Speed Breaker - From which angle do I look like.....?

Things that you stumble upon while browsing...

Often the surprise that runs across your screen keeps you hooked in a good way. The rest can even give you a nightmare.

Thankfully, the one which I encountered was a treat. It's a neat site called myheritage.com. No culture-tourism boredom this is. They must rename the site with immediate effect. It has some interesting imaging tools for morphing, celebrity resemblance comparison and the like. Just for the fun of it, I tried the tool which compares your uploaded image with the images in the site's celebrity image database. The system gives you the list of celebrities who you have a resemblance to. In went an old image from college days and after a couple of seconds the results were out, that too with the percentage of similarity. Take a look.

Jawaharlal Nehru – 72%
Rajiv Gandhi – 71%
Matthew Mc Conaughey – 67%
Ayrton Senna – 56%
M. Night Shyamalan – 56%

Honestly, I don't think I look like any of them in this pic. About the close contenders one and two, it's quite ironic to add that I was in a long Kurta when this pic was taken. Both Nehru and Rajiv chose it as a preferred attire. Number three - I'm neither a fan nor a follower. Number four - not a fan, but have heard a lot about his skills behind the steering wheel of an F1 car till the moment he died. Number five - was a fan, not anymore and please don't tell me that I look like him.

P.S - I uploaded another pic of mine and the list generated had no resemblance to the previous one. So don't fly too high if your result says you can be a Brad Pitt double or an Angelina Jolie twin.

Speed breaker - Taj Mahal wannabe

As promised, here's the pic of the mosque at Karunagapally, Kerala which owes its design to Shahjahan's Taj Mahal. I was so much in a hurry that I couldn't get the name or details of this mosque. That's right on top of the must-do list next time I take a trip via that route.

0 to 167 kms in 4 hours

When I decided to go for a full blast 150 km trip from home to Trivandrum seldom did I know what was in store. Hours of convincing acts, before parents said yes. It’s difficult to make them understand that you are old enough to travel on your own. Considering the fact that I’m yet to put some decent miles on the odometer, they have a point. But as applicable to all humans, a hyper-excited mind is deaf to anything which goes against its wishes. I’m human.

What’s with all the excitement? The sights that caught my fancy en route during several trips did made me enthusiastic for a bike ride with scheduled pit stops. Pit stops which would function as “pic” stops too. I even went through the trouble of memorizing the names of all the places where I’d get down and shoot. But as the wise loser once said, man proposes, God disposes. And He did dispose it all.

Rain rain, go away, come again another day. But the rain gods were involved in other jobs and chose not to listen to my prayers. Drenching me at times with showers of blessings. With a backpack which weighed twice as much as I was when I was born, definitely my spine was in the interest of quitting. The less said about the least offending butt. I must say this - it went numb.

The list of good subjects which demanded to be shot is endless. A dozen damaged cars and trucks of all shapes and sizes filled up the sides of the road, which would make anyone scared of going beyond 30kph. A mosque which bears a close resemblance to the Taj Mahal, the rusted shell of a van, half buried in the mud, a deteriorating barge which still stood above the water as waves lashed out on its rusted sides, and miles of tree and coast lined roads craved to be photographed. I had a plan for each one when we drove past them previously. All went down the drains along with the rains. I was more worried about kissing the roads in a bad skid than about putting my eyes and the camera’s capabilities to the test.

That doesn’t mean that I didn’t shoot at all. A couple of frames did make their way onto the camera’s sensor. A few clicks at a beach and a quick stop pic of the Taj Mahal look alike mosque, that’s all.

A couple of close calls and hours of silent riding made up the trip which took all of 4 hours. Please don’t ask the receiving party on how I looked at the end of the road trip. It wasn’t the best way to turn up at any place. Thankfully, no one judged.

Stunning frames

A contrasting sky with dark rain clouds forming the lower section and the feather-white clouds filling up the portion above. This in turn imparted the image with two different colour schemes - blue above and a yellowish tint below. The Stunner made up the foreground and the evening sun's rays struggling to make their way through the dark clouds give the pic an end-of-a-roadtrip feel.

Speed Breaker - Honda Stunner joins the show

So finally I got my set of wheels. Thanks to the frequent convincing acts from friends, the blogger zeroed in on the ever-reliable Honda. A bit flashy here, a fantastic engine there, this machine is quite well above the expected standards. I often find it tough to convince others that this is a humble 125cc commuter which looks like a 150cc big bike(by Indian standards).

With a bit of performance bike aspirations thrown in, it looks purposeful. The fixed front cowl and headlamp assembly, the sharp fairing, the sporty seating postion and the stepped seat do lend it an aggressive stance. The low end range is encouraging as far as city commute is concerned. Say good bye to frequent gear shifts because of that. 5 gears isn't necessary for a bike which tops out somewhere around 100kph. I have no complaints, as the feel of having a 5 gear transmission at my disposal is pleasing.

Thank heavens, she is less demanding than her looks convey. Handling isn't exceptional, but doesn't make the rider uncomfortable. The tyres are meaty and give a firm grip on the tarmac, inspiring confidence. A fine choice for long trips too and that translates into more beautiful places to go to and shoot, like the one in the pic.

Trust me, the pillion rider will love this bike. The higher postion of the rear seat ensures that she (hopefully!) gets an unhindered view of the road ahead. That's a good excuse to buy this machine if you haven't got the bucks for a full-blown performance/cruiser bike. It works for me. :)

Speed breaker : Radiator Springs...a surprise

A blown radiator, an over-heating engine, wayward wipers, unprecedented rains, all these pretty much summed up this year’s trip to Vagammon on Good Friday. Life has never been so much cruel to us. It was midnight; barely half way into the journey, the radiator gave up. The war veteran Amby, all of 40 years of age had given us all signs of retirement way back in the past. This was the final nail on that well deserved coffin.

We have climbed the Kurishumala peak before with the same car dropping us off at the foot of the hill. Not so trust worthy even then. Some how the clockwork functioned in miraculous ways to allow us to visit this famous pilgrim centre.

Situated on the foothills of the Western Ghats, the place is an anthill during the holy week. Thousands flock in for the Way of the Cross climb. The 2 hour ascend is an experience in itself. Add a bit of rains and mist; you have the semi-tough guy trek at hand.

They say that when everything else on the car makes more noise than the horn, then it’s time to ditch the car in the dumpster. Words of wisdom. But sometimes they fall on deaf ears. Moving on, there were times in this trip when the engine bay emitted more smoke than the tailpipes of an entire fleet of State maintained buses. Frequent stops to cool the engine kicked the timeframe of the journey from 2 hours to 5 hours. Serious thoughts of retrofitting a water tank in addition to the diesel tank crossed our minds. Rain Gods blessings came in the form of strong showers. With wipers which had the obedience of a kindergarten kid, night-driving turned into Marco Polo mode. In simple words, no idea of what lay ahead of us.

But for a visual feast like the ones in the images, was it worth it? Totally!!! If the images don’t impress you, then that’s probably because my expertise in photography isn’t exceptional. Sometimes, images just don’t do justice to the beauty of the subject. J