Need for speed

It never goes away! I feel it all the time. And there's nothing I can do to quench that thirst; the thirst for break-neck speed. Neither Blurr, nor the Flair can satisfy it. And I can't afford a CBR / GSX-R / R1 or whatever. So, looks like this is one need of mine which may never be fulfilled. :-(

The song that I'm currently playing over and over

System of a Down - Toxicity

Conversion, software version 7.0
looking at life through the eyes of a tired hub
eating seeds as a pastime activity
the toxicity of our city, of our city
Now, what do you own the world?
how do you own disorder, disorder
Now somewhere between the sacred silence
Sacred silence and sleep
somewhere, between the sacred silence and sleep
disorder, disorder, disorder
More wood for the fires, loud neighbours
flashlight riveries caught in the headlights of a truck
eating seeds as a pastime activity
the toxicity of our city, of our city

Now, what do you own the world?
how do you own disorder, disorder
Now somewhere between the sacred silence
Sacred silence and sleep
somewhere between the sacred silence and sleep
disorder, disorder, disorder
Now, what do you own the world?
how do you own disorder, disorder
Now somewhere between the sacred silence
Sacred silence and sleep
somewhere, between the sacred silence and sleep
disorder, disorder, disorder
When I became the sun
I shone life into the man's hearts
When I became the sun
I shone life into the man's hearts

Driving classes

I started my driving classes yesterday. The driving instructor is an asshole. Anyway, dont wanna talk about him. The first class was good. I was asked to control the steering and the accelerator. I was dying to push the pedal to the metal and just let the car fly. But good sense (and the instructor's foot on the brake) prevailed, and I had to supress my desire to emulate Schumi, and ended up riding at a sedate 20-30kmph.

Looking forward to completing my classes and getting my license. Cant wait to drive the Ikon. Oh, didnt I mention that dad's Ikon is coming today? It is, and I'm all excited!! Like a little boy!

Dan Brown

I guess many of you out there have read Dan Brown's (DB) The Da Vinci Code. I did too. And I kinda liked it too. But I wasn't convinced that DB was the brilliant author everyone was claiming he was. The Da Vinci Code was a well-researched novel, and I feel that was the reason for it being so interesting. That and DB's habit of ending every chapter with a sentence that was pregnant with suspense; unnecerrary suspense. It was okay at first, but as I progressed through the book, it got kinda irritating. In order to decide for myself, whether DB was a good author or not, I went out and bought his other three books; Angels & Demons, Deception Point and Digital Fortress.

Angels & Demons was the precursor to The Da Vinci Code, and was interesting. But it had common elements with The Da Vinci Code. I assumed this might be the case because both the books were about Robert Langdon. Read Deception Point. And thats when I realized that DB writes to a formula.

This is how it goes. In the prologue, someone dies under mysterious circumstances. And that someone has a secret. An earth-shattering secret. A secret which costs him his life. Anyway, while dying he leaves behind some clue / information which becomes the basis of the entire novel. And the protagonists of the story are a guy in this 40s who is a walking encyclopedia and women drool all over him and he doesnt seem to realize it cos he is too engrossed in his work; and a woman who is in her 30s and has the IQ of Einstein and the body of Cindy Crawford. These two are usually thrown together by chance and a romance blossoms between them through the novel. Every chapter in the novel ends with a sentence that conveys absolutely no information but is full of suspense. (I find this very very irritating. Its very similar to the tactic used in Hindi teleserials on Star Plus / Sony). And after a thrilling ride that takes the protagonists to different exotic locales across different continents, the protagonists somehow solve the issue, after a shocking revelation that one of the characters was not what everyone thought him/her to be. And in the end, the protagonists have sex.

Bah! I couldnt take more of this, thats why I've decided not to read Digital Fortress until I read some two or three other books. So, I'm starting off with San Andreas by Alistair McLean.

I saw something today which made me wanna climb onto Blurr and take off for a long ride. I went up to the cafeteria for a cup of coffee. The coffee machine was being cleaned, so while I waited, I turned my gaze up towards the sky and saw this awesome sight; the sky was light blue, with light grey clouds arranged like parallel lines, and the east corner of the sky was turning a shade of pinkish red. Its things like these that make me miss long rides. I wonder when I'll get to go on my next ride.

Lost the fight

Sleep won. Couldn't keep my eyes open. Put my head down and slept for a good two hours (I think). Anyway, feeling refreshed now. And that's a good thing, now that I have to ride back home ;-)

Night shift : day two

Couldn't catchup on much sleep during the day. Somehow its always tough to sleep in the day, lots of distractions. Credit card people calling up, TV, and what have you.

Paying for it now. Feeling very tired. Three hours to go until the shift ends. I hope I pull through.

Funny read!

Beauty and the Beast
By Dave Barry

If you're a man, at some point a woman will ask you how she looks.

"How do I look?" she'll ask.

You must be careful how you answer this question. The best technique is to form an honest yet sensitive opinion, then collapse on the floor with some kind of fatal seizure. Trust me, this is the easiest way out. Because you will never come up with the right answer.

The problem is that women generally do not think of their looks in the same way that men do. Most men form an opinion of how they look in seventh grade, and they stick to it for the rest of their lives. Some men form the opinion that they are irresistible stud muffins, and they do not change this opinion even when their faces sag and their noses bloat to the size of eggplants and their eyebrows grow together to form what appears to be a giant forehead-dwelling tropical caterpillar.

Most men, I believe, think of themselves as average-looking. Men will think this even if their faces cause heart failure in cattle at a range of 300 yards. Being average does not bother them; average is fine, for men. This is why men never ask anybody how they look. Their primary form of beauty care is to shave themselves, which is essentially the same form of beauty care that they give to their lawns. If, at the end of his four-minute daily beauty regimen, a man has managed to wipe most of the shaving cream out of his hair and is not bleeding too badly, he feels that he has done all he can, so he stops thinking about his appearance and devotes his mind to more critical issues, such as the Super Bowl.

Women do not look at themselves this way. If I had to express, in three words, what I believe most women think about their appearance, those words would be: "not good enough." No matter how attractive a woman may appear to be to others, when she looks at herself in the mirror, she thinks: woof. She thinks that at any moment a municipal animal-control officer is going to throw a net over her and haul her off to the shelter.

Why do women have such low self-esteem? There are many complex psychological and societal reasons, by which I mean Barbie. Girls grow up playing with a doll proportioned such that, if it were a human, it would be seven feet tall and weigh 81 pounds, of which 53 pounds would be bosoms. This is a difficult appearance standard to live up to, especially when you contrast it with the standard set for little boys by their dolls... excuse me, by their action figures. Most of the action figures that my son played with when he was little were hideous-looking. For example, he was very fond of an action figure (part of the He-Man series) called "Buzz-Off," who was part human, part flying insect. Buzz-Off was not a looker. But he was extremely self-confident. You could not imagine Buzz-Off saying to the other action figures: "Do you think these wings make my hips look big?"

But women grow up thinking they need to look like Barbie, which for most women is impossible, although there is a multibillion-dollar beauty industry devoted to convincing women that they must try. I once saw an Oprah show wherein supermodel Cindy Crawford dispensed makeup tips to the studio audience. Cindy had all these middle-aged women applying beauty products to their faces; she stressed how important it was to apply them in a certain way, using the tips of their fingers. All the woman dutifully did this, even though it was obvious to any sane observer that, no matter how carefully they applied these products, they would never look remotely like Cindy Crawford, who is some kind of genetic mutation.

I'm not saying that men are superior. I'm just saying that you're not going to get a group of middle-aged men to sit in a room and apply cosmetics to themselves under the instruction of Brad Pitt, in hopes of looking more like him. Men would realize that this task was pointless and demeaning. They would find some way to bolster their self-esteem that did not require looking like Brad Pitt. They would say to Brad: "Oh YEAH? Well what do you know about LAWN CARE, pretty boy?"

Of course many women will argue that the reason they become obsessed with trying to look like Cindy Crawford is that men, being as shallow as a drop of spit, WANT women to look that way. To which I have two responses:

1. Hey, just because WE'RE idiots, that doesn't mean YOU have to be; and

2. Men don't even notice 97 percent of the beauty efforts you make anyway. Take fingernails. The average woman spends 5,000 hours per year worrying about her fingernails; I have never once, in more than 40 years of listening to men talk about women, heard a man say, "She has a nice set of fingernails!" Many men would not notice if a woman had upward of four hands.

Anyway, to get back to my original point: If you're a man, and a woman asks you how she looks, you're in big trouble. Obviously, you can't say she looks bad. But you also can't say that she looks great, because she'll think you're lying, because she has spent countless hours, with the help of the multibillion-dollar beauty industry, obsessing about the differences between herself and Cindy Crawford. Also, she suspects that you're not qualified to judge anybody's appearance. This is because you have shaving cream in your hair.

Being a night creature doesnt make it easy to be in the night shift

Yup, today's my first night shift. Didnt get much sleep during the day, so I'm pretty tired. Not much work, so chilling.

Looking forward to leaving. Wanna get home and hit the gym, the shower and the sack, in that order.

Happy Birthday!!

Yup, its been a year since I rode her out of Jatti Motors and into my life. She was looking gorgeous in her all-black paint. After riding her, everything else felt sub-standard. (That was until I rode a Karizma, but that's another story.)

I had been power-starved since college days, when I had a Hero Puch. Riding NP's RX135 used to give me such a kick. But he wasn't too thrilled about my on-the-limit riding ;-), so rides on his bike were rare. The Splendor that I rode for a year after the Hero Puch was a welcome relief. Still, 7.5 bhp was peanuts. I craved for more.

Two weeks before I got my first month's salary, I went down to VST Auto to enquire about the Pulsar. That time, there were four choices for the performance conscious buyer:
- Hero Honda Karizma
- Hero Honda CBZ
- Yamaha RXZ
- Bajaj Pulsar 180

The Karizma, was powerful, smooth, refined, had mag wheels and all that. But, no make that BUT, it cost a bomb! There was no way my parents would accept my spending close to a lakh on a bike; dad would pester me to go in for a second-hand car instead. So that ruled out the Karizma.

The CBZ has good styling, and good ride position. But, it was an old bike. And it had mileage problems.

The Yamaha RXZ. *sigh* why did I not buy that one! Well, two-stoke bike production was to be stopped. Polluting. Good only for quick acceleration. Not for long periods of triple digit speed riding.

That left the Pulsar 180. It had a nice aggressive styling, and riding postition. At 15 bhp, it pumped out double the power of my current bike. And a mileage of 40 kmpl was pretty decent. And that's how I found myself in VST Auto.

The visit was kinda disappointing, cos I was told that I do not qualify for a loan, as I was required to furnish pay slips for the last six months. I thought I could get the loan in dad's name and pay dad the money. Dad agreed.

And so, it was with anticipation and joy in my heart that I walked into Jatti Motors on the 3rd of August last year (dont ask me how I remember that date, I myself dont know). Asked for a test ride of the Pulsar, 180. They said, we dont have the stock, but you can take a test ride on the 150. I agreed. The test ride wasn't much fun. There was a very nervous sales guy sitting behind me, and I had to ride through some insane traffic. Anyway, the test ride was only a formality. I was going to buy the Pulsar anyway. I took a quotation from them and left.

After that I would call them up every week, and they would give me different answers each time. "No stock Sir", or "They've stopped production of the Pulsar 180." Little did I realize that those weasels were trying to sell off their stock of Pulsar 150s. It was a good thing that I walked out of there saying I'd rather buy a second-hand Pulsar 180 than a Pulsar 150.

Come September and there was news that Bajaj was coming up with a new version of the Pulsar, the DTS-i. I was very excited, especially because the new Pulsar was more powerful and offered more bang for the buck. Started calling up Jatti Motors again, asking them when the new bikes are expected. Never got a positive response from them. One day while returning from office, at a signal, I noticed the bike in front of me was a new one, one that I hadn't seen before. Moved closer for a better look and noticed the distinctive lines of the bike and the "150 DTS-i" decals on the rear panel. She was a beauty!!

More calls to Jatti, but always there was some problem or the other; either the 180cc bike wasnt available, or the color of my choice (black) wasnt available. Finally, after a loooooooooooong wait, I got my bike on the 4th of December, 2003. I personally rode the bike to the RTO for the registration, because I didnt want any of the showroom fellows to rip my bike. Fell in love with her the moment I thumbed the starter. And I'm still in love with her.

Some stats:
Total distance covered: 15.7k kms
Best Mileage: 58kmpl
Worst Mileage: 30kmpl
Mods made: New paint job, FKR Ranger2 120/80 * 18 rear tyre, Sigma fitted. Currently, Venkat is working on a twin-headlamp for her, also re-wiring the circuits to DC.
Longest trip: Bangalore - Mangalore - Kannur. 1325kms
Longest solo ride: Bangalore - Shravanabelagola - Halebeed - Belur. 480kms
Punctures: Two. Incidentally, this is my first bike on which I'm facing punctures.
Accidents / Falls:
1) On my way to Munnar, riding at walking pace, cyclist cuts across onto my path, brake hard to avoid hitting him, was on sand, skid and fall
2) Someone droped a Thunderbird on her in the parking lot at office, ugly dent in the tank.
3) While taking her off the stand, I accidently let her hit a switchbox in front of the bike. Crack in the fairing. Patch it up with cellotape.
4) Rear-ended a Tata Safari, multiple scratches on the front mudguard
5) Some drunk drops his scooter on the headlamp. Broken headlamp. Still riding around with it.

Long post. Hoping for many more years of fun and happiness with Blurr.

I'm bored

Yup, I'm bored. There's work, still I'm bored. Maybe its because I like to see quick results and this investigation that I am doing is not returning results quickly. I'm losing interest in the issue. Need something to get me to concentrate!

On a happier note, ITS PAYDAY!!! :-D

Seether feat. Amy Lee - Broken

I wanted you to know
I love the way you laugh
I wanna hold you high and steal your pain away
I keep your photograph; I know it serves me well
I wanna hold you high and steal your pain

Cause I’m broken when I’m lonesome
And I don’t feel right when you’re gone away

You've gone away, you don't feel me anymore

The worst is over now and we can breathe again
I wanna hold you high, you steal my pain away
There’s so much left to learn, and no one left to fight
I wanna hold you high and steal your pain

‘Cause I’m broken when I’m open
And I don’t feel like I am strong enough
‘Cause I’m broken when I’m lonesome
And I don’t feel right when you’re gone away

‘Cause I’m broken when I’m open
And I don’t feel like I am strong enough
‘Cause I’m broken when I’m lonesome
And I don’t feel right when you’re gone away

‘Cause I’m broken when I’m lonesome
And I don’t feel right when you’re gone

You've gone away, you don't feel me anymore

New place. New faces..

Moved to support today.

Last evening I dropped Blurr off at Venkat's. Told him what all needs to be done. Then me and Rohan headed over to Rohan's place. Bought some vodka and pakodas on the way. Drank.

Went home. No dinner. Slept. Woke up early cos I had to get here by 9. Riding through peak hour traffic is a pain!! Especially on an underpowered bike with no horn.

I miss Blurr!! :-((

Stranded

I was in office last night. I'd just come in to check mails, chat and blog. Thats when he called. He wanted to go for a small ride in the night and be back home by 0000 hrs. I was in no state of mind to ride, but I agreed anyway, thinking that riding will help me clear my thoughts.

Went to the petrol bunk and filled fuel (my bike's giving a very dismal mileage nowadays), then hit Bellary Road, from there the Ring Road to BEL Circle, Yeshwanthpur, and then onto the Bangalore - Tumkur highway. Rode up to Whity's Dhaba. Stopped there to eat and drink. Unfortunately, all the guy had was Beer and Whisky; and I dont like either. So, just ate, and decided to head back home, cos I was in no state of mind to ride safely.

Before leaving, he was checking Blurr's rear wheel for free rotation. He rotated the wheel, and there was a slight sound. He said, "Lets try now", while bending the chain guard a bit, away from the wheel. That's when I heard the sound of the chain guard getting bent out of shape; but I didnt think much of it.

On the return leg, I was cruising at 60-70 kmph; brooding. Then all of a sudden, something inside me snapped, and I took off, weaving through highway traffic at 90-110 kmph. Soon, I had pulled away from him. Rode like this till the place where the Ring Road meets the Bangalore-Tumkur highway. I wanted to stop and wait for him to catch up. As I was slowing down, I went over a pothole. And at that moment, I heard a sound from my rear wheel, like I was dragging something.

Stopped the bike, a little away from the side of the road, tried to push it to the road side, but it wouldnt budge. I paniced, thinking the chain must've got cut. I waited hoping that he would come and we could do something about it. He came after quite a while, and just rode past!! I had my indicator on, and I was calling out to him at the top of my voice, arms waving, but he just rode past. Took out my cell and called him up. Called him up like a million times. But he didnt stop. And with every call, my temper kept rising. The worst thing was that I had left my tool kit in my bag at home, and I couldn't even take out the damn chain guard.

Took a deep breath and thought things out clearly. Stopped a couple of motorists and asked them for their toolkit. They were kind enough to help. Took out the chain guard and bent it back into shape and fixed it back. Around that time, he messaged saying "At home, cell was in silent mode. All ok?". I was livid!! I called him back and yelled, "Do you think I called you up so frantically to kiss you goodnight??!! I'm stuck in the middle of the road, bike's not moving and I don't even have my toolkit!!". And he said, "Do you want me to come back". I said, "Forget it! This is our last ride together!", and hung up. Didn't take any of his calls, or reply to any of his SMSs.

Thanks the good samaritans and headed back for home. What a day!! I wonder what else life has in store for me :-

Did I say ride?

Yup! I went for a ride yesterday. I'd been craving for one for a long time. Finally got my chance yesterday. I'm yet to write a detailed trip log, so watch this space. Just a gist of my trip.

Place(s) visited: Shravanabelagola, Halebid and Belur.
Total distance covered: 479.9 kms.
Start time: 6:28 am
End time: 5:11 pm

The trip was awesome fun!! Looking forward to more solo trips: longer ones. Maybe I could do Bangalore - Pune. /:)

The question is answered

The question asked in this entry was finally answered last night. In a very gruesome way :-(.

Ravindra called up last evening, just as I got out of the shower. He said that he was at Shankar's, and wanted to invite me for his sister's wedding. He asked me whether I wanted him to come home, or whether I would to there. I was planning to go out anyway, so I told him that I would meet him at Shankar's place.

Shankar's place, met Shankar, Ravindra and Santhosh. Had a nice time, talking about things, general chit chat, etc. After a while, we all left for Kishan's house. When we reached there, we found him playing cricket in his front compound. Now, that might not sound very strange, but you have to see his compound to know why I mentioned this: ITS TOO DAMN SMALL TO PLAY CRICKET!! Still we had a jolly good time playing cricket, nearly breaking his window and flower pots and causing a lot of nuisance to his neighbors till 10:30 pm :-D.

After cricket, Shankar and me went to the non-veg restaurant (I forgot the name) near my old house to eat some Tandoori chicken. I had parked Blurr outside. After a while, we heard a loud noise, like that of a vehicle falling and glass breaking. Rushed out to see this gruesome scene: Blurr was standing the way she was when I left her, only there was a scooter leaning against her, with its handle inside the fairing :-((.

The scooter owner was drunk and didnt park it properly. I asked him, what he planned to do about the broken fairing. I told him myself that the fairing was cracked a bit before itself, but it wasnt so bad that it needed replacement. The guy said, that he would do something about it. Then his brother came - a short but fat guy, smelling of alcohol. He blabbered a lot, in a loud voice, creating a scene. The gist of all the bullshit he told me, was that he would replace the broken piece of the fairing, but not an original Bajaj fairing, some local shit! I was in no mood to argue with the guy, and I knew very well that he wouldnt replace the fairing, so I just walked away. I will change the fairing by myself; the drunk bastard can shove his money up his fat ass.

The worst thing about the whole incident was that I had ridden my bike for more than 500kms in the morning, and nothing had happened. I parked it for a few minutes, and damages worth 1000 bucks happen :-(. These are really the worst days of my life.

I dread asking this question, but I'd really like to know: WHAT NEXT??

School reunion

Cross posting from my friend Krishnan's blog. Read it here.

New phase of my career

Monday I start a new phase of my career: as a Support Engineer. I dont know whether to be happy or sad. Right now, I am eager to find out whats in store for me. Looking forward to the change in routine.

Wish me luck

What's next?!!

Yesterday, I nearly missed hitting a guy on the road. Today, I rear-ended an SUV. Makes me wonder -- What's next?? :-S

I was on my way to Venkat's. I was in front of Lalbagh Gate, where two roads cross: one going towards Jayanagar/Banashankari and the other going towards JC Road. I was going towards Banashankari and the SUV (I dont remember which was going towards JC Road). The traffic police wasnt regulating traffic. I just crossed the road behind the SUV and turned back to look if there any other vehicles crossing over to JC Road. A split second later, I turned forward, only to see the SUV right in front of me - stationary.

Grabbed hard at both the brakes. That didn't help. I ended up rear-ending the SUV. Actually, I didn't hit the SUV at 90 degrees, I hit him at an angle. Luckily, I didn't fall off the bike. I was too shaken up and very afraid to look at the damage done to Blurr, that I didnt stop. Just rode on to Venkat's.

Once I got to Venkat's, I got off my bike, and walked over to the front to survey the damage. I was expecting broken mud-guard and broken fairing. But all I saw was a badly scratched mud-guard. Most of the scratches were not very deep. I was thinking that I'd have to get it re-painted. That's when Raghu came up, saw the damage, called the Polish-guy (I dont know his name), and asked him to polish the mud-guard.

I wasnt too sure if it would help. But once the guy polished and buffed the mud-guard, it was difficult to find the scratches. And I was relieved.

The worst thing about the accident was the speed at which I was going when it happened: ~40kmph.

I just hope the events of the last two days are not the start to a freaky trend! Fingers crossed.

Near death experience

Not for me. But for the guy who almost go run over by me. I hope he doesn't jay-walk again. And this near miss is another point in favor of not riding when you are thinking about something.

I left office for a small ride to clear my head. Lots of things going on, so thought a ride would help. And I was being my usual, throttle-happy self. On my way back, just a few hundred meters from office, I cut across the road from left to right. There was an auto and a Luna or TVS 50 or whatever right behind the auto. I knew I was going too fast to over take the moped guy from behind him, so over took him from the left, and was planning to cut across the auto and overtake him from the right. But it turned out that the auto was going slower than I had thought (or maybe I was going faster than I should have been). Anyway, had to brake hard, to bring speed down to around 70 kmph. Cut across the auto and saw this dud(e) standing right in the middle of the road, wearing a bright turquoise blue t-shirt (yuck!). Had to brake with all my might to avoid hitting him. The front wheel wobble didn't help in stopping, it only made the whole bike unstable. All in all, a very nerve-wracking experience. Now, if you excuse me, I'll go drink a cup of coffee to calm down my frayed nerves. If only they served Vodka in our cafe! *sigh*

Old friends meet

Ok, it wasnt in person! But we did meet. Online. After a long time, the guys from 10th Std ICSE, batch of 1997, Presidency School, caught up with each other over a spate of emails that flew across the Internet between Bangalore and Chennai.

It all started when Battery (or Batry as he prefers to spell it), buzzed me on chat this morning. The guy has changed quite a lot since school, where he was this very playful guy, to this major geek who's doing his PG in IISc! I also happened to chance upon the link to his blog on Orkut. The guy has good taste in music and an opinion about many things. Looking forward to meeting him this weekend.

Also looking forward to meeting Atul, Praveen and Seshu (if he decides to turn up), and the girls (whoever shows up). I'm dying to relive the memories of school. Those were the days!!

My entires here are becoming few and far apart. Need to do something about it.

Changed the rear tyre on Blurr from the stock MRF Zapper to a 120/80, 18inch FKR Ranger 2. Cost me 2000 bucks. I had done some 14027 kms on the Zapper before changing. There were lots of problems fitting the FKR. The extra 2cms width meant that the tyre wouldnt fit with the chain guard on. Now, the chain guard needs to be modded to fit this tyre. I've removed the chain guard at present. The rear looks very macho. I guess it will look better minus the saree guard too.

Talking to the guy who sold me the tyre has fuelled the fire to mod my bike for performance. That plus the fact that nowadays her top speed has come down :-( from something like 120.3 kmph on the sigma to around 108.7 kmph, on the same road. Maybe a good racing exhaust and bigger jets might help. Now, if only I can find the money to mod my bike :-((

Adrenaline!!!

Well, I wont say that I'm a biker who follows all the traffic rules. But when I'm on the road, I make sure that I dont get hurt, and more importantly, that I dont hurt my bike. Oh yeah, I also make sure I dont hurt anyone else. My logic is that when you are in a public place, your actions are bound to affect others too, and hence, one must be extremely careful about what one does.

But then, whats life without some fun? :->

I dont know what it was that triggered it. Maybe it was the sight of the Ducati zipping through the traffic in the movie I just watched. (Oh BTW, if you havent seen Catwoman, DONT!! Watch it on cable. The only thing we enjoyed about the movie was the snacks -- which were obscenely overpriced, if I may add!!). Or maybe it was the hard hitting background music in the movie. Well, whatever it was, the moment I got on my bike, I felt this urge to just zip away! The 16 horses were pleading to be unleashed too.

So, I gave in to the urge and opened the throttle.

And I was off!! Soon, I was cutting through the snails on the road, engine roaring with delight. It was fun, approaching the vehicle in front of me at high speed, downshifting, the engine note changing to a high pitched roar, swerving just in time to avoid rear-ending the poor fellow, and then opening throttle again and zipping toward another vehicle. The whole ride was orgasmic, for the lack of a better word.

Luckily for me, it ended on a happy note, with me reaching office with my bones intact, and with Blurr's paint in place. Well, there was a hint of remorse at what I'd done. But it was so much fun!! I deserved that bit of excitement!! Will I do it again? Of course I will!!

My lucky stars

Monday night, at around 12:20 am, I left office for home. It was a long, tough day, and I was tired. Just as I exited my office parking lot, two guys on a Yamaha RX135 zipped past, they didnt honk, or dip lights to let me know they were behind me. Anyway, since I heard them (which biker doesnt recognize the sound of a Yamaha?!!), I was able to moveout of the way, and they passed me without incident.

A few seconds later, a couple of guys on a Libero passed me. I was alittle miffed. I thought, heck, this is a Pulsar, I can catchup with these guys and leave them far behind. So, I opened up the throttle.

Now, the road I take home, Bellary Road, is a well tarred, 6-lane road, and traffic is pretty sprase and visibility is good, at night (the road is well-lit). Also, the road has this slight downward slope (this is the point where a bridge is overhead), and a corresponding upward slope.

I passed the guys on the Libero before I hit the downward slope. By the end of the slope I was doing 110 (my sigma recorded that). When I hit the upward slope, the wheels went off the ground and I landed witha slight wobble. I hardly had any time to reflect on how lucky I was that the wobble hadnt led to a fall, cos I saw the RX135 on the road, next to the median, turned towards me, headlight, indicators smashed. The footpeg was lying some feet away from the bike. The engine was revving at its limit, and it finally gave up in a puff of metallic smoke. But I couldnt see the rider and pillion. At that moment, my bike went into reserve and the engine shut off. Parked my bike on theside of the road and went up to the bike. Saw that the rider and pillion had fallen on the other side of the median. The were wearing jeans and t-shirt and floaters. No helmet. Luckily they didnt look too badly hurt, just dazed. I heard some of the people nearby comment thatthey both were drunk.

Anyway, the only casuality of the accident was the poor Yamaha engine. I saw that the engine casing had broken and some part had fallen out. It was too dark, and my knowledge of engines is too bad, to know what had fallen out.

As I rode away from the scene, I thought, that could've been me andthat could've been my bike. Rode the rest of the distance at a safe 50kmph, thanking my stars.

Nandi Hills. Again!!

My 4th ride to Nandi Hills. 5th trip overall.

Was on my way to the office. On an impulse, rode into a petrol bunk, fill in 3 litres of fuel, turn around and head towards the hills. Started from the bunk at 3:36pm. Rode continuously till I got to Nandi Hills. 52.3Kms in 56minutes. Hit a top speed of 120.3kmph. The bike didnt seem too keen to go beyond 9200 rpm in 5th gear. :-(

Stopped there for a while. Took around an hour to get back. Could not better the top speed on the way back. Traffic was pretty high. Saw a Ninja on the way back. Was back home just in time to watch the race minus 6 laps.

Must take bike on NH7 and see if she underperforms there too. If she does, will take her to Venkat.

Moved finally!

Well, the subject says it all. The house was ready for the Gruhapravesham on time, and we have moved in. It was on the 22nd of August, the Gruhapravesham. There was a Vaastu Pooja on the previous day. Reenechi and Vinay had come down from Mumbai to be a part of the Gruhapravesham. I happened to miss most of the Vaastu Pooja -- long story. But I didnt care much. I dont like to sit through those things anyway.

Sunday was the Gruhapravesham. Was supposed to wake up at 3am and get ready. I chose not to sleep instead. Spent time watching Tomb Raider, and reading Avenger (I'm still reading that BTW). Was at the flat by 5 am. Ganapati Homa started at 6. Next we had the main pooja. That started late cos the poojari came late. Anyway, lots of incantations later, we had the "Milk Boiling-Over" thing.

Shankar had come. Kishan could not make it cos of work. Tejas, CK, Vatsa, Prathap and Kutti had also come. Suchi, Reshma, Sari and Sumi had come. So had Abhishek and Rohini.

Had planned to shift things on Sunday itself. But we had harldy packed. So took Monday off. By the time we had packed, it was too late to move, so moved things on Tuesday. I wasnt there all the time, but made sure that I was around when the first load was brought home. Everyone else has emptied their cartons. I'm yet to do it. My room is like a pigsty, and I love it!! :-D. At the rate at which I am unpacking, its going to take me ages to finally unpack :-))

Weekend's here!

And that could only mean one thing -- I'm finally moving into my new flat!! Been looking forward to this ever since I didnt have my own room, which is forever! Now, the next few days will be very hectic. But on the positive side, I'll get to meet my family and friends after a long time. And once this is done, I'll get my own room. Hopefully, now my folks wont bug me to wake up early on weekends!

And after all this is over, I wanna take a break!! I'm planning to ride to Shravanabelagola, not to see the statue of Bahubali, but to enjoy the long ride. If time permits, I'll also go to Belur and Halebid and check out the temples. But, there's time for that. Now, if you will excuse me, there are some people waiting to get their butts kicked on MOHAA.

See ya'll Monday.

10K kms up!

Its finally happened!! 10000kms on Blurr. If it wasnt for the tonsilitis, I would've crossed the milestone last week itself. Well, nevermind that. I'm still in love with her. She's still responsive, still takes me where I wanna go, still makes heads turn. I took 8 months and 14 days to complete 10000kms on Blurr. Compare that with 4 years and 9 months I took to clock 9500kms on my Hero Puch Shakti (my first bike), or the 1 year and 5 months I took to clock 10000kms on my uncle's Splendor (borrowed) -- it just goes to show how much I love to ride!!

The new flat has taken up a lot of my weekends, and I've not been able to go on any rides. My last ride was on 26th June to Kemmangundi, and I'm longing for a long ride. Hopefully, it will happen on the 29th of this month. If it doesn't, I'll just dash to Nandi Hills and come back.

Looking forward to the next 10000kms!! and many more to come.

Revenge of the birds

Or was it??

I dont know. But what I do know is that I spent all of last week in bed, fighting off a fever and tonsilitis. My head ached, my eyes burned, by throat hurt, eating was a torture. To make things worse, all the time spent horizontally -- actually, not quite horizontally, I was sitting up and watching TV -- took its toll on my back and neck :-((

Well, thats behind me now. (I hope). So, what did I miss in one week?? Work - loads of it. Fun -- loads of it :-((. My office adventure group - 16$ Trekkers - went for a road trip to Mekedatu and Chunchi Falls. I had been trying to convince them to go on a road trip for ages, but they never did. And when they did, they decided to pick the one weekend when I was not able to go! :-L. And the next day, the Bangalore PUGs went to the same places for an Independence Day ride. Man!! I missed so much fun last week :-((

On a positive note, looking forward to the weekend. Moving into the new flat on Sunday. I've bought a new sherwani for the pooja. :-D. Kinda excited about it.

PS: the birds I am talking about are the chilled types and go by the initials KF

Carnage at Al-bek

One tender, well-cooked and very tasty chicken succumbed to the gastronomic desires of the author today, at Al-bek. Whats more, it did not do much damage to the wallet of the assaulter. The author would like to recommend the grilled chicken at Al-bek, between Harishchandra Ghat and Devaiah Park.

Also, almost killed was a nosy and very mannerless person who went around looking into the plates of all the diners at Al-bek, trying to figure out what to buy. The author was irked by the boorish behavior of the well-dressed person, and almost considered letting the man have the same fate as the grilled chicken, but changed his mind as it was evident that the loser wouldn't fit in the grill.

Another weekend

Another weekend's here, and it could mean only one thing -- go to the new flat and check out progress of the carpentry work!! It was okay at first, but now its getting a bit too monotonous. Work is going kinda slow, and its very boring to sit there! And my batteries are drained even before the next week commences! Life's gotten into a rut!

I guess that explains why I usually don't have much to write about.

Today was a little different. The PUGs had a meet today at Empire (now Mascot) on Residency Road, near St. Patrick's Church. I wasn't very sure about the route to the Church, so decided to tag along with Kailas. He suggested that we park our bikes inside the church, as the parking there was free and that it would be safe there. Now the money was hardly a consideration. But the fact that I could leave my bike for 2 hours in a place where some incompetent parking attendent, or some bungling motorist, wouldnt leave scratches on my beloved Blurr, by ineptly handling other bikes while parking, was enough for me to agree. Little did I know that I would regret this later in the evening.

I was supposed to meet Shy after the PUG meet, so I didnt order much food. Just had a half plate of yummy grilled chicken! *slurp!!!* The PUGs who met up are -- Divyan, Kailas, Sanjay, Bijesh, Sampath, Vamsi, Sekar and me. Sekar arrived late, cos of work. Well, at around 9:05, Shy called up saying that she was done watching the movie. That was my cue to leave the PUG meet. I told her that I'd meet her at Corner House. Came out of the restraunt, and the gate to the Church which was right next to the restraunt was locked. So I walked all the way to the main gate and saw that there was a sign that said "Gate closes at 9pm". I was relieved that when I got there, the gate was still open. But it was short-lived when I started my bike and tried to move. SOMEONE HAD PUT A CHAIN AROUND MY REAR TYRE AND LOCKED IT!!!! The watchman told me that I was not supposed to park there cos I had no work in the church. I pleaded innocence, heck I desparately wanted to get out of there. But the guy just didnt listen. He said that I'd have to go to the office tomorrow and talk to the authorities and then take my bike and leave. I started arguing that I can't go anywhere without my bike. Then some elderly guy came and said the same thing, that I'm not supposed to park my bike there. I apologized and he asked the security guard to let me go. While I was leaving, the guard shamelessly asked me to pay him something for "coffee". Paid him 10 bucks and got out of there, swearing to think twice before parking on private property again. That's one lesson learned the hard way.

Kemmangundi Write up

Well, I was too lazy to write it myself. Here's a link to Pallavi Barua's write up. Enjoy! http://www.royalenfield.com/theride_content.asp?ride_id=706

Ooops! :-s

Its been quite a while since I've written. I guess now I've lost the interest of the one person who might've been reading this blog :-)). Anyway, I'm back. What has been happening?? Well
 
1) I turned 23 on the 9th. NP called from Wyoming in the morning and we spoke for quite some time. It was fun to catch up with him after so long. Ankit called up from Mumbai. Sari called too. Sumi SMSed her birthday wishes. Reshma and Smriti forgot my birthday :-)), but hey, they had their reasons. Lots of others wished me. In the office, I found that one of my batchmates had mailed the entire office that it was my birthday, so spent the entire day replying to mails from everyone who mailed back wishing me. 9th also happened to be the day the VP of our Engineering Team quit. Cake was distributed, and unfortunately for me, some of it was smashed on my face and hair :-(. I was given birthday bumps too, and it hurt for days :-((. In the evening, my batchmates gave me a T-shirt and a cap. Suchi and Shy came to my office with cake, but I could not spend much time with them cos I was supposed to take my batchmates out for dinner. Dinner was great, and (luckily for me), didnt do much damage to my bank-balance. :-D
 
2) I got the Sigma. Went to NP's place on the 8th and picked it up. Went to Venkat's place on Saturday (10th), but I was late, so couldnt meet Venkat. Sunday too, Venkat was not well, so couldnt get it fixed on Sunday. Thought I'd get it fixed today. But then, impatient as I am, I decided to fix it myself. Went home early on Monday (and got totally wet in the process), took the Sigma's pickup unit and some extra wire and got it spliced by an electrician. Also got a magnet from him. Took it home, and fixed it. And it worked fine :-). Only disappointment is that I've realized that my bike's speedo is optimistic by around 4-6kmph. So, when I think I'm doing 100kmph, in reality, I am only doing 94kmph (according to the Sigma) :-(. Nevertheless, it will be a useful gadget during long rides.
 
3) Wood work is going on at new house. My cousin's carpenters are pretty good. They built my bed, wardrobe and TV stand to specification :-). Cant wait to move in.
 
Well, a lot more things happened, but they slip my memory. So, thats it for now. 

Heart in mouth moments

I had two of them in the span of 24 hours.
First one was last night. Was returning to office after dinner. There's a little sand on the road just before the office parking lot. Was riding at around 40-45, when I noticed a CBZ rider coming towards the main road, perpendicular to me. Grabbed at my front brake, and immediately felt the front wheel start to skid. I let go and applied the rear brakes. The bike was still skidding and on a collision course with the CBZ. I thought, "Blurr's gonna get it :-((". Luckily for us, the CBZ dude stopped letting me ride on to safety. Bless him! :-)

The second one was today. Another early day in office. Had to be in by 9:30 am. I was on my way to office at that time, riding in a hurry. There was this lady in a Maruti 800, riding at a sedate pace, blocking up all of the road. That was really irritating. Was about to overtake her, when I noticed her brake lights go on. In a split second, I grabbed the front brake. Tires squealed, the rear left the ground for a split second, Blurr stopped a safe distance behind the car. Realized that there was this dumb dude on a CD100 riding on the wrong side of the road. No comments on idiotic riders.

Photos of the PUG meet yesterday

Well, these were taken with my P900, in the dark. Thats why they look mediocre. Well, that plus my unsteady hands :-p. See the photos here

Bangalore PUGs meet!!

On monday, Venkat buzzed me on Yahoo! Messenger to tell me that Vivi was going to be in town for two days and that he would like to meet the B-PUGs.. Now since Venkat wasnt keeping well, and Ashok was busy, Venkat wanted me to coordinate with the B-PUGs to make this meet happen.. I gladly accepted, and mails were sent back and forth on the group.

The meet happened today, at Barista on MG Road.. It was scheduled for around 7 - 7:30.. I was the first to get there (this is a first for me :-D).. Then came Kailas, Amit, Chethan, Dev, Ashok. While we waited, Venkat, Vivi and Sanjay arrived at around 8.. We had a great time! One thing that amazed me about Vivi is that he doesnt look like he's crossed 40!! No way!! Had he told me he was 25, I would've believed him.. (I hope I age like him :-D)

We had a lot of laughs, pulling each others' legs.. We also discussed plans for the Annual Meet.. Kailas was kind enough to offer us free beer and a chance to view the race this weekend on big-screen TV :-). Dev kept us entertained with his antics. All in all, we had a fun time :-).. I've taken a few photos, will be uploading them to Imagestation soon and shall post the link.

I had Vivi that I'd be going to Ahmedabad sometime this year (my cousin who stays there has been asking me to come over for quite some time now), and he asked me to contact him when I got there, and that I'd get to ride his bike around town :-D. He also said that his bike would be wearing Pirellis soon :-D. How cool is that!!! Thanks Vivi!! I'll start making plans soon. :-)

Looking forward to more such meets.

Kemmangundi!!!

Kemmangundi was awesome!! See my photos here, see Nitin's photos here and see Rahul Verma's photos here. I wont be writing the trip log, so you guys (seriously, is there anyone reading this blog???) will have to wait for Pallavi Barua's write-up.

Long time no blog!

Well, its been a while since I wrote here.. So here I go opening the floodgates :-p

Munnar trip log, another link

Well, the experiment with pictures looks like a big flop! Click here for the trip log with pictures. Enjoy!!

I'm off for the weekend! Catchya'll on Monday.

Weekend plans!

Well, finally, after a long time, I'm going on a ride this weekend. I'm going to Kemmanagundi. I hear its a beautiful place, and I just cant wait! Only thing is I hope it doesnt rain. I dont mind riding in the rain, just that I dont like to get wet :-D.

Well, gotta go home and pack, so, will be leaving early. I hope I dont over-sleep and miss the ride :-s.

Why do I ride?

I started to ride when I was in the 9th standard. I remember the time in October of 1995, I think, when I got on my aunt's 50CC Luna (which she wasnt using cos she had recently bought a new Kinetic Honda) and rode around Wanowrie, Pune. (It was my aunt who arranged for me to learn how to ride a bicycle, so in a way I owe her big time :-). Thanks Reenechi.) The thrill of riding on an empty piece of road at 40kmph was intoxicating. I would've loved to do it all day, but I was afraid of getting busted by the traffic police. So my rides used to be short but frequent. And I would long to ride my aunt's Kiney. But she's not let me, not cos she was possessive of her new bike, but cos she was worried about my safety. (Isn't she the sweetest :-) ).

Well, after that, it was my cousin's Hero Puch. He'd come home some times, and I'd get him to let me ride it. It was a new experience, riding a geared vehicle, required a lot more thinking than I was capable of :-)). Nevertheless I soon got the hang of it. But it wasnt very often that I'd get to ride the Puch cos my cousin didnt come around much.

Somewhere in between I got to ride a Yamaha RX100. It was after my 10th standard exams. It belonged to an acquaintance of mine. Before I got on the bike I was warned that it was very powerful and I ought to be careful with the throttle. That psyched me out, and I ended up dumping the bike around 100m from where I started. But, hey, no wheelie!! ;-) :-D

After that I didnt ride much. Then I passed into the 12th standard, and with it came the tutions everyday. I needed a vehicle to get around. Dad was not going to buy me a bike, so I managed to get them to buy me a geared cycle. 18 gears of pure fun!! I miss that cycle *sigh* :-(. Three months after I bought the cycle, my grandpa managed to convince my folks to buy me a motorized two wheeler. I was given a choice between a Hero Puch and a Kiney. I picked the Hero Puch -- it was geared, it was not a choice of most females (ok so maybe I was a little sexist at that time), so the choice was easy. But I screwed up the bike the moment it took it out from the showroom by ripping it to 60kmph (well, I was late for my tution classes). It got back at me by giving me bad mileage for the rest of the time I had it. Still, it was a lesson well learnt.

After my 12th standard exams, I got to ride my family friend's Hero Honda Splendor. That was a fine bike! I remember the day he gave me the keys and said, "All down". I loved it! It felt better to ride than my Hero Puch (of course it did!! 7.8 horses are better than 3.15!! duh!!). Still, I did like my Puch. It was zippy and fun to ride. Four years and I clocked 9500kms on it. But I yearned for a bike, and dad seemed to understand. (I think, cos with my dad, I can never be sure).

It was around this time that my uncle got a promotion at work and was given a car by his company. Which meant that his Splendor was lying unused. I tried getting my folks to ask him if he wanted to sell the bike. Dad did ask him one day, and my uncle refused to sell. However, one day, he asked me if I'd like to use the bike for a year (I was in my final year of my Bachelors), until I bought a new one. I gladly accepted!! I was back with a bike I loved to ride. I enjoyed the 17 months I spent with the bike. I clocked around 10000kms on it, which included a ride to Chinchi Falls with the PUGs. It was my first long ride on my bike, and that did it for me! I was hooked to riding!!

Then came December 4th, 2003 and it brought the love of my life into my life, my brand new Bajaj Pulsar 180 DTS-i, or Blurr, as I like to call her. I fell in love the moment I thumbed the starter for the first time! Ran her in for 2350kms, (I actually planned to do 5000kms of running in, but I just couldnt hold myself back :-D), and then let her rip!! She's fast, steady, consistent, and a whole lotta fun to ride. I've been to Nandi Hills (thrice), Doddaaladamara (Big Banyan Tree), Ramanagaram (Sholay was shot here), Hogenakkal Falls and Munnar with her. Someone asked me if I was done riding. My answer was, and still is, "I've just started!!!" There are a whole lotta roads in this country that are beckoning. And who knows, maybe someday I will ride on foreign soil too.

Which now brings us to the question, why do I ride? Well, I cant really explain it. Why dont you join me for a ride and find out for yourself?? :-). I'm going to Kemmanagundi this weekend, join me!

Good Friday was GREAT!! in Munnar

Another trip log. This trip was done in April during the Good Friday weekend. Actually, Bijesh (a fellow PUG) and I were talking about riding to Wyanad. Somehow the destination got changed to Munnar. And it was totally worth it! I will be going there again! Well, read on. Its kinda longish. One more thing. I've tried inserting images in this post. Hope it works :-). Enjoy!!

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Bangalore to Munnar
Date: April 09th, 2004 to April 11th, 2004

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Riders:
Sameer (Black Pulsar 180 Classic): top row, left.
Dev (Blue Pulsar 180 Classic): top row, right.
Kalyan (Black CBZ): bottom row, left.
Vivek (Silver CBZ): bottom row, center.
Bijesh (Black Pulsar 180 Classic): bottom row, right.
Nikhil (Black Pulsar 180 DTS-i): behind the camera :-D



Route:
Bangalore -> Hosur -> Krishnagiri -> Dharmapuri -> Salem -> Perindurai -> Tirupur -> Palladam -> Udumalpet -> Munnar

And the same way back.

(We also wanted to go to Kodaikanal, if we had enough time, through what was supposed to be a very scenic route. However, it turned out that we didn’t get the time, and more importantly, the route didn’t exist anymore!!)

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Day 1:
April 9th started for me with frantic last minute packing. My going wasn’t sure since my father kicked up a fuss about me going at the last minute. Managed to make it clear to him that I very badly wanted to go, and that I would go whether he was ok with it or not, but that I would like it if he did. As expected, he wasn’t too happy about my going, but I decided to go nevertheless. (As it turned out later, this was a good decision). Finished packing around 0030hrs and hit the sack.

Was woken up at 0330hrs by a phone call from Bijesh. Did not have any problems waking up this time, because I was really excited about going to Munnar. Did the usual morning routine, took my parents’ blessings, and set out to the meeting point – Silkboard Flyover.

I was the last one to reach the starting point. In the meantime, the others were fastening their luggage to their bikes using bungee cords, with Sameer the expert guiding them on how to do it.

A couple of snaps and we were off, at 0500hrs. We had decided to stop at Electronics City to check if the luggage was fastened properly. But Dev and me were kinda excited about the ride that we overshot Electronics City by around half a kilometer. Stopped and called up Sameer to tell him that we were ahead. At this point, Dev had taken off his gloves and had kept them on his tank. We waited for a while for the guys to catch up. When they did, we started off too, Dev completely forgetting to put his gloves back on. Result, lost gloves!

We stopped at 0600 somewhere between Hosur and Krishnagiri, to appreciate nature’s beauty and also to answer her call ;-). I’ve never seen the sun rise since god knows when!! The beauty of it was overwhelming.



The roads were pretty empty too. Not much traffic. We were riding flat out after Hosur. I was following Dev and was amazed at how steadily he was riding. We were taking the curves of NH7 at speeds above 110kmph. He was taking the curves smoothly, while I was struggling a bit. Got a lot to learn :-).



The NH7 between Hosur and Krishnagiri is an absolute delight. That’s one stretch where one can push their bikes to its limit. And I did just that. At one point, I remember the tacho read > 9500rpm. That’s 130kmph!! And Blurr didn’t complain one bit. She just gave more and more every time I twisted the throttle.

We stopped for tea after Krishnagiri at around 0700hrs. We were entertained by Dev’s stories about his friend named Krishna Murthy, aka, Pakhandi Dubey. Little did we know that by the end of the trip, we’d know enough about Pakhandi Dubey and his exploits, that we’d be able to write an entire book about him!!

Then rode on to Dharmapuri. The road between Krishnagiri and Dharmapuri is a single road with no median. And traffic was pretty hazardous. Pedestrians were walking like they owned the road. And TVS-50 riders!! God! I guess they think their bikes are as powerful as Busas. They swerve through traffic without bothering to see if there is any vehicle in their path. On the stretch between Krishnagiri to Dharmapuri, I saw as many as three accidents, one of which I guess was fatal. If it wasn’t, it was a miracle. Because the car that hit the pedestrian had its bonnet and windshield bent inwards!! I was glad that we didn’t hit anyone. But as it turned out, fate had other plans.

We stopped for breakfast after Dharmapuri, at around 0830hrs, at a small roadside eatery. Yup, that’s the one, the one in the picture. After eating some really yummy parottas, omelettes and having tea, we were off.



We reached Salem by around 1000hrs. Dev had mentioned before that he wanted to buy gloves at Salem. So once we got there, Dev and Bijesh headed into Salem, glove hunting, while Vivek, Kalyan and I headed on towards Perindurai. Sameer had gone on ahead of us, and we met him a few kilometers from Salem. That’s the road after Salem, leading towards Avinashi and Perindurai, the place from where we were to take a deviation towards Tirupur.



While we were waiting for Dev and Bijesh to return, Vivek gave us a demonstration of this time management skills :-)). As soon as we stopped, he got off his bike, put his bag under his head, and fell asleep. The glove hunt took more than half an hour so he did get some good sleep :-). The guys finally caught up with us around 1040hrs. We rode hard after that, with a few i/o interrupts (read: water intake and outflow breaks :-D).



I was glad that it was smooth sailing all the way. But disaster struck just after one of our breaks, around 1230hrs, after Perindurai. All of us had ridden ahead, and had reached a place before Avinashi, where we were supposed to turn left to head towards Tirupur, when I got a call from Bijesh. He said, “Dude, can you come back down the road”. I said, “Sure. Why, what happened?” He just said, “You come dude”. I was alarmed. Sameer asked me what was the matter. I told him. And the two of us retraced our route. We rode on for around 5 mins, but still no sign of Bijesh. That got us more worried and we moved ahead faster. Finally saw Bijesh flagging us down near a puncture shop. My first thought was that he punctured his tires just in front of a puncture shop, must be because the shop owner had a hand in it. In retrospect, I would’ve gladly settled for that. But that was not what had happened.

It turned out that Bijesh had hit a local riding a TVS-50. Bijesh had honked, and the guy had seen Bijesh, still he crossed the highway, from extreme left, to the puncture shop, which was on the right side of the highway. Bijesh braked, but couldn’t avoid a collision with the TVS-50. Damages to TVS-50 – bent rear wheel, bent saree guard, bent rear foot peg. Damages to Bijesh’s bike – bent front fork, punctured front tire (we later found out that it wasn’t exactly a puncture), a dent in the tank (which we later found out was actually a small hole in the tank), bent crash guard and a broken something (don’t know what its called, it’s the cast iron part to which the foot peg and the silencer are attached).





If you are thinking that was the entire list of Bijesh’s (and our) woes, you are mistaken. Now the TVS-50 rider was this docile chap. When Bijesh asked him why did he cross the highway even though he saw Bijesh, the guy said that he didn’t expect Bijesh to catch up to him so soon!! What a nut!! He knew he couldn’t argue with us so he brought along a “friend”. The friend was this burly chap who immediately demanded that we repair the guy’s TVS. He was talking in Tamil and broken Hindi most of the time, and what I gathered from what he said was that “We don’t want a single paisa from you. All I want is that you should repair his vehicle.” It wasn’t his fault, but Bijesh was asked to make good the damages. Sameer would have nothing of it, so he gave the “friend” a piece of his mind. The others joined in too. To tell you the truth, I was worried about the way the things could go, especially since we were outsiders there. The “friend” said, “Either you repair his vehicle, or I’ll call the cops. Then you’ll end up paying more than what this repair is going to cost.” Sameer and Dev asked him to go ahead and call the cops, assuming that we would have no problems because the accident wasn’t our fault. But it turns out that in Tamil Nadu (this is not what I am saying, this is what the “friend” said), in any accident, it is the rider of the bigger vehicle who is held responsible. (I was later told that this is the case almost everywhere!! Scary thought!!) Now, I don’t know if this knowledge gives the TVS-50 riders a false sense of invincibility!!

As you would imagine, we were stuck between a rock and a hard place! We called up Babu (Bangalore guys would recognize him from Venkat’s Auto Service), who told us what the damages should cost and stuff like that. Meanwhile, things were really heating up. As you would imagine, a crowd had gathered there. People were getting agitated. Some of us were arguing heatedly with the locals. But we eventually realized that we had no other option but to repair the guy’s TVS-50. We agreed to pay him for the damages. A mechanic was called in from Perindurai. He looked at the TVS-50 and said the damages would cost 1000 bucks!! I’m pretty sure the guy would not have gotten 1000 bucks had he sold that piece of junk! We put the guy on phone with Babu who gave him the correct estimate – 700 bucks. Paid the guy the amount. We asked him to give us a written declaration that we had paid him. He said he will, and promptly disappeared from the scene. That was the last we saw of him.

Our problems were still not over. All the while we asked the puncture guy to patch up Bijesh’s front tire. The guy kept procrastinating. I guess it was his ploy to keep us stranded there till we paid compensation to the idiot on the TVS-50. After we paid, he started to work on Bijesh’s bike. But we found that it wasn’t a puncture. The tube was torn in two places!! I guess the impact of the collision and the heat would’ve caused it to burst. Moreover, the front wheel wasn’t rotating freely. So there was nothing we could do but call for a transport vehicle to take Bijesh’s bike to Tirupur, where we were told there was a Bajaj showroom and service center.

None of Bijesh’s rides are complete unless he dumps his bike, or his bike takes a ride in another vehicle ;-). The transport auto finally arrived at 1445hrs. We loaded his bike on the auto and were off towards Tirupur by around 1500hrs.



Our ride from there to Tirupur wasn’t uneventful either. Bijesh started off ahead of us riding in the auto with his bike. Vivek, Kalyan and Sameer were off next. Dev and I were held up as we had parked in some sand, and were having difficulty pulling our bikes out of the parking. After a lot of struggling we managed to get our bikes out of there and headed towards Tirupur. By the time we reached the place where we were supposed to turn left, there was just Kalyan, Sameer, Dev and I. Bijesh had moved ahead, towards Tirupur. But Vivek wasn’t to be seen!! We assumed that he knew the turn we had to take, because we had been there earlier. That settled the debate on whether to look for him straight down the road or to continue towards Tirupur. Big mistake!! But we didn’t know that yet.

We took the turn and rode on. After riding on a few kilometers, we caught up with Bijesh. Asked him if he had seen Vivek. He said that he hadn’t. Which meant only one thing, that Vivek had missed the turn. We tried calling up Vivek but could not talk to him. Finally, Sameer asked Dev and me to ride on and catch up with Bijesh and help him with the bike, while he and Kalyan turned back in search of Vivek.

So Dev and I followed Bijesh. Before we caught up with him, on the way, nature presented me with this beautiful view. I HAD to stop and take this snap!!



So, on we went till we reached Tirupur. Bijesh had reached ahead of us. We didn’t know where to look for him. So decided to meet up at the Bajaj service center. Asked around, but people there did not know where it was. We searched around a lot till finally we stopped at a place, wondering what to do, when we saw this auto with a Pulsar in the rear. Now, we thought, that HAS to be Bijesh :-)). Followed him to the service center. That was around 1600hrs



We were at the service center till around 1930hrs. While we waited, we decided to have lunch. One big decision that we had to make was whether to ride on through the night of whether to stay back at Tirupur. Vivek suggested that we ride on till the last place before Munnar (which happened to be Udumalpet). Best suggestion ever, as we found out the next day. The ride to Udumalpet in the night was pretty spooky. There was nothing but darkness all around us, and our headlights were slicing through the darkness as we forged our way ahead (did that sound like a line from a medieval novel?? :-D). At one point we were traveling through fields of windmills. Now, we didn’t know that till at one point, there was this windmill that was on the side of the road, right after a turn. So when we turned and my headlights hit the windmill, it was really spooky to see the huge structure with its arms out stretched in the middle of the road! :-))

Three more things happened before we ended our ride that night. First was, I received an SMS, and took out my cell to read it, while riding. We were passing through a village, and so decided not to ride single handed, kept the cell in the space between the fairing and the instrument console. I rode over a bump and the cell promptly jumped and fell on the road. Luckily, no one ran over it, or hit me when I braked to pick it up. That’s one thing I’m not gonna try again. Second thing happened when we took a butt break. Call from home. Now, my parents tend to get anxious pretty easily. So told them that we were in Munnar. Made a note to tell them the details later. Third thing happened at Udumalpet. We were looking for a place to stay for the night. Someone suggested Annamalai Hotel. So, we asked directions, and were looking for the place. I was trailing the group. Suddenly this dud(e) on a cycle decided to give me a heart attack. He cut across from the other side of the road, into my path, towards the road on my left. I was probably doing 15-20kmph at that time. I applied the front brakes and found myself on the tarmac the next moment. First thing I thought was “shit, I dropped my bike!!!” Got up, picked her up, and just rode on. I don’t know why I didn’t bother to look for the idiot on the cycle and fulfill his death wish. Just rode on. This happened just a few meters from the hotel. Got there and told the guys about the accident. I was furious with myself that I dropped the bike. I couldn’t believe it, I had taken such good care of her, and then I dropped her. I knew had I applied the rear brakes, I would not have fallen. But then it was too late to think about alternatives. Harsh reality was that my bike was scarred. Did a damage assessment – scratched fairing, scratches on the silencer, right rearview mirror, right end-weight.

Went up to the room and did a damage assessment on myself. Three bruises on the right palm. My leather jacket saved my right shoulder from getting scraped.

Had dinner soon after, and hit the sack. Was really bugged about the fall. Was upset that things did not go according to plan. All in all, it was a varied day. From high speed riding on the NH7, to dumb riders on TVS-50s, to getting sun burnt, to riding in the night, to the fall. As I fell asleep, I had no idea how different I was going to feel the next day.

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Day 2:
Day 2 started at around 5:30. Had bath and packed up. Then went out had tea. We had a small (nice) encounter with a pup, unfortunately I didn’t have my camera with me so you all will have to wait for Bijesh’s snaps. Heard of more exploits of Pakhandi Dubey from Dev :-)).

That’s sunrise at Udumalpet, the view from the hotel’s courtyard, at around 0645hrs.

 

Completed all the formalities at the hotel and were out of there by around 7. That’s us, loading our luggage on our bikes.



We were around 88kms from Munnar. One would think that around two hours would be enough to complete that distance. We took around 5 hours!! One breakfast break, and innumerable photo stops accounted for that time. You just don’t feel like riding through. You feel like stopping the bike, shutting off the engine and taking in the beauty of the place. You get to experience the meaning of the word silence. All you get to hear are the birds chirping, the wind ruffling the leaves of the trees.

We had our breakfast in this small corner shop near the border check post. Crossed the check post and saw this hilarious signboard there. For a second, it did seem scary though. I mean, imagine being run-down by a half-ton animal!



The ride through the Chinnar forest was simply breath taking. We stopped innumerable times to take photos, the place what that beautiful. Check out the photos on Imagestation for proof ;-). The roads were heavenly! Nice curvy roads, with a hill on one side, and a cliff on the other.





So, innumerable photo stops later, we stop at a place some 10 km from Munnar (I fail to recall the name of the place). We had hardly stopped our bikes, when we were mobbed by locals selling carrots, pineapples, strawberries and mangoes. We pigged out on the delicious fruit. I strongly recommend the pineapple. *slurp*, yummy!!!

By around 1230hrs we reached Munnar. Now came the tough task of finding a place to stay. It was around 1230hrs when we reached Munnar. We moved from one hotel to another to try and find a place to stay. Two tries later we decided that it didn’t make much sense for all of us to move around town to find a place. So Sameer and I decided to go look for a place to stay. We went to like a million hotels. Most of them didn’t have vacant rooms, and the ones that did had only expensive rooms free. (I think they were trying to see how desperate we were to get a place to stay). During our search we went to this place called Tea County (I think that’s its name, not too sure), where Sameer had stayed the last time he had been to Munnar. The tariff, from 2200-4500 per night for two people. We told the watchman there that we were looking of a less expensive place to stay in. He asked us if we were ok with a home-stay. We said that we wouldn’t mind. So he pointed us to a house, just below Top City. We enquired there, they had a room free, 600 bucks a day, big enough for eight people. How cool was that!! Unfortunately, the room had been booked, and they could only confirm if we could have the room by 1300hrs. We couldn’t wait that long, so left to look for another place. We told the owner’s son that we would come back if we didn’t get any other place.

After a long search, we found a room, big enough for 15 people, for 1000 bucks a night. The room did not have cots, just mattresses on the floor, and a bathroom. No TV. We tried to bargain because we were just 6 people, but the guy at the reception did not agree. We told him if he would throw in a TV for free, we would take it. He agreed, so we went back to where the others were waiting, and took them back to Misha Inn. That’s the room we stayed in.



At the reception, Sameer enquired about the route to Kodaikanal. It turned out that the route that Sameer had in mind no longer existed. It was closed down some years back. We were hoping to touch Kodaikanal too. However, that didn’t look possible now.

We freshened up and lay our tired bodies down on the bed. It felt great after running around in the hot sun, looking for a place to stay. After a lot of coaxing from Sameer, we got up and went to a hotel just in front of the inn and ordered lunch. Now, this guy obviously doesn’t consider Chinese food fast food. We ordered and something around an hour later we got our orders. The food wasn’t too good either, so it wasn’t worth the wait. While we were eating, Dev, who was fasting that day, had a nice nap.

Back to the room, we grabbed our helmets and set off to see Medupatty Dam and Top Station. (Unfortunately, we only had enough time to go to just two places). Before we set off, it was hot, and some of us decided to leave our helmets and jackets behind in the room. Some were even ready to bet that it wouldn’t rain. I decided to wear my jacket and helmet anyways. Turned out to be a good choice, because we were barely two kilometers from the inn when it started drizzling lightly. By the time we reached Medupatty Dam, it had drizzled a bit.

Medupatty Dam is built across a river whose name I don’t know. But that shouldn’t matter, the place was beautiful. See snaps for proof :-).





From there we headed on towards Top Station. The rain started coming down a little hard at this time. I was glad I was wearing my jacket; it kept me dry :-). The road was nice and twisty. I was having trouble tackling the curves, as I wasn’t too keen on leaning into the turns in the rain. Thought I’d try hanging off, but didn’t quite get the hang of it (pun intended). The road was really bad in last few kilometers before Top Station, and was being repaired.

A couple of kilometers from Top Station, we stopped at a small teashop, where we met a foreigner. I didn’t speak to him much, so don’t know much about him. However, the others did speak with him for a while over a cup of coffee. Meanwhile, we noticed a milestone that read “Kodaikanal 86 km”. Asked the teashop owner. He told us that the road was closed because the forest was so dense, it grew around the road, making it impossible to use the road. He said that there was a police check post some 8 kilometers ahead, from where people were asked to turn back, in case they went that way. We were pretty disappointed, but then, there was nothing we could do about it.

Finished our tea, paid the guy and moved on to Top Station. The view from Top Station was breathtaking.





We spent time at Top Station drinking masala tea and listening about more exploits of Pakhandi Dubey. (It would’ve been fun if he could make it to the ride :-)). In fact, he was supposed to, but couldn’t make it). It was drizzling when we left Top Station. On the way back, I was struggling with the curves again, as I didn’t want to lean into the turns. So tried hanging off again. This time I managed to pull it off!! It felt great to hang off on the curves all the way back (though had a slight pain in the waist, but it was worth it!!).

Before we reached Munnar, we got to catch the sunset. That was around 1830hrs. It was beautiful!!!



We were back in our room by around 1900hrs. That’s Munnar. Freshened up, and headed out for some shopping. We went to this place run by the wives of people working for Tata Tea. I had heard a lot about “Strawberry Preserve” – strawberry preserved in honey. Tried it and bought two bottles. The others bought different varieties of tea and spices apart from the preserve.



Shopping done, we went looking for a place to eat. We weren’t able to make up our minds, and wandered around aimlessly for quite some time. Meanwhile, we called home, as none of the mobile service providers had their service there, except for BSNL. Finally after a lot of searching, we ate at some place (I fail to recollect the name). After dinner, we were back in our room. We decided to leave at around 0600hrs the next day, and set the alarm on our mobiles for 0500hr. Another dose of Pakhandi Dubey’s antics, and we hit the sack.

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Day 3:
I woke up at around 0500hrs, shivering. I was sleeping closest to the window, and the window was left open. Now Munnar gets really, really cold in the mornings, so you can imagine my plight. No one was able to shake off his blanket and wake up. Around 0600, Sameer, Bijesh and I finally woke up and headed out in search of some tea/coffee to warm us up. I was shivering and my teeth were chattering badly due to the cold. Two cups of tea later, I was back to normal. While having tea, we made plans of getting back and realized that we might just be able to make it to Bangalore by around 1800-1900hrs. But like all plans, this one didn’t work out either.

We got back to the room and got ready to leave. While we packed, we also took care of the accounts. Except for fuel, it worked out to around 580 INR per head (pretty cheap huh?). Everything done, we locked up the room and returned the keys at the reception. Then loaded up our luggage on our bikes.

While loading his bike, Kalyan noticed that his right foot peg was broken at the joint. We enquired at the reception if there was a place where we could get it welded. We were given directions to a welder.



A group photo was taken, and we started our return journey.



We looked around for the welder, and found the place closed. We then realized that it was a Sunday. Nothing much we could do about it, but head on and look for a place along the way, which would hopefully be open. On the way, we again stopped a couple of times to take photos. We also stopped at every town on the way to Udumalpet, to enquire if there was a place where we could get the foot peg welded and were told that there’s a place further down. When we finally reached the place, it was closed too, and we were told that the guy would not be coming that day, since it was Easter.

There was nothing much we could do but ride on, we expected to find some workshop in Udumalpet where we could get the thing welded. However, Udumalpet was a disappointment too. So Kalyan finally resorted to this. It held till the end too :-).



We refueled at Udumalpet. It was around 1200hrs by the time we left Udumalpet. This time we got to see the windmills. There were huge fields full of them. It was an awesome sight!!



We rode on pretty hard after that, stopping only to drink water. It was really hot!! After Palladam, we spotted a sugarcane juice vendor and stopped to quench our thirst. I think the guy had the best business of his day thanks to us. Many of us had 4-5 glasses of sugarcane juice! This was around 1315hrs.



Our next stop was Perindurai where we had more water and juice. Sameer called up Venkat to update him on the trip. A little later, we were back on our bikes. We had planned to have lunch at Salem.

On the way to Salem, we were stopped by the Highway Patrol. There was an election rally, and some politician was giving a speech. That held up traffic for quite some time. We took this chance to rest a while. However, this “break” did throw us behind by around half an hour.



It was around 1645hrs by the time we reached Salem. We didn’t get lunch, but managed to get some chapattis, parottas, idlis and dosas. We set out at around 1730hrs I think, don’t remember times too well now. It was around 1815hrs by the time we reached Dharmapuri. The ride from Dharmapuri to Krishnagiri was pretty bad. Oncoming traffic was very unforgiving, not dipping their headlights, running us off the road. It was pretty irritating. Still we managed to do good time. Vivek and I were leading at this time, and he was having trouble riding fast in the night. We stopped some 27kms from Krishnagiri to wait for others to catch up. They had apparently stopped at a petrol bunk as Kalyan’s bike was running on reserve fuel. Some calls were made to home, and we were off again.

We somehow managed to reach Krishnagiri unscathed. (this was a great achievement considering that we were on a single lane road with bad traffic). Now started the most exciting part of the journey (for me). From Krishnagiri to Bangalore, the road is 4-laned and very very good. Sameer and myself took off, riding at speeds around 100-110kmph, without any problems. A little while later, we stopped for the others to catch up. While we waited, we saw Dev zip past. I decided to catch up and ride with him. A little while later, we were riding together, tailing an Indigo. We were riding at speeds of above 110 now. We maintained this speed right till Hosur, that’s around 55kms. No complaints from the bike. It was awesome!! Tailing the car allowed us to enjoy the ride without worrying about running some unfortunate pedestrian (or TVS-50 rider ;-) ) down (there were some, by the way. The road has lots of medians, at intervals of a few hundred meters). This, for me was an amazing experience, and I would love to do it again someday.

We stopped at Hosur at around 2115hrs. A couple of bottles of Sprite and Coke were downed by each of us, while plans were made for dinner. We were around 35-40 km from Bangalore. Dev and I decided to head straight home on reaching Bangalore. The others made dinner plans. A little while later, we were off again.

There was quite a bit of traffic, and we were riding pretty slowly. A little ahead there was this huge truck carrying a really wide load, and to the left there were barriers on the road. There was a lot of sand and gravel there. A moment later, Sameer was on the road, his bike had skid (on braking, I think). Fortunately, at that time, there wasn’t much damage done. (it was only later that Sameer found that he had damaged a few ligaments in his wrist, and was in bandages for quite some time).

We reached the Silk Board flyover at around 2200hrs. We were a tired, but totally satisfied bunch of bikers :-). A quick photo session later, we bid each other farewell and headed our ways.



I was back home by around 2245hrs. Total distance on my trip meter (from home and back 1125kms). Parents were relieved to see me back home in one piece. Dad did notice the scratched fairing (I was hoping he wouldn’t, but I wasn’t that lucky). Anyways, it was a great trip, enjoyed it through and through. Can’t wait to go on a long ride again!!