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Aam Aadmi reviews 'Ek Mamooli Aadmi'

2011-09-22T12:26:00.002-04:00

“We distinguish the excellent man from the common man by saying that the former is the one who makes great demands on himself, and the latter who makes no demands on himself.”

Jose Ortega y Gasset quotes (Spanish philosopher and humanist , 1883-1955

These lines very well describe the underlying theme of a riveting play by Asmita Theatre Group. Written by Ashok Lal and Directed by Arvind Gaur, this play tells the life and death theory of Shri Ishwar Chand Awasthi. You can either see it as a theatrical personification of the world’s most famous common man by RK Laxman we all grew up seeing in the morning newspaper or you could see it as a journey of a person who lived like a nobody died as a nobody but unintentionally touched hearts of many just by doing what he was supposed to do. Wonderfully put together screenplay and the script raises several issues, without making a particular issue the center of it all. Beginning seems like a mystery play with the son of a dead head clerk wondering why Brahmins won’t come to last rites of a person they were worshipping a few days ago. The mystery slowly unfolds as a story of his father who hardly ever spoke to anyone, spent his life as a loner despite living with his son who at one point was the sole purpose of his existence. The scene where the protagonist was introduced establishes the very crux of the play. I still remains fresh in my head. I did not notice when he came onto the stage and started to listen. Every things seems usual except Mr Awasthi’s attitude. He starts to change – he loses his ‘virginity’, spends a day with a female colleague much to her surprise and appreciation, takes a decision against powerful people, loses their favor but earns something he never intended to earn – tears of a few underprivileged people when he leaves this world quietly.

I have seen several of Asmita’s play. I found the strength of each play very different from the other. While ‘Operation Three Star’ would tickle your funny bone, ‘Ambedkar aur Gandhi’ would stimulate you intellectually, ‘Ramkali’ will send you tears through your eyes ‘Ek Mamooli Aadmi’ has one of the best character development I have seen on stage. How wonderfully the character of Mr Awasthi develops and you get to understand the psyche of a common man is what this play’s USP is. Viren Basoya has beautifully depicted a very ordinary common man supported by Bajrang Bali Singh as a well intentioned alcoholic we all love to hate – because they can say the truth.

If you haven’t seen the play already, please do so the next time it is in town.

The Changing Motoring Scenario in India

2011-04-16T01:43:00.002-04:00

Year 2011. Could be just another year in history of India or it could be the most important. A lot of scams were unearthed. A whole nation rose to support a cause which was started by one single person and shook the government. Government(s) started new initiatives to bring huge investments into their states (Vibrant Gujrat). A natural disaster, on verge of becoming a nuclear calamity in Japan. Revolutions in middle east. The list goes on. While many issues affect millions and billions in the world, a few things happened in India which would affect few who have millions and billions. India saw launch of super exclusive cars and bikes in this very year. Gone are the days when we had just two cars – Premier Padmini and Ambassador to choose from. Today there are hundreds of car models out there, suiting every budget. Not only we have several sub 10 lakh rupee cars, we have several crore plus cars and several Rs 10 lakh + bikes. While the nation’s billion strong workforce moves on 100 cc commuters, a few, who have billions can now choose between a Ducati Diavel and VYRUS it they want a really fast motorcycle. TATA got international recognition to India’s car industry by launching most affordable car they also bought British luxury marquee JLR. Traffic Jams are becoming a common place in most Indian metros thanks to about 23% growth in car sales. While most of the people would be stuck in the jam in their alto’s and i10’s, there would be few who would be sitting behind the wheels of super luxury or super cars. Let us take a look at super exclusive cars which were launched recently in India:

- Buggati Veyrone – Ex-showroom price about Rs 16 crores

- Koenigsegg Agera – Ex –showroom price Rs 12 crores

- Aston Martin one-77 – Ex-showroom price Rs 20 crores (besides other Aston Martin cars)

These are ‘super exclusive’ cars which hold show-off value even for ultra rich. Then there are the ‘usual’ cars for the rich – Maserati (their entire range), Ferrari (to be launched soon), Audi R8 spyder, Lamborghini and Porsche line up. I am not even talking about luxury sedans from Bentley, Rolls Royce, BMW, Audi, Mercedes. The list if long.

Let us take a look at the bikes now. Indians buy about 1 million (10 lakh) bikes every month. Yes every month! But we also get several bikes which cost in excess of 10 lakh rupees. Ducati has recently launched their latest Diavel besides having their whole range of motorcycles in the country, Yamaha has the R1 (my favorite), the FZ1 (relatively cheap at Rs 8.5 Lakhs), Vmax and MT01. Suzuki has their Hayabusa, the GSX 1000R. I think they might be the only company in India who sell more super bikes than their ‘normal’ sedate bikes. J Kawasaki has launched the mini-superbike Ninja 250 an planning to bring more. Honda has let almost every auto journalist ride their super bikes across the country. It only shows their seriousness in that niche market. They have their VFR in India. Harley Davidson must be having the biggest line-up of bikes in India after Bajaj (someone do the math and let me know if I am wrong – I will correct it).

Now let’s come to the point. (Being a consultant, I tend to throw out a lot of data before talking anything sense). Why are they being launched in India when the numbers sold would only be a very very small fraction of total market? Also, number of luxury cars sold in India is a fraction of manufacturer’s global sales. BMW sells more 3 series in Germany than Maruti sells Swifts in India. The answer to the first question is - even than small fraction is a huge number. Answer to the second question is dwindling domestic markets for manufactures and growing market in India. They are not looking at sales in next 1-2 years, they are looking at having a mega share in Indian market 10-15 years down the line. They do not want to be late entrants. Audi’s and BMW’s would’ve established their names pretty well in India by next decade when Indians might be buying more more of their cars than Germans.

I have another concern though. While we get really expensive cars in India, we do not get affordable ‘fun’ cars. I would love to have a 1.6 litre, 120 bhp rear-wheel driven hatchback. I would love to have something like KLR 650 from Kawasaki for off-road touring. But I know such bikes/cars would not be launched in India. Why? We Indians go for ‘looks’, ‘brand image’, ‘show-off’ value. I have seen several of my non auto-freak friends pose in front of cars and bikes because they looked good. I have heard so many tell me – “You should’ve bought the i20, it looks so much better and then its Hyndai – better resale” blah this blah that. “Driving pleasure”, the most important thing for me takes a back seat for majority of car buyers. They talk about ‘re-sale’ before they talk about ride quality. Yeah, I want to discuss about divorce even before I am married.

Plus we tend to over analyze. I have seen several rants by so called ‘biking enthusiasts’ about the pricing of Ninja 250 and several rants about ‘not enough bike for that money’ for CBR 250. See, if you cannot afford it, stop cribbing, go out there and make more money. How does it make you any different than the mass of people buying bikes for practicality rather than love of them. Love is blind. It does not look for explanation. Yes, we need to have lower duties for bikes or policies in place to bring in manufacturers to make India a base for manufacturing their bikes and exporting them. But then as long as that does not happen, stop complaining.

Also, the fuel is pretty expensive considering PPP. So, while a 1.6 ltr hatchback might cost less than Rs 7 lakh, the mileage it would offer, a person might find difficult to afford the petrol everyday to go to office. Also, even several enthusiasts might not be able to afford one car for fun and one for commuting.

In the end, I am pretty happy with the things where they are headed in India. We are getting more conscious of our rights, are working hard to sustain a high GDP growth, Indian farmers are making record food productions so that the other workforce is well fed. While we commute to work to sustain India’s growth, we can atleast be stuck in a Jam in a really nice car/bike or just see it next to us and be motivated to work hard enough to be able to afford it.

CWG 2010 Delhi - Why it is a failure?

2010-09-22T05:29:00.002-04:00

It pains to see that India is not yet ready to host CWG. We hosted Asiad in 1982 with great fanfare and no problems. However as the country progressed, out ability to hold world class sporting event went down. Why? So much more money was spent. Indians on an average are far more educated and prosperous. We have much improved overall infrastructure. Then why did this happen. The core problem is this: our moral standards have gone down. Look at that assholes (yes, I reserve the right to use that word against such a person) Lalit Bhanot and Suresh Kalmadi. I am sure that they has made a lot of money in all this. Let us say they have not. Even then, have they done their work? NO! Have they taken responsibility of the work? NO. Are they concerned if something fails? NO! They give a damn. They instead say that "we have different hygiene standards". What does he mean? We sleep on beds where dogs shit? We have dirty toilets on a regular basis? I say send some dogs across to his house and make them shit on his sofa which he bought with CWG money.

They have made their money and that is all they care for. The problem is, they still move around in their high strung society without any social boycott. I mean people would tell him - 'Sir, great job! you must have made a lot of money. you made fool of the whole country' and they would all laugh sipping their Blue Labels bought with 'our' money meant for CWG. Their kids move around the society wearing designer labels bought with black money and they would be appreciated for it. Their price in dowry market would go up for all the money his dad has made from unfair means. I call for total social boycott of corrupt people. Disown them!

I will be back with more rant!

Ride Report Pulsar 220 DTSi

2010-02-01T10:54:00.005-05:00

This is going to be a detailed report of what I feel about the bike. Its abilities, short comings etc. Lets Start with the basic Stuff. In my later posts, I will talk about its usability and practicality.

Performance: Having ridden it for 8000 Kms now, I feel the performance of the bike is a benchmark for a bike at this prize and engine capacity. As one starts of the first gear, the pick up smooth and quick coupled with a rocking exhaust note. However this bike is different from the Pulsar 180 Dtsi I had owned previously. There is no sudden surge of power, its one smooth flow and RPM climbs up as the traffic around you become small specs in the rear view mirror. THe mid range is smooth and very drivable. Its very easy to do 100 kmph without stressing the engine at all because the engine is below 7000 number. However, there is still power left as peak power and torque come at 7,500. However for sudden over takings, one has to downshift when in fifth gear as fourth gear is pretty tall. Its a trade-off. While the power delivery has become smooth, it has affected the roll on figures. Even with that, the performance surpasses any bike I have ridden so far, including ZMR.

Exhaust Note: The exhaust note of a Pulsar is not a melodious love song but a hit rock song, the harder you ride, the rock song turns from a soft rock to metal and thats the beauty of it. As Bon Jovi says "This ain't song for the broken hearted" , similarily, the sound is not for a guy in pink shirt and Dolce Gabbana Jeans. Its music to the guy in a torn up jeans, black T shirt and someone who likes to head bang. Call it wild because this what it exactly is.

Gearing: This is something not too great to write home about. 3rd and 4th gear are very practical. Once in fifth gear, the bike cruises pretty well and goes past 130 kmph when the bike was fully loaded with luggage. Though its not great for slow traffic. One stays in 2nd and 3rd gear but they are pretty tall.

Ride Quality: This is something which gets five stars. First the ride position is very comfortable. Body position is up right. The seat being large, one can change position from sporty position , leaned in to a comfortable, up right sitting for highways and long distances. The cushioning is great and I did not get any butt sores as I did in previous bikes (Ninja and Pulsar 180) in 500 km+ ride in a day. The pillion seat is pretty wide too. On a recent trip to Mc Leod Ganj, I had a pillion and she had a large rucksack with her and she was still pretty comfortable. The front suspension travels long, the bike eats pot holes for breakfast. On highways, the bike is rock steady.

Handling: This is a tall bike and long one at that. Even then, it feels great on curves. Remember, this is a bike which requires some experience. One can not be sitting in the seat like an arm chair and lean the bike thinking you will touch your knee. You have to follow the rules of riding on a corner. Just follow some steps (I am not asking you to hang out completely), just shift weight to the toes, ease on the arms and lo-belold, you can go around curves at great speeds. However, biggest issue is the main stand. Lean the bike on a banked road it will hit the road. You can feel the rear suspension compressing. I need to get it adjusted though as it is on the soft side.

These were the attributes. In my next post, I will talk about how these attributes translate into usability.

Ownership Experience Pulsar 220 DTsi

2010-01-19T08:54:00.003-05:00

I bought my bike on July 20th 2009 and so far completed more than 7,500 Kms. I will keep updating this blog with how the bike is performing as a long term bike. Let me start with my riding experience of the bike.

First Ride: It was the first time I was riding the DTSi on the road - the only experience being on the Dyno. The bike is comfortable. The seat is padded well and wide so if you position yourself well, the ride is pretty comfy. I had to ride through thick traffic and its not the best bike in Indian market for ride congested traffic. But then the long hours are made comfortable because of comfy Saddle. However the bike was stalling a bit. I think 6 months of non-riding and before that I had been riding on open roads of US so I thought it was just me. Later, my opinion would change. Do not have more to say as the ride was short and in traffic.

Trip to Chansal Pass and Hatu Peak

2009-10-12T01:00:00.005-04:00

"Risin' up, back on the street

Did my time, took my chances

Went the distance, now I'm back on my feet

Just a man and his will to survive

So many times, it happens too fast

You change your passion for glory

Don't lose your grip on the dreams of the past

You must fight just to keep them alive”

These lines from ‘Eye of the Tiger’ very much describe my trip to “Chansal Pass” (pronounced Chaan – Shal). The difference was this did not involve Sylvester Stallone and it was not a boxing match but a motorcycle ride. Chansal Pass is considered among one of the toughest motorable passes among adventure lovers. It connects villages of Dodra and Kwar with rest of the world. Calling it off-roading is an understatement!

I was planning a trip to Chail/ Narkanda etc when a friend said - Tourist hai kya? Go and be a man, do Chansal Pass so plans changed. Started from Delhi on 18th Sept with a friend - Tanmoy Mookherjee.

First Break before Chail! Tried some nice juice from this shop of HPTDC
The diversion towards Chail is at Kandaghat and the road is narrow but scenic. The Road is flanked by trees at both sides.

First day we reached Kotghai. Next day we left for Rohru, had breakfast there and started with a determination to conquer Chansal Pass. From Rohru to Chirgaon the roads are good and after chirgaon the roads starts detoriating. The torturous narrow road starts from Tikri with loose sharp stones, mud, steep gradient and loose gravel thrown at you all the same time. Thanks to out lazy start in the morning, we were running behind schedule and time was not in our favor. It was the road where speeds do not matter, short distances are covered as clocks ticks past your estimated times over and over and you have to think – should I see the beautiful vistas or the best line through that muddy section? Should I take a break and click pictures or just keep riding as destination is still far? With this dilemma, we kept the pace pretty consistent riding hard and paving our way through.

Read rest of it on Motoroids Oct 2009 Issue. (Starts at Page 55).

The Fastest Indian - Pulsar 220 DTSi

2009-09-07T02:50:00.005-04:00

I recently purchased the 2009 edition Pulsar 220. Pulsar 220 was launched in 2007 with a Fuel Injection. The bike has now lost thte FI and is more price competitive with Karizma but has gaine in terms of performance. I will be posting rides and reviews of long term ownership experience of the bike.

Being an Uncle

2009-07-11T06:54:00.005-04:00

Through my blog - which a lot of people do not read, I have shown my love for motorcycles, my love for travelling and my love for being unemployed and hatred for some politicians.

I am now going to share something which is very close to my heart at the moment - Being a Chacha! Yes, my niece who is now 1 year and 4 months old is a total darling.

Born on February 18th 2008, I met her on 27th December 2008. She was 8 months old. She did cry when she first saw me.

We got along well soon afterwords. After all I was her coolest uncle!

I was soon changing diapers, was feeding her cerelac and milk, taking her for drives and spoiling her.

Whenever I was in Delhi the foremost reason for me to go to Rae Bareli was to see her. Soon she started walking. If a kid does not walk, everyone is worried - "Kab chalegi yeh isse 3 mahiney choti ladki chalne lagi hai!"! "When will she start walking?". Then one day she takes her first step. There is joy all around. Phone calls are made, everyone is informed of the feat and then.......no one rests!

She walks a lot. Its very hard to keep in fixed on the chair or anywhere for that matter. She would go to Kitchen, go to the study, try to find me in my room or just walk. No she does not walk, she runs everywhere she goes. She does not run to win races or medals, she just runs - just like Forrest Gump! So trust me, if you have a baby in the household (especially if she is your niece/ nephew) you do nto want them to be walking very soon! Becos everytime she runs off somewhere, I hear Bhabhi's voice - "Dhairya, just see where Aadya is going". And I have to go away from the TV just to miss Roger Federer make than record breaking championship point shot!

But its pure joy. The innocence in her eyes, that cute smile and the sweet voice can melt the toughest people on earth. She has this habit of ringing the cordless from the base and then handing over to you pretending someone is calling. I was taken for a ride by a 18 month old!

Being an uncle is great. I love it.

Some political views - I hate the 'Sena's'.

2009-04-02T11:59:00.006-04:00

I know its a biker blog but I could not help but express my views about politics as India goes to elections.

India, a rising economy whose strength lies in vast human capital, diversity (and unity within it), educational institutions and entrepreneurial spirits of Indians. However some forces are trying to destroy two of these factors: human capital and unity of diversity. These forces are the so called 'Moral Police', 'Community protectors' and all that BS. I am talking about all the so called 'Sena's':

'Shiv Sena', 'Manav Nirman Seva', 'Ram Sen' etc.

Yes I hate them I hate them from my guts. They are a terrorist organisation. They harm the country more than any other terrorist organisation because they live within us. They travel in buses and trains with us and one say they start beating us because either we are not from the state or some community or because some of us are women. First India was divided because of religion then political parties for their vote bank tried to divide us based on caste and then now MNS and the #$@#$@#$ Raj Thackarey are trying to divide based on states and another #%#%# muthalik based on gender. Now Shiv Sena is trying to make sure that a terrorist friend of their's - Kasab does not get a trial and are doing unconstitutional things. The reason they attacked Lawyer Anjali Waghmare is because they want the terrorist to go scot free. I am sure they know (atleast their good for nothing chief Bal Thackarey knows) that if Kasab does not get a trial he can not be convicted and its constitutionally correct to provide him with a Lawyer. Where were these so called 'sainiks' when Mumbai was being attacked? Why did they not form an army and fight the terrorist? Because they were hand in glove with them. Am i accusing Bal Thackarey to be a terrorist? Yes I am. He should be probed and I am sure he can be linked to come terrorist organisation.

Then there is that rascal called Raj an his own terrorist organisation called MNS. He is trying to divide the country based on states. Who gave him the right to beat up innocent students just because they were from Bihar? Isn't that act an act of terrorism?

Lets not talk about Muthalik. Enough has already been said about him. He will be busy counting the pink chaddis he received.

My biggest agony is that these terrorists are not arrested and kept in jails forget about giving them a death penalty which they so very much deserve. They cause damage to Indian Constitution everyday.

Please do not vote for any of them. Lets not give power to the terrorists.

Please forward the link to my blog to Bal Thackarey and his terrorists, Raj and his team of numb skulls. I want them to read this.

My Unemployment Trip to Adirondacks Park

2008-09-01T19:11:00.004-04:00

Unemployment Trip to Adirondacks National Park

“What is the good of being a genius if you cannot use it as an excuse for being unemployed?”

Gerald Barzan

Day 1:

August 22nd, 2008 was my last working day, as an intern, at Irving Oil and I still did not have a job lined up. I decided to go for a weekend ride and camping rather than sulk in my apartment. A friend helped me fix the brakes and change the brake pads on Friday night and by next morning my brakes were in a perfect working condition. I had rented a Tent and Sleeping pad a day earlier for the weekend. I strapped the sleeping bag, the tent, sleeping pad and my back pack on the bike and set sail. I had to use innovation to be able to be able to strap all of them as this bike is not exactly designed for adventure touring. I started riding early morning on Saturday and caught the sunrise when I was on the highway. Last time I remember seeing a sunrise was when we were partying overnight in Lima, Peru.

My Camera was acting all funny. I think having been on my tank bag for so long for the past few weeks, something inside it came loose or something. This is the kind of pictures it started taking. The whole image was shaking very vigrously and the camera was making a funny clicking sound

As soon as I entered Vermont, I had plans to hit PDR – Puppy Dog Road, a dirt and gravel track which goes all the way upto Canadian Border. I did some part of it but unfortunately I had to leave that track when I saw the floating bridge, which is a major part of it was closed. Also I had to meet up with a friend for a hike in Burlington, VT. So, after riding some dirt tracks

I hit the highway and slabbed it all the way to Winnoski, VT where my friend lives. Soon me and Adam left for Camel’s Hump. We hiked up for about 2 hours and the view from the top was amazing. I think it will be a great hike in fall for the colors. The hike down took us almost the same time and by the time we reached the bottom, we both were starving. Went to his place, showered quickly and then left with his room mate for getting some food. Nothing better than a huge Burrito when you are starving!

Day 2:

Stayed at my friend's place for the night. Crashed on his couch but got a great sleep after the tiring day or riding and hiking.

Next morning, hit the road after a long and lazy breakfast. Hit some nice back roads in VT

Took the Chimney Point Bridge into NY and straight into Adirondacks Park.

I wish I had one of those

I wanted to do the super secret T road I had heard about and asked around for it. Once there, the road was awesome. It really looked like it was designed by a race track designer.

I was very happy after riding it. Did it about thrice. Very few pics and no pics of the real twisties for obvious reasons.

I needed a small snack break after that

Yogesh, I need a BCMT T Shirt!

I really wanted to see the Lake Placid. Realised the lake was one of the smallest in the area and could not even find it. Anyways

Found out about a camping spot from the info center and headed out there. It was quiet a ride from the Lake Placid. The roads in the park are awesome. Nice and twisty

A small mishap happened over here. I put the bike on the stand and was taking out the camera from the tank bag to take pictures. Suddenly the bike started to tilt towards the right. I had my hand full with the camera and I put it quicly back into the bag and tried to save the bike but it still tipped over. A family had also stopped at the rest stop and helped me pick up the bike. Small damages – Indicator cover broke but would still would need to fix the whole assembly, scratch on the headlight cowl and sctartches ont eh lower fairing. Anyways, as long as no major damage happens, I am fine with it. The carbs were flooded so had to wait for them to be normal before I started again.
I camped at Fish Creek Pond. I realized the camping spot was expensive - $22.50 but was in no mood to find the free spots and did not have enough tools like a coking stove or any food to camp alone. So set up camp in the public camping area.

My Campsite was unique in many ways. I was the only Indian in the whole park. I was the only one on a bike and I was the only one who was alone

This is how a regular campsite looked like

This is how mine looked

One of the reasons for choosing this park over others was it was one of the few which were just long the water. View from my campsite

The campsite also had a live musician playing in the evening. Went and listened to some old country songs.

Now I was feeling a little tired and did not have any food with me. Had some Icecream from a Ice Cream Truck in the park and then rode to the local deli shop to get a Subway Sandwich. Also got a beer, came back to the site and had probably the longest Subway Sandwich dinner ever just looking towards the lake and enjoying the isolation.
Retired into my little home for the night

Day 3:

Got up and just lazed around in the quite tent. Finally it was time to leave and before I left I spent some time reading a book sitting on the picnic bench next to the lake. I decided to go to Plattsburg and take the ferry over to VT and then slab it out on the highway.

Nice Roads again

I went off course at one point after missing a turn but took the opportunity for taking an awesome pic

My thirst for dirt road never ends. I found one and started riding thinking it was leading to a lake

After riding for a while I realized it was going nowhere only to later realize it would take me back to the original highway. Anyways, the short 30 min ride on it was awesome

I reached Plattsburgh and after a much needed lunch (had not eaten since morning) I headed out for the Ferry

My bike’s first boat ride

After I was dropped off, went through Grand Isle and this road to reach the highway I-89

Once I was on the highway, I slabbed it out all the way to Portsmouth only stopping for gas and a coffee.

I came back poorer, unemployed but happy! Need to find a job now to keep paying for the gas!

Motorcycle Suspensions Part II

2008-08-17T09:03:00.006-04:00

Source: http://www.sportrider.com

Now that we have seen what compression damping is, we should also know about rebound damping. For perfect suspension settings, these have to be syncronised.

Remember that compression (or bump damping) occurs when the wheel contacts a bump and the suspension compresses. Rebound (or tension damping) occurs as the spring forces the shock or forks to extend. Most current sport bikes have external adjustments for both compression and rebound damping as well as spring preload. On most forks, the screw adjustment at the top is rebound damping (not to be confused with the larger spring preload adjuster); the one on the bottom near the axle is compression damping. (An exception would be a Marzocchi or Paioli fork.) On the shock, the adjuster on the reservoir is for compression and the one on the shaft eyelet is rebound. These adjusters have their limits and affect only a portion of the entire damping. In other words, external adjustments can't make up for poor internal valving design; the adjustments merely fine-tune the valving action.

Of course, external adjustment can never make up for extremely worn-out dampers either, so if your bike is wallowing along like a '63 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham with blown-out shocks, you might want to do some rebuilding or replacement before you spend the rest of your life playing
with "clickers."

Let's look more closely at rebound damping. The major trade-offs involve traction, a feeling of control and plushness. If you look at the graph you'll see they're all plotted on the same graph. There are no numbers on the y axis because these are largely subjective quantities. In other words, we are discussing "feelings." You will notice that traction starts out at a low amount at very light (quick) rebound damping settings, increases to a maximum, then decreases again. Why? At very light rebound settings, the chassis is uncontrolled. When the wheel hits a bump the shock is compressed. Then the wheel extends without any control; in fact, it extends too far. Because the sprung weight of the chassis has mass and is moving upward, it wants to pull the wheel off the ground, thereby losing traction.

If you direct your attention to the right side of the traction versus rebound damping curve, you will note that at high rebound damping, traction has suffered. This is due to the wheel not being able to follow the ground simply because it can't respond quickly enough. The suspension compresses as it hits a bump. Then, it can't follow the ground (return to its original position in the travel) fast enough after the crest of the bump to maintain traction. When this is excessive it is called "packing." Somewhere between these two rebound damping extremes, traction is at maximum.

You may have noted from your own riding experience that when rebound damping is very light, the feeling of control is minimized. The bike "feels loose." As you increase rebound damping, the feeling of control increases. The chassis isn't moving around nearly as much and the bike feels more "planted" and stable. When rebound damping is very slow, meaning there's a lot of damping, traction is so poor that the feeling of control suffers as well. Once again, somewhere between the two extremes the feeling of control is maximized.

The third quantity is plushness. At very light rebound damping, the wheel moves very quickly and the feeling is plush and mushy. As rebound damping is increased, there is more and more resistance to movement, and at maximum damping the wheel is "packing" so much, the chassis is sucked down in its travel and has not recovered for the next bump. This means the following bump has to overcome the added spring force due to this compression and the result is a jolt to the chassis upon impact.

The key thing to note here is that there is a trade-off. As you can see, maximum traction does not necessarily occur at the same damping setting as maximum feeling of control. Herein lies a problem.

Quite often riders have mistaken ideas about how much damping should be used. They think the faster they are (or the faster they want to be), the more damping they need. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, after a certain point, traction, control and ride quality (plushness) are all sacrificed. And, even with rebound damping settings in the ballpark, in other words, between the two peaks, there is a trade-off. Of course, there is room for personal preference, but there's not much value in having all three qualities suffer.

Here is one word of caution: The only way you will ever know if you have less traction is if you are at the limit of traction. This is a very delicate thing. If you are not at the limit of traction-i.e., sliding the tire-you can't feel the difference in traction. So street riders will want to focus on the feeling of control and save traction experiments for racetrack days.

The job of suspension engineer and suspension tuner is to make these two peaks-traction and the feeling of control-as close to the same point as possible. This is done by reshaping the damping curve internally and requires an understanding of high- and low- speed damping and valving piston design. The relationship between damping, spring forces, weight bias and all the other factors that make a bike handle are also very important. Overwhelming? Naah...one thing at a time. Or should I say, one click at a time.

Suspension Introduction

2008-08-16T17:58:00.003-04:00

Recently I was facing a few issues with my suspension. Its working fine but I was not sure how to set it up. What is Compression Damping or Rebound Damping and other terms. I am going to share with you what I am learning. Please feel free to comment with anything you know.

Today we will talk about: Compression Damping

Source: http://www.sportrider.com/tech/146_9608_tech/index.html

Remember that damping is viscous friction. It turns mechanical energy into heat and is sensitive only to shaft velocity, not position in the stroke. The fundamental difference between compression and rebound velocity profiles is due to the fact that compression is forced by the shape of the bump, while rebound, though affected by other forces, is pushed mostly by the spring. This means that, for compression damping, the shape of the bump is far more important than its size. A square-edged bump results in extremely high shaft velocities, while even a big dip will typically cause fairly low velocities.

Traditionally, many have considered compression damping a necessary evil. In other words, less was better. This thought process was created because of the style of damping that was prevalent in the past. If you recall the "Technicalities" on cartridge forks [August 1994], you'll remember that damping rods have what we call orifice-style damping, which is both too harsh and too mushy at the same time. With the advent of cartridge forks and Emulators for damping rod forks, the possibilities have drastically changed because we have much more control of the shape of the damping curve.

To study the effect of altering the compression damping, let's look at damping as a whole; i.e., ignore the fact that the shape of the curve is important. The amount of compression damping affects traction, plushness, bottoming resistance and dynamic dive.

Consider bottoming resistance first. It makes sense that the more compression damping, the more resistance to bottoming (refer to the curve). It may seem obvious, but you need enough, yet not too much. The compression damping force is added to the spring forces to resist bottoming. At the same time the bottoming resistance increases, the feeling of plushness decreases. But what the heck is going on with the plushness curve on the left of the graph at minimal damping? With very little damping, the plushness can actually decrease. This occurs only on big hits when there is bottoming. On small hits, less damping still means more plushness.

Let's look at how compression damping affects traction. Imagine you're riding along and you hit a bump. If there is too little compression damping, the wheel will not meet enough resistance as it compresses the fork or shock spring. Not enough energy has been dissipated at the crest of the bump. Because the wheel itself has mass and the mass is moving upward, it wants to remain in motion and continues to move upward, compressing more than the amount required to handle the bump. This means the tire will unweight and possibly even lose contact with the ground as it crests the bump. This unweighting produces a loss of traction.

As compression damping is increased, this phenomenon decreases and traction improves. If there is excessive compression damping, there will be too much resistance to movement and the wheel will not move the entire height of the bump. This means the center of gravity of the motorcycle (the sprung mass) will be displaced upward. Not only can this be the cause of an uncomfortable or harsh ride, but this upward velocity of the chassis will tend to unweight the wheel, losing traction. In extreme cases, the wheel will come off the ground entirely and skip over the bumps. This is one of the reasons why in bumpy turns at extreme lean angles you may have experienced difficulty holding an inside line. The bike will tend to drift to the outside of the turn.

With too little compression damping, the wheel continues moving up farther than it should, while with too much compression damping, the entire chassis moves vertically. In either case, you lose traction.

The last curve on the graph is called maximum dynamic dive. This is distinctly different than static sag, which is measured with the bike standing still. Maximum dynamic dive is the amount the suspension compresses when hitting bumps or under braking. For example, under braking the front end will dive. More compression damping allows the chassis to dive less. The maximum amount of travel used is determined by a combination of the spring forces and the compression damping force.

If there is no damping of any kind and the brakes are applied, the front end will dive and begin to oscillate. If you're braking for a long time, the friction will eventually stop the oscillation and you would notice the fork is compressed. Since damping is nonexistent when there is no suspension movement, the amount it ends up being compressed is totally determined by spring forces. Maximum dynamic dive, however, is affected by compression damping as well. More damping means the forks will compress more slowly and not as much. Obviously, less damping will produce the opposite results.

If you're hitting a series of bumps with too much compression damping, the suspension will actually extend as the wheels hit successive bumps. This is the opposite of the condition called "packing," when there is too much rebound damping and the suspension is being sucked down, not having time to return fully before the next bump.

Obviously, there are trade-offs. As bottoming resistance increases, plushness decreases and maximum dynamic dive decreases. At some point between the extremes, traction is maximized. Street bikes will be best suited by being biased with less compression damping than a race bike. Remember, you will pay prices with both too much and too little. One of the biggest misconceptions about compression damping is that the faster you are, the more you need. A better goal would be to determine proper spring rates and use only as much compression damping as you need to control bottoming and dive.

Keep in mind that compression damping is dependent on movement. If there is no movement, there is no damping. Be aware also that the shape of the damping curve is critical, in not only how much damping you have, but how progressive it is as well. But that's another story.

My First Trip on my Kawasaki Ninja ZX-7R to Newport, RI

2008-05-20T21:47:00.006-04:00

I endeavored two years of hardships, long study hours, assignments, classes and late night parties. It wasn’t easy. What made it even more difficult was I did not have a bike for almost two years. However, as we were graduating, I decided to change that. I somehow arranged for some money and got my bike. Now I was looking for a chance to take it for a long ride. Finally I got a chance a day after our graduation. I graduated on 17^th may and got an invitation to visit a friend and his family in Newport, RI. It is a old but filthy rich town by the sea. It is known for its huge mansions and was home to Vanderbilt family, one of the wealthiest in world’s history. It is estimated that these mansions would cost more than $250-$500 million to build today.

I got up lazily because I had checked the weather the previous day and it said it would rain and hence I thought I will not be able to ride. Having partied till 05:00 in the morning I was in no mood to go in a car. However the weather was clear. I got ready, unveiled my bike and left.

As soon as I hit I-95, there was miles of traffic. Thought of turning back but then this is not what we xbhpians do. I could see the coolant temperature going up being the traffic. Soon the traffic opened up and so did the throttle.

The traffic got thinner and thinner and soon I saw a very empty stretch of the highway on 28 S. I was in 6^th gear and as soon as I hit 7,000 RPM, the bike took off. I reached 120 mph – 192 kmph. But I could see cars in my lanes further down and I slowed down. Still had to brake as I got close. Technically I was approaching those cars at 80kmph which used to be my cruising speed on my pulsar. One is a while I would get off the bike to check on my bag which was not tight and also to take some pics. It was very windy and the first time I was riding so fast so I did not cross the 110 mph mark.

Soon I was in the town. An old town which rich flavor.

New Port, RI City Center

Headed to my friend’s place and was warmly welcomed by his mom. Hung around with my friends. I technically reached at the end of the party J. Then a friend took it for a little spin. He said he used to own the exact same bike in the past. I went around town and drove on the oceanic drive. The view was phenomenal. I stopped at the most beautiful mansion called ‘Marble house’ and I was parking the bike, the guard freaked out to see a biker near the billion dollar mansion. He said it was closed and would not let me take pictures. Anyways, I went on and saw the Oceanic drive it was beautiful.

My Kind of Baywatch

Oceanic Drive

Where to go Next?

It started to drizzle now. I did not want to ride in the rain. I did once and it was not a good experience. That day I rode on emergency breakdown lane at 20 mph as the bike was fishtailing if I rode more than 40 mph. Anyways, back to my trip. I just rode around took some pics and then left for home. Luckily it did not rain very hard though the drizzling made the roads wet and hence I did not overspeed. It was still a great ride back.

I realized that long rides on Superbikes is not a very great idea. I would need to raise the clipons for a better ride position. Also its hard when you get some traffic.

I am Finally Boston Biker!

2008-05-19T00:07:00.004-04:00

I got this blogname even before it was true. I did not have a bike untill then. But on 3rd May, my life changed. I finally got my hands on my new bike. Its a 1999 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-7R. I bought it from a guy in Quincy who had maintained it well and the bike had its tuning done under instructions of a racing team manager.

I also got a high end Helmet and a Joe Rocket riding jacket. Although I was ready to ride it on Saturday i.e. the day the seller brought the bike to my place, I could not ride it as it was not registered. I had to somehow get through the weekend. Finally I got up at 07:30 AM on Monday and was the first person to enter the Insurance company's office (In Us, you have to first insure a vehicle before registering it). Got it insured, and went to the RMV. Waited patiently for an hour but then was later told that there was some problem in the paperwork and I will have to now get some more signatures from the seller. I called him and drove about 10 miles to have him sign the paperwork. Finally got it registered and with my license plates in hand, I drove as fast as I could back to my place and attached the plates in record time. BTW, if any cop is reading the blog, yeah I did break all speeding laws that day! Booya!

The 750 CC engine was roaring. The sound was like a symphony. I hit the road and realised the immense power that lay within. As Spidey's uncle says 'With great power comes great responsibility', I rode very responsibly. ;-)

Check out More Pics here:
http://s16.photobucket.com/albums/b47/dhairya/Ninja/

I have been riding it for sometime now and love it. Trip logs on the way.

Peru Trip

2008-04-20T14:00:00.002-04:00

I went to Peru for spring break. We were a group of 30 people from Babson who went for 10 days to the wonderful country.I learnt in business school that instant gratification is what everyone looks for. So here are the pictures from the trip

There are two albums

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=106292&l=e2a95&id=748825715

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=106401&l=83c4e&id=748825715

City for Lima: We reached the city of Lima and stayed with our friend’s family at his mom’s house and saw the best of Peruvian hospitality. The city is very diverse. Although located on the coast, it is very dry. We got a lot of sun (coming from cloudy and snowy Boston, it was a welcome relief). Downtown financial district has beautiful buildings, the place we were staying at had beautiful houses and places to visit. But driving through the city, we also saw some real poor sections of the city. I saw two Indian auto companies in Peru – Bajaj and Mahindra. I saw lots of parallels between Lima and Delhi but still they are as different as…..Delhi and Lima….what else did you expect? We went out to a few clubs at night and the music was amazing. The crowd, the music and everything was fun. Once we had dinner at our friend’s place and had Pisco Sours – a traditional Peruvian drink. I would leave the task of researching about it to you guys.

The city tour was a little boring because of the long bus ride but still saw a lot of interesting places. We also visited Babson’s partner University in Lima – University of Centrum. The most interesting was to see a display of bones in a cathedral which was built by the Spanish back in 1500’s. The cathedral had three floors of graves below the building since it was built. About 50 years ago some Japanese researches thought that digging out the graves would be a good idea. And then they came up with the idea of putting them on display.

Cusco: We then flew to Cusco which is up in Andes and about 3,300 mts. Some of our friends got sick, I mean really sick. SO next time you fly to high altitude be prepared to first adopt to the new altitude. It’s a beautiful city, a great combination of old and new architecture. The city square has medieval look to it and with clobber stones, around, u feel someone has transported you back in time.

Had the first sample of Coca tea. To give a context, Coca leaves are raw material for cocaine. The leaves are not toxic by themselves. However, one would fail a drug test if they were to go through one after having coca tea. It’s a refreshing drink especially in high altitudes.

Sacred Valley: We then took a bus to Sacred Valley, a beautiful valley on the foothills of the Andes and where the old Inca ruins start. The best part for me was hanging out at this lounge bar which was all wood, with rugs of lama skin lying around and a few swings. Just lied down on the rug with a beer in hand and listened to local music. Loved it.

Inca Trail: The next day we took a small bus ride to the start of the Inca Trail. Again a beautiful drive but I really missed my motorcycle as we went through the curves. Inca Trail is more than 500 year old trail built by the Incas to go to Macchu Picchu. (Please click on links to see more details over these). The hike was going to be for four days but we did it in three. Babson students always do things faster, better. We hiked for 38 kms in 3 days, went upto altitudes of 4,200 meters, faced rain, falling rocks and ferocious animals. Worst of all no access to phone, internet and the blackberries were not working. Not even an TV! How the hell I was supposed to get updated on the Brittany Spears news? Anyways, these turned out to be the best hike for me ever. We had a team of porters with us. At lunch of the first day we had a surprise. We had a proper tent pitched with tables laid out complete with cutlery and clean plates and they even had warm water and soap to wash our hands. We were treated to fresh cooked food unlike most camping where you have to do with canned food. After lunch we left, the porters packed the tents and everything else, went past us and when we reached our night halt spot, they already had our sleeping tents and everything else already pitched. It was a great experience. Had some beer (thanks to an entrepreneurial lady who was selling it) and had a nice sleep in the beautiful valley. Next day turned out b tough to me, thanks to a heavy backpack I was carrying, my tendency to get AMS, heavy rains and 1,200 meters climb and then all the way down. This is when we first saw the clobber stones put up by the Incas and the architecture of old ruins. I can write in full details but it will go on for pages. We reached Macchu Picchu on day 3 evening and caught up with the rest of the gang (they took a train from Cusco). On Day 3 me and Andy were on a roll (a good day after my disastrous day on Day 2). We climbed down 800 meters and like a million steps in 2 hours. The path was all stones, with no proper structure. We were tired like hell and did not want to see anymore steps and our worst fears came true when we realized we had to still climb a lot of steps from the bus station to our hotel. Anyways, saw civilization, cars, phones, TV after three days. It was great to realize I can still live without them. Took a much needed shower, shaved, relaxed the muscles and hit the town! Had some nice Pisco Sours, dinner and chatted with the rest of the group.

Macchu Picchu: One of the seven wonders of the world, deserves that recognition. The old stone houses, the architecture, layout of the city looks like they used latest SimCity to design it. I was wondering who might have had a larger market share of construction equipment when they were building these cities: Caterpillar? Kawasaki? Or some local company. I do not know if these companies were global back then.

I was wondering all the way how the hell they managed to break those stones and form them into cubes? They used just to tools – A Wooden widget and water. These rocks back then were still soft as they are volcanic rocks. They would make small slots in the rock, insert wooed wedges and pour water on top. As the water froze, it expanded the wood the rock, being soft from the inside cracked open revealing smooth sides. We then went up Wayna Picchu. The mountain u see in all the pictures of Macchu Picchu. It turned out to be tough especially after three days of intense hike but it was worth it. The view from up there is breath taking. As the clouds flew over Macchu Picchu in the valley below, I just stood there and absorbed the essence of nature, human spirit to build these structure 600 years ago and human ability to achieve anything they have ever wished for. Hiked down, took the bus back to town and then the train and another bus to Cusco. The drive was beautiful. You will see in the pictures. I did wish I was on my bike! But I was in company of my friends, something I cherish as much. Partied like crazy in Cusco and left for Lima the next day

Beach House: We spent about two days in the beach house. We bought food supplies, beverages to complement the food. The beach was amazing. The waves were big, beers were cold and sun was bright. Everything we wanted. Most played beach volleyball while I and Vijay built a Babson logo on sand. It was a lot of effort but it paid off. We literally left our mark! In the night, I partied like I have never before. WE went to this awesome club, great music, open air and our own private table. Alex knew the owner of the place and we were taken well are of by the bouncer and the bar tenders. Had a lot of Vodka, Chivas Regal, red bull and water. We danced till 07:00 AM. Yes till 7 in the morning. It was crazy. I have never seen the sunrise while partying. Next day was again at the beach for most people but I was working on a paper I had to submit on Monday.

15,000 ft and below

2007-10-26T21:59:00.004-04:00

15,000 ft and below

(For links to pics and video please scroll down but do read the blog for the whle experience)

What gift did you give to your mom on her last birthday? I gave her shivers for hers. 30th September 1955 was the year when the most beautiful woman on earth was born, 52 years her crazy son jumped off an airplane. I called her a day earlier and told her I had bought a bike. She was silent and then very upset that I had done something very stupid. I told her I was kidding and then told her that I was going TANDEM SKYDIVING. All she said was be careful and have fun. She is the best mother ever. She encourages me to live my dreams or just that she knows she cannot help it. We drove up to Lebanon. Not the one in middle-east but the one in Maine. Five Indians, driving in a German car in US to a city named after middle east country to do a sport invented in Europe. Sounds crazy? It is. It was me, Raghuraj, Abhishek, Veer and Amol. We left early morning to get there on time but had to wait for a long time to get on the plane. If you are going skydiving and your reservation says 08:00 AM, it probably means you will take off not before 01:00 PM. We saw the plane taking off, going around circles to gain altitude and then leaving behind small black dots all over the sky. Abhishek was really worried that the plane was not reliable and it was leaving debris behind. Soon these dots were getting bigger and finally he realized that they were not plane’s debris but skydivers. We could make out who were experienced divers and who were tandem jumpers. The cameramen came the fastest and landed with high speeds followed by solo experienced jumpers. Then came the tandem jumpers with two people tied to one parachute. I do not know what is more dangerous, trusting tow person’s life on one parachute with one of them expert or one person per parachute who might know little about skydiving. I prefer the later but chose the former for some other factors. Our names were finally called out. The first batch was Veer, Amol and Raj. They got dressed, prayed and got on the Cessna Airplane .Soon they were floating down like birds. I shot a few videos of them landing. Next it was our turn. My instructor was Paul and Peter would be my cameraman. I got dressed in a nice red jumpsuit. Got a video shot and got onto the airplane. Now if you see this airplane, it is nothing like the ones you have flown in. First, there are no air hostesses, no drinks are served on board and the good part is no annoying pilot announcements. There is a irony though. Whenever you fly in passenger jet, there are like a 1000 instructions for safety and all you do is stick to your seats. Here, when we were actually going to jump off the plane, no announcements. They could’ve said “You guys are gonna jump of an airplane, please tie the person behind you to yourself.” We got up to 15,000 ft. The last time I was at this altitude, I was riding my bike. It was in Spiti Valley. So different. Last time I riding on a straight road at 60 mph and this time falling vertically down at 120 mph. Jumped off the airplane. A lot of people might think I was scared looking at video but I was far from it. I was just trying to listen to the instructor. Anyways, it was much less scary than you think it is. We did a Barrel, which is basically flipping on the back. The ground was still far far away but I was approaching it fast. Then Peter (my cameraman) was shooting me flying below me. I was surprised how much control he had. It was pure ecstacy. The speed, the wind, the sound of wind, the beautiful green valley below and the sheer rush of adrenaline were at levels I had never experienced before. Jumping off 15,000 ft is less scary than being hung at a height of 200 ft which I have been in a few rides. After a great free fall, the parachute came out. I was suddenly being sucked up into the sky and once the parachute was open and I saw the ground, I was consumed by the earth. I floated over the green meadows and flew through the clouds, the whole experience was heavenly. Paul let me control the parachute for a while and I will say, I go the hang of it. I did pull it too hard once and took a sharp left turn but then got a hang of it. We landed pretty fast compared to other jumpers. The first thought I had after landing was ‘when should I do it again’. Got my DVD and my camera roll of the fall and hit the road. Thanks to Veer who let me drive his BMW 5 series, the end of the day was awesome too. It was a wonderful car to drive. SO ladies and gentlemen, if you want thrill in your lives, go skydiving, otherwise just visit my webpage to hear my experiences.

The pics of the adventure:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=59643&l=0cebb&id=748825715

My Video of the Jump:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuti82LjF5Q

Lukan Environmental Consultants, LLP

2007-10-26T21:10:00.000-04:00

It is funny that when a person arrives at a new place, he/she sometimes forgets the very passion that brought him/her there. It happens with me. When I went to DCE, the passion which took me there were computers. I wanted to be a succefful computer engineer and work in organisations like ISRO and DRDO. Once there, I did not do too well to make it into these pretigious institutiions because along the way I lost my vision, I also forgot what I felt as a programmer. I went into an abyss. For people college is the best time of their lives, for me they were the worst. I was lost in that place. It was not that the college was bad or anything, it was one of the best engineering colleges in India. I was somehow a misfit. I lost my vision which I came with but graduated with a different vision to be an entrepreneur.

When I came to Babson, I wanted to be an entrepreneur. The first year was very busy, I had little money and I got too intangled in the great experiences Babson had to offer and my vision for being an entrepreneur was dwindling. I love the place though. I have met some of the smartes, most visionary people I have ever known at this place. But somehow I was getting intangled in the web of classes and cases and parties. Then the Rocket Pitch 2007 invitation came. I firt ignored it but then when the final call for pitches came, this was the time I realised I had to buckle up, I had to take control, plan my time better and start my own company. I shot an email to my new friend Nakul (its funny how crazy people always find each other) that we hav to do this. Its time to change the world. So Lukan Environmental was formed.

Its a passion to do good not just for ourselves but do our 'half-cent' for the environment. In fact even we we are able to do 'half-cent' it would be great becasue then we need onle 200 people to do that and we will haev a perfect environment. Sounds too ambitious? It is. "Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars".

What is the company about? We are putting up our website up soon. Please wait and watch.

Back to Babson

2007-09-02T23:29:00.000-04:00

Coming back to Babson

August 10th - August 21st 2007

After a great summer in Canada it was time to head back to Boston. I was up for a surprise when I got back to my place in Wellesley. The house was now occupied by China. It was a total invasion. Not that I am complaining. I had three chinese girls from the in-coming first year living in the house. They were all excited to start the new life in a new country and a new school. Reminded me of my earlier days in Basbon with hope in the eyes and ethisiasm in everything I did. After a year, the hope is a reality and enthusiasm has given place to new ideas.

I met all my friends and it was good to be back. Its strange how the perception of home keeps changing. A place which was so alien a year ago is suddenly home.

Before the school starts there were more exciting things to come by. Germany trip being one of them. We were supposed to fly on Friday August the 17th from Boston. Got the VISA sorted out on Tuesday of that week and I had no idea what the trip had in store for us. On Friday, some truck driver decided to get a little drunk and drove his truck across the median on I-93 blocking the traffic at both sides and hence making sure that some of us missed our flights. Yes, I missed my flight. The airline said they could put us on the next plane for a minimal charges of $2,200 per person. After making all possible efforts to convince the airline officials that we need to get to GErmany at all costs, we decided to go back and talk to our coordinator at Babson.

On Saturday we decided to head to Boston instead of sulking in our rooms cursing ourselves and the airline. It turned out to be a great day. Four Indians hung out at Quincy market, ate various cuisines of the world, watched an Indian movie and ended the day with a spicy Indian dinner. Shweta's non-stop chatter, Balaji's profound thoughts, Pawan's never ending stream of (supposedly) knowledge about everything on earth and incredible GPS made sure we never had a dull moment.

On Saturday night we got an Email from our program coordinator that she had booked us on flights to Germany on Sunday. I do not know how to thank her.

Lansdowne Trip

2007-08-08T19:02:00.003-04:00

Lansdowne Trip

20^th – 21^st May 2006

Two riders, one destination, a never ending journey

“I want to break free..I want to break free”

I heard this song at a pub with friends and realized that I really needed to break free from the clutches of daily mayhem. For me, there can not be any better way but to go for a long ride with my ‘babe’, my bike. After my minor accident in March, my parents had freaked out and were on the verge of selling off my baby. I somehow managed to save my marriage and now asking them for going on a honeymoon with her would be a little demanding. Anyways, I bought myself a pair of good quality knee protection. And using all emotional blackmail, marketing skills, got them agreed. This time also I went with Vivek, my biking buddy with whom I had gone to Karnprayag. Same people, same bikes, same Himalayas but a different experience everytime.

Everything was planned out and since it was only a weekend, two day trip lots of preparation was not required. I just wanted a good night’s sleep but God always makes it a point to test my guts and patience. I was sent to Baroda for some god-forsaken inspection and came back at 11:30 P.M. through Ahmedabad. Quickly packed my bags, took a bath and went to sleep. Promptly got up at 3:30 in the morning, tied by bags on the bike and set sail.

Met Vivek outside his house and we hit the highway by 5:00 A.M. The weather was showing sure signs of rains but it was cool and cool breeze was acting like a icing on a cake for the wonderful ride. Took a breakfast break at Chittal Grand. The roads in that area a lot improved since January, the last time I went there.

We were not sure whether we had crossed the turn towards Bijnaur but Vivek was a little confident that we were on the right track.

Worst would be we would have to take the route from Haridwar which would be something like 70-80 kms. etc. We hit the road again and found the turn around 21 kms. ahead.

The upper ganges canal before bijnaur

Before Bijnaur, the road was beautiful, smooth like the legs of Yana Gupta, curves like Angelina Jolie and the green trees encompassing it gave it the beauty of Aishwarya Rai. So smooth was the ride, so good were the corners that I had already decided to come back again. We crossed the upper Ganges Canal and the view of the large catchment area was stunning.

The continued to be good and smooth with very less traffic but the wet roads reduced our speeds considerably. We reached the foot hills at Kotdwar and then the long winding road started. Its about 45 kms of narrow twisting and turning road. Most of the turns are of only 40-50 kmph grade. The entire way has dried Pine Leaves spread like a carpet made the road look like a door way to heaven.

The Road

We very comfortably reached Lansdowne at about 10 A.M. Its one of the quietest hill stations and is not visible until you are there. It is like as if Himalayas are wearing a green robe, with decorations of pine leaves with Lansdowne kept safely and secretly in a deep pocket, protected like a valuable treasure. It is in the Pauri-Gharwal region and is the head quarters of ‘Gharwal Rifles’. The town is very small but well developed with well-maintained roads and concrete walkways across the entire town.

Gharwal Rifles were instrumental in the 1962 china war. A board outside there mess said that had all regiments stuck to ground like this one did, 1962 would’ve been a totally different story. They take a lot of pride in the small town and have maintained it well and quiet a number of buildings there

We first went to a small lake there. Indians can do boating even in a ub I believe. There was hardly any water in the small lake but there were still some people moving around in pedal boats.

We met Mr Donald duck

In the evening we went for a short trek to ‘Tipin Top’. Had a beer each in before hitting the bed.

Had a great 10 hour sleep and then woke up in absolute silence. After having a hearty breakfast, we visited two famous churches the ‘St. Mary’s church’ and ‘St. Anthony church’. They were built in 19^th century on request by wives of British officers for whom this place was a summer get away.

St. Mary’s Church also doubles up as a library and is laden with magazines and books on Gharwal Rifles. The interiors look very refreshing and for an atheist like me, the place was persuading me to start believing in god. I will once I am sure that people will never kill in the name of religion.

St. Mary’s church

I always wonder if only we could combine the architecture of Churches, the dedication of Sikhs, belief of Muslims, prayers of Hindus and create one common religion, the world would be a much better place to live. If only!!!!!

Then we went to the St. John’s Church. A mass was taking place and the nuns were singing songs of worship. The architecture was again medieval but very quiet and serene. One can just stay there and absorb the energy of GOD.

Saint John Church

Inside Saint John's Church

It was an enriching experience.

We then went back to our guest house, packed our bags and started our journey to home and with plans to visit ‘Karnvashram’, a sacred place hidden in the pines on a small hill. The route goes from kotdwar. It is a little away from the road connecting Haridwar to Kotdwar.

The road was bad and as soon as we left that road, it only got worse .They are re-building that road and the entire way is but a long pile of small stones. We anyways reached our destination and crossed the small stream to reach the temple. It is the place where Maneka wooed Rishi Vishwamitra and the place there Shakuntla gace birth to ‘Bharat’ who gave his name to our mother land. The panditji there was speaking English quiet well and was wondering whether we had come on trekking. He then told us a alternate route to go to Kotdwar.

Although there was no mettaled road but it was much easier than the other one and much shorter as well. We reached back kotdwar much quicker than we expected. The best part was riding on the round rocks on the river bed where your rear wheel goes on a tango with them without synchronizing with your commands. I had come problem in cornering as my bike started bouncing on high speed corners so I was lagging behind Vivek quite A bit.

Then I had a puncture after crossing Bijnor and it happened at 110 kmph. A little scary but I held the handle tight letting the rear wheel pass as much gas as it wanted, do as much tango as it wanted and braked slowly to a halt. I turned back as I had just passed the city and saw a puncture repair shop soon. The valve of the tube had come off and the tube was so hot one could hardly touch it. The culprit was a huge nail. If you ever run out of nails at your home, do not go to a hardware store, go and look around a puncture repair shop and soon you will have enough for months. The MRF shop nearby did not have a new tube and I had to go into the city to fetch one. After this we did not stop at all and rode all the way 145 kms. non-stop this time taking the Meerut city route. It was much shorter but passing through the city was bit of a pain and also more people around the city believe in moving perpendicular to the road that moving along it so you have to look sharply and be responsible for their lives because these people think they are immortal.

Came back home very comfortably at 6:00 P.M., all smiles.

Manali Trip

2007-08-01T22:43:00.000-04:00

This was not a biking trip but a road trip nevertheless.

Manali Trip22nd to 26th December 1999

End of 1st semester

Cool Mountain air

Heals the body ills

But only grouse and mountain binds

Can reach it

Beasts of the valley have no chance

To drink it

As 1st semester exams drew closer, we waited for them to end even before they began. We were already planning a get away to the Himalayas. The exams were going to be taxing. They’ll always be if you study at the last moment. Anyway, lets not talk about bad things in life. Me, Kartik, Ashish Ahuja and Vipul had plans to go for a vacation and were looking for more people and then Ashish backed out. That is when Naveen, the Ghisoo boy showed some interest. The first thing which came to my mind was “How many books is he going to carry?” Well, later we realized that he was just not a hard working guy, he was fun loving too. Now was the task of deciding the place. Nanital – too boring. Massourie – most had been there more than they had been to C.P. (so they claimed). We zeroed on Manali, to my discontent as I had been there earlier that year, but this time it was with friends and it was going to be different. Also, Girish, the timid (and stupid) Goliath (in India -Saabu), was now interested and said could get us a free accommodation at the IFCI guest house. Vipul arranged for a Sumo. The date decided was 22nd of December, although Vipul wasn’t very keen as it was a Thursday (after all he is a well educated Civil Engineer). We decided for a night journey. Vipul asked us to be there at bypass by 10’O Clock. We thought we’d save a fortune by not calling the taxi all the way to college. On the afternoon that day, Kartik came and said we had to be there by seven. Myself and Naveen rushed to the spot, a stinky, polluted one at the bypass. So much for the savings. This was going to be a long wait. It felt like eons. As Jain saab sat on his suitcase, reading some torn pages of an educative magazine, I brought Jalebis and some snacks. We had to do something so we started counting all the white Sumos that went past us. Has it ever happened to you that your heart pounds for a boxy looking car like Sumo? That day it happened with us. Our hearts soured as we saw one in the darkness of night and sank as it zoom passed. We counted around 150 and then gave up. Finally, after a wait of 4 unforgettable hours, the messiah arrived. Vipul was lucky that he’s still alive.The carriers were loaded and we set sail. Driving in the night wasn’t difficult as I thought they would be, rather we were going at a good speed. We reached the foothills and what initially seemed to be an easy climb turned into a tedious one. As the dawn broke, we could see the green mountains and that seemed to be one of the best sights one could see in this part of the country. One feature where the Himachal beats Uttranchal is that the Himalayas in this belt are far more green also, tourism is better developed. Anyway, in the morning we made a stop at a temple at Mandi. The view there is unparalled. The clear waters flow in the laps of a beautiful background of green heights. Our photographic expert Sir Vipul Gupta took two snaps and said would merge them. I think he’ll do it soon. There we met some gentlemen who told us that soon we’d find some snow. My hopes soared while Vipul got worried. One thing is there about him, it doesn’t take much to get him worried. Well, after that we looked for snow at every corner. We kept looking until we finally arrived at Manali in the afternoon. Soon we were fresh (in the cold of Manali, even looking at water makes you fresh) and were on the Mall road. I was very well versed with that road for reasons quoted earlier but still we kept myself busy looking at variety of people and the looking at the beautiful shops (and shoppers). Plans for next day were made. Rohtang Pass. Before going back to the rooms, we bought some reading matter. I cannot recall the name of the magazine but some of the illustrations were really great. My room partners were Naveen and Kartik. The nights were really cold and the extra blanket I had carried came in handy. Kartik although claims that he sleeps a lot, I’ve never seen him sleeping. He’s always the last one to go to sleep and whenever you wakeup, he’s wide awake. I think he was still in the examination mode, studying late and getting up early. Next morning when I woke up, bajju was watching TV and we woke Naveen and went for the morning tea. The major advantage with this accommodation was that it was pretty close to the Mall road. So the three of us walking (as the two other lazy guys were not ready to wake up so early in the morning) in the quite and cold streets of Manali had some tea at a small dhaba on the Mall. I think the dhabewala must’ve been a little surprised seeing such early customers. Being winters, we had to leave early for Rohtang Pass as it closed in the evening itself, fearing the snow blizzards. We got the lazy bumps move their butts and some how got them ready in time. At the Mall, the activities were on a full swing and it wasn’t hard looking for a Taxi. The most amazing experience was that of a Bengali couple who wanted to go but were backing out looking at five guys, more importantly Vipul and Saboo. We convinced Uncleji that we were engineering students and were decent. Wonder how is being an engineer a passport to decency. Raju bhaiya, our driver was an experienced one and the great journey became better after the delectable paranthas on the way. On our way up, we stopped at the frozen waterfalls. The three fatty guys also bought a pair of goggles each. The pass was even more beautiful that I had ever seen them before. The snow capped mountains at the distance were mersmerising. It looked so much close to heaven. When I look at all the photographs we took there, I want to have a SLR camera more than anything. Its no use taking photographs with our small cameras. What made the mountains look even more beautiful were the another of those beautiful creations of god. Since we didn’t have much money with us, we just roamed around in the snow and took a ride on the tube where you slide down the snow on truck tires. While we were appreciating the snowy peaks, which now seemed much closer, we saw this crazy guy who was getting himself shot in the snow without his shirt. “Paagal Hai!” everybody agreed. We all looked at each other. Why not try it ourselves? The plan was laid. Girish won’t do it (for obvious reasons). He was to be the photoghrapher. We put down out overcoats, which we hired on the way, quickly took of layers of clothes (only the upper ones!) and just giving two poses, dressed up again. All this took only about a minute or two and we never realized the difference. Still, we took a cup of coffee each and tried to get warm. Soon it was time to leave. While coming down, Rajju bhaiya showed us some scenery and we got some more places to our list to be visited next time. This day was well spent. In the night we had our dinner at the usual Laxmi dhaba. It was the best we could afford. One ritual, which we followed on all days at Manali, was of having softy. Daily after dinner we had a softy, trying for new flavors everyday. Next morning again same story was repeated. But today, we were to wake up the lazy ones. We banged their door for atleast 15 minutes but it seemed they were in coma. We always checked the Sumo and found a thick layer of ice on the insides. God knows how the driver and the helper managed. When we came back, we were received by Vipul, although still in bed but a little awake. From the few words we could understand, as he talked in his sleep, was that he also wanted to go. We packed our bags for a bath in the Vashisht Bath. It’s a hot water spring supposed to have medicinal qualities. Again, for obvious reasons, Our gentle giant was a bit reluctant to join us. Anyway, once he took of his clothes and entered the hot waters, he didn’t want to come out. It wasn’t that he liked taking a dip but for reasons which cannot be quoted in a document meant to be read by everyone. Later in the day, we decided to go to Hadimba temple and some more places. We took the Sumo and soon were climbing at steep slopes to the Hadimba temple. Hadimba was the wife of Bhima (a pandav). The temple is located in lush green coniferous forests. This forest is one of the best I have ever seen. When the shadows of tall trees fall on the moist ground, covered with moss, and you look at this picturesque scene from a big rock, the beauty just gets you. You want to come back again. I was tempted to go deeper in to the forest but it was closed for the public. We found a Yak’s skull which I wanted to take with us but everyone else felt it was disgusting. Also, no one at home would be too happy to see it. It was here I realized how capable Naveen was. He can hold astounding quantities of fluids in his body. We had to wait for a couple of minutes. Then we went down the Mall road on the banks of the Beas. After viling away our time there, we went back to the guest house. That day we dined at a very specila place which we love to call the hotel “Totta View”. This restaurant overlooked the entire mall and you could see all the beautiful faces without disturbing them. But the food there was a big turn off. The next morning as we went for our usual walk, I saw this unforgettable view. The white moon glew over the snow peaks. It was uncomparable. Really, never will man be able to create scenes as beautiful as those or anywhere close. No man made thing fascinated me more than this one. As for god, isn’t there Aishwarya Rai? What can be more breathtaking. Then we strolled to the monastery at the other end of the mall road. The monks were already awake and some of them were praying. The monastery was really beautiful. The silence in there said so much. Somehow, nature’s creations never leave you unastounded. I am saying this because of this beautiful grass leaf frozen in crystal clear ice. We tried to carry it back to guest house for our heroes but they were just not as lucky. Then started our journey back by the afternoon and left all the beautiful mountains and fun behind. Back to the polluted, dirty, congested but yet so nice Delhi. This journey wan’t as easy as we thought it to be. The fog made driving almost impossible. The helper looked out of the window at the road and guided the driver where to go. The slow yet steady speed and our sleep broke as the driver braked hard. The road had turned and we were going straight, right into a ditch. So were all the cars following us. The onward journey was going to be harder. Our lookout reported wobbling in the front, left wheel. The car was stopped at a dhaba where there was bare minimum light to assist repairs. As the driver took out the wheel, we were shocked to see that the wheel assembly had broken off from its place. I am very happy to be alive. I had egg bhurji with a roti. As the driver and the cleaner fixed the car, jain saab slept unaware of what was going on and woke up when the car was on the jack and went back to sleep for the better. Finally, juggaar technology, India’s patent technology, put the car back on the road. We just prayed that we reach home safely. This time we decided that the taxi would drop everyone home. I still remember the time at which I reached back. It was 5 in the morning and sleeping seemed to be the only option. I dreamt of Manali only.

Spiti Valley Trip - Ride to the Top of the world!

2007-07-29T20:07:00.000-04:00

They say life is not measured by how many breaths you take but by monetnts which take your breadth away. i can say after this trip, I lived a long life! 10 people, 1600 kms in 5 days, altitude upto 15,000 feet, a cold desert! I will write about he Epic Journey through the highest mountains of the world on a bike which would not qualify even as a small bike in the US market. Its not about the bike you ride its about how you ride it.

[Courtsey: Bunny Punia. This article was published in Bike India magazine.]

[Please visit http://www.xbhp.com to be a part of India's llargest biking community]

This is also paradox of life. Most incredible journwy of my life and I could not get time to write the log. Soon after the trip i got admission call from Babson and the trip log for the great journey never got finished. But I know Bunny has done a much better job.

Pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dhairya/sets/72157594166719815/

A ride to one of the remotest parts of India, where tarmac is a luxury, where coming across one vehicle an hour is considered lucky, where normal tourist don’t dare to even venture out into. Sixteen people attempted to do a ride to this location, six made it back in time. Read on…

Anthony Hopkins, the old lad from the movie “World’s fastest Indian” said, if u don’t follow through in your dreams, you better be a vegetable in life, a vegetable like a cabbage. Most of us have dreams, have passions. Most of us are really mad about certain things. Like my colleague Varad More who dreams of the fastest ride across India on a Gixxer. I too had this one dream, one goal, which I somehow wanted to achieve this June. At any cost. And I did it. Yes, we bikers are a different breed, as I mentioned in some earlier issue, we can go any lengths to realise our passion.

3rd June brought together sixteen enthusiastic bikers, all ready to start a ride of their life. Nine bikers from Delhi, three from Bangalore and one each from Pune and Hyderabad along with two pillions set out as the sun tore the horizon on the beautiful NH-1 towards the Hindustan-Tibet highway, NH-22 with a feeling of joy and adventure. But things are not always destined to go on like you want. Day 1 saw one big crash, one rider falling ill and another one’s arm wound getting worse, which only meant that we could ride till Shimla, 355kms from Delhi the first day. What a pity! At night after dinner, we all had a meeting in one of the rooms and it was decided five people would head back, including two pillions, as it was raining ahead on the route we intended to take. This combined with one of the riders returning back after getting a call from his office meant from sixteen, the number reduced to ten from Day 2 onwards!

Something brings many of us back to the Himalayas. It’s difficult to describe in words, the answer lies up there. The guys from down south looked forward to the remaining four days, after all till date they had only seen these majestic formations in pictures, and always daydreamt of riding around here. We left the capital city of Himachal Pradesh by almost 11am, hours behind schedule to take the winding and steep roads to Narkanda, situated at 9000feet above sea level. Thankfully, roads were good and weather-gods were by our side. We rode down towards Rampur, which lies along the ancient trade routes to Tibet, Ladakh and Afghanistan. It used to be the capital of the mighty Bushahr Empire in the 18th century which had its borders well into Kinnaur. Today Rampur is one of Himachal’s most important market towns. This is where we got the first glimpse of snowy peaks in the background. The roads were almost flat here and we were down riding next to the Sutlej river. But it wasn’t long before darkness creeped in and civilization started vanishing. The 2005 floods had taken their toll on the road and bridges big time and tens of people were killed at that time. It was after a town called Jeori that the roads vanished, making us slow down considerably and ride in dark. The initial plan of night stop at Ribba was changed to Recong Peo, the district headquaters of Kinnaur. At this route, the last gas pump is at Powari and its advisable to tank up here.

At dinner, we all realised how much behind we were w.r.t our initial plan and how badly we needed to plan out things. With double thoughts in my mind, I dozed off, hoping for the best for the next day.

“All my life I wanted to do something big, something bigger and better than all the other so called bikers. I had waited months for this ride and it was now or never for me. I had to do this at any cost. But I couldn’t just break from the group and go ahead all alone. It was my responsibility to make sure every one rode together. I was in a fix…”

Day 3, Monday the 5th of June brought a wide smile on our faces. As we had entered Recong Peo at night, we didn’t notice something. What we saw from our windows blew us away. The mighty Kinner Kailash peak, towering above the town at a dizzy 19965 feet was covered in a blanket of snow. Clouds hovered around the mountains and the whole scenery around the town looked awesome. But we had to carry on and after we were done with the daily routine of tying our luggage and checking bikes, carried on. But broken bridges and no roads made things worse. Time flew by and it was almost an hour past mid-noon and all we had covered were hardly 30kms. We decided to break up and carry on further. Till early this year, from Kinnaur, it was almost impossible to ride across to Spiti due to the Malling Nullah, a mountain prone to landslides on hourly basis. But an alternate road had been constructed through Nako, around 11000feet high. The hard decision to send back the pillions on Day 2 seemed totally justified now as the terrain became very un-forgiving. When all hope was about to vanish, we were greeted by smooth tarmac roads few kilometres before Nako. Consisting of numerous loops, the tarmac was pot-hole free, civilization ceased to exist and all we could hear was the wind noise inside our lids. The bikes struggled to climb even the minutest inclines due to thin air but when you have breath-taking scenery to soak yourself in, you don’t need to complain. The bikes were performing well till now but group had broken up into two, ours with four bikes and the second with six. The new road via Nako was full of hairpin bends and the inclines made us come on top of the mountain and awesome views greeted us on every turn. But joy was short-lived when we took the first hair-pin after Nako to join back on NH-22. This was worst than we thought. A so called path was crafted out of the hills, with sand and rocks all around. The path was wide enough for just one four-wheeler to pass through and average speeds fell to hardly 15km/hr. Fear of tyre puncture and cuts creeped in and how we wished we all had tubeless rubber with us. No doubt, they are worth every penny in such sort of conditions.

We entered Spiti valley just as the sun was about to go down but still had no trace of the second group. Left a message at Sumdo checkpost to let the other group know that we would be stopping the night at Tabo.

The Spiti Valley forms a unique socio- physical unit of Himachal Pradesh. This rugged valleys lie at the height of (3000 to 4551 meters) above sea level and sweeping view of this magnificent Himalayan terrain are common. This magical land consists of a network of soaring mountains and deep valleys. With a population density of only 2 persons per sqare kilometre, Spiti is probably India's lowest population density area, along with Zanskar. Time stands still here and if you machine lets you down, you are left at the mercy of god. No kidding. Night was at the Monastry guest house and Tibetian food was gulped down with glasses of water, a very important factor to keep AMS (acute mountain sickness) at bay. This was essential as we were to ride as high as 15000feet the next day.

As we went to bed at 10, we were still unaware of the happenings with the second group. Did they make it or got lost in the numerous un-marked turns? It was well past mid-night when we heard banging on our “deluxe suite” monastry room. Fearing trouble, we four got up together and gathered to open the door, only to be greeted by the second group, which had unbelievably made it to Tabo after riding more than four hours in dark through narrow rocky roads! Talk about adventure! Stories were exchanged and it was assuring to know that all the bikes were still performing well.

“When you don’t have any human beings around for miles and the road surface threatens to rip the bike’s suspension apart, all you can do is pray hard and carry on…”

It was pre-decided the last night that those who would want to indulge in photography would ride only till Gramphoo, less than 200kms away, while others would ride till Manali, 250kms away, through two passes, the first being close to 15000feet high. Six of us left Tabo at half past six for the most difficult and at the same time the most scenic ride of our life. The first 47kms to Kaza, close to 12000feet high, took two hours. The road was cut along the Spiti river and all we had for company were mostly barren mountains with little snow on the top. Kaza is the headquaters of Spiti Valley and also has the world’s highest electronically operated fuel pump run by IOC! There is no pump till Manali, around 200kms away and hence it’s advisable to have enough fuel in your tank. After a good heavy breakfast, we packed along snacks and enough water to combat AMS and set out for the most enduring part of the ride. 200 kilometers, no roads, two mountain passes, no civilization, no cell-phone connectivity, rain and what not.

The roads for quite some time are ok but soon they change into our worst night-mares. Elevation increases gradually from 12000feet at Kaza to 13000feet at Kiato to 13500feet at Losar and finally 15018 feet at Kunzum pass. This is one of the most toughest passes in India. There is no road, lot of hair-pin bends, rocks and dirt and snow on the side of the road. We came across overturned trucks lying aside in the valley and numerous workers moving away landslides. At such altitudes, its best to keep sipping water and one should avoid exertion too. The bikes, including Karizmas, refused to go into 3rd gear and had to be kept in 1st for over fifteen minutes before we made it to the top. As I switched off my bike, the surroundings took me in. 20000 feet high peaks, covered in a white sheet, towering above us. Complete silence, just the occasional wind noise and the sound of the bells from a small temple where every one payed a visit. I took a bottle of water, walked up a hill and sat there for a while. I had dreamt of this for months, prepared for days and rode close to a thousand kilometres for this. My eyes were glued to my three year old Karizma. It once again stood by me on yet another Himalayan trip. 38000kms on the odo, worn out chain set and clutch plates, engine ready for an overhaul and broken side panels! And she still got me here. One of the million reasons why I am in love with her…

After a rest of close to two hours, our group carried on for the ride ahead. Unfortunately we had to bypass Chandratal lake because we were running outa time but vowed to come back once again soon. We crossed many small glacial zones and soon rode along a river with huge mountains on both the sides topped up with snow. Six of us again broke up as time passed by and it wasn’t long before I realised it. As I took another turn, what I saw overwhelmed me. In front my eyes lay a part of Bara Shigri Glacier. It’s difficult to explain the sight. White snowy clouds started wrapping up the hills around and then I saw something on my tank bag, they were ice-crystals! I looked into my RVM, not a soul in sight. I took out my bottle and took a sip. As the freezing cold water hit my teeth, it sent a painful shock down my whole jaw reminding me that I badly needed a root-canal. I popped a Dolamide and carried on. Some distance after Batal, noticed a small sheltered dhaba and decided to stop for tea and eggs. The place was very cosy and warm. Fortunately others joined in soon and we all feasted on omlettes and chai for a good hour.

The remaining stretch to Manali via Rohtang Pass was again the same routine. 2nd and 3rd gear roads, rocks and slush. This was where the exhaust from the Unicorn came off its mounting points as well as the cylinder head. As we touched the Manali-Leh highway at Gramphoo, I realised why no one does Spiti Valley. The whole route from Tabo to here demands too much from both man and machine. It will make you cry with fatigue and torture your machine to the limits. It was here that the second group’s Karizma had to be taken in a pick-up! Rohtang greeted us with clouds and walls of snow and we headed down to Old Manali for a well deserved warm bath and hot food.

“The journey had almost ended. We had been through heaven and back. Form 40+ degrees to 0. It was back to basics. No hi-tech cities, no entertainment. It seemed to have happened all so fast and now it was time to go back to pollution, traffic jams, electricity and water problems. Why cant I stay and live here forever?”

The ride, or I should call an adventure was almost over for us. The next day would be a boring 565kms to Delhi. The second group couldn’t make it to Manali and took a day more to reach Delhi. In the end, of the total sixteen people who started for this ride, six went back by Day 2 and only six made it back in time on Day 5. Three bikes had to be put in a Mahindra Pick-up on different days while Unicorn’s exhaust came off. Speaks enough of the harsh and unforgiving terrain we came across. Infact many riders rate this route technically more difficult than Manali-Leh due to the fact that the latter route is used by Army and kept in good condition. But the scenery, the Olympian Himalayas easily made it up for the torture our bikes had to go through and the ache in every part of our bodies. We took a thousand pictures, hundred of videos to cherish those moment forever. It was back to the hustle-bustle of city life, but it also meant planning the next ride! Been there, definitely done that. So was it all worth it? Oh yes, definitely worth every single bump, every single gear shift, every single turn.

Rafting Trip to Rishikesh

2007-07-27T19:40:00.000-04:00

Rishikesh - Land of God!
The winters have started setting in. So has the urge to hit he hills. At xBhp if any season goes away without having taken the curves around the Himalayas, it would be disappointing. We decided not to go too far from Delhi considering we only had a two day weekend. To add flavor to the ride on the road, we decided to hit the waters as well. Not the ordinary calm swimming pool but he raging waters of the ganges. Dates decided: 22nd and 23rd October. Myself, Mr. CEO, Aditya and Vivek decided to go to Rishikesh and test the waters. Meeting point set was the Yamaha 1 showroom at 5:40 A.M. I reached the spot on time. No sign of anyone else. Some of the people passing the place were looking at me as if I was a brand ambassador or something for Yamaha since I was there in front of the showroom and was wearing my Yamaha labeled jacket. Only thing I could do was look at the beauties again and again. Anyways, Mr. CEO and Maverick arrived a full 1 hour late. We proceeded to meet Vivek whom we met at Mayur Vihar crossing. The journey started. On the very first curve, Vivek leaned the bike enough to generate sparks……..We took our breakfast stop at ‘Cheetal’. After having a hearty breakfast, we started ripping again. The only disadvantage of going to uttranchal are the bad roads in UP. The traffic was very erratic with sunny showing finger to almost every second guy. We reached Rishikesh by noon. It was late to do rafting that day so we decided to explore……Rode uptill the ‘chotiwala’ (which is very evident in the pictures posted), had lunch, arm wrestling (don’t ask the result from sunny), and lots of bonding. We then did a bit of off-roading and went upto the river. Did some photography and then proceeded to our camp which was situated 4 kms. Before shivpuri. The real hills start from rishikesh itself. So the ride upto the camp was most enjoyable in the lush green mountains and good roads. Vivek was great on the curves, he was riding the bike with utmost precision and taking the curves at optimum speeds, it was a learning experience for a first time hill rider like me……We over shot the camp and reached shivpuri. Again did some off-roading and went upto the river. It was great…The river was calm there, we had a full view of the mountains and there were babes…;-) There was sort of a sound coming from Vivek’s zma. The engine was not very smooth. We investigated, opened the filter thinking the filter might have come off when the bike fell….Actually when we had gone off-roading previously, his bike just skidded on the rock (at dead speed), no injury or anything just a little dent…..The filter was fine, although we noticed a bit of petrol there (can anyone tell why petrol came in to the air intake duct after filter????) The culprit was the silencer which got loose in the fall…Two nuts tightened and we were ready to go…..Reached our camp….had bonfire, stories, philosophy, photography (wid sunny and maverick wat do u expect)……….We went to our tents situated right next to the river…I had an amazing sleep with wonderful sound of flowing water outside….The morning was spent clicking some riding photos on the bikes….We went upto ‘Marine Drive’, the place from where the rafting starts in bus. Vivek, the most mature and the most adventurous of us wanted to ride on the roof of the bus which they refused. The rafting was great. The water was just right for rapids…If there is too much water, the rapids get very smooth, if the water is too low, they are too rough for comfort….In the first rapid we hit, Vivek fell into the water but his spirit was never wet, he was enjoying that also. Pulled him back into the raft and went on. Then it was time for ‘body surfing’. We jumped into the rough waters and floated on the waves. It was mind blowing. I realized one thing though that riding rough waters needs more skill and courage than to ride a superbike. Wonder what it means? Ask Sunny.Further down, we jumped from a cliff into the waters…….We’ll if you really wanna ask the experience…call Mr. CEO….. ;-) After finishing the rafting, went to the camp in a ‘Tata mobile’….Only Vivek sat in the cabin and the three of us at the back in the ‘diggy’ or the boot. It was looking like we were ‘Tsunami Victims’ and being rescued into a ‘refugee camp’…….Myself and Vivek decided to ride back the same day since we had office the next day. Sunny and maverick stayed at a friend’s place in Meerut. The UP roads get really bad at night. No one gives a ‘diper’ the roads are bad and the traffic is slow like a sloth.Reached back Delhi at 2300 hrs……Overall it was very enjoyable. Lots of riding, rowing, swimming and general masti. It was my best rafting experience till now.So Ladies and Gentle man, boys and girls…the next time you want to have a great weekend, try rafting.

Pictures

I have uploaded the pics at an other location. THe pictures will be uploaded on this site soon.

My take on riding motorcycles

2007-07-23T20:45:00.000-04:00

I, Dhairya Gupta have been riding a bike since 1997. I always loved to just ride the bike. Something just inspired me put my thoughts together what it means to me. When I started riding the bike, I had just got into Class XII. I was preparing for my IIT-JEE and had never even come close to as much studying as I was doing at that time. Finally I had a dream, a driving force which would make me push myself to the limit. But with great ambition, hard work, expectations came stress. They were the most stressful days and it was hard coping with it. But every time I would put myself on my Yamaha, kick start the 2-stroke engine and revved it, the stress would vanish. It was like being uplifted to new levels of ecstasy. The best part about having power the twist of your wrist is ‘freedom’. You are free from the clutches of the world, free from the cacophony of people, stresses of life. The ride upto my school or my coaching centre used to be a short one. But it had stretches where I would reach break neck speeds, ran the risk of colliding with an unexpected visitor in the road, the risk of life but just the feel of wind on my body was enough not only to dry the sweat but the tensions got evaporated as well. Does every person who’s riding a bike thinks the way I do? Not really. Like most other things, it could mean differently to different people. There are no right and wrongs in it. For most of the people in this country it is just an inexpensive, reliable and convenient means of transport used for commuting for work, visiting tens of clients in a day to meet targets, go out with the entire family to the nearest restaurant for a family dinner. These masses would very willingly switch to cars given chance and money to own one. They are right in there own way. Why eat dust and smoke if you could afford the luxury of a car. Then there are people who use the bike to ‘show off’ either in front of the opposite sex or to just be recognized in their friends. They might not necessarily like riding a bike but would show they are ‘cool’ and happening by seen on two wheels. This breed got a lot of inspiration and new recruits after movies like DHOOM. They normally do not care much about the safety and responsibility which comes with a bike. They ride without helmets because helmets are either to be hung on the arms, or on the helmet lock or even if they wear it, its only when they see a policeman lurking around. After all helmet hides there ‘John Ibrahim’ looks. Don’t they? They think they are immortal and look at safety with blithe. They are right in their own way, after all does it matter for how long you stay on planet earth. ‘Show Off’ until the show ends. Then there are ‘bikers’, for whom bikes mean everything. Bikes is the first and the last word in the dictionary. For them it is just the pleasure of being in the company of their steeds which makes them a different person altogether. They love their machines. They know that with great power comes great responsibility. They might ride fast, might do stunts but always keep their and other’s safety in mind, take all due precautions, they know how to control the bike. They are the breed which took the two wheels from just being just a mode of transport to an engineering marvel. Just riding on open roads consummates their very existence. I am one of those. Touring on bike. Probably this is the passion I live for now. When I tour on two wheels, I face the elements of nature in their raw form, feel the winds at 100 kmph., smile at each corner, concentrate on the road for hours on stretch, see miles being eaten up and experience blessedness. Its not an easily acceptable hobby. It enjoys maximum opposition from the family, astonishments from friends and awe from acquaintances. People say its stupidity to embark on a long voyage on two wheels given all the comfortable modes of transport. People just try to grab you and pin you down to their abysmal levels of mediocrity by saying it is not the best idea to cover 500 odd kms. in a day on a ‘bike’. But then who was last who felt really excited about going on a bus journey? Who was the last person who smiled, jumped with joy and felt elated after seeing a train which would take him on his holiday and when was last someone savoured Airlines food and did not crib about the long queues and procedures of boarding a plane? I think no one would have this answer because this never happened. When was last a biker was sad because he had to go on a trip on his bike? It’s a passion which is lived through the heart. Touring is an experience where the journey is the destination. You need courage and attitude to start a tour and brains to complete it successfully. Its matter of choice whether you want to live everyday like just another day or whether everyday means the first day for the rest of your lives. While riding my bike, the real person in me is unleashed, it tranquillizes the bad energies within me. When you ride on the roads, when every curve poses a new challenge, when you become a part of the nature, when the scenery fades only to re-emerge in a new form, when the smell of earth is more soothing than the most expensive of perfumes, when the rain pierces your body, when the journey is what you look forward to, when vehicles ahead soon become a spec on rear view mirrors, that is when you realise the power of biking. The smiles on the face of village children, the awe in the eyes of the eternal youth, the stare from the driver you just overtook, the thumbs up from the truck driver, the racing by the city riders in towns you cross makes every journey a memorable one. For every rider, the BHP matters but what matters most is the enthusiasm in the wrist twisting the throttle, the quickness in the foot shifting the gears, the force inside the body balancing the bike, the concentration in the eyes fixed on the roads and the strength of mind controlling all this. The torque is the driving force for the bike but for the ebullient rider it is the courage which pushes him to the limits of beautitude. Riding a bike spells freedom for the body and soul. Riding the two wheels is let out of energy within, it channelises the underlying thoughts and ideas, the deep rooted ambition. If we look around we hardly see any true biker who does not have a creative side to his personality, be it in form of art, writing, singing or any other. It does to me what music does to a lot of people, the absolute arousal of the cerebera. For me nothing would ever replace the passion of biking. Biking is insanity but then sanity is the virtue of the underprivileged.

A new blog to know everything about biking

2007-07-23T18:27:00.001-04:00

I am starting this new blog for all bikers to get together and sahre their trip logs, pictures and discuss destinations.

I will also keep reviewing bikes and new destinations.

Even if you love cars, you are welcome too