in search of myself...

Typology of Tatti

2011-08-16T00:05:00.000-07:00

a lil gross but hilarious if u dont mind it too much.. copied from elsewhere..

Ghost shit
The kind where you feel the shit come out, but there is no shit in the toilet.

Clean shit
The kind where you shit it out, see it in the toilet, but there is nothing on the toilet paper.

Wet shit
The kind where you wipe your butt 50 times and it still feels unwiped, so you have to put some toilet paper between your butt and underwear so you won’t ruin them with a stain.

Second Wave shit
This happens when you’re done shit-ing and you’ve pulled up your pants to your knees, and you realize that you have to shit some more.

Pop-A-Vein-In-Your-Forehead-shit
The kind where you strain so much to get it out, you practically have a stroke.

Gassy shit
It’s so noisy, everyone within earshot is laughing.

Drinker shit
The kind of shit you have the morning after a long night of drinking. Its most noticeable trait is the skid marks on the bottom of the toilet.

Lincoln Log shit
The kind of shit that is so huge you\\\’re afraid to flush without first breaking it into little pieces with the toilet brush.

Corn shit
Self-explanatory.

Gee-I-Wish-I-Could-shit shit
The kind where you want to shit but all you do is sit on the toilet and fart a few times.

Spinal Tap shit
That’s where it hurts so badly coming out, you would swear it was leaving you sideways.

Wet Cheeks shit (The Power Dump)
The kind that comes out of your butt so fast, your butt gets splashed with water.

Liquid shit
The kind where yellowish-brown liquid shoots out your butt and splashes all over the toilet bowl.

Mexican shit
It smells so bad your nose burns.

The Surprise shit
You’re not even at the toilet because you are sure you’re about to fart, but oops…….a shit!!!

The Dangling shit
This shit refuses to drop into the toilet even though you know you are done shit-ing it. You just pray that a shake or two will cut it loose.

smile please

2011-04-15T23:23:00.000-07:00

harvey ball, an american commercial artist designed the smiley button as a free lance artist hired by the state mutual life assurance company of worcester, massachusetts to improve the employee morale.

he took 10 minutes to design it.

he never applied for a trademark or a copyright of the smiley and earned just $45 for his work, which has gone on to become a international icon.

so.. please smile freely.. :)

My Cup of Woes

2011-01-16T07:28:00.000-08:00

( i ve sent this mail to RE, and will add their response when it comes... if u r a enfield owner or planning to be one, keep watching this space to know your future.. :-P) - follow-up added below..

hopefully this mail will reach someone who will act on it...

dear sir..

i purchased a classic 350 in december 2009. am a bilateral amputee with a passion for motorcycle travel and have a sidecar fitted to the bike to allow me to ride it. am one of the early members of 60kph. my earlier bike was the first generation pulsar180. with the UCE engine and all the buzz about better quality, i sold my pulsar and bought the classic 350.

but.. i feel sad to say that i am really disappointed.

let me just list out the history and wait for your response to it.

i started using the bike on 1-1-2010. the first ride was to rann of kutchh. (60 kph anniv. ride)

the same day, the bike had a electrical problem. every time i turned the headlight on, it wud blow the main fuse. opened the headlamp, and found the dim bulb holder burnt up and the terminals were causing a short circuit. incidentally, its been a year now and the holder has still not been replaced in my 10 trips to your service centre coz they keep saying THAT PART IS NOT AVAILABLE!!

in 7 days the speedometer cable broke.

in a month the clutch cable broke. again, CABLE FOR CLASSIC NOT YET AVAILABLE! at yr service centres, so they installed a TBTS clutch cable which is longer and has scratched the mudguard to bare metal.

in four months, the starter sprag-clutch gave away spilling its parts in the clutch and jammed the engine. i was on my way to lonavla and had to get the bike towed to nerul service station. they informed me after a couple of days that they discovered a crack in the crankcase and wud replace it since the bike was in warranty. but of-course, THEY HAD NO SPARES!! so i waited for 6 weeks during which time they kept reminding me that they cud ve put the cracked crack case back and i would never have known! after six weeks i lost my temper and called yr chennai office and the crankcase landed in bombay in 3 days and i was back on my bike in another 2.

oh, but they lost the neutral indicator switch! and put back any switch they cud find. THEY SAID THEY DID NOT HAVE A SPARE FOR THE CLASSIC AND THE ONE THEY INSTALLED WUD ATLEAST PREVENT ANY DIRT FROM GETTING INTO THE GEARBOX EVEN IF MY NEUTRAL INDICATOR WUD REMAIN DEAD. (that switch remained elusive too till i had it installed at soniya motors in oct 2010)

as soon as i rode the bike out from nerul, my pants were smeared with oil leaking from the rocker cover. i waited for 3 hours while they fixed it, it started leaking again in a week.

the service centres are quick to turn u around coz they are ever so busy. so i kept topping up the oil as i rode. got it fixed at soniya motors in oct 2010, but it began to leak again in a week and finally had it permanently fixed at sharda motors in dec 2010.

in the meanwhile no clutch cable has lasted me more than a couple of months and i ve already replaced the chain sprocket set once and will need another soon.

after the crankcase/sprag clutch repairs in april/may 2010, the battery died in june. i gave it to nerul workshop for replacement under warranty. they gave me an old battery, till they cud source a new replacement. IT NEVER CAME! i waited for a couple of months and got tired and stopped calling them. so i still have an old battery given to me inspite of warranty.

i didnt need a powerful battery for too long anyways, coz the sprag clutch failed again! thankfully this time it just free wheeled withot opening up and jamming the engine. i continued riding using kick start in spite of my prosthetic legs.

coz frankly its really frustrating to pay more than a lac for a bike u ve dreamt abt and u get loads of problems serviced by inefficient people who are so busy!!!

then.. in dec 2010.. the gearbox snagged! the bike refused to go to 1st and neutral gear. thats when it landed at sharda motors. the gear rachet has broken they said and the whole engine needs to be opened. they did that. fixed the oil leak too. for sprag clutch, they said enfield is importing some sealed units from italy which will last forever. but i have to pay 3000 for it coz enfield wont own up a bad part and replace it for free. the bill for the gearbox work itself came to 7000 and finances did not permit me to spend another 3000 so I HAD TO ASK THEM TO REMOVE THE SPRAG CLUTCH TOTALLY to prevent any engine bust in the future.

its jan 2011 now. my bike is just 13 months/20,000 kms old.

just got back from a 10 day ride to rajasthan (60kph anniv ride again).

1. speedometer worm gear is busted.

2. connecting rod bush is probably worn, guessing from the sound the engine is making.

3. there is loss of compression and am having to add 250ml oil for every 500 kms.

4. the petrol tank is LEAKING!!!! the tank is corroded at the welding seams on the underside.

MY PERSONAL VIEW IS THAT YOU SHOULD BE RESTRAINED FROM MANUFACTURING ANYTHING IN THE FUTURE, SELL PEOPLE A DREAM OF "TRIP" AND THEN LET THEM DOWN SO BADLY!!!! But since we dont live in the utopian world, i wud expect and welcome just a positive response from you.

dont get me wrong, am not expecting the slickness of new technology from a classic machine like RE, but just saddened by the low standards being adopted by your company. am sure u wudnt dare to export a petrol tank that corrodes in a year and starts leaking. so why do u do it to your own countrymen?????

oh yes, i do love riding the enfield a lot over the pulsar.... but i cant rely on it on a long ride. NO "TRIPPING" u see? therein is the greatest shame! if u can see the point.

Thanking You,

Smit Palrecha

Mumbai

post this got a swift and positive reply and calls from enfield to check out my bike. my reply to them is listed below -

thanks a lot for your prompt response and apologies for this delayed reply.

Mr. Ghisad did call me up on monday morning and look at my bike immediately, but since i ve been busy at work we fixed it for later in the week.

enfield has a small but a loyal customer base. and i wish from the bottom of my heart, that base continues to grow. when i read back my mail, i dont feel i am saying anything new, its a very oft repeated complaint. on the other hand i have friends whose answer to this is "this is how an enfield is, take it or leave it", a reminder that some have lost all hope.

another point i found funny was a 10,000 km warranty. found it too little and wondered if that was a reflection of a company's faith in its own product.

i love my enfield. and this is what i wud expect from my enfield.

1. solidly bolted - if i am on a ride, i shudnt have to worry abt when it might prematurely end coz things are rattling inside the engine or oil is leaking out.

2. electrical wiring shud be more secure.

3. rusting e.g. of fuel tank (and leaking), frame, side boxes needs to be taken care of.

4. availability of spares needs to be taken care of.

5. enfields frequently go wrong coz of insufficient engine oil / or failed fuel pump. an oil pressure indicator wud be welcome here and at not a very great cost.

6. we need to evaluate the quality of clutch cable dearly. i am down to using a bajaj scooter clutch cable with "makkhi" and its actually giving me better service than the 3 RE cables i ve used.

7. no two enfields are alike. unfortunately right now that translates into - some bikes have no problems, others are loads of problems that dont get rectified for years and after numerous trips. we need to turn it into - a few bikes develop some problems after a 1000 kms which are rectified forever.

8. some bikes with serious problems stay in the workshop for a month or more. this is totally unacceptable.

to put the record straight - NONE OF MY BIKES PROBLEMS ARE AS GRAVE AS THE STORIES I VE HEARD. and not from novices. problems never got sorted out to the extent that they had to sell the bike. of course, they went ahead and bought another enfield but u need to graciously accept that, that is the power of the marquee and not a confidence shown in the company manufacturing it.

my intention here is not to whine about the problems with my bike but just to bring to your notice the facts and impressions i ve had. i wish you success in all your endeavours to bring the improvements which is a gradual process but sometimes need to be a war-like effort.

thank you again for yr prompt and positive response.

i remain a loyal enfielder.

smit palrecha

mumbai

02-02-2011

gave my bike at RE workshop at Nerul, Navi Mumbai today.

Mr. Ghisad checked and noted all the points. Have come back with the impression that RE knows things are not quite right and are trying to change.

i hope the change starts from the manufacturing and quality control stage at chennai. that will allow the service station to remain as service stations and not mini factories where multiple bikes are stripped and put together all the time.

RE is seeing better days with the UCE engines, but theres stiff competition coming in from 250cc bikes. so this will be a major issue for RE to not fritter away the enthusiasm created by the classic and UCE lineup.

what concerns us enfield owners is - only a strong RE can continue to give us better products and the objective of these posts is to get them aware of the problems on the road and fix the men and systems responsible for it.

how to get more out of my year..

2010-12-03T02:49:00.000-08:00

if i was working for a company.... 52 weeks in a year - thats 104 saturday sundays + 30 casual/privilege/sick leaves.

thats a total of 134 days.... :-)

since i work for myself.. i cud take 2 sundays every month off.. thats 22 days gone.. a week off every month.. thats 77 days.. and....

......and i m still left with 35 days every year to do a long ride.....

a week long ride every month and a month long every year!!!

a memorable ride..

2010-10-16T00:09:00.000-07:00

the 2007 monsoon ride to dangs ranks really as one of the craziest and funfilled rides 60 kph has done.. not for motorcycling maybe, but the getting together of folks, and the volcano of fun..

putting down the links here..

the masterpiece of a ride-report by kauk

the tribal wedding video

R- the film

enjoy!!!

Rajneeti

2010-06-07T07:55:00.000-07:00

there once was a boy named prakash jha and he decided to make a film.

he took a sheet of spotless white paper and on the top wrote "RAJNEETI" in a sharp font. he loved the name of the film.

then he drew a figure of a sari clad lady, pallu on the head and one hand raised to herald her arrival. he painted her face white to distinguish her land of birth. next he drew the face of a suave clean shaven boy-man in rimless spectacles.

then he began to cry. coz he cudnt think of a story.

prakash's mommy came to his rescue. she suggested him to make a story on mahabharata, the evergreen block buster epic with all the masala for a wholesome hindi potboiler.

prakash was happy. he began to call the boys and uncles in the neighbourhood to play the evergreen characters. ajay, manoj, arjun, nana, naseer all agreed.

but when he called the new kapoor on the block for arjun, he said he wants to play michael. prakash was stumped and looked up his epic but couldnt find a michael.

michael who? he called up again.

Michael Corleone.

Arjun got the wind of that and decided he will play a yudhisthir cum bheem cum sonny corleone for the price of one.

prakash began to cry again and his mom came to his rescue. jha be, look at the bright side, u have characters from mahabharata and scenes from godfather to get inspired. prakash smiled. he liked the word inspired a lot.

and he made rajneeti. i saw. i cried.

i laughed too when -

1. katrina decides to accept arjun as her husband and there was a enlightened cat-call from the front.. isko bhi seetapur ka ticket chahiye.

2. kunti goes to meet karna to tell him that he is his son.. the same cat-call again... lol

Road Trip to Coorg

2010-06-06T22:43:00.000-07:00

... digged out this half finished post from the drafts folder.. written 4 months ago and lay there.. just reminder to do things on time...

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

its only a week old story now. but am amused by the pace of the city that clouds your memory so fast. next time hopefully will write as it happens.

20-05-10

finally.. am rid of all the ties to the work for the next 10 days.. discussed, instructed, delegated and forgotten.. can finally focus on the trip.. buying batteries, getting a haircut, meeting mom at sis's place and retiring for the night at s'cruz to avoid saifee having to drive in the morning to pick us up at kandivali.

21-05-10

we start at 6.00 am as scheduled.. target is to reach the jungle lodge at ganeshgudi by 6.00 pm. its saifee's new honda civic with automatic transmission on to her maiden long drive. its got no spare room with 4 adults, 2 kids, a baby and an assortment of small bags and waterbottles. taking a second car would have divided the small group so we avoided that, not to speak of the adventures of taking my 12 yr and 120k km old honda along. we did take her to mandu last oct and had our share of fun fixing an ageing leaking hose pipe 5 times on the road, finally resorting to a makeshift arrangement to replacing it with a sturdy brakehose that lasted just enough to get us back to mumbai safely.

the option of me taking the bike along was promptly shot down by everyone else, i suspect they dont want me to have more fun than they do. also the bike wud have slowed the car down and i argue no further.

its a 580 km drive to ganeshgudi (dandeli forest reserve) and decide to keep the breaks to the minimum to reach the destination in daylight.

breakfast and fuel stop on the expressway at khopoli and i take on the wheel. nice car and a boring highway but fast and efficient. music in the car is a bone of contention. kabir and sabiha dont like ours, we cant appreciate theirs and saifee cant bear any beyond a point.

sane words come to me and i tell the parents to learn to appreciate the music and other things their kids enjoy if they want to stay connected to them. funny how music can become walls between generations. i make a note to myself to follow that too. lol. kabir and i have real trouble picking and playing PS2 games, he thinks i am too boring coz i almost always pick those racing games, when the fun is in fighting wars and killing monsters. he was playing a war game once, i said its too violent and gory, he said its historical and he cant help it if history was violent. i shut up.

mum - pune - satara - kolhapur, where we stop for lunch around 1-30.

as we enter the state of karnataka, NH4 betters. the surface, the flowering plants on the divider, reflective strips, laybyes for bus stops, service roads..

approaching a petrol pump on a dug up service road, the civic scrapes a rock, one of the several in the days to follow to worry saifee abt the safety of his new shining car and doubt the sanity of allowing me to chart the route.

we miss the turn off belgaum, stay on NH4 till kittur and take a right to dandeli. the road is bumpy and civic's low ground clearance worries saifee further.

finally reach ganeshgudi at 6. a km long dirt track off the tar road takes us to the enigmatically named "old magazine house jungle lodge". turns out, the place was originally built to store gelatin sticks during the construction of dam over the kali river.

the cottages are decent and kabir is in depression over the "creepy crawlies". a 3 inch spider on his pillow worsens the situation. saifee rather undiplomatically announces the slaying of a scorpion in his own room. it aint cold but the campfire is lit and kabir takes refuge in it. the food is decent too. kiara is happy to be out of the confines of the car and busy playing with stones and mud and sticks. she knows no fear. yet.

22-05-10

you dont need an alarm in this place to wake up. i wake up to a cacophony of bird sounds and whistles.

though it was only a stopover for the night, we go for a coracle ride in the kali river. its a round basket for a boat. the river is magnificent and further down you can do white water rafting but we skip it. nice place to come back to.

we leave after a good breakfast. the route planned passes thru anshi forest to karwar. inquiries reveal its in bad shape. with the civic we are no position to discover the truth. so we are on the yellapur- ankola route and reach the NH17. lucky to spot a kamat's restaurant at ankola to stop for lunch.

having heard so much of it, pay om beach at gokarna a brief visit but cant stop kiara from getting into the waters. she loves it. its off a cliff. we park the car and then have to walk down the cliff to reach the beach. makes it very tucked in, but the weekend crowd spoils the fun.

as it gets dark, the drive on NH17 to mangalore gets slow and laborious. everybody is bored and we stop for dinner at udipi around 10 and reach the urban retreat in mangalore at midnight. theres a party on, of the coffee planters guild, and we are invited to join. but too tired to be interested.

23-05-10

wake up to find urban retreat a very homely place with a cozy patio at the back. we are recommended to visit the zoo and the artisan's village nearby which we do, instead of zooming towards coorg. zooming anyways is not possible. its a winding road uphill from mangalore to madikeri, the capital of coorg district. 140 km takes us 6 hours to negotiate and then another to reach linger by 6 on the bhagmandala road. its a beautiful drive but everyone is too cramped and waiting to get on the terrafirma. and the suspense of the place we will be spending the next 5 days in. i tell them its a homestay not a resort, and they are trying to figure if thats a good thing or otherwise.

the instructions to reach the place are clear, but we are escorted by a friend to the place. between the milestones reading 6 and 5 kms to bhagmandala is a bus stop on the left with a dirt track adjoining. 100 m inside after a few twists is a clearing to park yr car. then u walk down the track and come down to a flat open space with a cottage set back. a traditional construction, 2 rooms with attached toilets, one with a cozy attic bed, large verendah on three sides with a sloping mangalore tiled roof. coffee plantation of the slopy sides of the property and one side sloping down to a strip of paddy fields.

its been raining for the past few days and everything around is green. we are greeted with an overcast sky giving way to a light drizzle. complimented with fresh creamy coffee and onion pakoras by harish, our man friday for the next 5 days.

the place has a very private feel, and i guess people take time to warm up to it. the website for linger promises books and there is just a shelf full of those right now, but a good collection for everyone to find one. saifee does manage to finish one in his five days and really happy for it. kabir is lost but for the book. he is 11 and i guess he needs to have some company of his age. next time, i ll have asad or kani come along with us. he is also probably bored also coz there were no hose pipes to fix this time around. lol.

dinner is traditional coorgi food. pandi is a famed coorgi pork dish but no takers in our group of vegetarians and muslims.

24-05-10

bhagmandala.. mangoes ..medikeri.. east end.. cycling.. walk in the field

25-05-10

river.. kakabe .. talcauvery

26-05-10

dubare nisargdhaam bailkuppe

27-05-10

bhagmandala .. eve to talcauvery

28-05-10

drive to shimoga

29-05-10

drive to mumbai

Coorg Trip Planning

2010-05-17T04:13:00.000-07:00

here we are into the week when the road trip to a 5 day holiday in coorg begins.
with 2 days to drive to and 2 fro, its gonna be as much time on the road as lingering in coorg.
stopping at dandeli for the night on the first days drive from mumbai, is sounding really exciting. to wake up in a forest lodge, ambling through the dandeli and anshi forest to reach mangalore for the second night's stopover. mangalore to bhagarmandala (where linger is) is just a short hop for the third days morning.
was looking at a lot of homestay options in coorg, abundant on the web, but when Vishu sent me a link to LINGER, found it too full of promises to look beyond. will write review of it here later after the trip.
lots to do in coorg and a place to "do just nothing" in LINGER, the world is wide open.
friends from 60kph are planning to assemble at sakleshpur, 100 kms away, after their sunfeast marathon run.. that sounds great.. will go meet them up or invite them over.

looking up for stopovers and planning for coorg, came across this interesting resort off karwar, too bad its closing today for monsoons and we ll have to target it some other time. next wud have to be a kerala trip, karwar makes for a good midpoint. :-)

21st - mum-dandeli

22nd - dandeli-mangalore

23rd to 27th - chill@coorg

28th - drive to hubli

29th - hubli-mumbai

route map on http://www.motowhere.com/maps/route/mumbai-to-coorg-and-back

Rajnikant Facts

2010-05-17T03:49:00.000-07:00

its been a while since i added anything here, and this too is just a copy paste from a mail just received. but this IS so hilarious.. cudnt resist spreading it around..

feeling really bad for half the world who doesnt know who R is... R will probably crack the earth into 2 for this.. :-)

1. Rajanikanth makes onions cry
2. Rajanikanth can delete the Recycle Bin.
3. Ghosts are actually caused by Rajanikanth killing people faster than Death can process them.
4. Rajanikanth can build a snowman..... out of rain.
5. Rajanikanth can strangle you with a cordless phone.
6. Rajanikanth can drown a fish.
7. When Rajanikanth enters a room, he doesn't turn the lights on,............. he turns the dark off.
8. When Rajanikanth looks in a mirror the mirror shatters, because not even glass is stupid enough to get in between Rajanikanth and Rajanikanth.
9. Brett Favre can throw a football over 50 yards. Rajanikanth can throw Brett Favre even further.
10. The last digit of pi is Rajanikanth. He is the end of all things.
11. Rajanikanth does not know where you live, but he knows where you will die.
12. Bullets dodge Rajanikanth.
13. A Handicap parking sign does not signify that this spot is for handicapped people. It is actually in fact a warning, that the spot
belongs to Rajanikanth and that you will be handicapped if you park there.
14. Rajanikanth' calendar goes straight from March 31st to April 2nd, no one fools Rajanikanth.
15. If you spell Rajanikanth wrong on Google it doesn't say, "Did you mean Rajanikanth? " It simply replies, "Run while you still have the chance."
16. Rajanikanth can do a wheelie on a unicycle.
17. Once a cobra bit Rajanikanth' leg. After five days of excruciating pain, the cobra died.
18. When Rajanikanth gives you the finger, he's telling you how many seconds you have left to live.
19. Rajanikanth can kill two stones with one bird.
20. Rajanikanth was once on Celebrity Wheel of Fortune and was the first to spin. The next 29 minutes of the show consisted of everyone standing around awkwardly, waiting for the wheel to stop.
21. Leading hand sanitizers claim they can kill 99.9 percent of germs. Rajanikanth can kill 100 percent of whatever he wants.
22. There is no such thing as global warming. Rajanikanth was cold, so he turned the sun up.
23. Rajanikanth can set ants on fire with a magnifying glass. At night.
24. Rajanikanth has a deep and abiding respect for human life? unless it gets in his way.
25. Rajanikanth once shot down a German fighter plane with his finger, by yelling, "Bang!"
26. In an average living room there are 1,242 objects Rajanikanth could use to kill you, including the room itself.
27. Behind every successful man, there is a woman. Behind every dead man, there is Rajanikanth.
28. Rajanikanth destroyed the periodic table, because Rajanikanth only recognizes the element of surprise.
29. Rajanikanth got his drivers license at the age of 16 Seconds.
30. With the rising cost of gasoline, Rajanikanth is beginning to worry about his drinking habit.
31. The square root of Rajanikanth is pain. Do not try to square Rajanikanth, the result is death.
32. When you say "no one's perfect", Rajanikanth takes this as a personal insult.
33. Outer space exists because its afraid to be on the same planet with Rajnikant
34. Rajnikant has counted to infinity - twice
35. When Rajnikant does a pushup, he isnt lifting himself up, he's pushing earth down
36. Rajnikant is so fast, he can run around the world and punch himself in the back of the head.
37. Rajnikant doesnt wear a watch. HE decides what time it is.
38. Rajnikant gave Mona Lisa that smile
39. Rajnikant can slam a revolving door
40. Rajnikan's house has no doors, only walls that he walks through.
41. Rajnikant grinds his coffee with his teeth and boils the water with his own rage.
42. If you google search "Rajnikant getting kicked"your search will generate 0 results. It just doesn't happen.
43. It takes Rajnikant 20 mins to watch 60 minutes
44. The Bermuda Triangle used to be the Bermuda Square, until Rajnikant kicked one of the corners off.
45. There are no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, Rajnikant lives in Chennai
46. Rajnikant once ate an entire bottle of sleeping pills. They made him blink
47. The only thing that runs faster and longer than Rajnikant are his films.
48. Rajnikant’s every step creates a mini whirlwind. Hurricane Katrina was the result of a morning jog.
49. Where there is a will, there is a way. Where there is Rajnikant there is no other way.
50. His email address is Gmail@Rajnikanth.com

60kph Anniversary Ride, Kutch

2009-11-04T00:15:00.000-08:00

Vijaynagar - Gujarat

2009-10-17T00:12:00.000-07:00

while looking up for a route / destinations for a road trip this diwali vacations, chanced upon this wonderful place in gujarat - vijaynagar.
Vijaynagar is a erstwhile princely state is the heavily forested foothills of the aravali mountains. The palace there converted to a heritage hotel, tariffs not over the top. Go to http://www.vijayvilasvijaynagar.com/ for further details.
It promises nature and history rolled into one, jungle safari, bird watching, ruins of ancient temples in the forests, ruins of the ancient city of Polo, which was the gateway between gujarat and rajasthan, the wooden toy-making cottage industry of idar, and walking the banni grasslands. Sounds all too delicious, and itching to be there soon.
For now (oct 21st to 25th), its mandu and the banks of narmada that has been planned and managed to get bookings as well. :-)

sidenote - mom's a devout jain and was telling me about the travels of the sadhvi (mokshanandji) she venerated. Jain sadhus and sadhvis travel from place to place throughout the year, year after year, except the monsoons. She has trekked almost all over india and upto kathmandu. Can we ever beat that? Am humbled, for travel if not religion.

My Birthday

2009-10-05T00:18:00.001-07:00

whoa!!!! what a lovely application i found, thanks to meeta's post regarding ONE CRAZY RIDE's entry to CMS VATAVARAN 2009. Screening in Delhi on 30th oct 2009.

agardanda trip

2009-08-22T02:39:00.000-07:00

what was supposed to be just another site visit turned out to be a wonderful ride and a head-on collision thrown in to add a dash of thrill.

avoiding the usual alibag revdanda route to murud, looked up the maps and opted for the slightly longer mumbai-indapur(NH17) and then right on the state highway for another 40 to agardanda, which is 10kms south of murud. of course it isnt the picturesque winding road through the coconut and betelnut farms of revdanda. but holds its own for the rural feel and very sparse traffic. the road meanders along the river here and there and then crosses the murud creek at bhalegaon and leads to agardanda parallel to the backwaters.

work at site done, started the journey back the same route. but 5 kms on took a u-turn and decided to try another. the murud-roha road. and what a discovery that was.. the monsoons adding to the romance.

its a narrow well paved road passing thru lush green forests going up and down a couple of hills and with a heady smell and sounds of the jungle. it was hard to keep the helmet on, which smelt of soot and died out the sound. stopped for a while to soak it all in, half expecting to see some wild-life grace me with an appearance. passed a few dirt tracks shooting into the woods and then decided to try the next one out to the right. two stips of terracotta seperated by a strip of flouroscent green snaking its way into a lush green canvas. the recent bike breakdowns weighed heavily on the mind as i ventured deeper inside but didnt have the heart to turn my back on this pristine beauty. it led to a small clearing and a trekking path ahead. a woman with a few kids was washing clothes by the pond. lazed for a while and then headed back, shooting a video of the ride, handling the bike with one hand.

back on the road, feeling heady with the off-roading experience, uphill at the first tight turn, i screamed, "oh shit!!!" ... then BANG!!!... an indica had sneaked right infront of me coming out of the turn, downhill. i am not sure if i was in his lane or he in mine, but its a situation every biker dreads.

its a tiny fraction of time. u see the car, u realise you are going to hit it, u hit it and u wait for the result. all depends on a combination of your talent at causing minimum damage to yourself and your bike, your luck and his determination to kill you. was talented enough to get the front end of the bike out of his way and bang the sidecar to his bumper, stupid enough to bang my head to the helmet on the tank (yeah, wasnt wearing it) and lucky to escape with a cut lip and nothing else. it bled like a river but i was busy checking if the forks were alright.

thankfully all was well. no damage at all to the bike except the bent crashbar telling the tale. in time the lip stopped bleeding too and the mind off the accident.

what i missed at the time was that to my left was the phansad bird sanctuary and i cud ve taken a track to the left into it. its now on my "next to do list" and wish to explore this region a lil more.

this beautiful road ended as it went down to roha and hit the NH17 at nagothane.

route and pics uploaded.

the ironbutt ride - mum - bang - honavar - goa - mum

2009-07-21T23:27:00.000-07:00

this wasnt really the first of the hard rides, but was the first coz that was ALL there was to it, componded further by the bike breakdown. the previous ironbutt rides have all been just a small part of reaching the starting point or riding back home after some good leisurely ride.

the route map

june 30th - started from home at 5-30 am, all geared up for the big one. the bike sounded healthy and was glad there was no rain to start off. in fact it was dry all the way to bangalore except some misty showers enroute between kolhapur and hubli. scheduled stop at lonavla to meet parents and breakfast.

rode on the smooth NH4, stopping only for petrol, tea, smoke and lunch and reached hubli (640km on the odo) by 6pm. nothing intresting, except the fact that the bike was guzzling too much fuel and the carb seemed to be the probable culprit. lunch led to a 90 minute nap, having had little sleep the previous night. beyond this point, have no memory of the ride, the light was fading, the body tiring.

another 100 kms is haveri, and when the test started. the construction of four-laning of NH4 in this sector is still in progress and continuing the ride in the dark thru the dust, potholes and the multitude of diversions felt like a senseless thing to do. so i rode on senselessly. :-)

my average speed went down, the urgency to reach bangalore lacking, the mind flirting with abandoning the 1k and crashing out at a dhaba. then came a saviour. another biker on the road decided to chase me up and we raced along for abt 35-40 kms till he suddenly vanished. probably he had reached home or knew of a better paved diversion.. lol. but that set the pace for me and i zipped and skidded as much as my bike can manage. then the under-construction stretch ended and opened to a smooth expressway but i was too tired to note the kms and time, and rode on.

vishu called to say they will rcv me at a toll booth after tumkur, and he with sanjuz, biju and srini drove 40 kms to that point in the middle of the night!! what a family i got in 60kph... if my wealth were to be measured in the number of friends i got, i wud be a tycoon (to borrow from gaurav's comment in Riding Solo) :-)

reached bangalore at 3am and completed the 1k i set to do. didnt feel anything special except that it had to be done and was done. lol.

next wud be to attempt the 1400 of mum-delhi in 24 hours someday, however senseless that wud get, it does feel like a milestone till you cross one.

july 1st and 2nd - stayed at sanjuz's place, spent in leisure, attended the wedding (that was the pretext of the ride). 2nd was satrao's bday and the bang gang was in full attendence for the meet at sanjuz's place and it was great to meet up with all. it was novel to see them clean and dressed in formals, having always met them on rides and in riding gear.

july 3rd - srini and masood saw me off till the same toll booth as i rode towards honavar enroute to goa. after the partying of the previous night i had started off pretty late at 11 but had till next day's noon to reach goa, so i was cool. farida was to land at 2 pm and i was supposed to be at the airport b4 that. 5th was our wedding anniversary (15th) and we had planned to be in goa for the weekend sans the kids who were under her sis's care. and then to ride back to mumbai together on the 6th.

but.... the bike seized. hundred and forty kms from bangalore and still another 500 to go, the bike broke down 8kms out of tiptur. on a ride, its always a coordinated effort of the man and the machine to go the distance and its heart breaking when a breakdown happens. but if one were to get dejected by this, he/she will never get on a ride again.

i tried what i could, to no avail. there was shame in it, coz it was caused by the oil which had thickened to a slurry and i hadnt checked it before starting from bangalore. there was no reason for the oil to go bad in 1200kms, but worse, there was every reason i should have checked it. darn!!

a mechanic helped push the bike to tiptur, and he opened it up, but tiptur is a small place and he cudnt find the piston and pin (which was the culprit, it was fused to the piston) needed there, and i had no time to wait there till the next day. boarded a train for vasco at midnight from there, which reached late by 3 hours at 2pm. farida reached cidade de goa by herself and i reached by 3.

the next two days was a relaxed weekend celebrating the anniv. and the bike problem out of the mind. without the bike there wasnt any venturing out of the resort, and we soaked in the luxury we paid for. got lucky in getting upgraded to a suite too.

july 6th - monday morning, it was time to head back. farida took a flight back to bombay and i took 4 bus rides to reach tiptur at 2 am and checked into a hotel.

july 7th - started from tiptur at 9 with fingers crossed. the bike sounded fine but one never knows if the mechanic had bolted everything well. it had a new piston in a rebored block and the engine had to be run in. i managed to ride the first 100 kms under 60 but progressively felt confident that i wont harm her if i kept it till 80.

mumbai was 1000 kms of highway via hubli or 1200 kms of state roads via honavar and goa. the lure of coastal roads, and the new route compelled me to do the later and it was beautiful to ride after shimoga to the most beautiful ghat section from sagar to honavar. it passes thru a thick forest and goes on for abt 40kms up and down the hills, the rains adding to the charm. reached honavar at 4pm without any stops except to take a glimpse at the majestic jog falls and a promise to visit the road soon, with family.

in a hurry to reach bombay, stuck to the NH17 for the rest of the journey from honavar to karwar to goa to mumbai, enroute missing the lovely places i had heard of from friends.. gokarn, om beach. could have also tried to seek out a route more closely hugging the coast than the NH17 but guess that was not the day. should have planned for a couple of days more and put some purpose in the ride but work beckoned and i had to get back.

took a break at panaji for an hour and started at 11pm on a dark and dreary commute back home. somewhere along the way the body gave up, but had to ride for an hour to find the first dhaba to crash in. the rains were heavy and the rainwear protecting me was doing a lousy job of it. i was wet all over but slept without a care for 3 hours and started again at 6 am. the dhaba owner loved music and was swaying and singing to some punjabi music channel on tv all along. theres something about taking a break at a dhaba (instead of a hotel) that feels so integral to the riding / travel experience. like an oasis of a travelling commune. was glad there was another biker using the dhaba for the night, enroute to goa.

july 8th - finally reached mumbai at 4 pm. thank you bike, for bringing me home, without another breakdown.

july 18th - am riding to dadar to attend a meeting and in hurry to be back for the screening of "one crazy ride" and "riding solo" at st. andrew's auditorium, bandra. the bike stalls at wadala. refusing to start. i ask a local mechanic to see it. after he touches it, there is no compression. wow! another breakdown... but glad it didnt happen that night between goa and mumbai. :-))

looking back at those 3 days of 2300kms, i can remember only hazy details, flashes of places and moments, continuity lost in numbness.. eerily resembling the life we live.

1k in a day ride

2009-06-19T22:50:00.000-07:00

.. when was the last time, you did something for the first time......

attempting my first 1k in a day ride. to bangalore on 29th june. approx 1040kms. return on 2nd july. its modest benchmark compared to some of the friends who have done over 1350 but with the combined age of the bike and the rider at half a century, its presenting as a task nevetheless.

route - mumbai - pune - kolhapur - belgaum - hubli - davangere - tumkur - bangalore

return - bangalore - tumkur - chitradurga - hospete - ilkal - bijapur - sholapur - pune - mumbai

hopefully the man, machine, road and weather will cooperate.

its a test, once passed, ceases to be of any importance and pretty boring to repeat. so the return cud as well be the immensely scenic route (esp in the monsoons) - bangalore - tumkur - shivmoga - honawar - karwar - goa - NH17 - panvel - mumbai. approx 1200 kms. and too scenic to be timebound.

update - farida joining me at goa on 4th. so we celebrate our anniv. there on the 5th and ride back together. funnnn!!!

leaning trike

2009-06-15T22:44:00.000-07:00

been a long time since i wrote the last post. have had a lot of moments that cud be penned but been lazy and lost the spark.

one of the things i have been totally immersed in, the last few months, is the design of a trike. it started off as a normal wide track with a chain driven differential using the final drive from the ubiqutous bajaj auto rickshaw. vinod commented on it, why not try designing a trike that leans. looking up on net, found a few that lean, but are reverse trikes. i.e. 2 front wheels and a single driven wheel at the back. notable is the brudelli leanster. ( http://www.gizmag.com/the-brudelli-leanster-remarkable-car-bike-fusion/10089/ )

trodding along, have finally got to a point where i can build my own version.

1. designed for the pulsar 180 i own. would have loved to use the FZ16 from yamaha, but spending money on a new bike for a prototype doesnt sound too prudent.

2. keep the entire bike stock, except remove the swing arm, rear wheel and shocks.

3. fabricate a new subframe bolted to the swing arm pivot. on that goes my 2 single sided swingarms, differential, mono shock and hydraulic cylinders that control the lean.

4. machine the axles, chain driven differential, hubs, sprocket flanges, and add wheels, brakes, etc.

also realised that by making a trike that leans, i am able to keep the track really tight to about 18" so it will not be wider than the width of the handlebars anywhere. sounds perfect for offroading where only a foot trail is available. and with the torque of P180, if indeed i am able to make a reliable machine, it would be a beauty.

made a 3d view of it, not too realistic but explains the concept. hydraulics to lean not added in this graphic.

now am ready to start the build, but thats the part that needs a lil more time and running around trying to find a guy willing to do something non commercial.

lately am trying to figure out the concept for a wheel chair that can climb kerbs and steps, will write about it in the next blog. hopefully, soon.

Weekend Ride To Telbaila

2009-03-06T21:05:00.000-08:00

a couple of babies, 3 newbies, five 60kphers, 3 wives, a rising son, 2 cars, 6 bikes and a route that doubled the distance to the destination.. and oh yes, the boat.

it was a big relief to be able to leave on time, well almost. but then with a one year old baby in tow, i had my excuse. we all assembled at datta snacks at panvel and after gorging on vadapavs and misal, hit the road on NH17 (goa highway) to reach kolad, the only event being no one raced past or got left behind.

over glasses of nira, that was beginning to ferment, introductions were conducted and a bonhomie set in. the ride ahead was a state highway (SH60), less traffic, more farms, gentle pace and overall something that feels like being on a ride rather than a mindless commute. for some reason all stopped at vile village before the tamhini ghat starts. the babies got fed, biscuits were passed around, cameras clicked, anwar’s Honda 400 got some attention and it was time to move on.

up the tamhini ghat and after a brief stop at plus valley, we passed the turn to lonavla to reach a restaurant on the mulshi lake for lunch with gallons of chaas. drove back 15 kms to reach the lonavla turn and from there on it was a test for those on their first ride to the country side. the sun beating down, it was hot and the road, bumpy. broken tar all the way and long stretches of unpaved gravel. mulshi lake flashing every now at then on your right, mountains and valleys on the left, it’s a beautiful ride. did it two weeks prior as a recce but that was evening and more hospitable.

stopped enroute at valley point (for want of a better name). location on the linked map. promised to return to it and camp there sometime. more pictures clicked and rode ahead on the bumpy track. the road is dotted with very small villages and negligible traffic. the craving for tea was satisfied only after reaching telbaila village, which is abt 5 kms off the road to lonavla. the tea shop owner guided us to a lovely campsite, at the edge of a cliff with a lovely view and golden dried grass. he also took order for the dinner so the only cooking done was for yohan and kiara.

tents were pitched. and thankfully no one was compelled to play antakshari or dumb charades. submitted to sleep one by one. the only joke cracked was zen calling the twin peaks of telbaila as “ulti chaddi”.

having experienced how hot it gets, the next morning, no one spoke of the proposed trek to sudhagad fort ( a 2 hour one way trek) or climbing up to the crotch of the chaddi. (it’s a trek till there, post that it’s a rock climbing activity). instead inquired for a water body to put the zen’s boat to use, and found saltar dam. a good 3 hours were spent frolicking in the water and after 5 kms we were on the creamy surface of the amby valley road. that led us quickly to lonavla lake for lunch and a farewell. zen preferred to take the expressway and reach home quick. milind had a waiting wife. ameya and rahul joined him for a quick ride to Bombay. i tagged along with anwar, hozefa and yusuf to make sure all reached Bombay without loosing way.

the idea of this ride was to expose yusuf, hozefa and anwar to riding as i have known it, as 60kph does it. it was nice to see that they enjoyed it and hope to see more of them on the road.

oops.. not 2 C was the correct answer.

2009-02-26T00:54:00.000-08:00

well.. that must be my shortest post ever. got done in the title itself.

To see or not to see..

2009-02-21T04:55:00.000-08:00

movie watching has become an expensive interest. sure the lobbies are glitzy and the seats less smelly, but the pop-corn reeks of blood. that's bound to happen when u pay through the nose.

so when a friend messages with an unsolicited tip, "Delhi-6 is disappointing", the heart sinks. am thrown into a dilemma. saving money and time or taking an expensive risk. how bad could it be? after making rang de basanti, can a man settle down to make a "disappointing" movie? i didn't see aks, but have heard of it to be brilliant in its own right. it cant be that bad, told the friend "tujhe samajh me nahi aaya hoga", and cut the conversation short. in a way he has done the worst thing a man can do. spread hatred. i hate him now for maligning Delhi-6. after i see it, which i will, i ll hate him more for it or hate myself i didn't heed to his well-meaning advice. i am sure he is not aware of the dark character he has come to be with one message.

this is not the first time though. ever since i became poor, i 've been really choosy about where i pay to watch. but after DCH, lakshya, don and rock on, i unsuspectingly walked into luck by chance. and came back feeling really guilty of spending hard earned (harder to get out of clients) money on it, in these times of recession. the movie wasn't too bad, only if it didn't cost me any money. and not exactly so bad that i would seethe in anger over wasted time. or mayb thats what recession is about, lots of time and little money. anyways its the kind you wait for to release on DVD, that some stupid friend will buy and loan it to you. and return it too. but then, i ll be salivating again on farhan akhter's next release. he is god.

yesterday i saw what everybody had watched already, slumdog millionaire. its been so watched in fact that PVR is playing musical chairs with it. fitting it whichever timeslot they can every week. now if the movie is old enough to be played musical chairs with, and only 10% of the seats get filled, you would expect it to be discounted right? wrong. they will still charge u 200 for a seat and 40 for samosa. this is a bloody rip off. bloody. just like the pop corn. no wonder u never see a manager in the lobby these days. when i was younger and went to see 'pictures' in 'theaters', we knew the omnipresent gentleman in the lobby wasn't there to watch a movie, he was the manager, his face glowing in pride that so many people enjoyed the movie at 25 rupees, the samosa at 7 and the popcorn was a cheerful yellow in only one flavor. the cheerful yellow.

about the movie, slumdog millionaire.. ahem.. hmm.. nice while it lasted. quite like luck by chance. not bad u know. luck by chance shud be sent for Oscars too. after all, its luck by chance....the theme for both the movies. though Danny Boyle tried to convince me in the end that, its written. probably meant Q&A. yeah that was written. i guess he knows how some films are made. they are not written. like..... sob.. sob.. chandni chowk to china. yes yes, i saw that too. but under extra ordinary circumstances, i cant reveal. to be fair, i really went with a very low expectation and a large heart, but failed miserably. it didnt work. i swallowed my sorrow but could not escape the tragedy of the guys in the next seats, they were the hera pheri and phir hera pheri types ;-).

but then midweek i was lucky, luck by chance. no.. i am talking about DevD. i was sad when the movie ended. that it had to end. a visual treat. the story of devdas adapted brilliantly to modern times. and breaking a few cliches. opening new grounds. not having read the original novel, i used Wikipedia for a brief idea. the last line read, "The novella powerfully depicts the prevailing societal customs in Bengal in the early 1900s, which are largely responsible for preventing the happy ending of a genuine love story." thats brilliant. the movie totally replaces the customs of twentieth century with those of the twenty first, where parental opposition rings hollow, the widower loves the new wife paro, paro meets dev one more time but only to show his aukat (when he makes those unsolicited calls), and dev returns to life when the ATM dries up after the BMW accident and death of his father. and there is a happy ending. we live in the times, where theres no romance in tragedy anymore.

tragedy is watching chandni chowk to china.... comprehendo?

am i a blogger?

2009-02-07T22:11:00.000-08:00

i have no idea, having made an account, if i will be at it for long.
for someone who talks a lot, i find myself full of pauses and rather quiet. just as, for someone who has so many friends and keeps discovering new bonds, i feel great to be left to myself doing nothing.

to begin with, i ll blame this adventure on a dear friend kauk (who writes on http://kaushik578.blogspot.com ). his is the only blog i ve read so far and of it only a couple of posts. but i am quick to get spoilt and here i am.

i asked myself why would i blog and came up with a few. but the one reason that stands out is, trying to preserve my thoughts.
i suffer from really bad memory. and hence live in this notion that i have had some great thoughts and ideas which are now lost to me cause of my bad memory.

there are other reasons to blog as well but they are insulting to self or others or insulting to intellect itself. so wont spell it out. i guess thats what the comments window is for.