The small piece of chalk had fallen dow under the grey base of the wooden bench. It might have been thrown at the previous occupant from a distance, and if it was, it's what we'd call immaculate aim. From the writing angle, what one can see when you lifted your eyes is a door that's just short of one push to indicate an unwanted disturbance. A red cushioned chair facing you, waiting for someone's deliberate presence.
Moving closer to line of sight, lay the brightly lit octagonal projection diffracted at the slits in the corner. Overlapping transparenices adorned the wall.
A slight change in orientation..
Left hand supported on the forehead, a momentary blink, a curl of the lip - engrossed, clearly, but I owe to distance, the fact that I couldn't say, in what.
A checked shirt, green pencil, an ocassional upward nod, propped with a convenient Arthur C Clarke in the desk beneath; fair focus on both, no doubt!
A spiked hairdo, a crisp white shirt, peering into a notebook, probably gauging symmetries with a pencil in the left hand.
Right hand rested on cheek, half of a right angle with the bench, an infusion of serious pretension, stealing looks at neighbours,
A 180 degree turn, blended into a stretch to scan some more...
A black pullover to beat the cold, repeated extension of a design, a mehendi model, it'd not be easy to see the hobby express itself in another situation.
The imposed quiet, inabitlty or indifference to follow - skills surge.
At an angle of zilch with the bench, an imperative shift in arm position, restless and can hardly find a blink free stretch of vision.
And finally, the HERO - history, problem, leading to solution, assertion and conclusion - his work, I say.
Of course, how could I forget the blue-n-blue attire, a4 sheets piled infront, an efficient pencil, a guided scan, expressions for every word, oscillating between staring into space, and writing, the very pencil out of which these words are born.
Now, an empty classroom.
Nothing discrete to observe, but an arrangement of benches, an assortment of bags, time for reflection.
It is one of those places, one of those sites of self forgotten involvement, a mega-harmony in action.
50 odd attires, 50 odd thoughts, 50 odd hobbies, none to interfere except for an ocassional irritated glare, but again, why care??
It was not wrong when someone probably said, all classrooms are cradles of creativity. 50 odd intitatives - there's really nowhere else where so many people can independently and simultaneously pursue their never fulfilled ambitions.
Lack of attention in a lecture is fine.
A good lecture is a mere aid to a good student. And he will know it then.
No one really has to do analysis unless they find peace and joy in it. And sometimes, I wonder, may be, that's why people DO attend classes, lectures - a creativity surge.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Saturday, July 25, 2009
The Story Ripens
Green to Red
Green to orange
Green 'n' Black to Yellow 'n' Black (essentially to yellow!)
Green to Yellow
Green to Light Green
Green to Brownish maroon
Green to Blue
Green to other shades whose names I know not
Green to so on and so forth.....
Now, what could be this unidirectional change of colour that happens around us, in nature?
I thought of this astounding, universal colour change, when -
(skip if you do not like flashbacks and stories)
"I went to the fruit shop to buy an Avocado/Butter fruit, and since I hadn't tasted one and had only seen a picture on Wiki, I asked the seller to hand me one. He handed me a dark green fruit, which looked way smaller than I imagined it to be. It seemed a little hard, and without any questions, I walked away to go home and eat it. On cutting the fruit, I found a seed, as promised. But, the pulp was too hard. And scooping it out was an impossibility. After efforts, the real taste was not there. A little disappointed, I went to the shop again, a day later and asked him for a ripe avocado, and he handed me another green looking butter fruit and asked me to wait for three days or so. I was a little annoyed at my haste and went home equipped with patience. And two days later,it had become pulpy and the green had changed to brownish maroon. I was pleasantly surprised at this colour. I never remotely thought that avocados were brownish when they ripened."
(resume reading if you skipped above portion)
And then, I realised that most fruits are green till they ripen to yellow, orange or red or blue (in case of blueberries). So, why should a fruit ripen? Ripeness, as humans know it, is a quality of the fruit that makes it edible. But, ripeness is what civilisation has come up with to serve its needs of nutrition. But, why would nature subscribe to ripening a fruit only to be left into human consumption?
Turns out, one of the main gases responsible for causing ripening, is Ethylene. It is an important plant hormone which brings about senescence and death. Ripening of fruits is a relaxation to defenses against premature consumption. Fruit consumption is important for the plant as it helps in seed dispersal. At the level of consumption, there are both vertebrate and invertebrate consumers, like insect larvae. In view of better developed locomotory skills, plants choose vertebrate frugivores than others. During the process of ripening, what are the kind of changes that occur?
We observe a change in the fruit texture, colour and taste (sweetness). Ethylene is known to bring about all these changes. It turns on a few genes and sets the transcriptional and translational machinery in action, and increases the quantity of some enzymes in the cell. And these include enzymes which make the fruit sweet, starch to sugar converters (amylase), making the fruit softer (pectinases), and enzymes which break green pigments (chlorophyll) which are replaced by other coloured pigments (chromophylls) - red, blue, yellow.etc. This coordinated colour conversion, may also be too attract vertebrates to these fruits and enable dispersal of seeds. Fully ripe fruits are prone to degradation by microbes and hence, they are competitors for vertebrates to get good food.
And, so I learnt from avocados. Avocados are the only fruits that ripen after being picked. Firm avocados take about three days to ripen.
Remember not to eat fruits right under the same tree, and assist in achieveing the evolutionary goal of dispersal.
Yours
Green to orange
Green 'n' Black to Yellow 'n' Black (essentially to yellow!)
Green to Yellow
Green to Light Green
Green to Brownish maroon
Green to Blue
Green to other shades whose names I know not
Green to so on and so forth.....
Now, what could be this unidirectional change of colour that happens around us, in nature?
I thought of this astounding, universal colour change, when -
(skip if you do not like flashbacks and stories)
"I went to the fruit shop to buy an Avocado/Butter fruit, and since I hadn't tasted one and had only seen a picture on Wiki, I asked the seller to hand me one. He handed me a dark green fruit, which looked way smaller than I imagined it to be. It seemed a little hard, and without any questions, I walked away to go home and eat it. On cutting the fruit, I found a seed, as promised. But, the pulp was too hard. And scooping it out was an impossibility. After efforts, the real taste was not there. A little disappointed, I went to the shop again, a day later and asked him for a ripe avocado, and he handed me another green looking butter fruit and asked me to wait for three days or so. I was a little annoyed at my haste and went home equipped with patience. And two days later,it had become pulpy and the green had changed to brownish maroon. I was pleasantly surprised at this colour. I never remotely thought that avocados were brownish when they ripened."
(resume reading if you skipped above portion)
And then, I realised that most fruits are green till they ripen to yellow, orange or red or blue (in case of blueberries). So, why should a fruit ripen? Ripeness, as humans know it, is a quality of the fruit that makes it edible. But, ripeness is what civilisation has come up with to serve its needs of nutrition. But, why would nature subscribe to ripening a fruit only to be left into human consumption?
Turns out, one of the main gases responsible for causing ripening, is Ethylene. It is an important plant hormone which brings about senescence and death. Ripening of fruits is a relaxation to defenses against premature consumption. Fruit consumption is important for the plant as it helps in seed dispersal. At the level of consumption, there are both vertebrate and invertebrate consumers, like insect larvae. In view of better developed locomotory skills, plants choose vertebrate frugivores than others. During the process of ripening, what are the kind of changes that occur?
We observe a change in the fruit texture, colour and taste (sweetness). Ethylene is known to bring about all these changes. It turns on a few genes and sets the transcriptional and translational machinery in action, and increases the quantity of some enzymes in the cell. And these include enzymes which make the fruit sweet, starch to sugar converters (amylase), making the fruit softer (pectinases), and enzymes which break green pigments (chlorophyll) which are replaced by other coloured pigments (chromophylls) - red, blue, yellow.etc. This coordinated colour conversion, may also be too attract vertebrates to these fruits and enable dispersal of seeds. Fully ripe fruits are prone to degradation by microbes and hence, they are competitors for vertebrates to get good food.
And, so I learnt from avocados. Avocados are the only fruits that ripen after being picked. Firm avocados take about three days to ripen.
Remember not to eat fruits right under the same tree, and assist in achieveing the evolutionary goal of dispersal.
Yours
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Of Bumble Bees and Brethren Beings
After spending rather long hours thinking of an appropriate title, and whether or not it must possess the alliterative streak, following the tip of a friend, I settled on the afore mentioned group of words.
Having said that, a family trip with cousins and nephews can be very enriching. Hand-in-hand with two nephews, travelling on the paved roads of Puttaparthi, the conversation one engages in, with kids is a memorable and a thoughtful experience altogether. At an inadvertent pause in our walk, the conversation manoeuvred to insects and pests. As he incessantly thumped on black ants and could not contain his thrill at killing harmful insects (since they bite and leave you itchy!), I was acting the Devil's Advocate trying to reproach him for his deeds.(Oh! Makes me sound like a saint). A part of the dialogue went like this :
N1(nephew 1) : Thump! Thump! Muahahaha.....Now, they'll never bite us.
Me : Tut tut tut...don't do that! Let them live in their natural environment. Now look, your brother is imitating you.
N2 : Nooo...no.....i am all itchy! (scratches torso). Thump! Thump.
N1 : Let's get a spider to eat them. Do spiders eat ants?
Me : May be, if it manages to get caught in the spider's web.
N1 : What about bees?
Me : Do you know that, if a bee bites you, it dies?
N1 : Really? But why?
Me : (Not really knowing the answer, hoping it was not a misnomer, I meandered around the question, made a mental note that the sting might be connected to its heart...) I don't know why, but I shall find out for you.
N1 : Is it connected to its heart?
Me : May be, but not too sure.
Meanwhile, N2 was making a racket trying to rout my attention to his dead ant spoils.
So, it turns out that, bees rarely sting unless handled roughly or you get into its way. (I'd know because I got bitten by one, only because I kind of walked through a swarm of 8 bees.) The misnomer which I hoped it would not be, was partly one, as most myths are since they lack completion. So, the sting of worker bees is barbed, so that it embeds the sting on to the victim's skin, tearing loose from its abdomen, leading to its death in minutes. So far, so good. But this holds true only if the victim is an avian or a mammal. So, that's where the catch is! The bee's sting developed for inter-bee combats, and the barbs in that case, improves attack through the chitinous exoskeleton. And they are hazardous as they penetrate the elastic skins of higher animals. So, potential encounters with mammals were of little evolutionary significance. Whether the bees have adapted themselves to fight mammals, and have evolved, I don't know, but that's an interesting possibility. As I pen down these, I am reminded of the day a bee bit me and the havoc the disturbed hive wreaked in my school. But, that's for another day.
Buzzing-ly
Yours
Having said that, a family trip with cousins and nephews can be very enriching. Hand-in-hand with two nephews, travelling on the paved roads of Puttaparthi, the conversation one engages in, with kids is a memorable and a thoughtful experience altogether. At an inadvertent pause in our walk, the conversation manoeuvred to insects and pests. As he incessantly thumped on black ants and could not contain his thrill at killing harmful insects (since they bite and leave you itchy!), I was acting the Devil's Advocate trying to reproach him for his deeds.(Oh! Makes me sound like a saint). A part of the dialogue went like this :
N1(nephew 1) : Thump! Thump! Muahahaha.....Now, they'll never bite us.
Me : Tut tut tut...don't do that! Let them live in their natural environment. Now look, your brother is imitating you.
N2 : Nooo...no.....i am all itchy! (scratches torso). Thump! Thump.
N1 : Let's get a spider to eat them. Do spiders eat ants?
Me : May be, if it manages to get caught in the spider's web.
N1 : What about bees?
Me : Do you know that, if a bee bites you, it dies?
N1 : Really? But why?
Me : (Not really knowing the answer, hoping it was not a misnomer, I meandered around the question, made a mental note that the sting might be connected to its heart...) I don't know why, but I shall find out for you.
N1 : Is it connected to its heart?
Me : May be, but not too sure.
Meanwhile, N2 was making a racket trying to rout my attention to his dead ant spoils.
So, it turns out that, bees rarely sting unless handled roughly or you get into its way. (I'd know because I got bitten by one, only because I kind of walked through a swarm of 8 bees.) The misnomer which I hoped it would not be, was partly one, as most myths are since they lack completion. So, the sting of worker bees is barbed, so that it embeds the sting on to the victim's skin, tearing loose from its abdomen, leading to its death in minutes. So far, so good. But this holds true only if the victim is an avian or a mammal. So, that's where the catch is! The bee's sting developed for inter-bee combats, and the barbs in that case, improves attack through the chitinous exoskeleton. And they are hazardous as they penetrate the elastic skins of higher animals. So, potential encounters with mammals were of little evolutionary significance. Whether the bees have adapted themselves to fight mammals, and have evolved, I don't know, but that's an interesting possibility. As I pen down these, I am reminded of the day a bee bit me and the havoc the disturbed hive wreaked in my school. But, that's for another day.
Buzzing-ly
Yours
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Economically Equipped
The Budget Plan drawn by the Government of India every year, interests me a lot. It may be because of a Chartered Accountant father who used to come home, early in the afternoon, to watch the proceedings of the Budget on DD National. But as life got busier and probably, more advanced, it converged into following it on the internet. But, the trend always continued. I would still watch the TV, either the news or the proceedings. I would relentlessly follow the life-changing decisions-scrapped surcharge, fertiliser subsidies and the like, with the same impassive expression, whether or not I really understood those finance words.
A Budget is a financial plan that the Government makes every year (according to a mandate in an Article in the Constitution) where it details out the country's income and expenditure for the year ahead. The Finance Ministry comsists of some 100-200 ministers who may be economists, financiers.,et cetera. There are three different kinds of funds that the Government allocates the money into.
--> Consolidated Fund comprising revenues in and out of the Govt., loans it gives and receives, tax collected. etc. Transactions involving money in this fund always require parliamentary authorisation before implementation.
--> Contingency Fund comprising of some amount of money allocated for emergency purposes, say war, flood, drought which does not require parliamentary authorisation (which means the President can use it directly).
--> Public Accounts Fund comprising all the service schemes like National Service Schemes, Prime Minister Fund and other schemes.
Now, acquainting with how the budget works, procedures followed, loop-holes, coverups, ministry woes and how the united efforts spill out in the undeniably soothing words of P.Chidambaram or from the heavily accented words of Pranab Mukherjee, it's Macroeconomy. Studying the system, that's what it is!
But, when I asked my father, "So, tell me something about the budget!". He promptly began, "Surcharge has been removed, Fringe Benefit Tax has also been scrapped,..." and so on, an explanation ensued. Detailing the budget nittigritties at an individual level, about how it affects you and me (Fine, fine, even if I don't pay tax, I exercise my freedom to the use of the phrase non literally.), is Microeconomy.
So, once the Government lays out the Budget plan, it tallies it income and expenditure, but despite all efforts, there's always a Budget Deficit. When the proposed expenditure leaps ahead of the proposed income, the amount by which the income falls short is the budget deficit. And, after hushing questions regarding how to deal with this, one possible solution comes out to be, literally, "Mint Money". Oh yea, the Finance Minister telephones the RBI Chairman and says, "Hey buddy, print about 15 lakh crores, budget deficit. Catch ya then." And that's where aam aadmi is affected. More money spells Inflation.
So, more money in the markets. Each of us has more money than before. But, the market situation, in terms of supply has not changed. I have more money and I want to buy a car. My neighbour has more money and he also wants to buy a car. And, so the story extends to every other guy and his neighbour who all want to buy cars. The car seller is mobbed. His company does not manufacture as many cars as people mobbing him. So, now there is an imbalance between the market forces of demand and supply. More demand, but not enough supply.
The car seller is confused as to what to do. How can he get the company to manufacture 500 cars when they have been giving an output of 100, in the same timeframe? A problem intitally, but eventually he evens it out. He increases the price of the car. Now, he has the same car output from the manufacturer, but he wards away sections of the mob by introducing a pseudo selection screen on the basis of money. Now the buyer (the final one) ends up paying more for a car that was not even worth his final bill. So, when "too much money chases too little 'items'", we all are struck by price rise. An artificial increase in prices. There is no value for the increase. The money that we use becomes a dummy. It's just a piece of paper after all.
Yours
A Budget is a financial plan that the Government makes every year (according to a mandate in an Article in the Constitution) where it details out the country's income and expenditure for the year ahead. The Finance Ministry comsists of some 100-200 ministers who may be economists, financiers.,et cetera. There are three different kinds of funds that the Government allocates the money into.
--> Consolidated Fund comprising revenues in and out of the Govt., loans it gives and receives, tax collected. etc. Transactions involving money in this fund always require parliamentary authorisation before implementation.
--> Contingency Fund comprising of some amount of money allocated for emergency purposes, say war, flood, drought which does not require parliamentary authorisation (which means the President can use it directly).
--> Public Accounts Fund comprising all the service schemes like National Service Schemes, Prime Minister Fund and other schemes.
Now, acquainting with how the budget works, procedures followed, loop-holes, coverups, ministry woes and how the united efforts spill out in the undeniably soothing words of P.Chidambaram or from the heavily accented words of Pranab Mukherjee, it's Macroeconomy. Studying the system, that's what it is!
But, when I asked my father, "So, tell me something about the budget!". He promptly began, "Surcharge has been removed, Fringe Benefit Tax has also been scrapped,..." and so on, an explanation ensued. Detailing the budget nittigritties at an individual level, about how it affects you and me (Fine, fine, even if I don't pay tax, I exercise my freedom to the use of the phrase non literally.), is Microeconomy.
So, once the Government lays out the Budget plan, it tallies it income and expenditure, but despite all efforts, there's always a Budget Deficit. When the proposed expenditure leaps ahead of the proposed income, the amount by which the income falls short is the budget deficit. And, after hushing questions regarding how to deal with this, one possible solution comes out to be, literally, "Mint Money". Oh yea, the Finance Minister telephones the RBI Chairman and says, "Hey buddy, print about 15 lakh crores, budget deficit. Catch ya then." And that's where aam aadmi is affected. More money spells Inflation.
So, more money in the markets. Each of us has more money than before. But, the market situation, in terms of supply has not changed. I have more money and I want to buy a car. My neighbour has more money and he also wants to buy a car. And, so the story extends to every other guy and his neighbour who all want to buy cars. The car seller is mobbed. His company does not manufacture as many cars as people mobbing him. So, now there is an imbalance between the market forces of demand and supply. More demand, but not enough supply.
The car seller is confused as to what to do. How can he get the company to manufacture 500 cars when they have been giving an output of 100, in the same timeframe? A problem intitally, but eventually he evens it out. He increases the price of the car. Now, he has the same car output from the manufacturer, but he wards away sections of the mob by introducing a pseudo selection screen on the basis of money. Now the buyer (the final one) ends up paying more for a car that was not even worth his final bill. So, when "too much money chases too little 'items'", we all are struck by price rise. An artificial increase in prices. There is no value for the increase. The money that we use becomes a dummy. It's just a piece of paper after all.
Yours
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Skating Skywards
A quick apology for the not-so-deliberate post with no content, it was a confused, restless mind, pressing wrong buttons, closing windows hurriedly, trying to not let the battery die down to eternity.
Moving on, Skating is one of my newfound obsessions, in addition to avid newspaper reading, biking, hobbying through Dragon Rider and the like.
It was on Saturday afternoon that the family geared to the Sports Store to buy skates for me. Mentally ready for roller blades, skates seemed commonplace, on the other hand, the skateboard seemed risky and inappropriate. Repeated insistence that skates are better for beginners made me settle for them. An inconsistent shuffle, I almost felt like BFG trodding down the granite of the sports store as the saleswoman rushed to not let me venture into my asphalted dreams. My first trial. That was the first time doubt crossed my mind.
"Conscience : Should you really buy it? What if you never skate? What if you don't use it well?
Me : Bah! Shut up.
Conscience : But, sho...
Me : Shh (irritated-ly)"
My cousin came to my rescue when he urged my parents into buying the relevant protective gear, threatening us with "just-wait-till-you-fall-with-skates-on-and-you'd-never-touch-them-again" rants. We eventually marched out with a lofty bag containing:
$ A pair of red roller skates
$ A metallic blue head guard (like cyclists wear!)
$ Wrist, elbow and knee guard.
It's not everyday that you buy quite the necessary equipment for hobbying a sport. It took me more than a moment to gauge what lay ahead of me.
Happy but apprehensive and determined.
How's my first legs-on-wheels experience going to go?
Little did I know, that 2 weeks hence I'd stumble upwards everyday as I time myself to do lengths, breadths and diagonals in the shortest time with latent skill.
More coming...
Moving on, Skating is one of my newfound obsessions, in addition to avid newspaper reading, biking, hobbying through Dragon Rider and the like.
It was on Saturday afternoon that the family geared to the Sports Store to buy skates for me. Mentally ready for roller blades, skates seemed commonplace, on the other hand, the skateboard seemed risky and inappropriate. Repeated insistence that skates are better for beginners made me settle for them. An inconsistent shuffle, I almost felt like BFG trodding down the granite of the sports store as the saleswoman rushed to not let me venture into my asphalted dreams. My first trial. That was the first time doubt crossed my mind.
"Conscience : Should you really buy it? What if you never skate? What if you don't use it well?
Me : Bah! Shut up.
Conscience : But, sho...
Me : Shh (irritated-ly)"
My cousin came to my rescue when he urged my parents into buying the relevant protective gear, threatening us with "just-wait-till-you-fall-with-skates-on-and-you'd-never-touch-them-again" rants. We eventually marched out with a lofty bag containing:
$ A pair of red roller skates
$ A metallic blue head guard (like cyclists wear!)
$ Wrist, elbow and knee guard.
It's not everyday that you buy quite the necessary equipment for hobbying a sport. It took me more than a moment to gauge what lay ahead of me.
Happy but apprehensive and determined.
How's my first legs-on-wheels experience going to go?
Little did I know, that 2 weeks hence I'd stumble upwards everyday as I time myself to do lengths, breadths and diagonals in the shortest time with latent skill.
More coming...
Travel, Tennis and Tea
After a week long absence (Courtesy : Chennai (It's my native)), leaning against a wall, peering into the laptop, negotiating with the 234 Kbps CDMA_1X connection, with tennis on tv and steaming tea in my hands, I am somewhat back!
A stylish Federer, and a child-like Roddick set against one another. Hope the spirit of the child within emerges. It might be a tough bargain, but hope the guy makes it for all he deserves.
I might add some more to this post, but Tennis beckons, more like Roddick does.
Yours
A stylish Federer, and a child-like Roddick set against one another. Hope the spirit of the child within emerges. It might be a tough bargain, but hope the guy makes it for all he deserves.
I might add some more to this post, but Tennis beckons, more like Roddick does.
Yours
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Biking for Beginners
Today was the first time I rode a bike! The feeling is just exhilarating...
Courtesies to my brother, a recap of today's half-hour biking.
Actually, to sum it all up, in one line, biking is all about a careful manipulation of thrust/pressure on four limbs -
Right hand on the accelerator and brake (for the front wheel)
Right leg on the brake (for the rear wheel)
Left hand on the handle and clutch
Left leg on the gear control
Step1 : Make sure the Petrol is pointing towards ON. (trivia)
Step 2 : Insert the key and turn it towards on. (trivia)
Step 3 : Check if the gear is on neutral. Start the bike, I kickstarted..see!
Don't exert pressure on the clutch or the accelerator while starting. Well, you could try, but the gaadi won't budge.
Step 4 : Change gears to GearI. While changing, hold on to the clutch.
Step 5 : THE TOUGHEST FOR A BEGINNER
After the gear is changed, hold on to the clutch. Increase the accelerator (as in rotational movement of the wrist) and release the hold on the clutch simultaneously and proportionately (or is it proportionally?)
Troubleshoot : The bike might stop with a jerk.
This only means that the release and increase were not proporti0nal.
Either
1. You did not release the clutch fully.
2. You did not increase the accelerator enough for sustained motion.
Remember : Don't aim for a smooth, zooming flow initially itself, it's important to get a feel for the motion of the bike, let the gaadi move a few inches slowly and that means you have control.
Step 6 : If you have travelled the first few yards smoothly, after overcoming balance problems and simultaneous control, you'd probably want to change gears.
Everytime you change gears, reduce the accelerator a little, hold on to the clutch, and change gears.
The changing gears technique might differ from bike to bike.
And then you can keep riding on and on...
Courtesies to my brother, a recap of today's half-hour biking.
Actually, to sum it all up, in one line, biking is all about a careful manipulation of thrust/pressure on four limbs -
Right hand on the accelerator and brake (for the front wheel)
Right leg on the brake (for the rear wheel)
Left hand on the handle and clutch
Left leg on the gear control
Step1 : Make sure the Petrol is pointing towards ON. (trivia)
Step 2 : Insert the key and turn it towards on. (trivia)
Step 3 : Check if the gear is on neutral. Start the bike, I kickstarted..see!
Don't exert pressure on the clutch or the accelerator while starting. Well, you could try, but the gaadi won't budge.
Step 4 : Change gears to GearI. While changing, hold on to the clutch.
Step 5 : THE TOUGHEST FOR A BEGINNER
After the gear is changed, hold on to the clutch. Increase the accelerator (as in rotational movement of the wrist) and release the hold on the clutch simultaneously and proportionately (or is it proportionally?)
Troubleshoot : The bike might stop with a jerk.
This only means that the release and increase were not proporti0nal.
Either
1. You did not release the clutch fully.
2. You did not increase the accelerator enough for sustained motion.
Remember : Don't aim for a smooth, zooming flow initially itself, it's important to get a feel for the motion of the bike, let the gaadi move a few inches slowly and that means you have control.
Step 6 : If you have travelled the first few yards smoothly, after overcoming balance problems and simultaneous control, you'd probably want to change gears.
Everytime you change gears, reduce the accelerator a little, hold on to the clutch, and change gears.
The changing gears technique might differ from bike to bike.
And then you can keep riding on and on...
DAYI I had trouble getting to start, failed at Step 5 a couple of times, 1/5 times I started the bike, did it move forward! Will practice tomorrow.
Strategy for tomorrow : Look ahead in front of me, and not at my feet for the gear, or at the clutch. And of course, move 3/5 times after starting.
More lessons as I learn...
Yours
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