Know more...Without limits

The Journey - A Score to Settle - Part VII (Finale)

2011-10-20T16:18:00.001+05:30

Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever
-Lance Armstrong

The Ride – Day Three ..Missing a beat

Riding early in the morning, "Carhaix" – the only thing on my mind. Ride was very slow, time limits were out of reach, and eyes were very sleepy. Hard to stay awake, asleep on the bike and veered out of the road for few times. This is dangerous, I thought. After some distance I decided to sleep to avoid perilous consequences. I slept at road side for half an hour but I was already running out of time. With bad knee my bike was crawling slowly. It was Tuesday morning, no rain, bit warmer, I rode with determination. I reached "Carhaix" at 11 AM , 2 hours extra, over the time limits. I thought my ride was over, stamped my brevet card and asked about if "I can ride or it’s over?". Again I wished I could have understood the French, many of the officials didn’t knew the exact rules, after much discussion I understood that if I reach the "Brest" which is 618Kms by 7.30 pm and complete whole distance back to Paris within 90hours then officials might approve for the medal. I met another rider who lost his way, in turn jumped time limits and reached the control late. We explained the situation to volunteers; translators were of great help while working out whole thing.

I met some of my friends and talked for some time at "Carhaix". Then I left at 12 without eating much. Some distance ahead, sleepy feeling was back, terrible situation. I decided to sleep. Slept for 1 hour at roadside, many riders crossed, sleep was not quiet and pain became worse, hard time to get moving. Next control was at "Brest" 618 kms.

Road was scenic and hilly, I stopped clicking photos long back before "Fougères". The constant ups and downs were taking toll; I started to stop more frequently as pain was getting bad. After some distance I slept at roadside again, I was feeling exhausted, then the crucial moment, the decision ..to quit or not, target was elusive, 60 more kms to ride in 3.5 hours with bad knee and exhausted body, knee was in bad shape, and most of the riders were on the return journey.

I met one of my friends on the way. Moving ahead, Route transformed from low to high traffic, cold winds had shivering effect. I tried to get lift from cars moving on the road, but no one stopped. All options closed except riding. Continuous ups and downs made it difficult and painful. Returning riders were moving fast, crossing me, I was happy for them. They were cheering most of the times. I saw a returning rider stopped at road side, I went to him and asked if he can call to control point and get some help. But after discussion we thought it was of no use, he told me ride ahead and get help in the next town. Then I rode some distance, and met Indian-Seattle guy on his return. He quickly stopped and turned his bike, crossed to the other side of the road. He suggested some exercises to relieve pain. Talking to him was nice. We thought about the options, the best bet was to ride some distance, search for help from locals. It was 6 pm by the time I reached the small hill top where some locals were present.

Just before hill top, encountered old biker, I tried to convince him that there is no use of riding as control will get closed by the time he reach there, but he was under some magic spells, he imagined that there was lot of time remaining. I met many riders who lost the track of time, and made them realize that it was 23rd of Aug and not 22^nd.

Once on the top of the hill I talked to some local guys who were standing on the road side and cheering the riders. I was feeling exhausted, bad knee and cold winds, I explained the situation. First thing I did is asked him to inform to Brest control that I am quitting. He repeatedly asked me (more than 3 times) if I really wanted to quit. I was feeling more pain while saying yes. Finally he informed to control officials, the other guy with car was ready to get me to the nearest train station “Morlaix”. The spirit and selfless nature of people was always touching. It was wonderful experience.

By this time I was 40kms from Brest, total of 580 kms. We put my bike inside the car and travelled to station. I was feeling the cold, next bad news was we were late, no trains available for that day to Paris. No place to sleep. Train official helped me to find out hotel, the cheap one. The guy was never reluctant to help, we went to youth hostels. I thanked the guy from bottom of my heart for all the help he extended despite being unknown.

Inside the room it was warm and I was in deep sleep within few minutes.

Day Four… In Security

Next day, Wednesday 24th , I left the hotel early in the morning, reached train station at 8 AM. I heard from my mind “The bad new is, TGV(high speed train) does not allow to travel with bike unless bike is packed, the good news is people are ready to help”

Scanning the PBP logo on my jersey, one lady stared talking to me regarding the race. She helped at ticket counter with language and also offered any help, if needed in packing my bike. Her husband was ready to drive me to Decathlon store. When I insisted on checking other options to ticket official, he figured out that if I reserve the seat in particular compartment then it was ok to take the bike without packing it. I booked the ticket. Now I was thinking about how to spend next 8 hours on the station. train arrival time - 5 PM in the evening.

I asked the lady “when will it reach to Paris” she said “at 9” it was almost 600 kms so I asked “in the morning?” she started laughing and said “no in the evening itself, you know it’s much faster by train than bike”.

Later she told me about the tragic death of one rider in an accident on Monday night. She showed me the newspaper. An American veered across the road (presumable fell asleep) and got ran over by long truck. Thai Pram was a 58 yr old from DC Ranndoneurs and he died on the spot. This is the second death in last 2 editions, an Italian died in 2007 after falling asleep on a fast decent.

I remembered about the recent similar incident, Wouter Weylandt (who was making a descent during the Giro d'Italia when he crashed and died on 10^th May 2011). His friend Voigt said about the incident "I never was the bravest. I like to think I know my limits, know the consequences and try to stay away from trouble, but when you're young, you think you're invulnerable, that you're never going to die. Just like James Dean." I also remembered few moments of my sleepy riding and felt terrible.

Considering the statistics, ride involved roughly 5,000 riders, and something like 350,000 miles of riding, there is always probability of dire consequences if someone is not careful. I felt sad, there is so little one can do to help. But then the racing will go on. It has to, It's the best thing we could do.

I roamed to areas nearby station, waited for the train. In the evening I boarded train, the journey was fast and smooth. Few DNF’s (non finishers) from PBP joined over the course. I chatted with a German rider who met with an accident and couldn't ride so abandoned. We talked lot, shared many experiences. Lastly I reached at station, took local train to Plaisir. In the night it was difficult to find roads. I asked help from station officials, they gave one big map of the area and explained how to reach the hotel. Lastly hotel at 11 PM.

Aftermath…

Next day, 25^th Aug – the last day of PBP. we joined the valedictory function followed by the party in the evening, cheered for all who completed the PBP within time limits. Again nice time, met more riders with amazing stories. At the age of 76, Italian rider completed in 75 hours. We heard his story of PBP, he said “I was on the bike for 50 hours, and rested quite well.” While discussing about the rider with amputated leg who rode the PBP, he formulated his emotional words “I saw the guy, he was so determined. I also saw someone who is blind and riding along the way, these things made me cry”. We spent most of the time at gymnasium, collected directive arrow signs as a lifetime memory from volunteers.

Now flying date was one day ahead. I was eagerly waiting for the Saturday. Days after PBP were full of rest and packing. We flew back to India on 27^th Aug, Saturday.

Before I left France, I had accepted that, the idea “I might not finish the ride, but that I would have fun either way”. Maybe that was a bad Idea (in terms of finishing), an unfinished PBP a new challenge ...A Score to Settle...might be in 2015, but I did have fun. I saw the amazing passionate riders some riding with amputated leg, with only hands and blind also ..and as old as 75 + ...the sheer human spirit that goes beyond limits . The enriching experience which will remain with me for rest of my life. Lastly I thought about Thai, his family and the wonderful people I met in France.

The End

The Journey - A Score to Settle - Part VI

2011-10-18T21:34:00.001+05:30

This is not Disneyland, or Hollywood. I'll give you an example: I've read that I flew up the hills and mountains of France. But you don't fly up a hill. You struggle slowly and painfully up a hill, and maybe, if you work very hard, you get to the top ahead of everybody else.

-Lance Armstrong

The Ride – Night Two…Uncertainty Principle

Night has always its own flavor of riding. Night looks beautiful when you see full moon in the sky but when its dark, strange and silent it scares you.

During the second night, I began to see the headlights of returning riders—those working as teams, with support at controls attending to every need. These were the randonneurs who would finish the ride in under 50 hours. They were riding like buzzing machines, cutting the distance with high speed. I felt envious about them and of course respect.

Out of secret control, I met couple of friends who told me its IT band pain and advised to try some exercises. I rode for an hour, pain was bit reduced which allowed me to ride non stop till next control. I was loosing the grip on the time limits to reach control points.

The road was illusive when it seemed like road was sloping downwards, the actual bike speed indicated otherwise. Riding alone in the night was bit scary, few cyclist crossed, over the time period. I felt my headlights were not good enough to show me the road. Batteries dying or may be some internal connection problem due to rain. Tapping the lights was temporary solution which worked for me in my previous rides. So, on one of the uphills, while climbing slowly, I tried to do some adjustments to headlights, tapping etc, and ..

Booommm…!!!

Front part of light was off, flying on the road and it was totally dark. Only light remaining was the light on my helmet. Next moment I saw one car is coming in the same direction, sudden thought of getting my headlights crushed under its wheels caused panic. Adrenaline rushed, legs moved quickly. Standing in the middle of the road, I stopped the car and picked up the lights, moved back to roadside. It was terrible. Within next few minutes I fixed the light, working fine.. fortunate.. I started moving again.

The next incident followed very quickly. Bike was going downhill with good speed, more than 60kms/hr, following the red lights of riders ahead. Then at the end of downhill, a sudden sharp turn, the lights I followed turned illusive, as they were quite far away from me. Divider was just ahead, I applied brakes hard,

and …booommm!!!

Bike skidded within no time. This time, no serious injuries once again. Dreadful feeling surged the moment I thought about the bike, how much damage it caused damn it. Looking in the darkness, I tried to figure out, Chain was out of place. No other damages .. wohaaa….Fixing the bike was easy part. Soon I was back on the bike.

High speed needed now, time limits for next control - too close. I managed to reach the control just in time. "Loudéac" - 3 AM. Pain returned and eyes started shutting down quite frequently. It was time to get some sleep, planned for 1.5 hours sleep. The control was quite warm compared to chilly night outside. Gloves, shoes, socks were out on the table, all wet. I felt bit relaxed to getting rid off the wet feeling. I already missed last night’s dinner, and feeling hungry. I bought dinner, my plate was full, too many items. After eating some rice, pasta and vegetable soup I was done. That was not like typical me, wasting food. ‘What’s happening, my mind and body are not working coherently’ I thought. Mind was saying I should eat to cover up lost minerals, carbs, proteins but body refused to take any. That landed me in wasting too much of the food, almost three forth part in the plate.

Being the central control, “Loudéac” soon becomes a hub of hubbub, with riders from both directions trying to refuel, sleep, repair bikes and themselves. Signs of attrition are everywhere, with riders curled up in every corner, shivering under silver space blankets, on tables, under tables, on floors, outside in the rain (with and without space blankets). I followed my own way, 3 chairs lined up in a row beside the same table where I ate and I was flat, within few minutes I lost the surrounding sensations.

When my senses were back, I suddenly woke up with extreme fear

‘How much time I lost in sleeping.’ I realized that I forgot to set alarm. ‘what time is it?’.. 5 AM in the morning. ‘ahh.. not too late’. Sleep of 2 hours was not enough. Total of 3 hours of sleep in last two nights. I put my things in place hurriedly and came outside. Body felt sudden gust of cold wind. The surrounding was wet and cold, body started shivering. I was feeling exhausted and didn’t want to ride in such cold weather, but there was no escape. The next target was gradually turning difficult, at 525 kms "Carhaix". Within 3.5 hours 75 kms.

The Ride – Day Three…Backscatter

I started to ride in the direction of "Carhaix" . Rain was stopped but cold, chilly winds were making life miserable. Sun was hiding behind the clouds, after few kilometers I saw long uphill, and pain was back, for every pedal rotation, knee was absorbing pain. Going uphill was great task with bad knee.

At the top of the hill and thirst prevailed, I looked down to bottle cage..“damn it, what is this, where are my bottles???”, to my surprise both the bottles were not at there place. What the hell..!!!

Suddenly I realized the last night crash beside the divider.. When my bike skidded. Both bottles were out their on the road but I could not realized that until now, it was too dark to see those bottles. No clue about the next water station, I turned back to the nearby place where volunteers were providing water. More painful thing – riding in reverse direction, to come back and lose height. while riding back, riders crossing me were confused that I was quitting. I heard the encouraging words.."courage". I reached to the place, purchased new bottle. After quenching the thirst, I rode back to hill top, nature was best part to enjoy, and clock was ticking, "Carhaix" by 9 AM. Go go go …

...To Be Continued

The Journey - A Score to Settle - Part V

2011-10-16T21:23:00.001+05:30

To be a cyclist is to be a student of pain....at cycling's core lies pain, hard and bitter as the pit inside a juicy peach. It doesn't matter if you're sprinting for an Olympic medal, a town sign, a trailhead, or the rest stop with the homemade brownies. If you never confront pain, you're missing the essence of the sport. Without pain, there's no adversity. Without adversity, no challenge. Without challenge, no improvement. No improvement, no sense of accomplishment and no deep-down joy. Might as well be playing Tiddly-Winks.

-Scott Martin

New day - dawn

As dawn broke weakly under a grey sky, I was feeling better. Riding in the day light was more comfortable. It was Monday, 22^nd Aug. I was close to the control point “Villaines-la-Juhel” total 220 kms.

The Ride - Day 2

I reached the control point at 8.30 AM. Stamped my brevet card, went to cafeteria to get some food. Tried to sleep for 1 hour on the wooden bench in the cafeteria, clock was ticking fast. I woke up soon. 10.15 in the clock.

Endurance sports can play havoc with your digestive system. I’d been enduring a belly ache for some time. I was worried about the horrid conditions of the control toilettes, but there was no other option available. Stopping more frequently means loosing more time. Ticking clock seemed paralyzing.

Controls were so cozy that you can easily spend couple of hours there, without realizing it. The loss of time at the control point – more than 2 hours. started riding at 10.45 AM.

Riders in the rain

Fury of Rain God

As I started riding, the rain God was not happy, within few minutes it started raining. Raingears were out, everyone was riding with silence. I looked at speedometer, it was stopped moving. Damn it, I stopped at roadside and tried to adjust, it worked for some time and again constant reading. So I stopped to worrying about it. Next control was "Fougères" 310 kms with maximum time limit 4 PM.

My bike

Riding in the day time was peaceful; country side views were amazing, quite a treat for eyes. I took some photographs, had exchanged words with riders along the way. But most of the time rode alone. Now I started to feel the wetness inside my shoes and cloths. My raingear was not enough to protect me from the heavy rain for long period of time. Low temperatures made it worse. On the way, just before the control point I met 3 children who were distributing souvenirs, I talked to them and took photographs, few good memories added to my memory bank.

Children with souvenirs

When I reached to "Fougères", watch was showing 3 PM. Time to rest for some time. Inside the control it was warm. I opted for coffee. One rider from US came to talk to me, he was very excited, asked me “you are from india?” I said “yes”. “nice to see you, I like Hindi movies, me and my wife always watch Hindi movies on TV, there is particular time when they air Hindi movies every week” He said while introducing himself to me. I realized why he out of blue came to me and started talking. We talked for some time. It was nice conversation. These kinds of conversations were frequent. I would see a lot of the same people over and over. That’s the part of PBP culture, you can get really nice friends on the way. Chen arrived after 15 minutes, I clicked some photos.

Fougeres

Rain was not stopping, I decided to go out, tried to ride through heavy rain for some distance, darkness all around, though it was only 5 PM. I finally stopped as it was difficult to see ahead on the road. Bridge was good shelter; I stayed under with few other riders. Chen was standing nearby, chatted for some time.

After 20 minutes rain conditions were better though not completely stopped. I put my spare headlight on my helmet. That was for extra security. Anyone should figure out my presence on the road from long distance. Next control was at 54kms, "Tinténiac" total of 364kms. I started to cut distance through dark forest.

Right Knee – Wrong Time

Till this time I had no major problems in riding, not mechanical, not physical. The first thing that changed the fate and outcome of PBP was sudden rush of pain in my right knee. Around 350 kms , feeling of uncomfort, the moment knee started feeling pain, I feared that this could ruin everything. Pain jeopardized the whole remaining ride. I applied pain reliever ointment and wrapped knee tightly with handkerchief. Next control was near, that gave me hope to get some help at control.

I reached to "Tinténiac", stamped my brevet card and went straight to medical help section. No doctors available; volunteers put some ice on the painful knee. Officials were reluctant to give any pills without prescription of doctor. But one lady volunteer turned helpful. She went outside, searched for pills, asked riders for help. She got pain killers from one of the riders. Some painkillers in my hand, unofficially; I thanked her. Then I saw a friend, explained him the situation, he gave me another type of ointment. He had issues with bike, broken spoke to taken care of, so we parted quickly.

Ride started, the pain was not going away. I was feeling it each time my right leg bends through 90 degrees. Next destination was "Loudéac" 450kms, and maximum reaching time was 3 AM in the night.

On the way there was one secret control. I entered the control, and again asked for medical help, it was dark then, and I was in pain. The best thing was that people were extremely helpful. Volunteers were everywhere, helping, cheering supporting the riders.

I asked one of the volunteers if I can get medical help. She didn’t understand English so first she asked the translator to help, then after few minutes of discussion, she understood the situation. She called the doctor and asked for help. The doctor was ready to help. He came to the control point in his car at those odd hours, only for me. After inspection he gave some pills. I had some vegetable soup and pills. Muscle inflammation was the reason behind the pain. He insisted to get some rest, so that medicines show their effect, but I was running out of time. There was no option left, except riding without wasting more time. Next control - "Loudéac" , maximum time limit - 3 AM. Doctor was very kind to offer me the help without any charges; the selfless nature of all people was just touching. I started riding in the silent and dark night.

...To Be Continued

The Journey - A Score to Settle - Part IV

2011-10-14T15:41:00.003+05:30

Pain is a big fat creature riding on your back. The farther you pedal, the heavier he feels. The harder you push, the tighter he squeezes your chest. The steeper the climb, the deeper he digs his jagged, sharp claws into your muscles.

-Scott Martin

Leaving for the starting point

Finally the D day, Sunday, 21st Aug. Lazy start of the day, no hurry, we had to show up at the starting line in the evening at 6 PM. so everything was slow. Meanwhile, we had to make another decision, we booked the room for first 4 days while we stayed at the hotel. The confusion was to book the room for the 4 racing days also, only for keeping the luggage, just to add expenses. Option was put baggage at some other place, may be at storage room of hotel or may be at gymnasium. We contemplated for some time, outcome of discussion favored the booking for racing days also. UK Randonneurs from nearby room were also looking for the place to put their baggage, we extended the help and placed their baggage at our room. Now we had plenty of time till start time of the race. 80 hour start was the first to go at 5 PM, then next was ours, 90 hour start, at 6 PM in the evening. I tried to sleep for some time in the afternoon expecting about next four days I would not be sleeping quite well. Till evening things were in place, brevet cards filled, water bottles placed in bottle cages, spare set of tubes, batteries and many other things in the bag, air pressure checked, all set.

Pandora's Box

In the evening at 4 PM, we started riding towards the starting point. Though we visited gymnasium for bike check previous day, we were not sure about the route. We looked for help from passerby. Language was big barrier, we didn’t know French, that turned fatal.

After riding for some distance on the route shown by people, we heard cheering, saw all people were cheering us on the both sides of the road. Something was wrong, realization - we were on the actual race route, what the hell ..!!!

legs stopped pedaling…. We understood what exactly happened, Earlier people thought we were asking for the actual race route, and they shown that route, and we went on the racing route before even going to starting point.. what an irony

After discussing with few people standing on the road side, we were headed for correct track. This time we made no mistake in understanding the route…

But once again ..omen was not good . I was riding at bit high speed and suddenly I saw a woman was just ahead of me, on the road, in my way, walking with baby in the baby sitter. I didn’t get any time to put my brakes as I was not expecting anyone on the road. And the next moment..

Boooommm!!!….

Within flash of time I crashed.. what the hell !!!

I got some injuries, bruises (again deep purple patch of clotted blood on upper part of left thigh) but bike was fine. Just head light was out of place, which I fixed immediately and then adjusted handlebar. One of my water bottles jumped on the road and got emptied on the spot. The water mixed with glucose all over the road.

Sea of Riders

Now it was serious issue. Thousands of ugly thoughts.. Fortunately everyone was free from any serious injuries, lady was furious. I thought, why this is happening at this crucial point of time. Thankfully situation didn’t turn worse. 10-15 people were gathered at site, After some commotion, it was settled and we started riding again..

Goals for motivation

At last we reached to Guyancourt, met some friends and other Indian participants. Once inside the line up area, I saw long queue of riders, moving along the periphery of a football ground, all waiting for there turn. While standing in the queue all riders were closely spaced, moving inch by inch. That provided the chance to talk with other riders. Seattle randonneurs were distributing small souvenirs. Williamsons from Seattle, who was standing besides me, introduced himself and chatted for a while, he mentioned his wife is Indian. What I liked was the list on the paper stuck to his handle bar, the goals he wanted to focus on, whenever he would have need motivation, the list was there. What a nice idea to get motivated. He showed me one of the goals was making new friends.

When we moved the half of the distance, local TV reporter came to me and asked “how are you feeling, are you afraid of such a formidable ride?” and added few other questions. I replied with great enthusiasm as I was very excited to be a part of such amazing and wonderful journey. “I am not at all worried about the ride, of course 1230 kms in 90 hours is daunting challenge but If you never try things you might fail at, life would be more boring. I will enjoy the ride either way, the experience is so enriching that its worth living. I will ride slow and steady so that I won’t miss any fun and beauty of nature”

Here we go

Then finally our group reached the end point, where bunch of 500 riders was leaving after each 20 minutes, it took 2 hours for us to actually start the ride, organizers provided magnetic chip that can detect the location and our timings to reach controls points. Official website was getting updated with each control point timing of riders.

Standing in the queue for 2 hours we lost much energy in excitement, with nerves jumping and adrenalin pumping. We started in the last “wave” at 8 PM, on the same route earlier we followed. People were cheering on the both sides of road, the feeling was amazing. Extended hands to cheer the riders, throwing punches while yelling “allez! allez! allez!” and “bonne route! bonne courage!”, I was careful while throwing punches, as big crowd riding closely, I worried about the collision, Veterans had warned me not to get swept up in the starting frenzy; we had 1230km to go. The start was good, no crash and no mechanical failures.

The Ride - Day 1 (First Sleepless Night)

Dusk

Evening has its most beautiful color effects in the sky. Initial route was woody forest. One can see riders having mechanical problems, standing on the road sides with their bikes. I hoped for the best. Around 9 PM darkness started to spread. Now I was riding alone (no known friends) with other riders. I could clearly see the whole route was glowing with tail lights. Thousands of red tail-lights, undulating over the landscape, towards the horizon. At times, this flickering snake of lights sends a daunting message about the route ahead. Whole area was under darkness, nothing can be seen expect the small patch of road over which headlights were focused. Forest which was looking beautiful in the twilight, turned scary. I reminded myself that I was not hallucinating, that I was indeed speeding through a 200 square-kilometres forest in France, in the middle of the night. It was critical not to touch the wheel of a bike in front of me.

Tail lights in the night

Night was cold, more than I expected. It was mistake not to take extra protection from cold. Small villages came and go at regular intervals. Every village seemed to precede or follow a sharp climb. Stone walls passed by, painted by dancing headlight beams.

The experience was so rich, in every village people were waiting for the riders, outside their homes, extending every help. Water bottles lined up on tables. The immense support and generosity of the people along the route, who stood out late into the night in the rain giving cheer, coffee, food and encouragement to the participants … all overwhelmed me. It was amazing and wonderful.

Mortangne-au-Perche First rest point

First rest point was at 140 kms "Mortagne-au-Perche". It took 8 hrs to reach there; I took few breaks of 5 minutes till this time. It was 4 AM in the night, I rested for some time, ate some food. I met to some of friends at control point and chatted for some time. One volunteer came closer while we were talking, he told us that one of the Indian cyclists had problem with his bike and they are going for the help. We were not sure about the cyclist. I already spent more time than planned at control. So I left, It was cold out there, and the next control point was “Villaines-la-Juhel” 220 kms. And I was not feeling sleepy, first night was almost over. Riding through the dark night, I was waiting for sun to shine and illuminate all life around me.

...To Be Continued

The Journey - A Score to Settle - Part III

2011-10-12T14:54:00.001+05:30

The most extreme conditions require the most extreme response, and for some individuals, the call to that response is vitality itself. . . .The integrity and self-esteem gained from winning the battle against extremity are the richest treasures in my life.

- Diana Nyad ( U.S. long–distance swimmer)

We started our journey to dream destination – Paris. All official woes were over. Gradual realization of dream, that was waiting for long time in the hearts of all randonneurs.

Paris, Riding Delights and N12

Carrying bike box was challenge

It was Thursday (16^th Aug) morning when we landed in Paris. Airport to hotel distance – 50 kms. RER Train was best (and cheapest) option. It took 9 hours and 17 Euros to reach the destination. We had to change 3 trains and finally boarded bus. Carrying the bike box all along the way was great challenge. We were so irritated that we opened boxes and started assembling bikes on the bus stop while waiting for bus. Travelling expense (17 Euros approx Rs. 1100) was quite at higher end compared to usual fares in India but that was just trailer, later on the last day while returning, we hired taxi to get to airport from the hotel. With 2 bike boxes inside the taxi, we paid the amount beyond our imagination. The bloody 150 Euros (approx Rs. 10000). Lesson learned – never hire taxi in Paris for travelling unless you are in dire need or super rich.

Assembling bike

Once we settled in the hotel. Plenty of free time, theme of the day – explore, explore, explore. Paris - city rich of culture and beauty. Though we knew very little about routes and language; roaming around was joyful. Next four days were full of wandering to all the places mostly on bike. We were exploring surrounding area, beautiful countryside....and modern Paris. Experience was blissful...

Riding on roads was joyride, smooth, clean roads without any bumps. Very different feeling from India, bikers were getting high priority over the cars and other vehicles. Cars were stopping to give way to bikers. They never tried to overtake in hurry, without having enough space available on the road. The only thing to adjust was left hand driving, total reverse condition from India. Riding on the right side of the road, in the right most lane, took more time for mental adjustment. Many times we went on the wrong side of the road.

I missed Indian food

Food - difficult to survive. I missed Indian food very much throughout the tour. As a vegetarian I faced much problem to cope up with the new food. Bread, pizza and fruits were the main food items for whole stay. That didn’t provide the required nourishment.

Our hotel was in Plaisir, town on outskirts of Paris, near the starting point of the PBP. Other group of Indian riders stayed at another hotel in Maurepas. That became the meeting point for all Indian riders and many other randonneurs from other countries, who created good friendship bonds. Dinner meetings were full of fun and laughter, sharing of experiences. During one of such meetings, some one asked to Chen, a randonneur form Canada who came for PBP 3^rd time, “what are your suggestions? Any tips for the PBP as we are the first timers” he replied “PBP 2011 is already over. I can give you tips for 2015 (the next PBP)” that became amusing joke for quite some time.

Chen as a Translator at gymnasium, with volunteer

Some other day some one asked him “what is your first name?” he replied “you can call me as Chen, I don’t like people to call me by my first name, by the way, it’s Patrick or sometimes I say Idiot”. These kind of light conversations created good memories to treasure rest of the life.

One thing that could have turned disastrous was riding on the national highway - N12. PBP was ending on 25^th and my flying date back to India was 27^th so I was desperate to go to Paris before PBP, especially for Eiffel tower. Consequently On Thursday (19^th Aug), four of us who stayed at Plaisir, planned to go to Paris on bike. Unknown to routes to Paris we followed the arrows on the sign posts along the way, which landed us on the N12 which is national highway connecting Paris and Brest through Dreux and Rennes. Cycling on the national highway is strictly prohibited; which we know vaguely, we started riding straight to Paris.

N-12

Heavy traffic on the highway was moving fast, vehicles were flying at high speed, and people were staring at us with strange looks. We wondered what was wrong. After riding more than 20kms, suddenly yellow van slowed down and stopped in front of us, at the road side. Doors opened, two officials out.

What the hell.. !!! Mind was buzzing with so many questions, whether we have to pay for the mistake, are they police or just another authority, how serious it is, how much fine we have to pay, in worst case scenario could this end up into the jail, how to get out of this shit ..

Officials confronted us and asked the obvious question, why were we riding on the N12 despite it was prohibited. Enquired other details. All conversation in French, we pretended to unaware of the rules, after brief discussion they asked us to put our bikes inside the van. Gradually all the questions disappeared from the buzzing mind. Officials turned very helpful. They took us to the place nearby Paris and left us on the road where cycling was permitted. Relaxed, out of trouble, we thanked them and finally to God. Chen said “hey, you are lucky guys, someone didn’t hit you” when later we described the whole episode to him.

Bike Check – The Day Before D Day

Recumbent

Bike check – the first flavor of PBP. It is an integral part of PBP, where officials check bikes for minimum standards. Head and tail lights, reflective vest, no loose parts. The day when one can realize the true spirit of PBP first time. PBP is such a legendary fantasy, by entering this mythical ride, participants will test their cycling agility and their human endurance. They will strive to obtain their Personal Best or they will try simply to rally the arrival… but they will always do their best to live this adventure while supporting each other and building friendships with those who participate in this endurance monument, which is much more than a simple hike.

Tandem

Saturday (Aug 20), the day before actual race, was reserved for bike check at the Guyancourt. As we moved towards the gymnasium in "Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines” which was the gathering point for all cyclists, we met many other riders along the way. Variety of bikes, recumbent, tandem, it was amazing. We had conversation with riders from other parts of the world.

At the gymnasium, in Guyancourt, it was like fair, the sea of 5000 riders, at one place with their bikes. It was enormous. I had never seen that kind of pool of people at one place in my life. Many amazing people gathered from all over the world. The whole place was full of riders and many volunteers, who were making best efforts to address every problem of participants. We got our brevet card, cue sheet, water bottle with PBP logo and jersey. The Super Randonneur medal, for completing super series 200,300,400 and 600 kms brevets within a year.

With Samim

Once official bike check was over, we had plenty of time in the afternoon so we spent quite some time there. Met the whole Indian team, including Samim Rizvi (First and only Indian to complete Race Across America, grueling 5000 kms race within 12 days, just monumental) who is in my list of inspirational people and the other Indian origin Seattle randonneur, it was very happy and joyful time. All riders were full of energy, Showing super enthusiasm and camaraderie with the other randonneurs from around the world. Intense passion and sheer beauty of the moment can only be experienced by being there at that moment.

Discussions about the weather forecast were dreadful. Expected rain on Sunday and Monday. One Indian randonneur warned about bad weather, he said in alarming voice, “the worst case scenario – temperatures below 10 degrees and rain in the night near Normandy and Brittany” (this exactly turned true on the second night). Not good news, but it was not rained in last 5 days. I thought, rather hoped for wrong weather predictions. Finally we were back to the hotel in the evening thinking about the next day. While sleeping, mind was full of thoughts about the D day, the day for which we were waiting for long time, the day for which we absorbed so many sufferings, the dream day.

For more photos Click Here

...To Be Continued

The Journey - A Score to Settle - Part II

2011-10-09T23:31:00.001+05:30

One of the most difficult things everyone has to learn is that for your entire life you must keep fighting and adjusting if you hope to survive. No matter who you are or what your position is you must keep fighting for whatever it is you desire to achieve.

- Allen George (American Football Coach)

June was over and so was the horror of “B Cubed”. Wounds healed, bruises diminished, swelling vanished, deep purple patch of hematoma (a localized collection of blood outside the blood vessels) on the left side of the abdomen was almost gone. Now I was ready for training rides again. Second weekend of July, Saturday 9^th July,300 kms brevet, to some place ahead of Ahmednagar. Riding in the day light was comfortable journey though rain was making its appearance frequently. The ride was almost all alone, returning in the night with heavy and vicious traffic was appalling. Only single lane road, many times trucks and other heavy vehicles forced me to move out of the road, terrifying. Rain produced low visibility in the dark. Few times I stopped to make the way for trucks trying to overtake at high speed, no road lights. Finally at home - time 12.30 AM in the night, reading in the speedometer - 350 kms in 19 hours. Quite comfortable comeback after “B Cubed”

July15, 1 month remaining for the planned flying date. I had to prepare for so many things along with my regular (rather irregular) training. I started to look for any help I can get from my employer, umpteen of mails exchanged. No positive outcome. Next step, contacted more than couple dozens of people who were located in Paris or nearby cities and asked them if they can help in any way. After long search I found a friend who was located in Paris. Who is long distance runner, invited me to stay at his place during the tour (Later circumstances turned in such way that I didn’t get any chance to meet him in Paris).

During the whole PBP phase, I was lucky to get as many leaves as I needed, thanks to the manager. The immense support given by my team at workplace and especially by the manager made it all possible. I was out for almost one month, though that was not the actual plan but unforeseen circumstances caused extended vacations. Extra one and half week.

Mock Ride …Mud on the Face

July 22^nd, Friday, Only 3 weeks remaining, I seriously thought for 1000 kms ride, which was due for long time. I thought about Dharwad, good place considering its location on NH4, about 410 kms away from Pune. Getting someone to ride with me was difficult; I asked to friend to come with me on motorbike. Plan was to leave on 3 PM on Friday and ride 900+ kms by Sunday night. Bike problems shifted time lines, speedo stopped working. Hand gloves and bottle cage was in need of replacement. Finally we left at 7.30 PM. till morning we covered 170 kms smoothly.

Saturday morning, it started raining, troubled fate as roads were wet with mud. Each passing vehicle was sprinkling some more muddy water, reduced functionality of brakes cut down the speed. Shoes wet, bike without mud guard gradually created thin layer of mud on backpack.

The route was scenic full of natural beauty, green lush fields in every direction. We reached 250 kms mark at 11 am had our lunch and started again. Continuous rain made it very difficult to ride at high speed, bike was crawling steadily.

Till evening we made it to Belgaum 330 kms. rain was not stopped yet, around 7.30 rain and thunderstorms were became so worse that we couldn't see anything. After one good decent bike rested on the roadside, small shop was the only shelter. Speedo was showing 355 kms. We had some spicy dishes to alleviate the hunger. The shopkeeper was very surprised to know about us. “ you should not ride in the dark and rainy night” He insisted (rather forcefully asked) to return to Belgaum and get to some hotel for that night. Friend was also reluctant to go further, heavy traffic was scary, better option was return back to Belgaum rather than risking life.

Rain was not mitigating, we returned to Belgaum in heavy rain, stayed at hotel and had good sleep for 10 hours. Wet shoes, socks, gloves were irritating. Changing to dry cloths was big relief. When I awoke in the morning, I was refreshed and ready for ride. Sunday morning we left Belgaum at 6 AM and rain was gone, the rest of the ride was peaceful though I was feeling exhausted. We reached Pune at Sunday night 3 AM. Total of 734 kms of riding over the weekend, that was good training ride. This ride took its toll on my weight, 3 kgs gone and eventually I spent sleepy Monday at workplace.

Official Woes…

Now training ride was over and I was working on formalities. The first thing was getting visa. The process was extremely painful and frustrating. First of all collecting the documents provided in the list of required documents was big task. A travelling agency filed my visa application on 25th July, arranged an interview on 27th. Interview was in Mumbai, officials asked too many questions (which were completely irritating and showed poor knowledge of authorities about this great event). The situation turned totally different from what was expected. French consulate held the decision for 6 days. Meanwhile I changed my flying dates -16^th to 27^th Aug, and booked hotel room for the same period. Getting official documents about the residential proof in original from friend in France was next to impossible. So I sent changed dates and proof of lodging for whole stay to consulate. It was of no use. When only 12 days were remaining to leave for the event, the decision was out; your visa has been rejected (by this time 3 other riders got their visa rejected)

Reasons for the rejection..

1.The information submitted regarding the justification for the purpose and condition of the intended stay was not reliable.

2.Your intention to leave the territory of the member state before the expiry of the visa could not be ascertained.

It was quite disastrous and very unfortunate. Each day was testing patience. Following days, passed in contacting many people for help and thinking of all options available. It was like unimaginable vicious circle, again applying for visa, going through the same process. Indian coordinator for organizing brevets and other riders contacted the vice president of the cycling event. At that time he was on vacation. But he was kind enough to write to the French consulate. Indian coordinator from Pune wrote the guarantee for us. With all these efforts we reapplied, this time consulate became bit lenient and issued visa to couple of participants.

My next interview was arranged on 10th Aug Wednesday, last interview among the unfortunate 4 who applied for second time. Travelling toMumbai, despite of engagements at workplace was repulsive. I tried to trade off this by visiting workplace location in Mumbai. On Wednesday, I was waiting at consulate and got the news that embassy denied visa for 3rd participant (whose visa got rejected earlier). My turn to try luck. Interview was same; once again consulate held the decision for one day, same as they did for 3rd participant so I was almost sure about rejection. This was going intensely painful and disappointing. I contacted all known high profile connections who might have helped..

The next day, Thursday, same visa office, again same interview, same questions ... and finally the officer agreed to provide the visa on the condition that I will report to the visa office once back in India. Thank god, somehow it was over..

By this time flying date was very close, only 3 days to go and I had to prepare so many things. Stressful days ahead...

Keeping all the stuff in place.. packing bike.. all in rainy weather .. complying to the airlines rules for maximum weight, dismantled bike dimensions and baggage specifications.. getting bike box.. all official documents, hundreds of small things and I was almost all alone .. finally somehow I placed all things in place, on Monday (15^th Aug) morning left for Mumbai with one other cyclist friend... there we met to other 2 friends. Flight departure was at 2 AM in the night.

Once at the airport, first thing we did is to check weight of bike box, everyone was checking if it was not over 23 kgs. Now we had a problem, one bike box was over the specified weight, we cut the packing of bike boxes and distributed few things in our other bike boxes. The next thing was to get currency exchanged which turned out to be very expensive for me (75 Rs/Euro instead of standard exchange rate 65 Rs/Euro). As we moved in the queue for check in baggage, subsequent barrier was waiting. “What’s in the bike box?” officials asked skeptically. Again we had to open our bike boxes for inspection and repacked. Next was migration and custom duty form. Here we lost much time convincing officials about bikes and getting different forms from them for each one of us. Finally all formalities were over and we were ready to fly. And so the journey started to dream destination..

...To Be Continued.

The Journey - A Score to Settle - Part I

2011-10-07T01:30:00.004+05:30

What makes a great endurance athlete is the ability to absorb potential embarrassment, and to suffer without complaint. I was discovering that if it was a matter of gritting my teeth, not caring how it looked, and outlasting everybody else, I won. It didn't seem to matter what sport it was--in a straight-ahead, long-distant race, I could beat anybody. If it was a suffer-fest, I was good at it.
-Lance Armstrong (My Journey back to Life)

It’s a story about long journey, the quest for passion. My experience to participate in one of the oldest and most famous cycling events, Paris- Brest-Paris (PBP). Where the challenge is to ride 1230 kms in maximum of 90 hours. Total 10800 m of height gain which is equivalent to the height more than the height of Mount Everest. Burning approximately 35000 Kcal, spending sleepless nights. Though I could not complete it, the whole journey was amazing, full of ups and downs, extremely wonderful and rich experience. Kids, coffee, and cookies. What's really heart warming about PBP is the support the locals give the riders, whether it be coffee and cookies at 2 AM or an "allez! allez! allez! bonne route! bonne courage!" for all the time, we riders feel like sport stars.

And how it all started...

Around the mid of May 2011.
I was in serious confusion, the question that was giving me sleepless nights was go or not to go (to Paris for PBP 2011). I had already completed 200,300,400,600 kms brevets series within last 5 months, which was the qualifying criteria to participate in PBP, and now opportunity was knocking on the door, Mind full of thoughts - whether I should go to France for participating in Paris-Brest-Paris 2011 ..the prestigious and very famous long distance cycling endurance event which comes after every 4 years and has history of 120 years. The ride starts from suburban Paris, though Normandy and Brittany, out to the coast of Brest and back to Paris.

Few cyclist friends who were planning to go, contacted and asked me about my plans. The decision was not tough if I want to go by my heart but the expenses were also weighing too high. Calculations were showing the figure which was crossing 1 followed by five big zeros, that was lots of money. After few days of restless thinking, I decided to go by my heart. Booked my flight tickets on 17th May with other friends. Countdown began, this was the first time in the history that Indian riders were participating in the event. My plan was 3 weeks tour, 16 Aug- 4 Sep.Mind was clear now, no more confusions, I thought and started to work out on immediate next plan that was another adventure, trekking in Himalayas for 11 days in summer 19^th to 30^th May.

Horror of “B cubed”…

Coming back from the Himalaya trekking, fully refreshed, I started my preparations. I had two and half months for preparations. Next 2 weeks vanished quickly with regular practice on weekends. But that was not sufficient; the longest distance I covered was 600 kms in 38 hours during my brevet ride. I wanted to do at least one brevet 1000+ kms as a preparation for PBP. As a preparation one should give 110 % while training to face unfamiliar conditions in actual race. It was difficult to get such a long holidays for planning more than 1200 kms, so I was settled for 1000, the opportunity knocked, "B cubed" a 1000kms brevet to be completed in 75 hours in Bangalore. Bangalor-Belgaum-Bangalor (B Cubed) the straight route following the NH4. The plan was to start on 23rd june (Thursday) 4 PM from banglore go to belgaum and come back to banglor by 26th June (Sunday) 7 PM.

I registered for the same and left Pune on Wednesday night. There was fuss to place my bike inside luggage space, as bus driver was not ready. Somehow I succeeded in convincing him. Rest of the journey was peaceful sleep. Next morning, landed in Banglore. Spent whole day at friend’s place. Left for the brevet at 2 PM, before starting I wanted to get spare tube and cyclo computer (speedometer), locating the shop was pain, wasted too much time. I reached the starting point with 15 minutes left for all formalities.

It was raining heavily when we started in the evening on that day. I didn’t have raingear as I was confident about my inner power to fight with rain or cold conditions (which was overly optimistic). At the beginning riding with few other cyclists was joyful, rain was not looking fearful. Moving ahead while chatting with them, discussing the weather for next 2 days. As we moved rain became worse, after covering 50 kms I was all alone, it was dark and visibility was quite low due to rain. Around 7 PM while I thought it was too difficult to ride due to heavy rain, I stopped for 20 minutes and ate some food from backpack. Then next stop was at 9 PM, I stopped at one hotel for getting new water bottle, then started again ....

…and next thing I remember is ....I was seated in the small shop on the roadside, traffic was moving along the highway as usual. Two people were sleeping inside the shop. I looked at my watch, It was 1 AM in the night. My bike (cycle) was leaned against wall. Speedometer was showing 95 kms and I was feeling pain. I saw bruises on left side on my knee, elbow and abdomen, which was clearly indicating that I had crash which I couldn’t understand. I fell down on the left side but no serious injuries except swelling in the abdomen. Gradually I started gaining my consciousness back and tried to correlate the things. Then my cell phone rang, I got calls from my friend in bangalor and organizers, and from my mother, everyone was telling the same thing, something weird, that I called them and asked for help. But I didn’t remember calling to anyone of them, I heard from them that I was asking same questions repeatedly, I was not in the state to get any sudden shock..
I slowly understood, it was short term memory loss ..as I was not able to recall any event after I bought water bottle from that hotel at 9 pm, how I crashed and landed in that shop which was on the opposite side of the road.

I was hungry so ate some food from my backpack. I was waiting for friends and organizers to come and it was 1 AM in the night. Bad news, My cell phone battery was dying, what to do now? If I lost the contact to friends then there was no other option but wait till morning also they were going to be worried much more about me. fortunately I remember about the spare battery in my backpack,thank god, I changed it immediately. It would have much difficult to locate me without my cell phone switched on. At last, after 3 hours, at 4 AM in the morning they succeeded in locating me. Car stopped, 3 people came out, to shop and 2 friends on motorbike. I was still not fully recovered and trying to figure out what was going on. They first inspected me for serious injuries , they found minor bruises and swelling, nothing major, they put my bike on the cycle stand attached to the backside of the car and started travelling towards banglore. Now I was feeling quite comfortable and tried to sleep. At 7 AM we were in banglore. It took 2 weeks for full recovery.

...To Be Continued

The Man Who Declined Fields Medal and the Millennium Prize.

2011-03-28T00:23:00.000+05:30

"We could use up two Eternities in learning all that is to be learned about our own world and the thousands of nations that have arisen and flourished and vanished from it. Mathematics alone would occupy me eight million years. " ~Mark Twain (1835- 1910).

Human beings are always intrigued with the idea of Mathematics. There is no such thing in this world which in untouched by mathematics. Sometimes we could fail to understand the nature, the laws of nature are specifically intertwined to balance the entire universe. Each and everything has rationale behind it, and understanding that logic always challenges us.

Here is the man who solved one of the most complex, difficult and intrigued problems in mathematics and also denied its recognition prizes. The man is none other than the Math genius Grigory Perelman, who has made landmark contributions to Riemannian geometry and geometric topology. A reclusive Russian topologist seemed to be playing eccentric mathematician as the saying goes "there is no genius without a touch of madness".

In 2006, He refused to accept the highest honor in mathematics, the Fields Medal, Which is also known as "Nobel Prize of Mathematics" for the prestige it carries, “For his contributions to geometry and his revolutionary insights into the analytical and geometric structure of the Ricci flow". In 2010, He also declined a $1 million prize from the Clay Mathematics Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, for resolution of Poincaré’s conjecture, which remained unsolved for more than a 100 years. The hypothesis involving the deep structure of three-dimensional objects.

“I do not think anything that I say can be of the slightest public interest,” he told. “I know that self-promotion happens a lot and if people want to do that, good luck to them, but I do not regard it as a positive thing."

The man is very inaccessible, Why did Perelman turn his back on the world? This question haunted Masha Gessen and to unravel the mystery of Perelman she tried to put together all pieces from all dimensions, in her book “Perfect Rigor”. Without any help from Perelman himself, she charts the mathematician’s rise from quiet super-student to prickly genius, suggesting that the very perfectionism that fueled his work may have been the cause of his alienation. Book gives ample background on his coaches and classmates, who describe him mostly as “a sort of math angel” who never made mistakes. His triumph at the 1982 International Mathematical Olympiad, when he achieved a perfect score and earned a gold medal. She tried to portray the genius including the eccentricities and antisocial traits that would become so pronounced at the pinnacle of his career. In doing so she has written an accessible book about an unreachable man.

Fields Medal

Fields Medal is conceived as top honor a mathematician can receive. The prize is awarded to mathematicians not over 40 years of age at each International Congress of the International Mathematical Union (IMU), a meeting that takes place every four years. It comes with a monetary award, which in 2006 was $15,000. "Fields Medals" are more properly known by their official name,” International medals for outstanding discoveries in mathematics."

More about AMU prizes

Press Release (Citation) By IMU

Millennium Prizes

In order to celebrate mathematics in the new millennium, The Clay Mathematics Institute of Cambridge, Massachusetts (CMI) established seven Prize Problems. The Prizes wer

e conceived to record some of the most difficult problems with which mathematicians were grappling at the turn of the second millennium. As of March 2011, six of the problems remain unsolved. A correct solution to any of the problems results in a US$1,000,000 prize being awarded by the institute.

See Counterfeit Reality Through Your cell Phone..!!!

2010-01-02T18:08:00.000+05:30

Recently one interesting news captured my attention, A 21 year old Mysore based girl developed a cell phone application that can find out fake notes. Read full story.

Neha N., an engineering student from Mysore created this application to find out whether currency notes are real or not. Its big relief in today’s world where counterfeit notes are growing geometrically in number. Number of attempts were made in past to fight against the fake currency notes but this seems to be a good solution that common people can use. Thanks to bright engineer who won cash prize of 1 lakh at innovation challenge. Let’s hope that mobile producers add this new innovation to cell phones..!!!

Take a Moment to Look Back....!!!

2009-12-24T09:36:00.000+05:30

Another year come and gone, so many things happen sweet and bitter, happy and sad; we got reasons to smile and cry...

As we look back the year was full of so many surprises, things turn upside down and pace of life become faster. We have to keep up with changing time and find out what we want back from our lives, what exactly make us feel happy...

We have to contemplate what we gain and what we loss, mistakes we made, how to avoid them.

News papers, TV channels are flooded with series of articles/shows on this years vital incidents that impact world in a good or bad way. So I am not listing down all those things but one interesting thing I found is Google’s zeitgeist. A way to see what people search on the internet, what is the spirit of the time.

You can find all the statistics about search trends here

Michael Jackson is the most googled term this year worldwide and facebook comes second, but in India it's different.

Katrina kaif beat Michael in India and become most googled celebrity in India for consecutively second year. For the second year running, Katrina Kaif has also grabbed the top spot as Asia's sexiest woman - as awarded by the UK's prestigious Eastern Eye magazine. Looks like Katrina is poised to rock the world...

Last week tragic demise of Britney Murphy spreads shock waves like Michael Jackson; more interesting thing is Black Hat SEO used it for spreading system infections. As news spread fast more and more people tried to search about it and that’s what is exploited by some cyber criminals. They embedded malicious codes in the links which were listed in top search results. So beware next time when you click any search result link while searching on hot topic. more about this attack

Lastly enjoy the celebration time and make maximum out of your life ...its precious and beautiful..enjoy each moment and life will become a continuous celebration..!!

Merry X-mas

Theorem that took 357 years to prove...!!!

2009-12-13T15:28:00.000+05:30

“And perhaps, posterity will thank me for having shown it that the ancients did not know everything.” -Pierre de Fermat

Man is always fascinated by complexity of mathematics. The mathematical problems, theorems, conjectures proposed are sometimes pose such a challenge that it took years of efforts of many brilliant mathematicians to solve it. People who solve it are truly obsessed with only one thought, that is solution to the given problem.

Here is world’s one of the most famous and celebrated theorem which took 357 years to prove. Statement of the theorem looks so simple that any schoolchildren can understand it, even though it poses challenge to mathematicians from all over the world. Yes...it's famous Fermat's Last Theorem...!!!

Fermat wrote, “It is impossible for any number which is a power greater than the second to be written as a sum of two like powers. I have a truly marvelous demonstration of this proposition which this margin is too narrow to contain.”

Mathematically a^n = b^n + c^n where a,b,c,n are integers have no solution for n > 2

Pierre de Fermat (1601 - 1665) wrote it in 1637 and it is very confusing if he had the proof. He wrote that he have proof but the margine of the paper is too narrow to contain it. It's mystery and different people have different opinions about it.

The proof was established by Andrew Wiles in 1994. Proof is not directly related to Fermat’s last theorem its proving another theorem that implies Fermat’s last theorem. As a child Andrew

was curious about the theorem and why it is not solved for so many years. He worked hard but found dead end. He then started to work on elliptic curves which was popular contemporary field of study and coincidently the very field leads to the proof.

He buried himself for 7 years, he left his job as a professor and sideline his social life. In 1993, he comes up with proof. But soon his dreams got bigger blow, he was devastated when one of the questions asked by colleague challenged the correctness of the proof. Once again he obsessed with his work. He started work to fix the problem. After several months efforts with his former student he comes up with the correct proof.

Find more History here.

This incredible journey to get proof for 7 years of ceaseless efforts is captured in a movie called The Fermat's Last Theorem in 1996. Simon Singh and John Lynch's film tells the enthralling and emotional story of Andrew Wiles. Here is the link to watch the video.

This is one of the most interesting stories about mathematical proofs I came across. It’s really amazing struggle of man to get the ultimate truth ..!!! and I think that’s what makes our lives meaningful.

The Three Gorges Dam ...Incredible Engineering...!!!

2009-12-05T15:43:00.000+05:30

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

Man is always craving for more advanced and comfortable life. His never ending quest to improve and excel in all directions and aspects of life brings today’s extremely transformed, complex and wonderful world.

Here is the perfect example of historic engineering feat, Three Gorges Dam. Its stats will amaze you; its view will mesmerize you and changes in the environment brought by Dam will compel you to think about our material greed.

There are around 86000 dams overall on the world and around 46000 belongs to China. Energy hungry China always crave for more and more power. Chinese coal mines already taking many lives, but Chinese leaders are more concern about prosperity of nation than people's lives.

Three Gorges Dam is the world's largest electricity-generating plant of any kind. Constructed on Yangtze river. The greatest of the projects took 17 years. Started in 1994, the dam was expected to be fully operational in 2009, but due to additional projects such as the underground power plant with six additional generators, and due to the complexity of the ship lift, the dam is not expected to become fully operational until about 2011.

Dam costs total of US$40 billion. It causes the displacement of over 1.2 million people from the 60,000hectares of and which will gradually be flooded by the resulting 640-kilometre (397-mile) long reservoir. Here is the Official site.

Statistics shows Comprehensive Project Construction Scale.

The construction includes the following work:

-- Removing 102.59 million cubic meters of stone and earth and filling with 29.33 million cubic meters of stone and earthwork;

-- Mixing and pouring 27.15 million cubic meters of cement;

-- Erecting 281,000 tons of metal structure. It used 463,000 tonnes of steel, enough to build 63 Eiffel Towers;

-- Making and erecting 354,000 tons of reinforcing bars;

-- Building 231,000 square meters of leak-proof concrete walls;

-- Installing 32 power generators with a 700 MW capacity each which results in combined capacity of 18.2 million kilowatts;

-- Creating Dam of height 101 m from river level and 185 m from see level, width 115 m, length 2335 m

Find more stunning facts about the Dam here.

The project produces hydroelectricity, apart from that provides greater flood control and river navigation capacity. Up to September 2009 the dam has generated 348.4 TWh of electricity, covering more than one third of its project cost. Project management call it as social and economic success, a breakthrough in the design of large turbines, and a move toward the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. The technological breakthrough is really stupefying. Here is a video animation of the generators.

There are environmental advantages such as reduction in air pollution and green house gas emission by generating electricity from hydropower instead of coal and by providing pollution free navigation. Waste water management. Afforastration. Flood control and drought relief.

But it has darker side also

Threat to Ecology - The dam will significantly decrease the river's flushing capacity, and the pollution ratings will increase.

Erosion and Sedimentation - There are two hazards uniquely identified with the dam. One is that sedimentation projections are not agreed upon, and the other is that the dam sits on a seismic fault.

Affected aesthetic values - Cultural and historical relics are being moved to higher ground as they are discovered, but the flooding will undoubtedly cover some undiscovered relics.

Security - Threat from terrorists.

Earthquakes - There is also the potential for earthquake-induced peak ground acceleration to overcome the strength of the upstream face of the dam which, coupled with the immense weight of the reservoir water, could cause breaching.

I don't know what to say..Whether it is good or bad? Better you decide and tell me ....

Revolutionary Sixth Sense Technology..and Indian connection..!!!

2009-11-29T03:01:00.000+05:30

Imagine the world where you don’t need specific surface like flat screen or monitor to carry out your digital workouts. All the digital processes that are done on computer or your iPhone can be

done where ever you want, even on your palm you can project key board and screen and start to write email or do any other work same as you do on your computer. Isn't it thrilling ...yes its no more imaginary science fiction but very real world phenomenon. Thanks to Sixth Sense Technology discovered by Pranav Mistry at MIT Media Lab.

'SixthSense' is a wearable gestural interface that augments the physical world around us with digital information and lets us use natural hand gestures to interact with that information. Find more about sixth sense project.

You can feel its true thrill when you actually see the video, you will be mesmerized by technology, what a brilliant invention. It will change the whole world and the way we live. The most interesting thing is pranav wants his invention to be open source so that any one can contribute and use it for free. It’s rare in today’s world where almost everyone thinks in terms of money. He has given demonstration of this incredible technology at TEDIndia talk. TED is Technology Entertainment Design group that promotes new innovative ideas by sharing it. Watch the demonstration video.

Currently Pranav is a PhD student in the Fluid Interfaces Group at MIT's Media Lab. Check out pranav's profile. Recently Venkatraman Ramakrishnan won Noble prize in Chemistry for the year 2009 which made India proud. The inventor of sixth sense technology, Pranav, also

have strong Indian connections. He has done his BE in computer science from Gujarat University, and Masters from IIT Bombay which once again shows the great Indian legacy. Hats off...!!!

The Numbers Behind NUMB3RS

2009-08-19T01:26:00.000+05:30

"We all use math every day; to predict weather, to tell time, to handle money. Math is more than formulas or equations; it's logic, it's rationality, it's using your mind to solve the biggest mysteries we know." - NUMB3RS

We are always curious about predicting future or solving crimes, day to day life's complex problems with some technique and science. This is very difficult task. It requires lots of efforts along with very precise logical, Rational and lateral thinking. Thats what Charlie do while solving the crimes for his FBI Agent brother Don Epps. Charlie is the protagonist of one of my most favorite TV series. NUMB3RS. Amazing TV series, which gives an insight of how Maths can be used to solve complex conundrums of life.

Many people will not agree that Maths can solve the crimes, but charlie perfectly believes in everything is numbers (and so do I). It was started way back in Jan 2005, NUMB3RS completed 5th season this year. In typical episode, Charlie helps Don to solve a crime investigation case using Maths. He is Maths professor at CalSci (California School of Science and Technology), a fictional institute but his math is much more real. Many real world mathematicians are consultants for creation of the series. The presentation of all events in which maths is used for solving crimes is really amazing. Here are some links for watching the episodes.

1. All Complete Series
2. CBS Primetime

Recently I found one fabulous book called "The Numbers Behind NUMB3RS" written by two real world mathematicians. It gives whole lot of things related to series, maths used and related real world situations. Here is the link to download the book.

All other links related to show are given in the section "Road to El Dorado" of this site. Enjoy the reading and wait for the 6th season in September...

Thanks,

Yours
MagicNumb3rs

Refine..Redefine..your Search

2009-07-07T03:31:00.000+05:30

We all are victims of our own curiosity...
with the invention of world wide web, Information starts exploding like anything; data explosion and geometric growth of information make it difficult to find information that we are curious about, When it comes to internet use, Search engine is what almost 99% times we use to find required information on any topic, pictures, MP3 audio songs, videos, movies and infinite other things.
When we want to find a particular thing on web, our fingers invariably types 6 letter word beginning with letter G.. in the address bar. Yes, Almost 90% people turns to GOOGLE when it comes to internet search, though invention of google is amazing thing, a highly effective weapon that net users have, The suitability of search results always depends on the search that you want to do. So Google is not always perfect search engine for your search criteria.
When you search the same phrase in different search engines then you will get different results and you may miss some websites if you have myopic to stick to one search engine. Below is the list of General search engines
My First best choice and strong suggestion for general search
Blackle http://www.blackle.com/ - Energy saving search

Others are
Google http://www.google.com -no need to explain
Bing http://www.bing.com - Formerly MSN and live search
Yahoo! http://www.yahoo.com
Teoma http://www.teoma.com
About http://about.com
Duck duck go http://duckduckgo.com/
AlltheWeb http://www.alltheweb.com
AltaVista http://www.altavista.com
AOL Search http://search.aol.com/

Meta-search engines
Now you find it difficult to search same thing in different engines.
So for your help meta search engines are ready, it simultaneously sends your query to two or more general-purpose search engines and eliminates duplicate results. Try Some meta search engines that I find useful ...
Mamma http://www.mamma.com
MetaCrawler http://www.metacrawler.com
DogPile http://www.dogpile.com
Search.com http://www.search.com
Hotbot http://www.hotbot.com

Multimedia search engines
Most search engines help you find text, but what if you want to find a song, a picture, or a video clip? Rather than waste your time using a general purpose search engine to find an MP3 file of your favorite band, try using a special multimedia search engine instead. They are specially designed for the search.
Here are some of the more popular multimedia search engines:

MIDI Explorer http://www.musicrobot.com
Blinkx http://www.blinkx.com/ - Video search engine
Ditto http://www.ditto.com
FAST Multimedia Search http://multimedia.alltheweb.com
picsearch http://www.picsearch.com/ - image search engine.
SpeechBot.net http://speechbot.research.compaq.com
Seeqpod http://www.seeqpod.com/ - Playable search

For today ..That’s all, I will give list of some more specialized search engines next time till enjoy the Search...
If you find any thing interesting then let me know.

Thanks

Yours
Search explorer

Wartime Diaries ..History Speaks

2009-06-19T05:02:00.000+05:30

Last friday, on 12th June, Anne would have celebrated her 80th Birth day, if she did survive the horror of holocaust in second world war.

Anne Frank will live forever in our hearts.....
"I want to go on living even after my death! And therefore I am grateful to God for this gift, this possibility of developing myself and of writing, of expressing all that is in me. I can shake off everything if I write; my sorrows disappear; my courage is reborn. But, and that is the great question, will I ever be able to write anything great, will I ever become a journalist or a writer?" - Anne Frank
She is the most famous victim of Hitler. Her diary is one of the most widely read book. She wondered if her voice will echo across the centuries? Will people remember her? And her words come true as her spirit will never die and she will go on living even after her death for thousands of years.
She had amazing power to express her thoughts, she wrote her favorite diary in the darkest time of her life. Kitty, her diary, never betraying, faithful friend which she got as a gift from her father on her 13th Birth day, 12th June 1942. Even though she was too young to write something like she wrote in her diary, she worte excellent. Her thoughts were so mature and brilliantly put in words. It always stuns me like anything.
Her hope to experience all the things that anyone desires in teenage, sadly, got crushed as she took her last breath at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in March 1945 just few days before British soldiers liberated the camp (15th April 1945). At last fate betrayed her.
Her father Otto Frank survived the war and published her diary 'The Diary of a Young Girl'. When Nazi forces invaded Netherland, Otto Frank took his family to a secret place. Anne and her family go on hiding in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Miep Gies and her husband were amongst the few who knew about the hiding. Earlier Miep was working with Otto Frank. She along with her husband took care of primary needs of food, cloths, medicines etc of Frank family and help them in their difficult times. She never cared about risk involved and tried to spread some light of hope. Currently she is 100 years old and live in the Dutch province Noored-Holland. Find more about Miep.
While in hiding Anne wrote her diary. She called their secret attic place as secret annex.
She was a very vivacious girl who loves to express everything in her mind. Her passion for story telling was miraculous; she talked a lot that often got her into trouble. Many times she wrote 100 times that "I am not going to talk so much" as a punishment for her talks in classroom, but she never changed. And how can we forget her story of three ducklings which gifted her new name ‘Ms. quack quack‘. She dreamed to becoming actress. She also had interest in Greek Mythology and family trees of various well-known ancestries. She hoped that war will end someday and she would be free to follow her dreams, but her lifeline ended in unfortunate way.
The Diary reflects the spectrum of emotions of a adolescent girl. It sheds light on how human spirit can break into pieces in difficult times like war, how people fought against the boredom that comes from loneliness in the hiding. How a little girl’s world gets upside down. How her dreams, her desires get crushed under the tremendous pressure of ruthlessness and cruelty, when she wanted to fly in boundless sky.
If you still did not read her diary, then its time to get a new brand copy of the diary. It will strike your mind, really awe inspiring. Hats off to eternal angel.....

Have you heard this name...Rutka laskier?
As we moved on, time can transcend but history has always new secrets to reveal in her heart, deeply buried. Time have power to open these secrets. Some times these secrets vanish somewhere and some times they come up with amazing discoveries.
Many of us know Anne Frank but how many knows the name Rutka Laskier?Her story is almost same as Anne; she was born in Poland and became the prey of the deathtraps in Nazi concentration camp. It is believed that she died in Auschwitz concentration camp. Rutka wrote her diary for 3 months, which describes her life in the time of holocaust in 1943 at the age of 14. Her friend Stanislawa Sapinska hides the diary in her house. This diary's existence remained unknown until 2004, when Stanislawa Sapinska came forward with the diary.
Rutks's father survived the war and relocated in Israel, remarried and had another daughter Zahava Sherz. He died in 1986. Zahava Sherz never knew about the diary until she surprisingly came to know about the diary and her half-sister (Rutka).
"If only I could say, it's over, you die only once... But I can't, because despite all these atrocities I want to live, and wait for the following day." Rutka wrote in one of her last entries in the diary.
Here are some interesting links.
1. Related Snaps.
2. News Entry in Washington Post.

As years pass, men rise and fall but their stories will remain forever, reflecting boundless human spirit. And people from future generations will wonder about these stories. As History speaks....... and story goes on….
Thanks.

Yours,
Eternal Soul.

Gear up..Fasten your belts..Speed Machines are ready...!!!

2009-06-07T18:00:00.000+05:30

Time to gear up..sports events calendar is already full, feast for fans and passionate followers of sports. Many events back to back brings never ending excitement. Made people mad, creating one of the most tense, joyful, overwhelming moments. We already seen the T-20 IPL, Champion's league in the last month and now ongoing French open (shocking results for Rafa and sharapova), T-20 world cup keep us engaged, but can we look at something unexplored.

Let’s check out the racing events, mainly Bicycle and motor car racing.
Before starting I will shed some light on the history and background of bicycle racing. It consists of many types but long distance stage races are favorites among enthusiasts. Three major races of this type are Giro d'Italia, Tour de France and Vuelta a Espana. All the 3 grand tours (major annual racing events) were originated from the same need; need to increase the circulation of sports newspaper.
First started Tour de France in 1903 then comes Giro d’Italia in 1909 which is inspired by the success of tour de France. Third one, Vuelta a Espana, started bit late in 1935. As the names suggested, all tours traces a circuit around most areas of respective countries. The Giro d'Italia, Tour de France, and World Cycling Championship constitute the Triple Crown of Cycling. Tours are stage races (around 21 stages, each covering some predefined distance) running for 22-25 days, covering around 3500 Km long distance, making them most difficult to survive.

Giro turns 100....
Last Sunday (31st May) seen the Denis Menchov's (Team Rabobank) victory in Giro d’Italia. This year Giro is celebrating 100th anniversary. It was 92nd race from its inception. Race was special as it brought back one of my most favorite sportsman, Lance Armstrong. Though he already broken his collarbone and undergone surgery. He not only recovered from injury but also participated in the race and secured 16th place in overall ranking. It’s really amazing; racing for such long distance can show there is no limit to what extremities human spirit can go. I love this sport because riders fight back all odds, no matter how difficult the journey is.

Be ready..the Tour is waiting
One of the most famous sports across the world, le Tour de France. Simply brilliant and extraordinary. See the statistics, 20 teams, 180 riders, 3500 km distance, 23 days, 21 stages, 40 km/hr average speed. These numbers are enough to explain everything. Here are some quotes to feel it‘s incredibility, "Tour de France is arguably the most physiologically demanding of athletic events." The effort was compared to "running a marathon several days a week for nearly three weeks", while the total elevation of the hill climbs was compared to "climbing three Everests."
This year tour is scheduled between 4-26 July, almost 1 month from now. All potential winners are dreaming the same, victory in tour. Along with 7 time winner Lance Armstrong, Alberto Contador (Team Astana, winner Tour de France - 2007 and Giro d’Italia - 2008) is a good bet. Defending champion, Australia’s Cadel Evans (Team Silence-Lotto) is also good contender. Apart from these other favorites are Damiano Cunego, Alejandro Valverde, Denis Menchov, Carlos Sastre and Danilo Di Luca. I can’t wait anymore to start the tour…

Turkish GP...Can we expect something unexpected?
Here we are, waiting for this weekend's Turkish grand prix (GP); if you have some idea of Formula 1 (F1) then probably you will not feel totally lost, for those who feel the same I will present some short introduction.
The F1 is motor car racing competition with 16-19 grand prix races annually. 11 teams each having 2 drivers, commpete in the races. At the end of the year, driver with highest points awarded as the winner of Individual driver's championship and the team with highest points (combined points of 2 drivers of same team) will be the winner of constructor’s (teams) championship. I will write in more details about F1 history, actual races and rules in future.

Right now we are looking forward for 7th GP of the season. Jenson Button of Brawn team seems unstoppable with 5 GP wins out of 6. He is the most speculated winner and will start from 2 position on the grid (1st row) in the Sunday‘s race; Ferrari's Felipe Massa is eyeing his 4th consecutive win on the same circuit. This is the first anticlockwise circuit out of two. Massa is good at this circuit, so can we expect some miraculous performance from him??Apart from these two, 23 year old German, Sebastian Vettel is starting from pole position (1st position in 1st row). The question is can Button remain invincible this time also? I want Massa to win but reality is pointing towards Button’s win. Let’s see how speed machines behave with respect to time and space..
Thanks.

Yours,
Speedo maniac mv4ce3krnb

Changing waves....Keep the Track

2009-06-03T08:09:00.000+05:30

This is my first blog. Here I will try to discuss, explain, elaborate very interesting things that fascinate me and make me wonder for all of my life. You can ask anything related to the matter, if you are curious we can debate also. Things that attract my attention have deep impact on my thoughts. Many things hit my mind and change the direction of my thoughts. They are like giant waves in the deep sea, when they rise they take behemoth ships with them, no matter how strong and powerful ships are or how fiercely they are fighting against the water to get in the direction they are destined for.

As human beings we evolved over the period of time from Stone Age to current era of science and technology, making life extremely volatile and incredibly complex. You absolutely don't know what woe or joy next moment will bring to your life. So it’s very important to make most out of every moment gifted to you. I think Life is a continuous celebration and we can celebrate it only when we see life from that prospective. Life is a very complicated optimization problem with so many variables. We can not maximize each and every variable individually, but we have to consider all of them at the same time and optimize it within the constraints imposed by real world situations. It’s a bit mathematical, till this point you have got some vague idea what’s the first thing that impacts my thoughts deeply. Yes, you guessed it right, it’s MATHS. No it’s not frightening; some people just don't want to understand the simplicity and beauty of mathematics. As time will pass, you will come to know about the other areas of my interest. Don't make impression that I am going to discuss some boring and complicated math’s problems. Not at all..!!! Instead we will learn its simplicity and why it is called as the Queen of all sciences.

Many other things turn me on. To list down, some are, History (It includes many things, I am especially interested in WWI and WWII , post war situations, Middle East conflict, French and Russian revolutions..etc). Sports (with wide range ...special interests are Formula 1, Cycle racing, Cricket, Football, Chess, Baseball..etc).

To add more, Current affairs, Sketching, Painting (watercolours), Movies (generally Hollywood...even Bollywood people have some latent talent), Music related bands, Medicine (Its inspiration source lies in my family, Doctors have it in their blood...I am not a doctor so don't expect much deeper knowledge like medical professional ..but still enchanting world), TV soaps (Hindi soaps are strictly no no...) , Science and technology, Inspirational people, Engineering feats achieved by man, Greek mythology, Books and Novels...list is never ending.

If any of the above mentioned things grab your attention then keep the track...you can get here lot of amazing things and will come to know many things we see in the real world are merely illusions.
Thanks.

Yours,
MagicNumb3rs