I did my post graduation with scholarship. I discussed with my father about buying a PC or laptop and he convinced me otherwise. Naive me agreed with him. I struggled a lot during my post graduation without a computer. I had to rely on print outs to read research papers. I had no access to internet which made it difficult for me to go along with the world we live in. Every one of my class mates had access to computer either at hostel or at home.
Even for making presentations for final project, I would have to make it in paper at home and then do the typing and formatting at college. and because of not having my own computer, I am not familiar with many softwares, let alone even using the windows media player.
I did not complain at that time, and I made the most use of available resources with me, time. I spent most of the time at library. Unfortunately engineering and analysis is best practiced with computers and I wasn’t even aware of it then.
I did not have any regrets at that time but time proved otherwise. However now I am good with computers, but time gone is gone. I am doing now, what I was capable years ago.
Buying a personal computer would have changed my life long back, but I am good now too.
I had an issue with password protected pdf documents in my Mac. I thought of asking chatGPT and it failed miserably. I am now convinced that there is a long to way to produce a machine with artificial intelligence.
We cannot become intelligent without facing failure in our day to day life. It may be as small as getting p from crawling and trying to walk or as big as your bones getting crushed or going financially broke or whatever large it may be.
In every sphere of life we do as many mistakes and learn from it and keep improving. We even advice people to learn from others mistakes and improve quickly.
We are trying to feed the knowledge gained by us over a period of time, to a machine and expect it to become intelligent.
There are some people who don’t accept their mistakes and try repeating the same thing over and again and make us agree that they are right.
If they don’t know the answer they can very well tell that they don’t know. They will keep giving suggestions about things they don’t know well and waste our time.
A straight forward answer is always a time saving one. Today the machine was trying to repeat the same thing in different words.
The word intelligence in “Artificial intelligence” is a misnomer.
It has been 50 days post my surgery and I am following all the precaution advised to me and I am listing it below
Blood clot: I was given blood thinning or anticoagulant tablets for the first two weeks post surgery to prevent blood from clotting.
Pneumatic compression stockings was put on my right leg for three days both before and after the surgery.
Depression: I have my laptop by my side and with internet connection and binge watching and people taking care of me, depression can never come near me.
I have the kindle with me and read books.
Exercises: I do those simple exercises while lying in bed as advised by the physiotherapist. Compressing a smiley ball, lifting the leg slowly, turning sideways and breathing exercises were advised. It is slightly boring nevertheless I do it for my own wellbeing.
Bed sore: I was not aware of this. Thanks to the doctors who informed about this prior to my discharge from hospital. Purchased an air bed through online order by my sister. Lying on air bed prevented me from getting bed soreness. Despite this staying on one position was very tough and in my case not even turning sideways.
Constipation: We constipate by sitting or squatting usually and also food moves from stomach to rectum through intestines ore easily while we are in a upright position, either sitting or standing. This becomes a challenge while at bed rest. In the first ten days I constipated only twice.
During those ten days i did not feel fresh and constantly yelping trying to push my feces out but in vain.
In My case it is pelvic fracture , which added to the complexity. Since my bone are broken near the rectum, they were not supporting enough to push the feces out rhrough anus.
Once my bones got sufficient strength, I was able to constipate lying on the bed sideways. Now it is 50 days and I am at bed rest. Constipating lying on the bed sideways is no more a problem.
Urination: I kept a plastic can with handle , hung on the cot within my hands reach. This helped me prevent from irritating people by asking their help frequently.
While you are at bed rest, don’t expect people to run over to you at every calls. I appointed a male nurse through the day to take care of me. His job includes bringing the breakfast and lunch to my bed, wiping me with cloth and emptying the urine can.
I put my feces and the used tissue papers in a plastic cover, to make others job easy.
My thighs are still tight but calf muscles have become loose and so are the arms. I have grown a pot belly in these 50 days and might have gained significant weight. However I am confident , as like last couple of years, will reduce my weight once I am on my feet and become that fit person once again.
I was born and brought up in south India. I have traveled to Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. So never traveled outside Asia. London-edinburgh-london had been postponed due to covid. And when the applications were opened for 2022, I immediately applied. Visiting London was one of long cherished dream. My dream was of a tourist one, but never imagined I would ride through London in my bicycle.
Etihad airways – dinner
We reached London heathrow airport and collected our baggage including our cycles. There was a viral video showing baggage mess at heathrow airport and what we observed was quite contradictory. There was absolute discipline. After getting our immigration entry seal, we went straight to coasta express and had our sandwich and burger. We could not assess whether it was costly or not. One pound is roughly 100 rupees. Our bill was 21 pounds. Soon after that we left using taxi. The taxis were very wide but only four seater. It was very spacious such that, We were able to put our two cycles in the leg room gap. It costed 14000 INR for reaching hotel at London, barking. There were two hotels with their names quite similar and very close to each other. We landed at the wrong one and unloaded all our baggage and sent the taxi after which the receptionist informed us that it was the adjacent hotel. We left our cycles there and placed our baggages at the correct hotel and came back to drag our cycles in a trolley. We checked in the hotel (Ibis London Barking) to realise prices have gone up but decided to stay there.
After getting ourselves freshened up, walked towards newham area. Visited the local shops and had burger for dinner at Howdys burger. Most of the shops were closed, Since it was already post 9:00 pm. However observed buses were running 24/7 and so many persons delivering food and goods using bicycle even late at night. We stayed at London ibis barking for the next seven days.
We used maps to navigate to the local shops. There were pedestrian lanes, cycle lanes and roads. There were marking on the roads where exactly a bus would stop. Four wheelers waited for us to cross the road. The sign boards were very clear and informative. The roads and lanes were spacious. Some of the lanes were designated for both cyclists and pedestrians. All these first sightings impressed us very much.
Barking Park, London night view
There was a high bridge very close to our hotel. The highway was one level above and the highbridge is even higher than the highway. From the highbridge the highway traffic can be observed and the city view also. The highbridge is for the use of pedestrians and cyclists only. The sunlight is available till 9:00 pm. So it was very nice to spend time in the evenings. All the streets were well lit. It was thoroughly an impressive experience on the day of arrival along with the excitement of the upcoming ride.
We googled and located some nearby places where we can go in the next few days without disturbing our cycling practice. London bridge topped the charts.
On the first morning ,We woke up late and the first thing we did was assembling our cycles. Soon decided to go to London bridge. Spotted Saravana bhawan on the way and had our lunch there. Soon we were riding in dedicated cycling lanes and felt very excited seeing other commuters using the lanes. No pedestrian / motor vehicle ventured into the cycling lane. There were dedicated signals for cycling lanes and each lane was designated with code just like for the highways. The cycling lanes were only three foot wide but still very useful to commute within the city. Within the city it takes same time to reach a place either by bus or bicycle. Soon we reached London bridge and observed London tower from afar. Cycle commuters were very high in number compared to Chennai as on 2022. Determined to promote cycle commuting in Chennai after my London visit. People were following the traffic rules sincerely and it was good to observe in first hand and acknowledge and appreciate it.
We then went to Evans cycle shop. And then to barrista café and returned to hotel. On the return journey to hotel , learnt some new things.
There is a push button at zebra crossing, which can be used to inform that we are waiting to cross the road.
There are cycling highways, where only cycles are allowed.
There are cycling trails within the city for reducing distances and safe passage for cyclists.
Even if the signal for pedestrians and cyclists is not green, most of the motor vehicles wait at the zebra crossing and signaling us to cross the road.
Someone contacted thru Instagram and our plan for next day evolved.
On day two, We went to London bridge again, but were late to meet the local cyclists. They were patient enough to wait for us and we exchanged greetings. During the brief conversation with them, we learnt about an online store ‘Argos’ where you can shop digitally and after payment the product will be handed over to you. We bought an egg boiler there and then proceeded to Tesco shopping complex only to spend next five hours there. Tesco was very close to were we stayed. We bought bread, eggs, salads, fruits. Packaged food is still evolving in India. London has got a whole lot of packed foods, ready to cook, half cooked, raw etc., in various combinations.
On day three at London, We cooked our own breakfast at our hotel room. The window appeared like a mini kitchen cabinet. We had purchased a sandwich maker also. We used coffee cup tray as plate and paper cups for coffee making. We rode to ilford to meet fellow riders. They have already left. We went alone to the start point, enroute met a Malaysian rider. We loaded our maps and started onward journey in the event route. Met motley crew riders on the way and joined them. Had afternoon lunch at Debden.
It was a very relaxed morning and We cooked our own breakfast at our hotel room. We were running out of clothes. Enquired at the hotel reception for laundry prices. It was expensive. We carried our clothes to a laundry nearby and window shopped in the barking area. We went inside vicarage field shopping mall and came out after four hours. Then roamed around roadside market, which became a regular hangout place. We shopped for groceries in the evening. Since we woke up late in the morning, decided to see how the night is at barking. A small river runs just behind the hotel where we stayed and from there few metres there is a castle and graveyard. The ruins are now a park named as ‘Abbey park’. The trees in the park were decorated with lights at night and it looked attractive. We made four sandwiches and went to the park at night and stayed there for sometime. After mid night we sat close to the river and enjoyed our time before returning to our room.
I woke up early in the morning and went for a walk alone. There was a highbridge nearby and that is very useful for pedestrians and cyclists to go to the other side of the highway and to east ham area also. After returning from walk I took bath and prepared egg sandwich for breakfast. We then postponed our scheduled tickets for further ten days. By the time we went into Tesco complex I was already bored shopping in the same place again and again. The hotel storage room is under renovation and so we had to go looking for storage space nearby. ‘Sturgard storage’ located within a km from our hotel was closed by the time we reached and could not even make an enquiry. While returning to hotel we went into a trail leading to ‘Beckton Creekside nature reserve’. The display board had some information regarding what to look inside the reserve. Reed bunting and Redwing can be seen in autumn and winter. Hawthorn is also widely available inside the reserve. Could eat plum fruits in the wild. We saw some people collecting fruits from the trees. Plucked apple from a tree for the first time in life. Overall had a great evening, which made us forget about our storage problem.
We went to Debden school by cycling and collected the collectibles. It was good to see so many cyclists there. We spent too much time in the school to meet and greet friends, which proved costly for us, since we were having some pending works with our luggage storage. We started around 3:00 pm and rode back to our hotel. It was Saturday and the storage solution store was closed by afternoon. Again we could not put our belongings in the storage. We fit our cycle with the gadgets and accessories which took considerable time. We were in dilemma where to put our things now and still decided to go for storage space and off we went to sleep.
Will write about m bicycle ride experience in next post.
If you are not familiar with what is day zero read here
Recent days there are more talks about the looming Bengaluru water crisis. Chennai has already gone through day zero. Bengaluru might face it this year. I had suffered a lot during the 2018 water crisis in Chennai. I would go unbathed to office for weeks, would not use the toilet at home and even avoid drinking water at home. Those horrible days are still etched in my memory clearly like a portrait picture. Those were the moments which convinced me to think about moving out of the city and yet I am reluctant to move out of Chennai. Plastic Water tanks were placed in every corner of the city and water provided via tanker lorries till date. High pressure water line was laid across the city. Then the new government took over and after that the project did not got completed since there is no water scarcity issue similar to the one in the year 2018. But this year it may be different. Bengaluru water crisis must be a caution for Chennai residents.
The water crisis lasts for three to four months from July to October. Once the monsoon starts water crisis turns into flood menace. Either way the city is facing the problem. Experts will pour in with advice but none will be followed. A water crisis happened in 2005 and the then government made rain water harvesting compulsory in all houses within Chennai. I thought the problem disappeared once for all. However when the city’s lakes were occupied by the government buildings and other encroachers over the years, the water scarcity problem resumed in 2018. It is a man made disaster.
Even the floods that occur during the November-december almost bi-annually are due to the encroachment of lakes. And people are blaming it on the lack of drainage system and storm water system. The city has got three rivers flowing right through the heart of the city and is polluted heavily and the banks are heavily encroached. We can talk on and on endlessly.
Common civil problems cannot be addressed as long as individuals are busy with their own problems. It takes a collective will to solve common problems.
Recently saw lot of people are searching my site relating to Poompuhar. These three books are available in tamilnadu archaeology website for download. You can download from here too.
On 28th of January this year I was about to complete my 1200 mm ride, just short of 40 kms, I was hit by a lorry from side In a blind spot near nelamangala, 40 kms from bangalore. I crashed on the road in between the front and rear wheels of the lorry which hit me. My pelvic bone got fractured at four places on the left side and one on the right side. There were bruises all over my body. I was wearing arm and leg sleeves, which saved me from lot of bruises. I was wearing gloves and that protected my fingers from abrasion. My helmet cracked but saved me from head injuries. There was a muscle tear above my right eyebrow which needed stitching. When this happened no one was in the vicinity. The driver who hit me parked his lorry and came down to help me. I was conscious. He gave me water and tried to make me sit. I writhed in pain. By the time public had gathered around. One of them asked me whether I have seen the lorry number. I took my phone and asked the driver to take picture of my cycle.
Ambulance was called for and I was taken to the nearest government hospital. I posted message in the WhatsApp group that I met with an accident. My friends and well wishers immediately came and shifted me to a private hospital. I was admitted into ICU. My hemoglobin level was very low and hence had to wait for three days for my surgery. Minimal incision acetabular surgery was carried out and got discharged from the hospital in the next two days post surgery.
Ten days has passed post surgery. I am not allowed to sit for a month and not allowed to walk for the next three months. I am staying positive and hopeful of a good recovery and strong comeback. Its going to be a long recovery process for the next six months. I may gain a lot of weight. I want to utilize this time by reading books, learning through online courses etc.,
As I lay in the air bed, my sister bought for me, and write this post, I thank all the persons who helped me from the moment of accident.
