Weekend Ride - Alamparai Fort

        Alamparai fort is 100 kilometers from chennai and 50 kilometers from Pondicherry on ECR. It's not flooded by tourists and is surprisingly peaceful and relaxing to visit the ruined fort and have the experience of the sea breeze and also to notice the backwater which gets logged very close to the fort. Let me give you the opening shots of the fort which also gives some back story about the fort.

        The fort is intentionally ruined during the British rule. What ever remains, stands as a sign of the destructive nature of the then rulers. Nevertheless it is some feeling to get into that place and importantly the place is photogenic, so if you like to take pictures, you will actually find the ruins as treasures. It very much looks like a good place for shooting movies. Lets see a few shots that will prove my observation, even if I am not a good photographer, the place speaks for itself:

        And as you could see, that is my brother with a riding jacket, and on boots; he is also wearing a knee guard inside his pants. Yes, we are not reckless bikers, we give great importance to safety. Now back to the fort:

        There is a kind of a back water close to the fort. Combined with the ruins from the fort, the water looks unique.

        As I mentioned earlier, this place is not flooded by tourists and that helps you when you want to escape the city traffic and get yourself relaxed. Carry drinking water with you though, since the fort is a couple of kilometers from the main road and you will not find a shop near by easily. 

        Below is a parting shot of the wide wall of the fort from the inside:

 

        And my then drive, Avenger:

         The Duke 390 that can be seen in the corner is my brother's, it had a tough time playing it down for Avenger. 

        Hope you enjoyed the reading and viewing. Lets meet on some other day and at some other place!

Weekly Ride

        I go on a ride along the ECR (Eastern Coastal Road) in Chennai every weekend. It's just a ride of an hour and half. The ECR itself is good to ride; of course one has to maintain a high level of alertness since it is a two way road and also it leads to Pondicherry which is the liquor hub of south. The stretch I take to d0 this 60 odd kilometer ride is Madambakkam (my house) - Kelambakkam - Kovalam - Sholinganallur - Medavakkam - Madambakkam. The stretch has a lot of potholes, but for some reason I always seem to stick to this route. 

        The steed is my new yamaha R15; one of the reason why I haven't been able to stretch the ride more than this 60 odd km is due to the fact that I haven't yet got accustomed to the aggressive position of the bike. If there is a lot of traffic, riding becomes very painful. If it is scarce, I would be able to munch a lot of kms. Hoping to go on a trip to Pondicherry soon; although I wouldn't consider Pondi to be a long distance trip but it's a start. 

The following pics are taken during he ride:

And the steed:

 

Does Stephen King's Firestarter Work?

King, best at what he does; this is one of those novels which makes you feel so good for being an voracious reader. And such feelings come so often when you read a book written by King. The book will hardly come week if you are busy, but it will make the week so good. Alright, enough of this praising session. The book is good; anyone can read the synopsis of the story elsewhere, this is just to say that this book works. If you consider "dead zone, IT, shinning, etc" to have worked, this is too, only this is a little less fascinating than the ones mentioned.

Horror Novels

Why do we read horror, perhaps as Stephen King says, we need to forget about the real monsters within us? When I first started reading horror stories (or should I say Stephen King novels?) I didn't know I was about to start on the path of a long journey. It was from a second-hand book shop that I bought my first King's book - Desperation. I didn't know what to expect from it; just that I get to have a huge book for a meager price. When I started reading it, I felt very different from the other books I had read till then.

Let this be a small start. Will continue on this in a while!