the protagonist having heavy asthma... easy MATH.. hate it when such spoilers are loaded by the creators(Quantic Dream in this case)!
I really do'nt know if I'd buy this game now that I know who did it.

Ride to Chikhaldara

As of 21st December we had been on a bike ride to Chikhaldara and back. Enroute we took a halt at the Lonar crater. The primary destination was the jungle and hill station at Chikhaldara and it was magnificent. This time around DaRomans rode in more style - we got ourselves a T-shirt printed, the design was so good it attracted cops. Have you ever heard of riding some 90kms just to fill petrol- yeah we did that! Lived in one of the worst hotels one could think of for the last day, one would go on to say staying under the sky would have been a better idea!
Nonetheless the ride was wonderful and eventful, sure we had a few slips and some fell sick on and off the ride but all was well and the ride went fantabulously well, 'cause "When in da Rome do da Romans" This ride was different from the previous ones, in the sense we took the interior route of Maharashtra- towards the central parts, the weather was one of the most striking differences we noticed.

The descriptions might be lengthy so make sure u get hold of a cup of tea as you scan through the pages....Day1: Pune-Lonar (383kms)
Day2: Lonar-Chikhaldara (305.9kms)
Day3: Chikhaldara (132.5kms)
Day4: Chikhaldara-Sillod (310.6kms)
Day5: Sillod-Pune (309.3kms)

This is the post by Nachiket and
this is what Amit had to say about the ride!

These are the snaps from my cam while
these are from Mandar's cam.

Bike ride to Chikhadara -Part 5

25th Dec:
The day started at roughly 7am with all of us lazing up to the morning blues. NEWS: No water! Dammm! This hotel was getting our nerves now. So as all were waking up, a couple of us with a neighboring guest went down to the reception area and kicked the couple of sleeping hotel staff awake and yelled like crazy at them. Soon they came off their slumber and said since the lights were off there was no water. They then started the generator and connected a pumping machine to some external water drums and pumped water to the tanks. But the process was slow and could easily take over 2 hours, we did not have that leisure. So took our buckets from the room to the tanks and got it filled in. Slowly we were done with our morning duties, and decided to skip bath for the day.

The neighboring guest guy started heating water in a metal container using some firewood and bricks, some of us gathered around the fire to warm ourselves. The bikes were wet with due, just to indicate how cold it was the previous night. Oddly though the rooms were warm. We then had another round of arguments with the manager of the hotel and paid them less of the non-service. Avoid this hotel "Hotel Yuraj" -Sillod affiliated to MTDC at all costs! Soon we blasted our steeds to life and roared off to a near by tea stall(1133kms, 9:32am).

The place was small tea shop with an adjoining dhaba and served an amazing snack only available in these parts - "bun wada" it was amazing just the reverse of a wada paav. The bun is covered in the dough and deep fried. The taste is awesome. Tea too was good -name of the hotel "Agarval tea house". Some of us tanked up at the petrol pump across the road. In about 30 minutes we were on our merry way towards Aurangabad. We decided on synching up some 10kms past Aurangabad.

Mandar was trailing me since the previous day and continued with the same technique (he actually was riding at ~40kmph). In a few kilometers we took a brief halt at an HP petrol pump where Amit an Maneesh tanked up. Post this it was the same blast and bang from my bike and I had my throttle at full and the bike would decide with the gradient and texture of the road weather to go at 50 or hit 70+. Nachiket too stayed behind for this leg, the worse hit part was when we had to ascent a mini ghat just past the Ajantha Caves bifurcation- the bike purred to a glorious 20kmph with blast and puffs as I overtook a couple of trailers! Weird man and really frustrating... So effectively we left my speed at the hands of the bike and no one tried to stop or slow me... it was a weird riding experience.

Eventually Mandar and me rode into Aurangabad city via Chikhalthana and had missed a bypass route(1201.7kms, 11:02am). This side of the city seemed to be pretty modern with malls and a couple of multiplexes. Eventually the city got crowded and post some inquiries we got the right direction, Mandar synched with rest of the gang who had taken the bypass route and we decided to meet in ~10kms. So on we went and rode past Aurangabad city. In some time, we took a halt near a tea stall and called up the others(1231.3kms, 11:44am). In a few minutes the 4 bikes came zooming in and we had our cups of tea. We decided on taking the next halt near Nevasa phata and possibly look for a mechanic there for the bike. In about 20 minutes we rode off.

The highway ride was the same repetition of what we experienced in the ongoing ride, Amit was in a hurry since it was his wedding anniversary and had to be home as soon as possible. Mandar, Nachi and me trailed the pack and the others took turns going ahead and at times trailing back. Effectively we rode at an average of 60kmph. In some time we took a halt at a petrol pump where a few of us tanked up and decided on trying to trouble shoot the bike issue(1260.3kms, 12:42pm). We checked the fuel flow from the petrol tank which was perfectly OK and also dried up the carburetor. I called the hero honda service center mechanic and he suggested changing the spark plug. We planned on getting the repairs done at around Ahmendnagar.

We got off on our merry way and rode off the little city. It was starting to be a pain to ride the coughing machine.. but we carried on. It would get frustrating when some slow vehicle would come infront of me or some one would try crossing the road and would make me slow down. The bike would cough like a maniac when trying to speed up. I still remember on the stretch in MP. where a dog crossed the road and as the bike farted it sprung to its feet in fear staring at me.

By now Amit, Dhanya and Maneesh had ridden off ahead and decided to check for mechanic shops at Ahmednagar. Soon the traffic starting piling up and we were negotiating a huge line of trucks. We were entering Ahmednagar city. We arrived at a turn in the city where Maneesh was waiting for us, Amit had gone in looking for a mechanic shop and Dhanya as usual rode off ahead (he too was looking for a mechanic he said later)(1316.1kms, 13:30pm). Amit returned and said there we many mechanics inside the lanes, soon Amit and me rode of on my bike into the crowded city. The area we went to resembled Nanapeth (in pune) here we bought a spark plug and took it to a HeroHonda authorized mechanic and he said the spark plug was wrong then I had to make 3 rounds to various shops to get the right spark plugs and return the wrong ones. Eventually he fitted the spark plug and checked the bike and said there was some issue with the pickup and starter coils, and denied to fix them soon as he had 3 other bikes in his hand. He said we take a break near Sarathwadi for the bike to cool down before going on. So much for that, we returned to the others and narrated the story and eventually decided to ride off(14:24pm).

We decided to stop at the next available good looking hotel. As we started riding off Dhanya joined us at the outskirt post a bridge. We went searching for a good hotel and eventually halted at one "Hotel Sagar" (1323.9kms, 14:45kms). Here we ordered pitla, methipitla, shengdana thecha and lots of bhakris with rice and daal. The food was amazing and lip smacking. Post lunch we rode off and decided to stop somewhere near Saratwadi (15:36pm).

The ride continued along the highway at gradual speeds. Puffing and chugging through as we rode via a couple of villages, and eventually rode past Saratwadi (via Hotel Navnath we had stopped for breakfast a few days back)(1375.6kms, 14:30pm). We took a brief halt but decided to carry on as everyone was in the groove of the ride. So on we rode and went past more smaller towns and eventually entered Shikrapur and took our routine tea halt(1399.9kms, 17:04pm).

Here we refreshed ourselves and decided to meetup next directly at Gunjan talkies (depart at 17:14pm). My fuel indicator was showing bad signs so fueled up at a pump in a couple of kilometers. Slowly rode ahead as the roads started getting crowded, I guess I was at Wagholi, by now everyone was far ahead and was the last one. Some big VIPs were around and had a huge ground setup for a public meet, lots and vehicles and police had clogged the place. Negotiating the traffic I eventually rode past Koregaon and soon came the traffic signals of Pune, post which all my compadres stood waving at me near Gunjan talkies. The ride had come to an end(1432.7kms, 18:00pm).

Here we exchanged high fives and chit-chatted for sometime. The 4 big tigers from Semadoh was still a topic for laughter at this point and so was Maneesh's "oo ooooooo oooooo". Eventually Dhanya and Amit took their luggage off the saddle bags and bid adeu... Mandar departed a few minutes later and finally Maneesh Nachi and me took off in the direction of BundGarden bridge. Eventually Maneesh rode off then Nachi parted ways near Kumbharwada as I "puffed" "bang" "chugged" the frustrating city traffic and my caughing steed back home(1441.3kms, 18:47pm).

It was a ride, quiet different from the previous ones. In a way that we went away from the coast and this time did not experience sweat or sore butts post riding :).

B.t.w the blasts from my bike were later rectified and corrected by the mechanic, who said it was nothing more than a loose contact of a couple of wires... @#$%$^&*(#@$!!!

Bike ride to Chikhadara -Part 4

24th Dec:
The day started pretty early with us waking to morning calls at ~6:30am. Soon we called up the reception for our buckets of hot water (the hotel heater system was down and hence they would provide us with water). Soon the water arrived and we took turns getting fresh. By ~7:30am we checked out of the hotel and rode down to the little snack shop, and had some quick snacks. Nachiket and me decided to leave early, since we would have formalities to complete with the checkpost guy. (821.4kms, 8:01am).

Here Nachi, had a slip at slow speeds. It was pretty funny, I was trailing him and thought he was taking a stop for a leak and then at a standstill position the bike fell off. No injuries just a few parts got jammed which were rectified soon. Past some twisties we were at the checkpost and started off with the formalities for tickets and shelling off 210/-. Soon everyone teamed in and with the formalities done we took the ghat to Semadoh(~8:30am).

By now we were familiar with the road and jungle, thus left at our own pace downhill. Past the twisties as were were nearing Semadoh, came a huge roar (like a muffled sound) definitely a tiger, monkeys jumped off trees as the sound came in. (None except Amit and me heard that roar... so well, we atleast got to hear a tiger roar in the tiger sanctuary). Soon we arrived at Semadoh took a regroup halt and rode off ahead. Here I was leading the entire way- the bike was not behaving well, it kept misfiring and for me it felt like riding a horse for every misfire blast. Still the smooth roads went on straight ahead at ~80kmph. We did slowdown to regroup and continued to ride in a straight line. There were a couple of close calls as passing by motorist/cars would stop to have an eyeful of us streamlined motorists and thus almost run into us. But nothing bad happened. Soon we rode past Dharni Phata. The road now started getting bad in patches and we riders were now spaced apart. The jungle started to thin off as we started riding along a thin road with farm on both sides. Soon we were following signs for Bhuranpura and Dharni. Finally we arrived at the little village of Dharni -our breakfast halt(896.9kms, 10:25am).

The previous day's food had taken a toll on me and my stomach was not feeling right and with a slight headache decided to skip snacks and just have a cup of tea. Other relished on the local food- which they said was the best they had on the entire ride (grrrrrrrr!). Many villagers gathered around the bikes and kept passing comments. Soon in about 30minutes we left in the direction of Bhuranpura.

For the ongoing route the road was not too good and we mostly had some farmland on both sides with a thin road going straight through various hamlets. At one point an Indica car parked to the left of the road revved hard to let out a plume of black smoke wall on the road and Nachiket rode straight through it at 70kmph - it looked cool, as he passed through- the smoke trailed him through the hole :). I followed him - possibly made similar impact on my trailing compadres. Soon enough we arrived at a small checkpost sorts and rode straight through with a board that read (Welcome to Madhya Pradesh)! Thumbs up and in we were the new state. The roads were pretty thin and continued with similar scenery around us. We kept riding more or less in a single file. The road signs were now in hindi and the overspeeding caution messages too were in Hindi- no Marathi :). At places the roads were pretty bad and we had to pass through some stagnating traffic, as trucks and heavy vehicles blocked a market road at a village. We rode on and soon arrived at a junction with Bhuranpur to the right.

All riders rode right following the lead of Mandar, soon we were crossing a huge river over a wide bridge -Tapi river. We were going in the wrong direction we never were to cross Tapi and simply had to by-pass Bhuranpur. Nonetheless we regrouped soon after riding some 6 kms into the city outskirts, were stopped by cops for a routine check of vehicle-papers. The cops were thrilled to know we had been ridding all the way from Pune, all cops crowded around us like curious spectators, it sure was a funny sight. One of the cops persuaded us to stay at Bhuranpur and take a look at a nearby hill fort which is like an icon for the city. We politely rejected his offer- by now Mandar and Maneesh were in a situation with no RTC papers since their bikes were brand new and the papers had not arrived. Some talks and 50 bucks let them free. We took appropriate directions from the cops and they directed us back 6kms and asked us to take a right towards Ichhapur and eventually Maharashtra via Muktainagar.

So we rode back some 6kms kilometrers and took a halt near a tea stall. Amit came in with Dhanya and we learnt a new story - Dhanya was traveling without papers and had lost the same a long time back. This was pretty bad, but he managed to slip off with us. Eventually Mandar and Maneesh teamed in and we had our cups of tea and Maneesh went down to a mechanic to get his mirror repaired (979.7kms, 12:29pm). Eventually post tea, we decided to ride towards Ichhapur and have lunch either there or at Muktainagar.

The road from here was along a highway and it was pretty smooth - we could speed after a long time. We went riding over a couple of rivers, some were full others seemed pretty dry. Soon we were driving through highway traffic and eventually entered Ichhapur a small town and just as immediately rode through a checkpost sorts with a board indicating we were leaving Madhya Pradesh. The road signs were again in friendly territory. My bike would not let me ride any faster that 70kmph. So I was trailing back, others recognized this and took turns trailing me or ride around me :). The afternoon was pretty hot and a big change from the last 3 cool days- that meant getting tired as you ride. We arrived at Muktainagar, and rode into junction but found no spot where we could have lunch. (1017.8kms, 13:36pm). Post some inquiries locals asked us to have lunch at a near by college canteen. Amit and Dhanya went to check out the restaurant- they called back to affirm the quality and we gathered for lunch.

The canteen was pretty simple and was built adjoining the Muktainagar college. The owners were pretty happy to see us and we were pretty tired under the sun. Took a couple of tables under the shade of a tree. The waiter kid was an enthusiastic lad and suggested some good food -shev bhaaji, aloo rassa bhaji , vaangi bhaaji and lotsa chapaatis and papads. These parts of Maharashtra are know was extremely spicy food, so we instructed them to make it less spicy. The food was simple and amazing ... the taste was top notch. Even with my rotten stomach I could not resist the temptation. After a long relaxing break we took our leave and took directions and rode off in the direction of Jamner our next halt(1018kms, 14:35pm).

The ensuing road was no different, but post some distance there was this construction activity underway and that meant a lot of rubble. Maneesh managed to slip again, but with no injuries. Soon we came to an extremely bad patch of road where there was a deadloack with a truck entering a ditch an we lining up to get out of it, but soon enough we were on our merry way. The road went through some desolate parts and soon we came to a halt near a railway crossing. Here and individual could not resting patting all of Amit's protective gear and Amit could not resist himself explaining the merits of each. A train passed by but the the gates did not open , an engine passed some 5 minutes later . Eventually the gates opened and we rode through. Roads were no different and we simply kept going. Soon we arrived at Jamner and took a regroup halt, Jamner was to the right we had to go straight. I had to fuel up so did the same while others settled at a tea stall (1065.8kms, 15:51pm).

Here the tea shop owner and few other visitors suggested us not to goto Ajantha Caves as it was to close by 5pm and also one could not ride all the way to the caves. We would have to park the vehicles at a junction then take a bus to the caves. We contemplated on various options for an overnight stay- Pardapur and staying at Dahnya's farm house was one of them. We decided on riding down to Pardapur and hunt for places to stay- The Ajantha caves visit was in the bin. We left for Pardapur (16:25pm).

Rode straight along the highway, my bikes condition was deteriorating and we thought of getting it repaired at some nearby city if time permitted. Eventually post some highway straight drive we arrived at Pardapur neat an MTDC resort. The owners there pulled the gates on us saying it was full, but did suggest an MTDC affiliated resort "Yuvraj" just on the outskirts of Sillod(1095.7kms, 17:07pm). We tried convincing the owner, but was of no avail. Dejected we decided to ride on towards Sillod- Dhanya suggested we had a fallback plan in case no hotels worked out -his farmhouse. We rode on stright towards Sillod.

We had decided to keep an eye out for Yuvraj hotel, Amit and others rode straight ahead to make the search at higher speeds I kept chugging behind. So by now I was riding pretty much alone far behind, in about 45minutes the riders were waving down to me along the side of the road in a distance. It was a butt break halt. Sillod was hardly some 2 kms away -Amit, Maneesh and Dhnya went off ahead to search for the hotel while the rest of us took a halt (I needed one especially after riding the farting horse!). Soon Amit called and said the hotel seemed OK and was just 5 minutes from where we were- as usual the others had ridden away.

Eventually we all grouped up at "Hotel Yuvraj". From outside it seemed pretty neat. The rooms were not well kempt and we took an adjoining less untidy room. The staff had promised to give us 4 extra beds. Thus we wrapped down into the room and decided to have dinner at the hotel itself. (1132kms, 18:00pm). Some of us took a fresh up and others walked off in the open area of the hotel which seemed like a mini resort. Having too many mosquitoes we requested for repellent coils which we got. Later we spent time in the central reception room/dining area as we watched the India-Srilanka match. The cold was unbearable and some of us got comfortable near the bhatti (where they bake naans and rotis).

Here drinks were ordered which arrived after about 45 minutes, the dinner came after about 2 hours- pathetic service. I had already dozed off at the table and Mandar gave me neat massage in a bid to keep me awake- Thanks Mandy!. Later Mandy and the owner went down to the drinks shop to change the drinks since they were outdated, and it turned out the drink shop owner had over charged! Eventually dinner arrived and it tasted horrible- chicken handi was like rubber pieces, the veg handi was made in chinese gravy after this we could not have anything. The only good part was having all those 12 boiled eggs before the dinner.

Eventually tired and disoriented we retreated back to our rooms. The beds had not arrived only 3 extra beds were there and no blankets. Lots of shouting eventually got in 2 blankets and an extra double bed, this irritated most of us and we went out and blasted the manager and the owner of the hotel at 12 midnight. The bozzos had not given us anything and expected us to sleep tight in the cold night. Finally they assured we would get everything soon, at ~12:30 am all the blankets arrived amidst our sleep. Irritated I snapped at the manger who got the blankets, Maneesh who was sleeping next to the door woke up mid-sleep and went "Huuuhh.. hooo ooooo ooooooooooo oooooooo ... blah blah blah" blabbering in his sleep "sleep off man" I snapped at him and just as immediately he dozed off - Nachi and me enjoyed this, and we kept teasing him for this for the rest of the trip.

Eventually we called it a day at ~12:35am. The next day our ride was to end and we could do that at a leasurly pace, but with my bikes bad condition meant our speeds would be hampered. The next day was to see a major influence cased by good old CBZ the fart buster!