A haiku dedicated to my new ride.

silent grabber
aching right leg
kickstart trouble.

I hope future ones are a tad bit happier.

Got a bull!

After a long internet search and pussyfooting I got myself a bullet today. My last bike was a second hand splendor, and was a lemon so to say. God save its soul, as it never gave me trouble, still I had to refill its engine oil every month. Coz its piston was nearly gone. And bullet was always like a dream vehicle for me from childhood. And the image it has with popular perception that only men with big "personality" can drive one. The thing which goes with me is its basic design, a design which can be explained in under 200 words. Also the traveller that I am could expand my wings with this. So I decided to buy a bullet. Now the first obvious choice after a second hand splendor was a new bullet. Who wanted lemons when you could have company warranty. Online research showed that bullet has more variables than that.

The models which were made in England, between 1960-70s had a heavy crank in the engine, which to a layman would mean that the engine was more flexible and could be ripped to high speeds. By flexibility, I mean that a bullet with a heavy crank can be driven in the fourth gear at very low speeds. And some of these bullets were expensive. A visit to Karol Bagh, to a shop called "Gurdial Auto Engineers", gave me an entire different perspective. Most of its clients are embassy people (firangs), who get a second hand nearly junk (khatara) 1960s bike and restore it. After restoration some would even cost more than a lakh. Close to a new bullet.

So I decided against popular wisdom that a newbie should go for a electric start new bullet, and went for a second hand 1990 machismo. The point being, that once I am inside the bullet world (which is very close to a clique, considering many bullet owners considering all other vehicles pansy/sissy), I would be at a better position to decide. Riding it since morning, with the occasional stuck at a signal trying to kickstart, overall its been smooth. And to every guy who thinks that a bullet needs a heavy built "personality", may rest assured that it needs none. For bullet I can say other vehicles are ridden, while bullet rides itself.

More bullet posts ahead :D.

bioengineering

saw this pic of a bridge made of tree roots.
and also heard the term bioengineering in context of real world engineering. does anybody have any other examples?

via bindu

Naagin the lady cobra

via ranchu

saturday night fever

Saturday night, at Max Mueller Bhavan with Smriti. Schaeben and Voss were ok, frankly a little amateurish, especially Schad Privat. On the other hand I have become a fan of East India company. Among the folk/fusion groups I have heard, they are the best.

And folks at the Max Muellers know a thing or two about being the perfect hosts. With low seatings covered with mattresses and white sheets. A open bar, and good food (though expensive). And a table with ash trays and a placard saying, "use these". I guess this is the only mucic concert I have been where alcohol was permitted. Even the musicians had an occasional swig :).

kwippy!!

What is kwippy? - a micro/nanoblogging webapp + IM status logger + social network

Why another microblogging app when there are already plenty out there? - There is twitter, pownce, jaiku, and 10 other similar ones. Though all of these promote small posts, each has a different kind of social network.

On twitter you mostly meet strangers. By strangers I mean people you don't know in the real world. It's like barcamp, or a conference where you go partly to network. You meet fellow bloggers, marketeers, and people from your field. Yes friendships may grow among them, but mostly there are subtle motives behind the tweets. From promoting your blog, selling your product, showing your expertise, etc.

Pownce is geared more towards file sharing, sharing media (youtube, mp3s) etc. And it has an AIR instant messenger kind of software which makes it a little closer to an Instant Messeger.

In kwippy, the whole focus is on the Instant Messenger. The friends list on the instant messenger is the most intimate friends list you can find, of all social networks. It gives the people in the list immediate access to your attention. People share their joys (i got a raise), sorrows (i flunked my english papers), their favorite links, and thousand other things through their status messages. And all these people also have a list of their closest friends on their list. And like in the real world when a real friend introduces you to another person, the chances that you hit it off are greater. There's this trust thing which is automatic.

So there - kwippy has a social network which gets real friends, friends you could meet. And it stores all your status messages, which become your emotional timeline.

We have been working on it since some time, and now it is in testing. If you would like to check it out, and give your invaluable suggestions for improvement, either go to kwippy.com, or comment here.

Living Darfur

via smriti

Ever wondered why Darfur, or Tibet, or sierra leon (blood diamond), narmada valley (amir khan's views), etc.. are so cool to support. Many of these do deserve support, but I am really wary of people who don't know zilch about the issue but just support it for coolness sake.