Technical blog migration announcement

My technical blog has moved to kirank.netlify.com since early 2016.

While the Blogger template has served me well so far, I was keen on using a toolkit similar to Github publishing. The Cryogen project was the ideal choice, as it is built in Clojure and allowed me to do interesting enhancements without having to learn a new language.

So that's that. Hope to see you there! :)

SRR (Southern River Runners) featured in Himalayan Whitewater Magazine

An article about the Southern River Runners has been featured in the Nepal based Himalayan Whitewater Magazine. My red Mamba is in the main pic on page 44 with all the first descent gang :)

Rajgad - gps track.

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Trek to Chandan wandan

Chandan wandan are a set of twin forts about an 30kms North east of the town of Satara in Maharashtra.

We (M and I)enjoyed a leisurely walk to the top. The day started sunny and we took frequent breaks on the wide trail to the top. Once there, we took some time to look around the few abandoned temples and an empty dargah. The fort of wandan, which looked close, isn't quite, and decided against going there preferring to laze around the top on a day when there was no one else on the hill.

On the way down, the heavens opened up and there were impromptu waterfalls all around. :)

Getting there:

There are 2 ways to get there. The easier way appears to be:
From Satara, catch a bus going in the direction of WaThar(a bus to Phaltan or WaThar should do). Get down at Ambavde phata. From here, you should be able to catch an auto that takes one to Ibrahimpur at the base of Chandangad.

Walking up takes about a hour or two, based on the your pace. On a hot day, there isn't much shade (even on top), so an early start is a good idea.


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The Recumbent Cycle from Aalok on Vimeo.

A lovely montage featuring the recumbent cycle shot by Aalok.

Coastal kayaking

I'd bought a SeaEagle SE 330 kayak about 3 years ago, because I had some fledgling interest in water sport at that time. But what I really enjoyed doing was kayaking in some of the rivers of coastal Karnataka.

At first, I was quite apprehensive as to how it would be. I neither had experience doing long stretches, nor had any idea if there were rapids or bridges or such on the way. But there had to be a first time and I 'bit the bullet' so to speak, on the Sita Nadi.

Sita nadi is one of the few rivers in the south where one can find some good rapids. I have whitewater rafted the stretch many times in the past. However, I wanted something simpler and less demanding this time.

When my friend N made travel plans to Brahmavara which is very close to the river, I decided to join him and club it with an exploratory trip. My approach was to find a bridge upstream, where we could start and paddle till the we reached the mouth of the river. Looking up Google Maps we found such a place in Kokkarne and formed our plan.

We reached the starting bridge around 11 in the morning and got into the water. A farmer nearby warned us that there was a small dam in the way, and said 'Neevu HaarBahudu' (literally that you could jump off the top, apparently a height difference of 6 feet). We were looking around for this 'drop', but it turned out that the tides were in our favour and we had actually navigated across at the same level. After a lot of easy paddling, we reached the coastal Mabukola bridge in about 4 hours and got off.


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That was the first trip, and since then I've navigated a few more rivers.

The Sharavathi river is also quite interesting to explore. Since its a dam-controlled river ( the dam is at Gerusoppa) there is not much flow, but the banks are very picturesque. One must watch out as there is some commercial traffic in the form of sailboats. Incidentally, before roads were built, people used to travel upstream from Honnavar on an all-night sailboat journey to reach Gerusoppa. There is a lot of birdwatching possibilities for bird lovers at the mouth of the river where it meets the sea. The bridge which crosses the river at Honnavar is one of the longest in the state, and its a heady feeling to move out from the relatively narrow river to a two kilometre wide stretch at the bridge. There are also some small uninhabited islands ideal for lunch picnic.

Reaching the starting point at Gerusoppa is an hour's ride from Honnavar by road.

My paddling partner V made a video of the kayak trip.



The Zuari river in Goa was the location for the next paddle trip. My partner and I started from Ponda town intent on reaching the sea, but we stopped well short of our goal because of bad headwinds. However, most rivers in Goa are badly polluted since barge traffic carries ore from the river bank to ships in the port. A substantial part of the ore unfortunately ends up in the river, giving it a muddy brown shade. However, as one paddles, one gets a good chance to see the less-touristy side of Goa, as well as the tidal mangroves that line the shores.

The Nethravati river near Mangalore also has some good stretches to paddle. One of the objective hazards is a small dam on the way that one needs to get across.


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One could catch up with other kayakers on the dreamroutes forum.

First cruzbike ride

First experience.

I woke up early one Tuesday morning and pushed the bike to a nearby parking lot to try and ride.I had taken the toolkit along as well, to fix any last minute issues.

Finally, sitting on the bike was a great feeling. It had taken almost 7 months to get to the final form after bike frame changes, seat changes and lots of other redesigns. However, try as I could , I could not pedal even one revolution. I kept falling over, and I found it quite difficult to push the ground from that position to gain any momentum. Finally, the top tube just popped out from the force of my feet on the pedals and the retaining nut broke. I was gutted, and felt it not worth the effort of all these months. So I pushed the bike back home and thought about what to do next.

Turns out the problems were not so serious. A little welding and fixing later,I was back at the parking lot early on Wednesday morning . Having set up the gears this time to make it easy, I got my wife to hold the bike so I didn't fall .I set off and after a few tries, sure enough, I was off. It took me a while to figure out how to ride it, considering the hands need to balance out the power from the feet.

Since then , I've since learned to ride on roads as well. The hardest part is all the attention that the bike draws. I have gotten better at riding with a straight face as if its just another day at the office. As usual its kids that are most excited, however adults of all shapes and sizes give a goofy grin when they see it. This on the small bylanes, I wonder how its going to be on the main roads with traffic .

I wouldn't have gotten this far without help from lots of people. Balu for the seat fabrication, Muneer for the cycle alignment, Vijay who fabricated a whole new bottom bracket from scratch and of course my wife for the support and encouragement ,given that I turned the living room literally into a cycle workshop for the past few months.