Delhi, A Trip and a New Job

So, here I find myself finally, back in the hometown of Delhi ... Delhi NCR to be more correct as the office is located in Noida.

Moving to Delhi was a different experience. I usually associated Delhi with pollution and bad traffic. It still has that, but the pollution seems to be lesser than what would be there in Pune in peak hours. The amount of vehicles on the road is mind boggling !

My first impression of Delhi was ... "hmm.. pleasant weather" , especially coming from the sweltering heat of Pune. The second one was "mmm. Good Food ! " !!

Trip to Dehradun

I still had a few days left in hand before joining the Job, so I decided on a quick journey home to Dehradun. This time I decided to go in the car, rather than in the train as everyone was suggested.

The route is not enjoyable for a drive. I think that the next time onwards I will be going by Train. Most of the road is a single land with mad truck drivers. Many times I had to slow down and almost get off to the road shoulder to avoid trucker/busses overtaking other vehicles.

A stop on the way.

But once you reach roorkie, the road becomes good. It is fun to drive through ! Then , once you get to UttaraKhand , the roads become even better ! The last few kms are through the Shivalik ranges and skirt the outside of the Rajaji National Park - absolutely fun !

Lapwings in the field behind our house

Mom and Dad with the Car

Roads just out of Dehradun - Paradise !

I just stayed a day in Dehradun, and then headed back. This time I took the canal route. This is a seldom used road, so the traffic is quite less, and it runs alogside the ganga canal from Haridwar to MuradNagar so you basically cut out all the Heavy Vehicle traffic. However, when I was doing the drive, many parts of the road were in bad condition, and at many places, the construction of the brick railings were in progress. Furthermore, at many points this road crosses other roads - basically bridges across the canal, and just before and after these junctions, there are unmarked bumps - which you have to be careful about. Apart from these irritations, this is quite a cool route.

The Canal Road

One97

On 6th I joined a new company. The company is in the mobile VAS ( Value Added Services) space. I was surprised to see around 15 people joining with me ! In the days of economic slowdown, the VAS industry is doing quite good ! I also had this feeling that we Indians don't have a Product mentatlity , as most of the software we use is from companies from elsewhere around the world - but this company proved me wrong. Many of the VAS products are being used by the big operators in India ( Airtel, Idea , etc ). The work seems to be quite exciting ! !

The office space is also designed in a very open manner. The managers share the same space as all the developers , and the cube (if it can be called that) height is half - so you can see from one end of the floor to the other. Advantages and Disadvantages abound - as you can easily see the length and breadth of the floor, but at the same time, it becomes noisy. Now, it is quite the same as what Wipro was, but I have been spoilt in the last few years of working in individual cubes - so that it feels quite noisy to me ! However, its a thing about getting used to , and I think that in a few weeks, i will not even be realising the noise ( the body is an amazing machine!)

What I really liked in the first few days of work is that there is a lot of Enery and Enthusiasm in the people here. There are hardly any whiteboards here, so the glass walls that are the walls for the few discussion rooms are used for writing. Pretty cool usage if you ask me . Also, there is no hard and fast rule of what to use and what not to use - e.g. I am using Linux as my standard OS on my laptop and a few other people are using Macs etc. Nice.

Now, for the new few weeks my concentration is going to be on work and finding a house. So forgive me if I do not update here more often !

Farewell Ride with Pune BN

Last weekend was probably my last ride with the Pune BikeNomads. I am relocating to Delhi/NCR and this called for a ride.

Initially the plan was to ride to Murud as we had a couple of friends of Jolu who were going to do some documentary shoot with us, but they got held up with their college work. At the same time, a friend and I were discussing about going to Ahmednagar to meet H as his dad had passed away. So, late of Saturday evening, the plan was finalized. We called up all the people who were to come on the Murud ride and told them about the change in plans. Some people were to come from Mumbai also, so we had to apologize to them and explain the reason. I would say it was something I influenced, as I felt that we should visit a nomad to show out solidarily and support, and cause I knew that I would not be meeting H again. Added to that was the attraction of visiting the Tank Museum - a one of the kind place in India, which is based out of Ahmednagar.

Sunday morning the plan was set - meet up at AdLabs Kalyani Nagar at 7:30am. I reached there and only Amit was there before me. It seems that S & N told everyone else that we were to be meeting at 8, while they told me to be there at 7:30. Nasty. :(

Waited and people started turning in. Finally we were short only N. He was getting late and said he would catch up with us on the 5 ( R15). So, around 8 we left. 7 bikes + 1 pillion.

Its a nice sight to see so many bikes on the road following formation riding rules. However, due to heavy traffic and also because the road was mostly single laned, it was difficult to maintain it for long. Within a few mins we got split. I was the tail, but the one in front of me was a bit slow, so I moved on ahead and caught up with the main body of the riders. At the 2nd toll gate, which is at Ranjan Gaon, we had a puncture. It was Jolu Warrior's bike which went flat as soon as it crossed the gate.

From Ahmednagar Tank Museum

Asked around and we found a puncture shop just before the gate . I guess it is not coincidence that most of the punctures happen in the viscinity of puncture shops ! The tyre tube's valve had a cut also - and the chap only had splendor's tyre tube. While a couple of guys went to look for a more fitting tyre tube, we had our first cup of tea in the morning. While having tea we got a call from N, he had crossed the tool gate, and had gone ahead. We asked him to turn back and try to get tyre for the rear wheel of the Karizma. Finally after a lot of calls between J, S and N we got a tyre tube - which was not for the zma, but finally giving up the hunt for the time being lost, we settled for this. Around 1.5 hours were lost in this.

It was almost 11am now, and we still hadn't had any breakfast. so we decided to stop for breakfast .. but S & A were ripping ahead and went on ahead. Called up S and told him to turn back to the BP petrolpump for the breakfast stop. Along with them also came PS , whom these guys had seen up ahaed. So, there we were 10 bikes in all !

From Ahmednagar Tank Museum

From Ahmednagar Tank Museum

The next bit was uneventful. The road becomes progressively worse with some road narrowing work in progress ! We reached Ahmednagar around 12:15 and PS was in the lead as he had been to H's house earlier. By his estimation we were still some 30kms away, when he suddenly pulled up at a gate saying we had arrived ! ;) Talk about distance estimations ! lol !

All of us parked up outside H's house where a prominent board displayed "no parking for boys" !



Had tea and general gupshup and timepass. H's Uncle also joined us. He used to be a bike fanatic in the heydays and regaled us with stories of his bike and how he took away the door of a car once ! One comment which would not go out of my mind was when he ashed whose bike the blue one was, and then the subsequent comment " mere ko maloom tha woh kise chickney ke hogi ! " ;-)

From Ahmednagar Tank Museum

The next stop was the Tank museum but it being almost 2:30 we had to have lunch first. Around 4 we reached the tank museum which had on display the tanks of yesteryears and the wars. Did you know Roll's royce also made armoured cars ? It was an eye opener with the different tanks on display.

From Ahmednagar Tank Museum

5:30 we moved out and said goodbye to H, but it was almost 6 by the time we left Ahmednagar as there was a politician bigwig giving a speech to a crowd bought for the purpose. After sometime the guys stopped for a 'ciggy break' , but i decided to move on. I am not as fast a rider now, and wanted to put in as much distance as possible before dusk. Stopped for a shot of the windmills and then moved on again. I really need to get a waist pouch for my camera as its a time waster having to stop, take off my bag, take out the camera case, take out the camera etc etc.



As darkness crept up , we stopped for tea, and decided to follow formation for the rest of the ride. However, again due to the night and traffic we managed to get split up after 15mins. I was getting left behind, and with no markings on the road, it was difficult for me to find any guiding signs to go fast. After sometime, reached ranjan gaon, and with the road becoming better and the road marking reappearing, I started moving faster. Latched onto an alto which was going fast and followed it for some distance and then it suddenly slowed like the person driving it got terrified of doing the high speeds. Luckily there was a Scorpio who was going fast, and I started to follow it.

At Shikrapur we grouped up as PS ( who was leading with his allpoweful HID) was splitting up for Mumbai. The only person missing was S, and we called him up. He was riding the last, and he though that I was still behind him. Little did he know that though I don't enjoy night riding, I have a few tricks up my sleeves to still go fast ;)

After this the road became quite crowded with the traffic suddenly increasing, like everyone had just woken up and suddenly came onto the road ! I was following Jolu now , and we finally arrived at the dispersal point - Dass at Kalyani Nagar. C then took our group pics with auto shoot mode, with experimentation using various motorcycles as the base :) . Finally satisfied , we split up, but hardly had I gone 100mts that I had to stop. Some politician was going to the airport and the police had blocked the roads :( .



Reached home at 9:15pm, 256kms done. Not a very long or fast trip, but quite memorable.

Hedvi

5am. Man its so tough to get up. Shake myself off the lethargy of the warm cosy comforts of the bed, and get up feeling a tinge of excitement about the upcoming ride. 

6am. Down in the parking. Fixing up the haversack with bungie chords. Funny, its been so long since I have fixed the bag in this way - takes me almost 15 mins. Cramster saddlebags have spoilt me - but they are too big for just a night-halt-over kind of ride. Just as I am finishing off , i get a call from Jay - he has already reached the staring off point - Chandni Chowk in Pune. 

I headup to my house. Lock it up. Open the door again as I think I did not switch off the light, find it switched off and head back down. Put on the gear, except my gloves, which i stuff inside my jacket and move off. 

There is something exhilirating about an early morning. Some promise of something grand. A whiff of enthusiasm about a new day. I am amazed to see so many people already on the road - the sky is completely dark at this time. Kids in school uniforms waiting for busses at 6:30am near the Pashan circle as I head up towards Chandni Chowk. As I pass the army area, the chill hits the hands. Wow ! The drop in temperature was quite sudden ! 

6:40am and I am at Chandni Chowk. Jay and Somnath are there. Rishi and Narendra, the other two guys from my office are MIA. Tried to call them up, no response - they are probably on the way. The dawn is just breaking ... and I try a few shots in the semi-twilight. 

7:00am [ 0 kms ] Finally everyone is here, and we start off. Somnath is to lead the way , and he has been cautioned to go a bit slow as we have new riders. 80kmph speed limits and the next stop to be for breakfast. The rookies have been let in on the big plan - we ride without many stops ! Thats it. No over speeding, no racing, just very few stops. The traffic on the highway is quite sparse, and we make good time. 

8:30am [ 52kms] Stop at Ram Vade Waala for breakfast. This place is crawling with people ! I am stumped - why so much of traffic. Thats when Naren says - probably all going to Mahabaleshwar ... aah ! We quickly assess the route again - do we go through mahabaleshwar and head over to Nh17 or go via Umraj and make a turn to chiplun ? We decide on the later . The pleasures of riding with a group - new plans made constantly ! 

The ride after that was pretty simple. Nice straight highways with the run rising over the small hills on the left side. A few breaks for water and we reached Umbraj at 11:30. Hmm, we should reach chiplun by 1, so we decided to ditch having lunch there and directly go to Hedvi . Somnath called up the fellow in Hedvi and asked him to get lunch ready for us. 

Umbraj to Chiplun is ghat roads. Till halfway, the roads are bad, but around 30-40 kms before chiplun they become smooth and are fun to ride on ! On the left side is a river ( i dont know the name , and google maps does not show the river) .

Chiplun took us some time to get through. The helpful people there pointed us right at the center of the busy weekend market, where progress was at snails pace. Finally out of it and we chugged along ahead towards Hedvi. Rishi was keeping up with Somnath far ahead in the distance, while I brought up the rear. After asking directions again and again , a few turns later, we were at Hedvi. 

13:30 [288] Reached the resort in Hedvi. The less I write about it , the better - its not something I would recommend to people. Just a room to stay in, with common toilets . sigh. 

We wasted no time and called for lunch. SouthIndian style. Finshed that off and Jay and I decided to take a breather and sleep the afternoon off - and got joined by Somnath. Rishi and Naren decided to chill out under the trees near the beach. 

Finally around 4:30pm we moved onto the beach. It was still quite hot, but Jay and I were hoping for some good sunset shots - the only dampner - the clouds on the horizon. However, it were the same clouds which turned the sky into a riot of colours ! Check out the pics cause I can't describe it in words. 

Evening went in gupshup and another round of dinner which was same as lunch. We also settled our bills there to take care of the early start, and also as we could not bear another round of the food there ! 

Next Day

Jay was to leave really early, and in the process all of us got up :) .. though we finally started off quite late around 8:30am. I took that opportunity to use the public loo before others ( ;-) ), and also to take a few shots of the dawn. Man, it feels so fresh up at that time. Pity, I don't do it more often. 

Breakfast stop was at Chiplun. The ghats from hedvi to chiplun are quite good, but this time, for the first time, I got a backache . Somnath gave me a couple of disprins to eat - which lasted me quite a bit almost all the way back to home. 

After that we followed the same route back. At the top of the ghats, we stopped for a photo shoot . Somnath had zoomed far ahead, and it was just the 3 of us. At that place is a police checkpost - where the chap after seeing us stop called us over to the hut. Asking for our DLs etc. Then started filling in info in their book. Luckily for us the first person he asked was Narendra... 

Officer : Whats your name ?

Naren : Narendra K

Officer : Na... ?

N : Narendra

O : Fullname ?

N : Write Narendra K

O : give full name. 

N : Narendra Katlamudi

O Writes down "Narendra K" ;-)

That was quite funny ! Then I asked the cops why they are harrasing us when we have stopped and they are not stopping the other people who just zoom past. Officer said that tomorrow is Republic Day so he has to do these things, but I guess by this time he got tired of writing down a single name, so he said ok. Being the evercheerful guy that I am , i asked if he can take a pic of ours ;) . He passed on the duty to his hawaldar, who in turn called the local shop owner and told him to take pic :D

The journey after that did not have much to write about. It was a very hot day though, and we had lots of water breaks. The good thing was that all 4 of us kept together almost thorughout the journey, with a  couple of dashes to break up the monotony. 

4:30pm [588kms] and we are back at my house. Somnath had parted way just before Pune, while the remaining 3 split up at my house. 

Felt good to have a trip after a long time :D

And then in the evening I went out for a short drive ;)

Pic Links : 

• Hedvi Ride - Vibhu
  
• Hedvi Visit - Jayaram
  

Night stay at Murud

Last weekend ended up in Murud by chance. The initial plan was to go to Alibag, spend the evening there and be back the next day. This time by car, as S and another friend couple were going to join us.

Left Pune around 2pm and headed out via the old NH4. I wanted to take the khapoli exit after a stop at the hotel RK (Ram Krishna) in lonavala. However, being a sat afternoon, Lonavala was choc a block, and so we decided to move on. Exited at khapoli , went to Pen and crossed over to the road to Alibag. Reached there around 5pm - and oh boy - what a disappointment it was ! The small beach was overflowing with weekenders. Tried to find a hotel - and the best over there did not meet with the ladies approval.

A lunch break later ( it was late for lunch, but still too heavy for being called a snack !), we decided to head out towards Murud and try to find a place. The reasoning was that even if we did not find a good place, we can drive through the night and be back in Pune.

Sunset on the way

The first stop was at Prakruti Beach Resort - which strangely was in a direction opposite from the beach. Next to it was also Sea Touch hotel - again without the sea in sight. The guard at Prakruti disallowed us entry as we did not have a booking ! Hmm..

Kept heading towards Murud and at Murud came to the Golden Swan Resort. It was a neat place - which was really next to the beach ! Luckily for us , there were a couple of rooms available, which after some barganing we got for 2800 per room. Steep price but good rooms. A/C , Tv, the works. Food not included.

Dropping our luggage in the room we had dinner (it was already around 9pm by this time ) and headed out to the beach, where we stayed chatting till midnight. There is something about being out there on the beach in the dark , listening to the sound of the ocean, which is really soothing ! Pitch dark, with a half moon. That did not deter me, and i started experimenting with taking night shots (and cursed myself for not getting my tripod along !). The results are as below.

Moonlit sea

Also tried a shot of the moon at the max 12x zoom afforded by the S5 IS. And the result is something which is on my desktop now !

Cresent Moon

We all turned in at 1am with plan to get up early morning and take pics of the sunrise ( not matter that we were west facing, and the sunrise wont be seen). Alarms set, we dropped off to sleep...
... and promptly turned off the alarm as soon as the cellphones buzzed.

ah well - thats what a holiday is for anyways !

Went into the sea and frolicked there a bit. None of us knew swimming, but we had a great time! No pics, as the camera is not waterproof ! Canon does come out with water proof casings, but I did not have one.

Returned around 10 to the cottages. We had to vacate by 10am actually as the resort was to be shut down for 2-3 days for pest control. Breakfast was quite pathetic. This place has buffet for meals, and by the time we went for breakfast, most of the things had finished off - and still they wanted to charge 150 bucks per plate. Finally after a bit of convincing got them convinced to charge per item basis.

Quack ?

We did plan to go to Janjira, but the plan was dropped as my friend's wife was not feeling well. The way back was almost the same , except at khapoli i took the expressway to pune. We got back quite quickly - took around 4 hours - with a break for lunch on the highway cafe (not good food, but no other option on the expressway).

I would recommend the resort for anyone going to stay. Don't eat there - try other places around if you can.

Round Trip

Rippling Lake
Originally uploaded by vibhu

I went for a ride yesterday morning.

My bike had a bit of problem. Actually a lot of problem with the engine having seized up. Finally with the help of Praveen , we went hero honda workshop hunting and contacted the people at the HH showroom in Pashan, and they then dragged the bike back to their workshop. After a week at their place, i got back the bike on saturday. So , time now to put in some kms. Late saturday night posted on BN about going on a ride on sunday, and smsed a few people. Mostly got nay's as a reply - which was a good thing, cause a start at 7am as originally envisioned did not happen. I got up close to 8am, and was out of the house at 8:30am.

The route i took was Baner -> Chandni Chowk -> Mulshi -> Tamhini Ghat -> N17 -> Pen -> Khapoli -> Lonavala -> Pune. In all 280kms.

Ride to mulshi was a slow one. With people getting up on sunday morning, the small villages on the way were getting crowded. The road was good in parts and real bad in others - quite bumpy. stopped at Disha's Dhaba at mulshi, and ordered Omlet Pav with tea. Also picked up one bottle of mineral water to drink on the way. The stop was 20 mins and then i moved on, looking for a good place to take a few shots. The above pic is halfway between mulshi and Tamhini - you get a good view of the lake.

This stop was a long one. I felt at peace. Alone , and out there with nature. The gentle sound of the waves lapping on the shore. The sound of crickets. The wind. Bliss.


Shaking off my revere i moved on. Tamhini ghats is real bad now. The road surface is quite bumpy, and it takes all the fun out of the curves. The bike was behaving quite well and sticking well to the road. As I decended from Mulshi, the air started to become hotter. The road comes out at Kolad, and that place smells quite strongly of fish. The sea is near I think. From there took the right towards mumbai - the road is a single lane highway coming from Goa. Road surface is quite good, but the traffic is quite high.

Stopped after a time and saw missed calls and sms update from the GQ. thats when i noticed the leaking engine. The oil had come onto my shoes, and was dripping a bit. Hmm... took a swig of water and thought what to do. I was at the max point, and there was no shorter distance , so just started to ride back.

Took the turn from Pen towards khapoli. This is one great twisting road. Unfortunately my speed was severly restricted due to new piston riding limits and now the oil leakage. Still, it was a breeze going faster than the trucks inching up on the steep incline. Just before lonavala , this road merges with the express highway and for this brief stretch bikes can ride on the highway, and it was an ejoyable ride before taking the exit to Lonavala. At Lonavala stopped for a bit at RK for a limca. Checked the oil again, called the service center guy and talked to him.

Ride from here to Pune was uneventful. was at home at 2pm. Reached the service center at 2:30. The issue was found to be a problem with the engine gasket. The chap replaced that - and said 'sorry'. Man. i really like giving my bike here for service !

All in all, it was a good ride. Back in the saddle again after a long time. Back to riding solo after a long time. Gave a good amount of time to think alone. Also got feedback from the body that i have become soft. I had to stop every hour as the butts would hurt. But I enjoyed every single moment of it !

Ride Safe !

Pawna Dam Ride

It all started with Captain Nandu Chitnis's post on BN about an early morning ride to Pawana dam he was planning with the Photogaphers at Pune group (P@P). The ride was to be on Saturday morning, and I jumped at the opportunity. In next to no time we had a good lineup raring to go. Aditya, Praveen, Kedar, Shaunak, Seon just to name a few.

Capt was adamant of meeting at 6am at CC. For him its 'shit-shave-shampoo' and you are ready. For us late nighters, its not so simple. It takes a long time to regain the senses. Got up at 5am so that could reach at that time. And reach I did !

We were around 11 bikes including 3 from the P@P club. Chugged off towards Pawana. The initial part is taking the road which leads to Mulshi. Somewhere after the Manas resort we lost track of the people as both me and kedar were overtaking the trucks on the ghat roads. Now, there is something about the ghats that excites both of us. We like to go fast there. At the base we figured out that 'oh oh. the other guys are not here'. Back we went - nope. They are not there. Down we went, again did not see them. Back up and then down again , and i see them off to the left side of the road on a pleatue kind of place. Image - its pitch dark. All the bikes have gone off the road, and all of them with all systems off. No indicator lights - no wonders we missed them.

Lesson #1 : If you have to go off the road, and are in a convoy, leave some indicator lights on.

It seems that it was a good point to take the civil twilight pics. But by the time me and kedar found them, they were ready to move on again. So off we went, and this time we were joined by Praveen who had come a bit late.

Off again.

We got lost again. Reaching a village in between, we saw an indicator indicating left side. Took off there, assuming it was one of us. Noone else in pune is into giving indications while turning. We were wrong. Asked for directions to Pawna, and found out we were going the wrong way. Turn back, go again. Found Praveen waiting at the right turn for us to catch up.

Now the road becomes bumpy, with rubble on the patches that has gone wrong. It looks like they were going to mix tar with the rubble, but i guess some corrupt official pocketed the tar money.

Found the group on a bridge on a small river. It was a fantastic site. The steam was rising above the river, making the place appear surreal. Pictures illustrate it better :

Fog on the river

We came that way

Since we reached late, we guys took a few pics and then started off again. Kiran who had left with the main group, was stopped just a way ahead and taking a few pics. Off we zoomed in search of the crowd - which had again disappeared. Thankfully Praveen's hawk eye saw them way off the road happily taking snaps. Err.. lesson#1 ??

Since i knew that Kiran (guy on the TB) was behind us, I parked my bike just off the road, and being the big yellow tweety that she is, he was easily able to spot us. It also meant that when the sun peeped over the mountain, we got great shots of the bike! To check out an even more impressive shot, take a look at Kiran's photo of tweety.

Sunny Tweety!

There after, we were mostly in a group all the way till the damn. It's a fine dam, but the only issue was that it was a very hazy morning. Still, this afforded a good lineup shot of the bikes!
After some photoshoot session here, and btw, Aditya got some great shots, we decided instead of going back , to head over to Lonavala for breakfast. Here I gave some gyan to captain, as I was tailing him on the last section. Here also, captain wanted to ride tweety for sometime, and so i was on SF ( Street fighter is the name captain has given to his pulsar 220). Its a nice bike, feels more planted than the karizma, but ... on bad roads ... you better take care of your family jewels.
We rod on to find this amazing road cutout in the hills. There we bumped into Mr Srinivasan, who was in a m800 and he was very happy to see us young riders (he is 63 years old). All of us wanted some shots of riding here, and Mr S also wanted to take the pics. Talking to him we found out he was aslo an avid rider in his youth , having done the K1000 3 times long back ( around when i was in diapers). Sometime you bump into most unexpected people !

Onwards to Lonavala, and after finding directions ended up at RamaKrishna (RK is a favourite hangout - its got good parking space :) ). When we reached, we found an R1 parked there, and off we went, taking snaps of it. It belonged to a scotting guy who was over from mumbai for a ride.
Breakfast over, we ripped back to pune. The plan was for most of the guys to come over to my place to collect the BN Ts and also the 2008 calendars. Initially I too ripped, till traffic cut me off from Shaunak and Aditya (who was riding crazy with his wife as pillion !). Then I slowed down. Rode behing captin for some time - and man, he was riding very well. More than riding fast, I think that a person should ride as fast as he is comfortable doing, and captain was doing just that.
Reached pune around 1pm. Nice short ride. around 140kms in all.

Bidar - Revisted

After a lot of dilly dallying, falling sick with vertigo, umpteen postponements, we finally went to Bidar.

This was my 2nd time to this holy place, but first time for Soniya. This time we went by lightning, with a couple of more friends - Manav and his wife Nidhi.

Since the distance was just 120kms (confirmed by my last blog), we decided to take it easy. We were to leave by 8am, and only go to the gurudwara. The route out of hyd was ok. The main difference I see between a bike and a car are :

• I have to wait patiently behind other cars/trucks/tractors, sing a song etc, as I don't have much chance of overtaking on a single lane highway.
  
• There is a breed of drivers more dangerous than the 3 wheelers in the city. These are the white indica cab drivers.
  
• The second most dangerous drivers are uncles in Maruti 800s.
  
• On a bike, you dont even realise the above as there are too many big gaps to overtake on.
• You can listen to songs, but if you have been driving for long, the songs become stale. You crave for switching them off, but when you switch it off, it becomes boring and sleepy.
  
• The day which is perfect for biking is one in which you switch on the AC in the car.
  
• You can eat and drink while driving.
  
• People usually see you.
  

Our first stop was to be at the Reliance A1 plaza, but it was closed. I don't know whats with the reliance and AP, but all the plazas are closed it seems. So, we went on further and came across an AP tourism stop point, where we had tea and coffee. The only thing they had on sale was some puris - nothing else. Wonders why the govt even bothers to open up such places.

The turn off to Bidar is at Zahirabad. Last time the road from here onwards was not very good. However, this time round the road had been metalled up and was pretty good to zip on. My wife drove here and was just enjoying the drive.

At Bidar the gurudwara is on the main road. Just keep following the road and you come across an arch on the right side which has something written in Gurumukhi. Cant miss it. Turn in from there and a short descent later we were at the gurudwara. Being a weekday , it was quite empty.

Darshan at the Gurudwara

We spent some time at the darshan, and soaking up the atmosphere. There is something wierd about the atmosphere. The sikhs there sing the holy songs - which at first sound quite jarring, but if you just sit there inside the gurudwara, a feeling of peace steals over you, and you start enjoying the songs , which just a while back were getting to you.

The gurudwara has a 24 hour langar (food for the faithfuls) which ate. Just prior to leaving the gurudwara, we went to see the spring adjacent to the gurudwara. Legend has it that when Guru Nanak had visited Bidar, the area was under a severe doubt. He stuck his sword in at the ground , and a fresh water spring came out of the hole. This spring is that one. We took a sip each of the crystal clear water, and it tasted really good. People were filling up bottles with the water to take back home.

The fresh water spring

On the way back we stopped at a Bharat Petroleum Ghar. I think they are starting on a similar concpet to Reliance A1. This one though was operational, and the food was good. I would recommend it to people who are travelling on this route and want to stop for some food.

BP Ghar

The way back was uneventful except getting frustrated with the traffic and the road. I remember this road being the same for god knows how many years. On both sides the road widenning has started, and then forgotten. Took the turn at BHEL to avoid further traffic buildup and crused home via gachibowli, avoiding the people sauntering across the road - jumping in your path as soon as you draw level with them.

I enjoy touring, but I dont like coming back to the city!

Breakfast Ride/Drive

Its been a long time since I hit the highway. So, decided to hook up with a few BNers this weekend. Decided to go to the A1 outlet on the Nagpur highway and meet up with GR. 8am we were to meet up at Runway 9 . The excuse was that we would distribute the BN Ts, but unfortunately, they had not arrived. Decided to head out and enjoy the morning anyways.

I think I have forgotten how to get up early ! Reached around 8:20am, by which time the BNers were already there. GR, Naveen and Mohit with their bikes. This time I was going with my wife and a couple friends. I went in my Verna.

Intros over (first time I was meeting Naveen and Mohit) we decided to move towards A1. I took GRs spanking new 220 and rode up till the A1 restaurant. This was the tough part - sunday morning, nice highway road, and doing max of 65kmph as the bike was being run in.

Reached the A1 - but it was closed. I dont know why reliance wants to waste money. The A1s on both the Pune highway and the Nagpur highway are closed. sigh!

So, we decided to head out more , towards Nagpur and get a dhaaba. Finally came to a Punjabi Dhaaba where we pulled up and had aloo paranthas with anda bhurji and chai ! Swapped bike stuff with the BNers. But I think my cager friends got bored ! :)

GR on Quicker Silver

The men and their machines. From left : Pulsar 220 with GR, Mohit with Pulsar 180, Naveen with Karizma R, Vibhu and Manav with Verna.

Srisailem - A cage car trip

18th I went on a different trip - this time in a cage ... errr.. I mean a car.

A colleage of mine (Jinny) was impressed (??) by my tripping around on the bike. So, she wanted to go and see the country side - but in her car. Oh well, lets go I thought - not often I get to ride drive a car.

So, the plan was made and the location set as Srisailem after consultation with my walking encyclopedia friend GR ( he works in NRSA and has a pretty good idea of offbeat places to visit).

As usual, got up late. We were supposed to leave at 6 - got up at that time ! :-) Got ready and around 7am hit the roads in the cage. Getting out of Hyderabad was easy as another friend from BN (Partha) had given good directions ( follow the gachibowli road till you come to foodworld, take right). We were out of the city in half an hours time. This part of the city is relatively less crowded than the Mumbai-Hyd side. Roads were good and we made good time. The road has small signs for Sriselam and its relatively easy to find your way.

Kids trying to sqeeze the cyle between the bus and our car

The problem on this route is that there are no good eating joints - so it would be better if you carry your own food. In a car thats the advantage and kurkures came to our rescue ;-).

The road after Hyderabad

We reached Mannanur without much misadventure. Stopped at the checkpost there - to register our car number ( and the official on duty there asks for chai-pani) . Came back to the car ( I was driving) and the car would not start ! Oh boy !! Here we were - middle of someplace in a modern car and it would not start ! Tried looking under the hood ( does not make much sense) and someone suggested that maybe the battery had conked ! Jinny went to get some help and came back in a jeep with a mech - who checked the battery - which was fine. Ultimately some 4 guys pushed the car back and I was able to jump start it (in reverse). From that point on , we drove without shutting down the car even when we stopped to take pics !!Road through the Forest Ranges

Up-up and Away!No Stopping the car!

The road passes through some arid jungles - a totally different feeling - especially when ther roads are empty !

Srisailem Dam

Reached Sundipenta ( a few kms before Srisailem) where we were to meet Mr Tulasi Rao, but he was busy in the conference so decided to check out the temple in Srisailem . Reached srisailem and stopped for a bite when I got a call from Mr Rao that he was sending a man to take us to the temple there.

As far as temples go, I don't know the history, but to me it looked much like most of the temples in south - a bit less crowded. However we had to do a rush tour of it - the floor is granite - and it was burning for those not used to walking barefoot !

The Temple

Tribal Museum

Srisailem is known to the general public for its Temple and dam. The lesser known fact about it is that there is a Biodiversity lab there where they carry out the census of the flora and fauna of the place. Had a long talk there with Mr Tulasi Rao and his team and got to know the new discoveries of some snakes and other reptiles which were supposedly not in this area. Also got to know that they have discoverd a new species of Tarantula there ! Way to go !

Had a second helping of lunch there and started back around 4PM. Passed back through sleepy roads and villages, and got some great sunset-shots along the way !


The trip back was uneventful (jinny driving in the hills - a new experience for her) - except for a red car. We used to overtake it - then stop for a pic - letting the car overtake us - and then overtake it again . This went on fine till the 3rd time - when the guy got psyched and over took us doing 100+ ! Unfortunately for him - his mom and dad seemed to be in the car - and they somehow managed to slow him down - and Jinny overtook him again !

Nearer to Hyd, I took the wheel and drove back into the traffic - which was so bad that cycles were overtaking us ! :(

Reached home at 9. There endeth the trip. Next time I will probably go for an overnight stay as I want to check out the nature trails around the place.

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