Looong break

Well, there's no excuse for such a long break from blogging, it's a mixture of office work + watching tons of torrent downloaded movies (good ones, not what some dirty minds might be thinking of :P ) + Laziness + poor time management which has led to this sorry state of affairs. It's not that biking suffered all the while, i managed 2 rides from the time i last posted. One was a one day ride, while the other was a 5 day ride, got lots to post about, i hope someday i will get back the groove and the posts shall flow.

Getting back to the daily grind till then.

Changing Gear after 5.5 years!

It was time to move on professional after a long long time, It was one of those changes that are turning points in one’s life. It was a hard decision for me to take personally, but I had to take the decision to move on for brighter prospects in future. I had seen lots of people send their goodbye mails while I was in Htmt and those were usual corporate lingo loaded crap messages, which wouldn’t have any life of meaning in those words, so I thought why not write a good bye mail in biker style :P after all, people in my office knew me as the crazy chap who always goes off to places on bike and wastes money on petrol :P So, here’s the goodbye mail that I came up with and sent to my office people:

Hola People!
This isn't a fwd mail about biking gyaan :P rather, it is my surprising goodbye mail :( After 5.5 Years in Htmt, it was time for me to switch off the ignition, hopefully to cruise in the powerband of my career, to gradually raise the speed and scale greater heights in my career's speedometer in future.

I realized that change is essence of life, no matter how hard we try to resist change, it invariably catches up with us, that being said, all changes in life aren't easy to to accept initially, it does take time for us to move. So with a heavy heart, iam parting my ways with you all, after sailing along this far. At the end of it, iam content that I was part of a small family, which grew
manifolds and today, has it's roots spread all across the world.

I would like to thank each of you and the organization for the support and
cooperation extended towards me during all these days.

Companies may change, but people remain the same. I shall always be known to
you all as the silent TSG guy around :P
Do keep in touch.
With loads of emotions and fulfillment,

Thanks!


PS: Was surprised by responses I received for this style of bidding goodbye! Am glad that people felt good reading a different themed good bye mail.

Few snaps with colleagues on my last working day:

Busy bee....

As much as i hate change in life, this one's being forced down my throat :(
Not that it was unexpected, but i was always procastinating on this particular change in life, I always thought that it would happen "sometime in future"
Well, the "future" turned out to be this month and it hit me quite hard when i had to face the facts. Iam talking about my professional life.

Finally, Iam quitting my job in my existing company, after close to 5 plus years! Time just flies indeed! I never thought that this day would come so soon (yeah 5 years is soon :P) I learnt a lot of things, met a lot of people and made many friends for life here in my existing company, but all good things come to an end in life and this chapter of my life is coming to an end unexpectedly :(

It's been an emotional roller coaster ride for me from past few weeks, ever since i had to make the hard decision to move on with my professional life seeking greener pastures. Haven't found time to blog in between, had to take many hard decisions and face up to realities of life. This feels like iam breaking up from a relationship!
I guess this is one of those turning points/defining moments of life, where the purpose of life is answered to me by the one above.

It will take sometime for me settle down in my new work place, Iam serving my last few painful days (emotionally) in my current company, end of one chapter in life is beginning of a new chapter in life they say, so in June, i will be beginning a new chapter of my professional life, till then, I will be a busybee, buzzing around here with formalities and stuff.

Will be back with a ride report soon though! This weekend, Bangalore BikeNomads chapter is going out on another one day ride/meet like last month's ride. Am looking forward for this weekend's ride to recharge my batteries.

Page3 Express!

Not a review about a new newspaper :P Rather, a reflection on pathetic state of degradation of one of most reputed newspapers in india, The New Indian Express!
I have been an Express loyalist due to hardhitting, no nonsense stories, minus ads and titillating pics of almost naked babes plastered allover in colour :P I had briefly subscribed to TOI-let ;) paper when they launched their bangalore edition six years ago. Times lowered their price to unbelievable 1 buck! and later to 1.50 bucks, plus they had 6 or 4 page City specific seperate add on supplement with the main newspaper. Most of their paper was in colour.

The subscription to TOI-let paper didn't last coz they lived up to their nick name of TOI-let paper! What i found was shit loads of ads plastered all over the main paper, Editiorials were a joke and heavily Pro congress, Pseudosecular and Anti BJP/Majority/Hindu in nature. The city specific supplement "Bangalore Times" was plastered with pictures of semi nude females and PAGE 3 culture was cultivated with Page 3 of Bangalore Times showing the "happening" parties and Page 3 celebs and gossips. I got sick and tired of TOI-let paper's glorification of non entities and their motto of publicising morons who were nobody or irrelevant to bangalore. Who the fuck cares which party took place where, which bitch wore what, with whom she flirted with, with whom she arrived with or who slept with whom! TOI-let paper turned out to be a glorified soft porn paper, rather an extention of filmi magazines and lifestyle magazines.

I switched back to Indian Express happily and found solace in their "to the point" stories and non existant ads. The city specific supplement "City Express" was informative and carried truely relevant stories. Thankfully Page 3 culture was not encouraged and whole paper was full of what a newspaper should have, only news and facts, Editorials were neutral and very much mature and not biased. Their scoop news and investigating news were a treat, Express broke so many new stories, carried out sting operations and sometimes ran 1 week series of articles of various burning issues of the nation.

Slowly, they transformed in to "The New Indian Express" I found no change in their content, more welcome additions like better fonts, new layout for columns and bonus supplements on fridays and wednesdays were included. I was happy and life was peaceful for all these years, until i saw Ads in hoardings and also in Express by fag end of march and beginning of April, stating that From April 11th 2008, Express will reinvent itself. I thought, like the earlier facelift, this might be loaded with add ons, but finally when the D day came, i was saddened beyond belief! April 11th 2008, must be marked as the day, when Express lost it's dignity.
Their "new" version of Indian Express shocked me. The Masthead was altered beyond belief, they screwed the capital "I" in Indian word and "E" in Express word. "I" looked like "1" and "E" was looking like "e" (Microsoft's Internet Explorer "e")

More horror awaited me, the fonts were so fucking small, it was too hard to read the articles, the entire layout of express had gone for a toss, it looked more like a webpage than a newspaper! the grand finale was "Expresso"! No, not the coffee types :P Their "City Express" had got renamed to "Expresso". Worst thing was that the City edition was no longer in conventional paper format, it was more like a mag format, shorter in size and many pages. Pages full of CRAP!
Am sure Ramnath Goenka will be turning in his grave, coz express finally managed to match up to TOI-let paper, They have Expresso PAGE 3 now! Page 3 parties, celebs, dumb fucks and bitches are all over the city edition and more specifically in Page 3 of expresso! Not to mention, all pages in Expresso are in colour and 70% of it is full of pics of semi nude chicks (Page 3 bitches, Bollywood bitches and hollywood bitches!) I was deeply disappointed by this so called "reincarnation"

Now, Express is nothing but a clone of TOI-let paper, heck, if i wanted such crappy softporn suppliements and Page3 world info, i would have bought TOI-let paper itself, why would i buy Indian Express? The very soul of Indian Express has been buried, Am sure old timers who have stuck with Express from decades will be disillusioned and feel let down, how can such a sensible and responsible National daily, which has gone through much shit earlier and with stood all kind of bullshit from so many decades, suddenly sink to the low levels of TOI-let paper? Am sure it must due to change of guard at the higher ups. Google baba gave me this link.

From that link, it is very clear that due to internal politics and back stabbing, a reputed national daily has been given an improper, untimely burial. I just hope that they stop degrading this paper and either revert back to old form with a public apology to their loyal oldtimer subscribers or stop publishing under Indian Express name! The whole "re incarnation" feels like an April fool joke gone too far.

The Various Incarnations before the demise:

It's that time of the year :P

Well, Well, it's that time of year again :P didn't get it? Let me give you some clues:

1. All your colleagues are extra nice to you.

2. All employees in the company are at their behavioural best.

3. Everyone is on time to office and "willingly" stay back most of the time to finish some new found pending work :P

4. No one takes a single day's leave.

5. Everyone is buttering up to their managers and Bosses :P

No, it's not start of Valentine season in office! (Wish there was one!:P) It's the Annual Appraisal time! It's time for IT Slaves to be on their best behaviour and in the good books of their bosses, lest their appraisal becomes a joke. Suddenly all pending works are tended to and resolved in record time, various reports start to flow to bosses, which had stopped exactly one year back :P Then comes the D Day of filling up the appraisal form. You will have to fill up your entire year's achievements in one column :P not a difficult task for many coz they would have hardly achieved anything :P But to hardworkers like me (just being modest here :P) it takes quite a bit of effort to squeeze it all in to a box. Then there is the dreaded, what i call, "Honesty tick boxes". You will have to choose/rate yourself on how good you are as a team player, how good you are when it comes to interpersonal skills.

You have to choose between 1 to 5 and rate yourself, the gentleman's agreement is not to rate yourself more than 4 and less than 3 for ANY of the options :P Coz your boss will ALWAYS rate you one grade lesser than what you have rated yourself :P Noobs and colleagues who have kept changing companies every year, who have never filled appraisal forms need to be guided by you to fill in the form as they are flummoxed by the endless categories of disection :P Finally when you do manage to complete all the sheets and send that mail to your manager with your appraisal form attached, you are just half way through. The dreaded waiting period begins :P

Now on, you are extra cautious, extra nice to everyone:P, you take temporary political sanyas from office politics :P and wait for the day when out of the blue, you will be informed by manager to drop in to the cabin for "discussions" you go with your heart in your mouth, you notice the envelope on the table, if you were me, you would already know how much you got (not how much you deserve :P, you never what you deserve, life is not fair, remember? :P) Your bosses then talk and talk and talk, the envelope seems to have been forgotten, you suddenly realise that bosses have plans for your future, they have plans for your well being, plans, which will make you a better contributor to company. Notice that there is no talk of the dirty word "monitory compensation" Then your boss thrusts you the envelope and conveniently gets on to an "important" phone call. You open the envelope, with expectations, you can almost visualise your family budget in it :P

You take out the letter and read. Read it again, it looks like last year's appraisal letter, oh no, wait, the date is correct, hmm, there seems to be a fine change in some numerals somewhere, but in the end the CTC seems to have jumped by quite a few numbers, now where did all that money go! You read the fine prints and resign to your fate, your monthly take home is gonna be almost same, your tax bracket has increased, you will be paying Mr chidambaram more and that's about it! You are dejected and question yourself, is this what i slogged my ass for? suddenly, all the earlier talk of plans for your future starts to feel like fake words, your plans to buy that new tv, bike/car have to be shelved. You wait to talk to boss, but no, he's engrossed in the phone, you wait and wait.

Finally walk out of the cabin accepting your fate. Sounds familiar? Was inspired by one of my appraisals :P But seriously though, i think the appraisal shouldn't be an once a year ritual, the self development and reviews and other blahs blahs have to be done periodically so that the actual ritual doesn't become a mundane money expecting task. People should feel really good after appraisal and not like they got shot in their chest! :P

Few cartoons which sum up the mood :P

Disaster Averted!

Phew! I almost got stranded in office today. As usual, i was in parking lot, all set to leave after my shift and i wore my gear and put the key in ignition lock and turn, nothing! i thought, lemme try once more and i turn the key again and again there was no display in the digital meter on dashboard of zma. I thought one of fuses would have blown, so set to work on it, removed the helmet and gear and removed the seat and checked the fuses, they were intact, loose contact of fuses i thought and just pressed them again, but still there was no response from the bike! I wanted to check the battery connectors, but i didn't have my toolkit! (I realised that i should have my toolkit back in my bike from my cramster bags!) What else could have gone wrong? I thought my CDI unit could have conked off! But that would mean the bike won't start, but atleast the electricals should work, so i realised it's must be loose contact of some wire somewhere.

Then just happened to check beneath the ignition lock, to my surprise, i found out of the two wires that go from the ignition lock towards the electricals, one wire had got cut! wtf! how could it get cut? I noticed that it had got cut earlier and someone had neatly taped it! I suspect my earlier Herohonda service center chaps to have done that! The contact point of the joint had got loose, so i just twisted both the ends and checked ignition and viola! the electricals work! But the problem was, how to secure the two ends with out any tools, if i turned the handle towards the left side, the electricals failed as the contact points of the wires got loose, that was scary! what would have happened if it had come loose when i was riding the bike! The bike would have stalled and rear wheel locked due to electrical failure and i would have met with a nasty crash! I thanked god that my bike showed me the problem only in the parking lot! Major disaster was averted!

So, I did some desi jugad, messed up my hands and some how from underneath the front faring, managed to secure the two ends of the joint of the wire and used the old tape for insulation, now my task was to ride some 10 kms to SAI Motors with out turning the handlebar towards the left side, else the joint would come loose and i would get stranded! I started my journey, hoping and praying that the bike shouldn't let me down. It was already 8AM by the time i started, so traffic was building up and i managed to crawl initially and later ripped towards the destination. All the while i ensured that my handlebars were straight with minimum turns! I had to turn few times, i prayed each time i had to take a turn!

Finally i managed to reach Sai Motors by 8.45 AM. Showed the bike there to Mr kiran, Thanks to the Saferiding Workshop, which i had attended last month, i got this contact and i thanked my stars that i got a reliable mech to work on my bike and address these issues! Kiran was surprised about how i managed to diagnise the problem! (thanks to the gyaan from biking communities!) Later, he told me that they could either replace the whole Unit (ignition lock/fueltank lid/helmetlock with new set of keys) or tape the same thing after doing some jugaad. I asked them to take a look at wiring once, so they removed the faring, tank and routed the wires properly, joined the two ends of the cut wire securely and taped it after that checked and ensured that the joints don't get stressed due to handlebar movement. Also found that my Fuel guage was behaving erratically, so replaced the float and it was all done!

I thanked him for his patience and working on this issue and reached home at 12.30 PM! Was that some adventure or what! I think i will get the wire checked again with a local mech and use an extra piece of wire to secure the joint properly after coming weekend's ride. Am thanking my stars that i could avert a possible disaster on road!

Needless to say, the toolkit is back in my bike :P

MTV Roadies Stupidity!

All the planning on saturday regarding the ride for coming weekend ended up in me sleeping only on saturday night, i had extended my day from Friday morning till saturday night! that meant, i spent most part of sunday sleepingzzz. Blogged a bit @ noon and had to spend the evening at home as most of my friends were busy, watched Tv on sunday for a change :P Happened to catch MTV Roadies 5.0 Episode No 2. I had watched few auditions last month while channel surfing and found it hilarious in terms of the antics the "Judges" ask the hopefuls to perform and i also happened to see to what extent people can go to get a chance at becoming famous! I had also caught on Episode 1 of this series and found it funny.

But my take on the whole fiasco is, it's based on reality shows like FearFactor, but what i hate is the name they have chosen for themselves "roadies" Wtf has it do with the word Road? ah, i forgot, they happen to ride brandnew, always clean karizmas wearing those horrible open faced "wrangler" helmets! So they are roadies, coz they ride these "big" bikes on Highways for cameras and sit the rest of the time in a cab!
The way those chooths talk about the "roadie spirit" which really pisses off a tourer like me, what hardships that have to endure? does it have any thing at all to do with touring on bikes? heck not! they do all fear factor type stunts when they are not riding the bikes, infact riding the bike is the last thing they do! and they hardly show that too! ok, if at all they really ride their bikes in that show, how much distance are they covering per day? Point is, the bike is secondary, while the show's fearfactor image is primary, then why name the goddamn show as "roadies"? The entire gullible junta should get false image of these kids as somekinda demigods on bikes wearing the "wrangler" helmet!

This show basically can survive if they take out the bike element out of it. After all it's more to do with dares and bitching and politics and plotting, why ruin a bike's image for all that? What were munjals thinking when they sponsored this horseshit? Dear munjals, as an owner of your premium bike from almost 3 years, iam goddamn pissed about the way you increase the prices of spare parts! For eg, the front disc pads of a zma till the other day was costing Rs 850, coincidentally after the Roadies started airing, the prices have increased to Rs 1500! It's the same goddamn brake pad, same make, why the price hike? Are you guys taxing your premium bike owners like me to sponsor these morons on MTV? If you feel this is the only way, then please please stop sponsoring half of the indian cricket team and hoping to increase the sales of your restickered crap with 1950s tech in them! You want to generate more sales? then give us the tech and good bikes, not the same restickered crap and proclaiming world no1 blah blah..

Now back to the show, i was watching in utter disbelief when they showcased next week's episode, looks like on 1 of the riders manages to crash his zma and that too with a pillion on board! Guess what riding gear he was wearing? Just a half arm tee with jeans and "wrangler" helmet! The pillion is dressed like she's going to a disco! The pillion is injured badly and both the kids are shown bleeding with the rider denying and shouting that it wasn't his fault! Well, in any accident, no one ever accepts their fault! The least munjals could have done is to provide these kids with riding gear, since it's their bike which is being showcased as poser toy, but no! their responsibility ends after they provide 6 or 5 sparkling clean karizmas for each episode, apart from shit loads of money to MTV.

I do enjoy watching the show, but as a reality series and fear factor oriented show. But my blood boils when they show these posers as riders and that they ride all through their destinations with out proper riding gear! This year, they seem to be taking this show abroad, so am wondering if Herohonda will fly their sparkling clean karizmas and use them only during their "vote outs" part of episode or will they go through the legal hassles of getting permits and what nots to let these kids ride the zmas in thailand and malaysia. What ever they do, I seriously pray that Herohonda stops sponsoring such horseshit wanna be biker shows and instead concentrates more on their safe riding workshops. They can even sponsor such workshops in association with biking clubs, like they did earlier with bikenomads.

Now back to the show, Iam watching the show for the entertainment factor in it and NOT becoz it has to do something with bikes! Biking forums and clubs are taking humouristic approach towards this show, In BCMtouring for example, they have an hilarious thread for this show. I just hope that the biking fraternity's displeasure is made visible to Herohonda and MTV and some good sense dawns in to Herohonda's MBA chaps, who decided to sponsor such crap and instead they do some events with biker clubs, which won't cost even a fraction of what they pay to sponsor such horse shit wannabe biker shows.

Valentine's day Rip off!

Here comes another so called valentine's day! This day is eagerly awaited by all businesses to make the golden kill. Right from greeting card companies to Hotels and eatout joints, they all seem to have some or the other offer on this particular to squeeze out that money from your wallet. The mass hysteria on this day has to be seen to be believed! Yet another intelligent plot by the corporate suits to con the common man and make him truly believe that all the love in the world comes out in open on this day and all it takes to show your love is few mega bucks from your pocket! How gullible are the masses? You don't need anyone preaching you how/when to show your love and appreciation to your loved ones.

Scanning through newspaper today had me in splits, seriously, almost every tom dick and harry establishment seemed to have some "offer" going on for the love couples. Right from the cheesy "take you valentine to the best dining experience" to "gift your valentine an everlasting symbol of love" (diamonds!) and not to forget the funny ones like the one from one of the health spas which claimed to have slashed their rates for couples herbal theraphy to few fitness gyms asking wives to enrol their fatsy hubbies in to some valentine special scheme of turning them back in to shape regime. Malls ofcourse have variety of activities, they claim that you can win a diamond necklace by playing "know your valentine" game, then there is another ridiculous offer of winning a limo ride with your loved one if you answer some shitty questions.

The whole consumerist approach towards this lovey dovey thing makes me sad. The whole concept of love is being weighed in terms of how much money you can blow on your sweet heart today. Aren't we missing the point here? love doesn't cost money, it just needs nuturing, small guestures, appreciating your partner's efforts, making her feel special by saying "thank you" for the Routine things she's doing for you etc, doesn't all that count? should i take her to a mall, spend megabucks in shopping and blow money on candle light dinner eating dishes which are "specially" priced (meant jacked up prices) for this day? Well, peer pressure comes in, your partner won't appreciate if you don't do anything "special" for her today and she won't have the bragging rights with her pals about "you know, he took me to such and such place, we had so much fun, he surprised me by presenting me xyz , blah blah "

Or you risk being called a miser, to whom money is more important than the relationship. I fail to comprehend why people can't see through this consumerist noise generated today and realise that it's all nothing but corporate generated lovey dowey syndrome. As i said earlier, i don't think i need to be told when and how i should show my love to my loved ones. No, iam not buying anything today or taking her out for shopping or such crap, call me what ever, iam a practical person and don't subscribe to this bullshit.

These fuckers haven't spared stags either, so what if you don't have a special one of opposite sex with you? why don't you appreciate your parents! give me a break! for god's sake, spare your parents! You want to make them feel special? Be good to them and appreciate them once in a while, don't be rude to them! Gift them on their birthdays and anniversaries, send them off on vacation if affordable, but spare them today please! Next what? they will drag your pets and brothers and sisters in to this crap. Any one practical enough in life, will realise that all the hype surrounding this day is bullshit!

This is a western concept borrowed by mncs and pushed down our throats so they can make money. So what's the big deal in it? see through this crap and rise and shine!
St valentine must be turning in his grave!

Why i ride my bike?

Have been asked this question many times, Why do it prefer to go places on my motorcycle rather than a cage or in other modes of "comfortable" transportation. All my reasoning were met with disbelief and "you are nutcase" kinda stares.

Came across a beautiful post in Xbhp which tries to explain the biker's point of view as to why we prefer to go places on our bikes:

The Pleasures of Motorcycling

The pleasure is in doing three-digit speeds for hours on end when most consider 60 as dangerous and 80 as fatal!!

The pleasure is in tying the luggage so well on the back seat that the Bike seems to have come fitted with it from the showroom!

The pleasure is starting your bike's engine for a long-distance ride on a cold morning and listening to its steady comforting idle while you prepare for the ride.

The pleasure is in listening to the crackling clicks from the hot engine and exhaust as they cool after a fast blast on the road.

The pleasure is in racing a train speeding along parallel to the road and beating it, at beyond a 100 kmph!!

The pleasure is in watching a row of several single headlights trailing in your mirrors, the group on the move.

The pleasure is in watching a bunch of gleaming bikes knifing together through fast highway traffic.

The pleasure is in knowing a split second before the car in front panic-brakes. You were more focussed than the driver of that car. You survive and smile!!

The pleasure is when your upshifts and downshifts are so smooth that the Bike feels auto-geared.

The pleasure is in tooting a salute to truckers who safely wave you past on a blind mountain curve.

The pleasure is in glancing up at the cloud-darkened sky for a moment and guessing correctly how far ahead the rain will catch up with you.

The pleasure is in riding with a bug splattered visor for long, trying to look from between the squashed mosquitoes.

The pleasure is in cleaning the visor at a tea stop and seeing the world clearer through it as it had never been before.

The pleasure is in greeting a dhaba-owner you meet after 2 years on a remote highway, like you greet an old lost friend.

The pleasure is in washing your muck-covered Bike beside a cool mountain stream.

The pleasure is in being treated as special because you are on a bike, something that would never happen if you arrive in a car.

The pleasure is in knowing that your wife loves riding as much as you do, even as a pillion!!!

The pleasure is in the easy companionship of a riding group.

The pleasure is when the group gets together weeks after a long ride and talks about it like it happened just yesterday.

The pleasure is in seeing photos of a re-grouping stop when everyone in the group with helmets on look like astronauts with overgrown heads!!

The pleasure is in hearing seven identical bikes start and rumble together while warming up for a long day on the road.

The pleasure is in smelling spilled diesel on the road before your tyre hits it.

The pleasure is in watching other road users gawking wide-eyed as the group does three-digit speeds together in formation.

The pleasure is in entering a road-tunnel on a bright day with your sunglasses on and remembering the fear of riding blind for even a few moments.

The pleasure is when you fix a puncture by the roadside in the dark and nothing goes wrong with it for months afterwards.

The pleasure is in having just the right tool and spares at hand when something goes wrong with the Bike in the middle of nowhere.

The pleasure is when you finish your day’s ride, and reach in one piece. You’re the smallest vehicle on the road, and you’ve survived.

The pleasure is when you take off your wristwatch, and see a band of untanned skin.

The pleasure is when your motorcycle and you move as one single united form. Whatever shape the road takes, whichever end of the compass it leads to.

The pleasure is when you use your hands, arms, thighs, knees and feet to steer.

The pleasure is when you take off your riding jacket for a break, and feel the breeze dry your sweat.

The pleasure is when you sing to yourself on an empty road. You’re the world’s best rock star.

The pleasure is when your rear wheel slides, and you bring it back, when the front wheel lifts, and you take your time bringing it back.

The pleasure is when you cut through air, at 50 kph or 100.

The pleasure is when you reach a place you’ve never been before, and someone you’ve never seen before asks you for a ride. And comes back grinning.

The pleasure is when you wave to village kids, and they wave back.

The pleasure is when you almost, almost fall. But don’t.

The pleasure is when you fight the wind, and win.

The pleasure is when you get up that narrow path for the view you’ll never forget.

The pleasure is when you view the world at an angle.

The pleasure is when you eat bugs at 90 kph.

The pleasure is when you look at a dust-streaked face in the mirror after a 12-hour ride, and don’t want to wash up.

The pleasure is when your pillion moves with you.

The pleasure is when you can see the petrol after a top-up.

The pleasure is when your throttle hand has calluses.

The pleasure is when you jump a speedbreaker.

The pleasure is when you stop to help push a stranded car to the side of the road when you had the choice of riding past but didn’t.

The pleasure is when you stop at the smallest of towns, and somebody asks you deep technical questions about your bike.

The pleasure is when your roadmaps gets dog-eared, rain-splashed and tea-stained.

The pleasure is when you give a stranger a lift and he loves it.

The pleasure is when you have battle-scars, each one a lesson in survival on two wheels.

The pleasure is when you can feel the cool morning and the hot afternoon, the light rain and the damp fog.

The pleasure is when you leave four-wheeler traffic standing in a jam.

The pleasure is when you aren’t lulled by an air-conditioner.

The pleasure is when you are free. Open. Independent. Liberated.

The pleasures, ladies and gentle, are all yours for the taking. Just ride.

Ride long and safe...

Amen!

Marriage! Am i old enough for that?

As per the cartoon, iam already married :P This rant pertains to the female species:P

It all started few months back, My company gave me name sake promotion of "Assistant Manager - Systems" (only the first three letters fo the quoted text are true :P) Name sake i call it because i was neither given responsibilities that goes by that post and definitely not the moolah worth it!
Ok, that was the appraisal story of 2007 april, Now folks at home always expect that you will increase your "quota" of moolah that you give home per month after each hike. Now in my case, apart from the designation given, i had no effective hike and moolah remained almost the same, worse was my tax bracket went up with grade and i was paying more to Mr chidambaram!

So what do i do, i know tempers will flare at home, parents will be like, what the fuck! you can't give more money to home? not even this year? why can't you stop spending on wasteful things and stop your stupid bike rides (:P) and save some money atleast!So i neatly went home and showed my folks the promotion letter with the visiting card that was thrown in free with it :P Now imagine the joy of my folks, in their world, the word "manager" associated with any thing means i have my own cabin, with few people to lord over and i the work i do is work on my machine (comp) and see through files! I still have hard time to give them a clearer picture of what work i do at office :P They fail to understand each time, can't blame them, the generation gap is all that has to be blamed.

Well, coming back to the story, my folks were overjoyed that their son was some manager now and lo, he had his own visiting card! :P i was happy that they didn't talk about moolah part :P the promotion part worked! i managed to keep them quite for 1 more year from asking for more money from me while my earnings remain the same. Heaved a sigh of relief that i can continue with the same juggaad with my finance and still do my bike rides once in a while :P
Then after few weeks, i was going through newpaper and my mom was trying to tell me something but was hesistant, i could make that out from her reluctance and the way she was changing channels so frequently. But trust me, i never imagined that she will tell what she told me!

She first asked me for my err "biodata" :P My my, why would my mom want my "biodata" for? i already came to know that i was going to face the most embarassing moment in my life soon! So i pushed it around and asked her if she's gonna find me a better job with that :P Then comes the bombshell :
"you know, now that you have become manager and all, there is a nice girl who's done her studies and is working as a software engineer.........."
Yikes! heck no! pls pls don't make me feel old, iam not ready for it yet! (my thoughts ran so) still pretending to read the newspaper, i asked her, "So is the girl known to you? you want me to find a job for her in our company?"
Hehe
But mom was determined, she had enough of my bullshit:P
"No, she's one of our far relatives, i think she'll be a perfect match for you"
Now i had no where to run, i couldn't manage to give smartass replies now that she had finally dropped the bombshell.
I was embarassed (NO!!! not becoz i was happy!!!) i didn't know how to tell her what i had in mind. We are such a non emotional/silent family, that we never had "bonding" thing or family time crap. Both my parents were non expressive and i grew up most of the time getting used to being alone and they both being at work. They are god like people no doubt, but we maintained our distance from as far as i could remember, we never discussed any thing so personal till that fateful day.

This was my life and i had to reclaim it, more importantly, not let my parents get any false notions from my actions. So i managed to put an expressionless dead face and looked at her and told that marriage is something that iam not ready for yet and even if i was ready, iam dead against the concept of arranged marriage and iam capable of finding my own wife myself! I promised her that my wife that i find for myself will be of same religion for sure!
My mom was totally caught unawares by my reply, she felt as uncomfortable as i felt when she dropped the bombshell on me, then she had to tell something to end the conversation, so she told " you people have become very forward" and she went in to kitchen and i went to my room.

The events of that day, made me thing hajaar things. From as long as i remember, marriage was something that used to happen to older people, older than me, my cousins of earlier generation or that neighbourhood senior etc. Now, from when did i start getting slotted to that category? No, iam not averse to getting old, it's what we are programmed for, getting old! But the grouse is, are you supposed to marry just coz have reached a certain age, which as per the society is the correct age to find your match and get in to holy matrimony?
or are you supposed to feel the need to settle down with in you and then marry? I believe in the latter ideology. I tried to pose this question to my colleague who got married recently (arranged marriage ofcourse!:P) and to my best friend girish, who is getting married by april, surprising, they all spoke the same language as my parents. They feel that you have get married because you are old enough for it! parents will find you a suitable match as per horoscope and astrology, then you marry the girl of their choice (sometimes your choice if you are lucky :P) and "adjust" to her and try to live happily ever after, with 1 or max 2 kids thrown in in due course!

Whatta idea! I ofcourse felt that they were talking to me like brain washed zombies. But fact is they are not risk takers, they don't want to "risk it" coz they say later you won't find "decent" girls. You gotto get married by 27/28 they say.
Hmm, i think i would rather "risk" it. After all it is this "risk" which i took in to biking, i was able to go to the most wonderful places and meet various like minded people and learnt a thing or two about life.
No, i won't say that iam 18 till i die like bryan adams :P I would rather say that iam getting old and my time is running out for my next ride! Marriage can wait at this stage of my life, i have bigger fish to fry, like say get a better paying job for once! :P

Stag partying sucks!

Well, whatta way to start newyear! with a rant ofcourse!For me newyear's eve meant another excuse to get drunk and party at friend's place. No big deal i say, it's just a friggin number change in our calendar! As usual, for this year too i thought my friends and me will go through the usual drill of boozing at my friend's place.But no! my fiends had a brilliant idea, they wanted to go to one of those newyear parties organised by pubs. Now as most of you know, these parties are strictly for couples only. In our case, we were the much hated stags!

I knew this wasn't gonna take off, so i tried to talk some sense in to my friends and told them let's stick to our routine drill, instead of ending up embarassing ourselves outside the pub. They suddenly seemed have been stuck by optimistic streak, they won't hear any of my words, my friend had a "contact" in one of the pubs and since he's a regular there, we can be assured of an "Entry" inspite of being stags. Well, i gave up, anyway i had informed folks at home that i was going out, so i had to go through their plans.

We all caged up and next thing we know we are stuck in bumper to bumper traffic in sankey road. It was already 8pm and traffic was horrible, just when i thought things couldn't get worse, bang! what was that!My overenthusiastic friend had banged his Ikon in to the rear end of a Getz! Geez! there goes my new year party money i thought! thankfully both the drivers got out of their vehicles to inspect the damage and both stared at each other and walked back to their cars! i was surprised! turns out there was no visible damage! Newyear spirit or was the other driver in spirits? well whatever, i just wanted to get off there and soon we were parking in the pub.

My friend neatly goes up to bouncer and says something, next thing i know, it was the usual stuff. The bouncer shaking his head and focusing else where, my friend trying to maintain his composure and false sense of pride and i can see him literally pleading with him! I had enough, i just wanted to go back to his place so we could get back to our routine drill. But no, these chaps won't have any of it, they wanted to get in by hook or crook! Then my friend's "contact" shows up, silver lining? But even his words to bouncers are met with cold stares. They way the bouncers would look at us made me feel ashamed, they would look at us as if we were street urchins! Then somehow after some time, They let my friend in and my other friend and me were left standing outside!

I thought that was it, we had to take a rick back to his place, while this guy who got in is gonna be partying. Then after about 15 mins, my friend came out and took us in, not before we coughed up the usual fee, yeah, we had to fork out for "couple" entry tickets, inspite of being stags. I paid and told myself, now that i've blown my money, i better enjoy it! :P
We are met with a chap who had laid out welcome drink, now what the fuck was that? Well, it turned out to be small glass or rather the ones you take it as a shot (bottoms up!) They had choice of wine or vodka. Me being totally allergic to wine, i took vodka. I mistook the vodka to be mixed, how wrong i was! Freaks had kept raw vodka and i took it bottoms up!

Welcome to hell! My insides started to burn, i felt like a raging fire was burning inside me, i wanted water, but no, they didn't have water, we were told to get in to the pub. We got it. I was still searching for water, but finally resigned to my fate that there was no water available immediately, so i lit up a cig.
Hmm, now after the initiation ceremony, things started to clear up, the cig did help, i was slightly in trance state :P I hadn't had dinner either and the vodka +cig combo didn't do any good. I was surveying my surroundings, Gawd! was i really there? there were just too many chicks around, outnumbering guys infact!
It was like each guy had come with two chicks! and there we were, 3 stags all oogling like a kid at a candy store!:P

The hunger pans started, it was already 10pm. So i asked for the menu and there was the real horror! all prices jacked up! courtesy of newyear's eve! I was literally searching for something that costed below three digits in rupees, but no, they all were in 3 digits, resigned to my fate, i didn't want to ruin this with my miserliness after having forked out the entry fee! My friends neatly proclaimed that they had emptied their valets for the entry fee, so the party was on me! Heck, this was just too much and i wanted to just get through the damn newyear party. Then we ordered for couple of over priced beers and over priced chicken and other over priced dishes. As soon as i got my hands on beer and food, i gobbled up and drank to my heart's content. After satisfying my hunger pangs, i started surveying the surroundings again.

The atmosphere was cool, Dimlights, candle lights on tables, open air dance floor with dj playing some good numbers and beautiful skimpily clad drunk chicks shaking their stuff all around! Now, i was having fun :P My friends wanted to shake their leg in the dance floor and try to hit with one of the pretty young things, while i was happy just gazing around. I settled down near the dance floor with my beer and snacks while my friends were making fools out of themselves with their ridiculous "look at me" kind of dance steps :P I wanted to just fade in to the crowd and didn't want to be associated with these fanatics dancing like idiots!

Then, i spent somemore time observing people around, apart from chicks, i notice a couple, they had their hardly 6 month old baby in their arms and these two were dancing away to glory, while the baby was trying to sleep! Poor thing, it was being made to go through this jig just coz it's parents wanted to party! There was a chap sitting next to me and he was smoking, next thing i know, the smoke coming from him reeks of very icky smell, turns out this guy is doping! with in few minutes, the same smoke starts everyone, it looks like iam in some joint heaven!
Then there were a group of 5 guys, all dressed in white blazers and white pants (!!) but they had a very attractive skimpily clad chick with them. All 6 were blown and were high on dope, the girl was really shaking her stuff, that too right in front of me! These guys used to take turns in dancing with her and when they got tired, they used to sit next to my table and dope. But girl really had lots of energy, she just didn't care who was dancing with her and it was free for all!

It was like watching one of those B grade films, that too live! i was the director :P or so i felt. Meanwhile, the two dancing idiots (my friends) had gone in to the crowd and got lost for sometime. Then suddenly they came back, thoroughly exhausted. Their animated conversation followed and it was the usual story, how close they got a chick and when they were almost gonna hit on her, she lost interest or her guy came in and such stuff. Well, i was feeling miserable, firstly, i didn't want to witness this free for all show, secondly, i was getting ripped off for being there and thirdly, i was not enjoying it! Well, it was another 10 more mins to go for the clock to hit 12, so i knew that my ordeal would end soon.

Predictably, the clock stuck 12, with a count down and with fireworks. People suddenly had energitic boost and they all started to howl and cat calls and cries filled the air, greeting each other. Couples smooching each other etc...
Ok, it was done and i wanted to get out, 20 mins past 12, i dragged my friends out of there and we started our drive back to my friend's place in his cage, i was smoking in back seat and watched as both my friends started their animated conversation of how good the party was and how the chicks were happening etc.

We reached his place and had food. As i hit the bed, i decided, in future, if at all iam going to any goddamn newyear party, which is couple's only, i would go there only if had a member of female species for my company, definitely not as a stag! no matter how much my friends force me. I would rather reach home early from work and watch tv, than go through the embarassment as a stag in a couples only party!

Happy new year!

Cage Drive to GS Hills - Bandipur - KRS and a wedding

Last weekend's ride in a cage to Gopalswamy Betta left me confused and excited.
Confused coz i didn't get the "feel" of the journey like in my bike rides and Excited as we reached Gopalswamy Betta bang on sunrise! It was an awesome view from there. I thoroughly enjoyed the places and my friends company. Only thing i hated was sitting like a couch potato in passenger seat, with my ass strapped to the seat with a seat belt and seeing the whole world through the windscreen "TV"
The frustration increased when i saw 5 Bulleteers on their way towards Mysore, while I was stuck in the cage. Also on the last day while returning at night, i saw a zma and cbz riders on their way back to bangalore. I felt like a smoker with out his fag! :P

My first outing to nature spot with my new addition to my travel kit, Kodak Z650 Camera! Finally i was able to realise my dreams of capturing nature's beauty in my own camera, all thanks to sachin, who generously gave away his cam for a good price to me. Will upload snaps and stuff some time.
The sunrise view and scenic view of Gopalswamy Betta was awesome, on our drive towards bandipur, we spotted peacocks and Deers. Then the customary wedding was attended to and the last day we went to back waters of KRS called Blue lagoon.

Am more exited now about the upcomming BikeNomads meet in Hampi this weekend. This time there are large number of riders and Bangalore leads the list with 11 bikes! Can't wait till friday!