Kindle 4

After spending an almost restless night yesterday, reading about Kindle, thinking about its utility and breaking my head over its different flavours (like plain Kindle 4, Kindle Touch, Kindle Touch 3G, Kindle Keyboard, Kindle DX, sponsored and non-sponsored versions etc etc), today morning I finally bit the bullet and bought the plain Kindle 4 sponsored version on eBay for INR 5390/- final delivered price.

The Kindle 4 comes with an inbuilt dictionary which would be a fantastic feature for somebody like me who is too lazy to keep one by the bed, and search as an when required. It's just a point-n-click on a word, that would trigger Kindle to find the word's meaning in a full-blown Oxford English Dictionary resting in its memory.

Also, another reason that prompted me to consider Kindle is the lack of space for keeping books. I have almost ran out of shelves to keep my books on. They are lying all around my room now - on the table, on a cupboard, around TV, on my bed, on the chair ... I am clueless as to where to place them, and it's driving me mad. So better - buy a Kindle, buy new books in digital format, and keep them inside that tiny device. And it's environment friendly too since it reduces demand for paper. And as an added bonus, it's possible to read PDF files on it too. Even better! A Kindle, it seemed, is to books, what an iPod is to music.

A Kindle Touch 3G (non-sponsored) would have been the best bet given it's strikingly awesome addon feature-set (over plain Kindle 4) - like X-Ray (what a concept!), all-time on-demand Wikipedia, free 3G, a touch keyboard, mp3 playback etc. A feature like X-Ray takes book-reading to a different level altogether. But it's pricing in India is ridiculous enough to give it a pass. In case, in future if I happen to like this e-Ink display and get addicted to reading on Kindle, well well, I will find someone to get one Kindle Touch 3G for me from US ;)

Cycling: Pirangut Ghat Climb on a Tall 38-24 Gear

These days my morning rides have been only to 2 locations. It's either Pirangut or the New Katraj Tunnel on the bypass.

When I had started up, after a few days of practice, a Pirangut ride used to take 1hr 24mins total for to and from home. Recently, after few of these rides, the ride timing had come down by 8 minutes to 1hr 16mins.

Then again, after few more rides to the New Katraj Tunnel, yesterday, I fell back to Pirangut, and had taken 4mins off that that time, clocking 1hr 12mins.

Today, I wasn't sure how much more reduction can be possible in this timing, since I was pumping quite extensively to clock times like 1:12. I was expecting around the same time for today, since there can't be much change in a single day. Change happens over time. How wrong I was!

The difference was made while climbing the Pirangut ghat. I always fall back to granny gears - 28-30 - when climbing a ghat section due to stamina and wearing out leg muscles. Today, I kept in a much taller gear - 38-24!! The reason was the truck that I started competing with. It was loaded, but still powerful enough to give a healthy chase if I showed any slack. It did give me couple of scares but I held on.

Trucks, overloaded, while climbing ghats, emit insane amount of black smoke. When they pass you, you are left in a large black cloud of smoke - breathless and disoriented. This always gives one the kick to keep these enemies behind you. Dont fucking go polluting my air.

I pumped up all I could and kept it on the boil. Even though I felt exhuasted, never felt like I will faint at the next corner. The small amount of seated relief between pumpings, was surprisingly enough for my legs to get rid of the created lactic acid and be ready for the next burst.

This way I went on, and couldn't believe it when I finally reached the top cusp without any over-exertion or breathlessness.  I had won agaist the truck, kept my air clean and I had done it in a gear I would have otherwise dismissed as impossible at this point in time.

Due to that speedy climb with tall gear, the end result was I had shoved off a massive 4 minutes off my ride time in a single day! I took only 1hr 8mins for the full ride today.

Now the next goal ofcourse is: Pirangut to-and-fro under 1hr!
Fingers crossed.