Yelläks /ˈyæl•eks/

The scarcity of hostel rooms in IISc seems to be over. Slowly the “newer hostel complex” whose name is not yet known, is becoming operational and the first students moved into it. That gave me a chance to wander around in the block and to find some interesting and innovative designs.

For instance the latch which is suppose to lock the cabinet doors.

In case you loose your keys, any screwdriver will do without damaging the lock. The latch is mounted in a way that if it is latched, it does not cover the plate with the screws. That would usually not be a problem since I do not know anybody using that latch anyway. However students are asked not to look the doors, since the furniture such as cots and desks, are not built up yet. So all personal belongings are in the cabinet and the room door is left open. On the contrary the security asks students to lock the doors even in case of a mother nature calls due to thefts. 1000 rooms and 1000 times the latch wrongly mounted. Dear carpenter, is it so difficult to use the brain to think for a second?

Have a look at the two images below. Find the 10 mistakes.

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These rooms are just opposite. However you might have noticed that the space above the cabinet in the second room is just a rock solid wall. The problem is here that the room is something like 30 to 40 cm to long. Means the wall with the room door does not fall in line with the girder supporting the structure. Instead the space between girder and door is used to built in a larger window towards the hallway. But due to the girder no additional light nor fresh air will find their way into the room.

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Since the gap above the cabinet and the girder would be very small (around 15 to 20cm in height), the additional space that is in the first room has been conveniently walled sealing something like 1 cubic meter of air behind the wall. Was this the intention of the architect (then why differently designed rooms and not all the same?) or did the planner wrongly estimated the lengths? That brings me to another thought: For the structural integrity of the building, should not girders always fall in line with walls for support? Maybe someone who is familiar with the subject, can shed some light on it?

But in the end, no one will care as usual. At least a major issue that was bothering people for years, has been solved and students finally get rooms on campus.

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After a long time I went on a cycle tour again. This time the east of Bangalore was explored for the first and definitely not for the last time. We started at around 5:30AM in the morning. It was just about to dawn with very less traffic on the roads. An hour later we reached the outskirts of Bangalore east wondering how easy that went. Memories came up about tours towards the south of Bangalore involving the crossing of Sultanpet which is already very busy at that time with lots of traffic and pollution.

Smooth roads led to Devangonthi from which we went north. The roads are excellent. However nearby to that stretch are some terminals for gas and petrol, hence many tank lorries speed on the roads even in the morning. We had a little break at a shrine on top of a lonely hill. Based on chicken feathers that were lying around, a bloody stone and a cooking place, it seemed the shrine also functioned as a kitchen for some non-veg food many times in the past.

We had breakfast in a shack next to SH-17. The food was good and we watched the cow in front of the shack being cleaned with brush and even soap. We met with NH-4 in Hoskote to go back to Bangalore through the northern villages. On NH-4 we met a motorbike rider asking why we cycle. We explained that we do it just for fun causing him to shake his head in disbelieve. He wondered why we cycle without having a motto or a theme.

Recently many people ride through India (even from Kashmiri to Kanyakumari) having some motto in mind. Some want to create awareness for eye donations, some for the medical situation in some rural villages. Although I really appreciate the initiatives, too many and not related to cycling will cause more good than harm in the end. If everybody goes cycling to create awareness, the real cases drown in the sheer amount of cycling awareness programs.

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Although most of the roads were in excellent condition there were a few bumpy stretches, but nothing spectacular nor impossible to go with a road bike.

The route can be easily altered regarding the personal fitness. For instance, if you go north on SH 35 towards Kadugodi instead all the way east to Devangonthi, the trip is cut short by about 20km totaling in 65km (from IISc). If you want to go a little bit further, the next option is going north in NH207, adding another 10km. But also extensions to more than the 85km that are described here are possible. However that will be reported another time.

Distance of the tour: 85km

GPX files

• BangaloreEast.gpx

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The guy’s name in the photo wearing the green t-shirt is Snehal. He bought the shirt some years ago in Chennai and he has never been to Germany or even to my hometown, Aachen. So far there is nothing surprising or special about it. However the t-shirt bares the logo of the local soccer (football) club of Aachen called Alemannia Aachen. So, how did the logo of a soccer club which is more or less successful in the German second league, come around half to globe to India?

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My friend paid cash into my bank account maintained at the State Bank of India (SBI) IISc branch from an SBI branch that is not even 500m away. For that transaction I paid Rs.25 inter city charges. As far as I know, Mathikere is still in Bangalore. I complained to the IISc branch, but the lady at the desk told me that this is the new fee structure that came into affect on September 1^st.

So paying in cash that generates revenue for the bank is now also charged to create even more revenue for the same bank. That makes transferring money between branches of different banks across the continent is much cheaper (current cost Rs. 5, NEFT) than at the branch of the same bank just around the corner. Many people in various platforms and forums started to complain about this new fee structure giving all details about their transactions. What happens, if I pay let’s say Rs.1 into a more or less randomly selected bank account (e.g. one of the poor chaps in the forum). Will they also deduct Rs.25? For me it cost only Rs.1 which I have plenty of (just yesterday a neighbor gave me Rs.575 in coins which he collected over the year). But how many Rs.24 has the receiver? Does anybody have the bank account number of the SBI CEO?

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The manufacturing date of these chips is in the future.

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The Hindu from 14/06/2011: Go green is the new fashion. In this view, this photo taken by K. Gopinathan is especially remarkable. A little plant pops out of the riders backpack. How will this little plant compensate for the pollution emitted by one of the worst (environmentally seen) bikes ever built namely Yamaha RX which he is riding? The caption “Green is precious, let’s spread the word around” is degraded to an empty and ridiculing phrase. In this sense: Cycling rules!

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Currently if an unaware person enters the campus of IISc, he/she might wondering, if he/she missed news about an election phase to be held in Karnataka. Almost everywhere, lamp posts, notice boards and streets are plastered with boardings trying to collect votes for the “clock”, “car” or “bicycle”. That the IISc is primarily a place of research and education and not a political stage does not count these days and the daily routine is disturbed by candidates and their followers barging into the offices and labs.

It is interesting to note, that if elections are going on for the Student Council, the prospective candidates are explicit forbidden to put up boards and posters or visit the labs and offices during daytime (prior to 6PM). Hangouts, if any, are only allowed at places of student’s interest such as the messes and hostels ONLY.

These imbalances of rights and duties among the Student Council and other institutions (such as the TMC) combined with an omnipresent lethargy of the students results in a lost of interest in the Student Council itself. Barely someone is standing for elections and many times candidates are elected unanimously. It seems that the Student Council is considered to be a disturbance within the IISc community and its power has been reduced to begging to the IISc authorities to e.g. get rid of the street dog menace, since almost daily people are bitten by dogs these days. Even after years almost nothing happened and if, it was never a permanent solution. But this is another topic…

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The month end long cycle ride by the Bangalore Bikers Club (BBC) went from Bangalore to Horahalli on NH209 first. Since we started from IISc at around 5:15AM, we had to cross whole Bangalore including its traffic first. Since we could not make it in time to the starting point, it became our job to sweep, meaning catch up with the last riders which we did on NH209. The ride was fairly eventless apart from a spectacular stunt performed by Nirmal, who while watching a bird, slipped from the paved road into the mud at the side. He was so surprised that he applied the front brake and showed us a beautiful Salto Totale including his cycle at its best. From that point onwards we tried to convince him to give another performance by pointing out all kind of flying species. But to no avail. Fortunately nothing serious happened apart from a few scratches at his knee and shoulder.

In Horahalli we got lost on the search for the breakfast point. After some searching, many questions and many more fingers pointing into the wrong direction, we found Jayaram Breakfast Point hidden behind some houses in a inconspicuous, unpaved side road. After loading ourselves with idlis and a much better lemon rice, we took off towards Hunasanahalli. These roads and the ones continuing towards Anchetty are full of scenic speed breakers which can be fully enjoyed while puffing and steaming up the hills. The scenic view of these roads with only minimal traffic is simply awesome.

In Anchetty we had lunch and we got annoyed by a fellow who tried to drag us into his restaurant while we sat in one of his competitor’s. He was very intrusive and did not stop at all even while eating he told us how bad the food is. After indulging with not-so-bad-at-all dosai and rice we turned north towards Denkanikottai and mastered the climbs in between. Last time when I rode on that road, it was dark and the steep ascend could not be seen. But during daylight it can be a little bit frustrating.

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In Denkanikottai a 13 year old boy (name forgotten) who rode along with us, wanted to take the bus back to Hosur or better Bangalore. It was already 4:30PM and nobody of us had a head light. All roads leading from Denkanikottai to Thally or Hosur are pitch black dark and nothing can be seen. Hence it would be dangerous to ride on these roads after nightfall. So we thought that we tell him to wait there till the bus comes and load the cycle on top of it. However even here the people were very intrusive, touched everything and shouted at us. In addition some of them were drunk making a big fuss seeing us at the bus stand. Like “hawks” (recited from Nirmal, our bird watcher) they started to follow us everywhere within the bus stand, so we had to relocate ourselves once in a while. Usually people are curious but silent observers. Sometimes somebody is brave enough to step forward and to ask a question like “Gear cycleaaaaAAAaaa?” But everything in a very polite way. It is the first time that I experience such an aggressive behavior. So we did not leave the boy alone and slowly he rode with us. On the way we met another cyclist and the boy continued to ride with him while we started speeding towards Hosur to reach the NH7 in daylight.

From Hosur the ride was not very spectacular and nothing worth mentioned happened and we reached IISc at 8:30PM.

Distance of the tour: 210km

GPX files

• Bangalore-Horahalli-Anchetti-Hosur-Bangalore_Simplified.gpx

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