Woke up 4am on a sunday morning to go for cycling, with the thought it better be good, I have lost hours of sleep for this. After driving for an hour we reached Hesaraghatta which I had known only for two reasons a. Nrithyagram b. my father’s training there. Once we reached the place which marked the begining of our off-road cycling, I was happy. It was green, muddy and beautiful.

We didnt actually have any particular track in mind. We rode as we liked and ended up at Hesaraghatta Lake. We rode on the lake bund until we reached the end. Read the rest of this entry »

Actually this was meant for my twitter followers, But now its open to all my readers. I have Rs. 500 RangDe social lending coupon. Whoever answers this Bangalore quiz (easy) earliest with maximum number of correct answers will get this coupon. Using which you can lend somebody on RangDe. You will get the money + 2% interest once they pay back the loan and of course you will get some karma points.

Quiz:

1. Whats earlier version of M1A2 called? Ans:- Bangalore Torpedo
2. Is there a Gul Mohar Marg in Bangalore? Ans:- Yes. Inside IISc
3. Where in Bangalore you will find 3000 million year old rock ? Ans:- Inside lalbagh, the rock on which Kempegowda tower is built.
4. Which area of Bangalore first got electricity? Ans:- Cantonment
5. How much did Govt spend to construct Vidhana Soudha? Ans:- Rs 1.75 crore.
6. From where did the granite used to construct Vidhana Soudha came from? Ans:- Mostly from Mallasandra and Hessaraghatta
7. Before Independence Gandhi was asked to take rest in Bangalore, Where was it exactly? Ans:- Okay. It was both Kumara krupa road and Nandhi hills. I was expecting Nandhi Hills.

Go ahead answer them as comments. May be I will close it at 7pm?? closed.

Note: NO, this is not sponsored by RangDe. This one is out of my EB adsense money :)

Results: Raghava got it right second time. Congratulations. I will send a mail. Manoj and Fagun were very near. BTW where is that  city market building? Next time I will hide answers until I close the quiz that should make it more interesting.

Last Saturday of every month, we do group ride in Bangalore called critical mass ride. Critical mass is that minimum mass which will make others to notice our existence (Cyclists). Hundreds of cities around the world organize such rides to make or to educate citizens about the importance of cycling. Its mostly a fun ride around the city but also involves educating curious onlookers.

Even though we don’t have hundreds of cyclist like in other parts of the world. We still have decent crowd to attract the traffic. This week we rode from our regular starting point PTI to Freedom Park (old Jail).

I was happy to see how they have converted old jail into public community space. Its location makes it much more important to have such a place. May be few days from now we will have music or drama evenings like Lalbagh bands at open – air amphitheatre that can seat 300 people. There are art works on freedom wall, there is that old charming watch tower, etc. Kudos to BBMP they have done a great job until now. I hope they maintain it in the same way. Actually I didn’t have good camera and hence the lack of pictures. I will probably get more pictures next time I visit Freedom Park. Make sure you visit it too.

There are many Bangalore brands that I love. But today I want to write about two **lesser** known Bangalore brands. The reason I have emphasized **lesser** is because most of us know them as just big brands but not as Bangalore based brands.
Cafe Coffee Day
For a guy who drinks up to three Grande Lathes per day, its difficult to miss it. I have told the story of CCD to so many who doesn’t know about it. Today officially I am going to write about it. Cafe Coffee Day is a very good case study for any budding entrepreneur. Cafe Coffee Day launched its first cafe in 1996 on Brigade Road in Bangalore. Today they have over 800+ cafes including one each in Pakistan, Germany and two in Austria. Bangalore its home town has 100+ ccds spread all over. CCD became instant hit amongst south Indian coffee drinking youth, mainly because of its style and affordability. I like their 24×7 cafes on major high ways in and around Bangalore. I also like their new Coffee Day Square concept. You can find their first Square at their corporate office premises in Bangalore.
And yes it is owned by Siddartha son in law of SM Krishna. But that doesn’t take anything away from him. I am sure he is using all his J.M. Morgan Stanley experience to make it big.
Update: I just read this very interesting interview of Siddartha by Subroto Bagchi on Forbes India. It seems Siddartha worked along with his team in a CCD in Calcutta on 31st night. And then
Subroto: What was the biggest lesson for him in all this?
Siddartha: “I was simply amazed how indifferent people are to those who serve. Three rich women came, ordered their drinks, did not once look at me, and settled the cheque, did not care to tip me, but worse, did not say a ‘thank you’ before leaving for someplace else where revelry awaited them. It shocked me because it was New Year’s Eve. I thought people would be nice to others because they themselves were in such a joyous state of mind.” Read that interview at Forbes India.

Wildcraft
For trekkers or adventure sports lovers I don’t have give an introduction of wildcraft. I have been owning wildcraft bags since college days. Long time back I went to their Jayanagar branch to get a bag zipper repaired. The guy at the shop fixed the zipper for free with out asking any history. Obviously I was impressed. That is when I got to know that its a bangalore company. I dont know much about the company other than it was found by Dinesh who has engineering background. Its almost ten years old now. But I have been big fan of their bags (check last pic).

There are many other bangalore brands like MTR to Infosys which I like. But here I just wanted to speak about **lesser known bangalore** brands.

Its very common for myself and my friend Manju to explore something new on Sunday evenings. I had heard about Naganatheshwara temple at Begur but had not seen it. Since it is very near to my home we though it would be a good place laze around on a sunday evening. Manju’s mom had told us according to legend the temple is of the era of Pandavas and Pandawas used to offer Pooja to Shiva. Me and Manju reached there early on Sunday evening. The temple was still not open but we got some amazing pictures of it from outside.

Collage of all the pictures I took on that day.

Read the rest of this entry »