Trip to Tirupati

Since the time I met up Santosh I have always known him to be a very hardworking guy in front of the computer. I had gained very little knowledge about him. Now I know, he is equally steady while putting long hours in front of the dashboard, orchestrating the gears, accelerator and brakes. Spinning the steering for miles does not make him sleepy even during the night. Had I not responded to the proposal of Vineet to join them for a Darshan of Lord Venkateshwara, I would not have ever come to know about this avatar of the serious-looking techie. In no time I convinced Sugesh, who had been looking for an opportunity for last two years to visit Tirumala, to be a part of this pious pilgrimage.

Sometimes, we desist from showing-off our male-egos during a confrontation with the tear-laden eyes of a femme-fatale. Hence, I do not wish to deny that I have not been broken down by that weapon. May be, that is the reason why I and Sugesh could not say “No” to our wives’ insistence to be part of this almost-unplanned trip. Because of the unforeseen risks I was not very keen to tag my wife along. But, may be because of my craving for a sight of Lord Tirupati boosted me with the mental-power, I managed to get ourselves ready in less than half-an-hour. In a span of three hours the team of three had stretched to seven. We packed ourselves inside a Xylo, lately crafted by the Mahindras to suit the rough terrain of India and possessed by Mr. Santosh DS (this is not an acronym to us, anymore).

After finishing a quick dinner at ITPL we zipped past the limits of Bangalore and entered the darkness and emptiness of a high-way.

Murugan seems to be a serious guy, but when he whacks out all his naughty tricks on people it becomes a far more enjoyable sight. This time, he started insisting Santosh to drive faster with all his efforts. His sarcasm made Santosh resolute about driving faster. After Kolar, the road became quite smooth and desolate. To save himself from the lampooning of Murugan he put all his attention towards spinning the wheels of this huge beast. When in possession of such a car poised with power, control and technology, you feel like flaunting it by driving faster. We must admit that the trick of Murugan came out to be quite effective.

No sooner had we touched the terrains of Andhra Pradesh, we found out a joint eagerly waiting to serve snacks, tea etc. A midnight coffee is what we were dying for. Rest of the path was full of laughter and songs. The collection loaded in Sugesh’s USB and Vineet’s Blackberry were really good. We reached Tirupati at around 1:30 am.

After a journey of six hours we all were feeling sleepy.
Hotel Chakrie (we recommend this hotel to be a perfect value-for-money) offered a peaceful stay of 3 hours. After a nap of two hours we all woke up to Santosh’s call. Later we came to know that it was Murugan’s apparently-divine feat (In a state of sleep he was pushing him hard and blabbering something claptrap) that tossed Santosh out of the bed. The early morning bath washed away the sleep out of our almost-red eyes.

We were ready to go uphill for a divine glimpse of the Lord of Saptagiri. It was an amazing sight to find the mountains coming out from the snuggling clouds. The meandering roads took us to the top of Tirumala. It was 6 am and we all queued up for the Darshan. I could feel the fantasies and emotions of all the human beings present there. We did not have to wait for hours. Sigra Darshan made the whole process quicker. The ecstatic chants of “Govinda” had made the whole environment vibrant with positive energy flowing.

Then came the moment of achievement and sense of fulfillment; the serenity amid the fury. People were jostling with each other and running towards the sanctum. Time had stopped for few seconds as my eyes were glued to Him. The Lord had an out-of-the-world glow coming out of Him. I cannot explain that in words.

After collecting the Laddus we rushed towards the restaurant as fasting had made us voracious eaters. We gorged on the Idlis, Dhosas, Vadas and what-nots. Driving down the hills after satisfying our stomachs was such an awesome experience. The quips from Murugan had transformed Santosh from an average driver to an aggressive racer. The best of the lot was “Drive like an adult, not like an infant.” As a result of all these Mr. Santosh overtook six vehicles while taking turns on the hair-pin bends. A detour to Padmavati (wife of the Lord) temple and coming back to the hotel took an hour more.

Time to go back to Bangalore! People fell asleep as soon as we came out of the periphery of Tirupati. The scorching Sun was creating havoc as we were bidding adieu with a solemn reclaim. Hats-off to the stamina of Santosh, the lonely soul was whizzing past, taking care of the passengers comfortably snoring under the blast of AC! I was awake and giving him company although my heavy eye-lids were about to come close.

Filter coffee that you get from the sidey-tiffin shops of Bangalore cannot be compared with any barista coffee. I am a hardcore connoisseur of the coffees served by these not-so-popular tiffin shops in an ordinary steel glass. The experience becomes extraordinary. Rain can be the perfect catalyst for a better experience though. As soon as our car entered Karnataka we found the whole sky enveloped with clouds. We stopped at Kamat (near Hoskote) and had filter coffee, served in the traditional Chinese potteries. It was feeling like a very rare respite. I think that was the perfect way Bangalore could welcome us with a fun-filled drizzle.

Ride De Hessarghatta

As I am trying to write these words, my eyelids are getting heavier with each seconds passing by. After a day’s toil in front of the computer my eyes are still burning but I cannot wait to share this extremely exciting ride that myself, Mahesh N, Kiran and Sushil had on Diwali Morning. Pardon me if I jumble up the letters; pardon me if you feel like this write-up is a mess; and pardon me if I call a cycle a “Bike.” (That is how a cycle is named in our lingo).

Since last few months we were planning to form a cycling a.k.a biking group in our company to promote this fun machine among all of our colleagues. So we thought of planning a ride - Ride to Hessarghatta. If you want to run away from the din and bustle of this city and enjoy the countryside without an iota of pollution then you must head to this heavenly place.

On Diwali morning we planned to meet at Cubbon Park and start pedaling. While entering the park through the gate near Minsk Square, Sushil started wondering as to where has the Ajeet Aircraft gone. Poor fellow could not make out that yet another landmark in this beautiful city had given way for the ongoing Namma Metro work.

As scheduled the ride started at 6 o clock and we all moved towards IISC Bangalore from where another seven guys joined us. All of them had one conviction – they would burn Fat and not oil; the city will be cleaner while they become leaner.

Everybody knows where Jalahalli cross is but very few of us know how it looks like on a busy morning. It is a perfect mess with the smoke-spewing-mad trucks, honking bikes and the four-wheelers kicking dust on you. After crossing Jalahalli we took a right-turn into Hessarghatta Road and there came a sigh of relief. The road is pretty smooth leaving a few places. The lonely chai-shops, fresh air, stray animals, green trees, tender-coconut vendors, innocent faces of people – all of them put a magic into this stretch, which gets you to the Hessarghatta main market. After an hour’s ride we all stopped to refill ourselves with tender-coconut water. The mellow sunshine all around sent out the message of festivities. It is Diwali time and winter is in the offing.

At Hessarghatta Market we parked our bikes in front of a breakfast point; time to gorge on some Vada and Idli, bathing in hot Sambar! Yes, you feel extremely hungry after two and a half hour’s pedal-ripping.

Hessarghatta has lots to offer you –from the lake-view to the serpentine village roads that gets lost in the horizon; from the endless green valley to the trees which you can climb and do a monkey-pose; from the emu farm to Nrityagram, where Pratima Bedi spent the golden days of her life. We all enjoyed a lot while doing some off-road biking on the valleys; stopped here and there just to capture the beauty on the digicams.

While coming back home it became very hot. I'm not going to complain about sunny weather but I prefer it a little bit cooler. Kiran lost his energy to pedal anymore. So he called up his relative to bring the car and packed back home. Anyway, we made our way through a road that joins the main road near Hebbal. Mahesh made his way home leaving me and Sushil, who left me before the cantonment railway station. Good grief! I slogged my way through the scorching sun in hopeless solitude. I reached Minsk square, where the plane WAS boasting the glory of HAL, till sometime back.

Back to the kingdom of grumbling vehicles leaving thick plumes of billowing smoke!

Ride to Nandi

On the morning of 1st May I lost the chance to be a part of a ride to Nandi. A gang of 10 bikers were moving to Nandi from different corners of Bangalore. I was supposed to meet Murthy under the Domlur Flyover loop.

It was a scratch-my-head experience when I found that the main gate had been locked with some other lock of which I don’t have the key. So I had to go back to the room. My plan was cancelled. I left an SMS.

The very fact that I did not check the lock before going to sleep was pinching me. The land lord didn’t inform me about this upon my arrival from my 4-day visit to Goa. So I collected the new key from him and quickly posted a thread on bangalorebikersclub for 3rd May ride to Nandi. There was a quick response from 5-6 guys. There was another ride scheduled from the road bikers squad. We MTBers got ours clubbed with them and met them in front of Columbia Asia Hospital, Hebbal. Dr. Deepak Rao, Dr. Arvind, Murthy, Brijesh and Me. We were expecting, Anukalp, Ullas and Elgar. After a brief wait we started rolling.

Devanahali Road is a pretty good ride without a single pothole and no traffic at early hours in the morning. The road bikers vanished in no time, leaving Brijesh and me far behind. Brijesh is quite a pro trekker and cyclist. I was literally chasing him. After an hour and a half ride from Columbia Asia we took the first break near the new Airport. At this halt we planned our ride ahead. After a while we found the tilla on our left side and immediately after that we took a left turn. Here we hit the road to Nandi Hills.

From here on, the road was a mix of uphill and downhill. Out here the only smell that you get is a concoction of red-mud and fallen flowers on roads. The road ends at a T-junction where I found Arvind, Deepak and Murthy having their breakfast. Glucose biscuits and Water were doing wonders for me. So, no Idli or Vada! Brijesh did not stop here at this T-junction and hence I became a solitary-ripper from the Nandi base. Sun was out from the veil of early-morning overcast, so the sunglasses were put on my eyes. With great enthusiasm I was up against the bumpy stretch! A Roadatian dog chased me….may be he had never seen a cyclist with helmet and sunglasses. The instant solution for this is – SHOUT and STOP!

At Nandi base I met George. This guy is a professional road biker who has the right stance. You should have seen him on his road bike. His cadence says that he is trained to rule this kind of terrain. On the uphill ride I took small breaks. During one of those breaks George came from behind and asked if everything is ok. “You can do it, but never compare an MTB with a Road-bike!” George continued. All the biking gyan on BBC and Bikeszone portal seemed to be jokes. A city ride is nothing compared to this! I was sweating like a pig!!!!!!!! Even my gloves were pretty sweaty.

The car drivers and motorbikers were waving their hands at me!!!! “Dum Laga ke!”

I was 3 kilometers away from the finish point and the bends became extremely steep. I met Murthy, who gave me immense inspiration…. ‘Man you have one more gear, do a 1:1.” By the way, this time Murthy was coming back downhill. After all, he was riding Colnago road bike! Riding was a fun for him, while it was struggle for me.

I followed those words and I was there.

While coming back, after reaching Devanahalli we did something out of the box...can you imagine a biker loading his bike on a BIAL-Volvo on the way back home?????? Yes the headwind was so rough that the ride became very difficult. There was plantation on either side of the road so we decided to load our bikes on a Volvo and reach MG Road. We did that....once we boarded the bus I faced the most funny question of my life...one passenger asked, "are you guys from India?" People were, as usual, checking out our bikes.

We got down near Golf Course and then started pedaling again. The gist of the story is - We took rest in an AC bus for 20 minutes! pretty cool! AIN'T IT? 

Anyways, coming back to the spirit of the ride.....it was a good experience to meet all of you including George whom I met at the base of Nandi......I will never forget Brijesh..this guy has some stamina mAAAn!!! I came to know he has done 2 Enduro events in Pune! Murthy has an amazing team spirit. We all have to agree on that. 

Ride To Yogavana Hills

Friday Afternoon:

I am slogging at my desk to complete the pending work before the day ends. Suddenly a thud takes my concentration away. I clear the blinds and find it is the gush of wind hitting my window pane.

Mother Nature has set everything in topsy-turvy….the open-air smoking bay down the stairs is a complete mess with ash and butts floating on the water. The hail storm settles after an hour.

Vishy’s SMS comes. “Man tomorrow’s ride will be really cool or rather chilled J just look at the rain and wind blowing”. Amidst all the serious stuff of office I have forgot that I have a ride tomorrow. Yogavana Hills trail ride. 

Saturday Morning 4:40

My mobile vibrates with alarms and I jump out of the bed to switch the light on. Pedal-Ripping starts. Leaving the cozy warmth of bed, the biker starts the day at 5:10 am. As promised, I wait for Karthik at Diamond District and then move on after finding no response to my SMS and phone-call. Poor guy must be sleeping!

At 6 o’ clock I am at Merida Junction (erstwhile Family Mart Junction), J P Nagar, 100 Feet Road. People pass on their “HI” s with a cup of tea from the chai-stall. Early morning tea with biscuits……takes me to the days of higher secondary exams when my mom used to wake me up with a sentence, “the tea is ready.”

We start our ride. Early morning breeze with a overcast sky set a perfect beginning to start our biking. Me, Vishy, Nitin, Vinay, Praveen, Murthy, Pradeep and Prashant. After a while Prashant leaves us for NICE Corridor riding. This guy wants to practice some stunts.  We go ahead.

All I can hear is heavy wind passing by my ears and the sound of gear- shifting. Kanakpura road has good scenery on either side of it. One gets good learning of gear ratios when he is practicing them. (Front Derailleur) 1: (Rear Derailleur) 2-3-4, 2: 4-5-6-7, 3: 6-7-8. Sometime back, I learnt this from one of the websites.

After half an hour, we take a break. None of us are looking tired. 5 minutes of chit-chats and laughter. Bikers move one. Nitin introduces himself. This lad is from Rohini, New Delhi. We start discussing the usual stuff like how things are different here from Delhi.

We reach the point from where we need to take a right. It is a typical off-road biking track. The trail is rocky, kaccha, bumpy….whatever you wanna call. Roadbikers have to be extra-careful. But we all are on MTBs.

The fork suspension helps me a lot. By the time this stretch ends, we find the bakras making their way. One dog starts chasing Murthi. The brakes are so perfect that the bike stops then and there and he falls from the bike. Murthi loses his balance. Let's check the bruises. It could have become fatal! Thanks to the gloves and helmet, our man is perfectly OK.

 

Time to pedal up the hill, making our way through the big stones and bushes! The road is not maintained at all. After certain limit the bikers start walking, because there is no road. A lonely temple up there is welcoming us. We park our bike at the base of the staircase and then climb up to the temple. One can get an amazing view from here. It’s 7:30 am. The clouds are still hugging the remote mountains that are visible from the top of Yogavana.

Pradeep starts clicking. I forgot to take the cam, so take out my mobile phone and freeze some of the moments. Another round of biscuits and water; another round of talks and sharing. Murthi cracks some episodes of “Khosla ka Ghosla” and we all start laughing at the character of Kishan Khurana (acted by Boman Irani). No doubt this actor is a gem!

8 am

Time to be back on the saddles!

Pradeep loads the photographs on to his flickr from his mobile.

Riding a rocky downhill is difficult yet enjoyable. Total control needs to be put on the bike and your body. Fitness and sense of maintaining the center of gravity help a lot in this. This time we find uphill roads and my energy level drops a bit. I put the ratio at 2: 4-5. It gives me realaxation of muscles.

After an hour of ride we find a hotel. Very neat and clean! So we gorge on our breakfast! Idli, Vada, Tea and Orange Juice. The food is cheap yet hygienic. We check out the time, it’s 9. Another 18 kilometers. The Sun is not yet coming out of the veils of cloud. We move on!

Here comes NICE corridor and we take a break again! This time we wait for Pravin who is real slow as he is not able to maneuver the gears of his newly bought Trek. After a brief gyan session to Pravin on gear ratio, we head towards Merida Junction.

10:15 am

we are standing in front of the Merida Showroom, waiting for Navin to come back and open the shop so that we can check out some biking shorts and all other stuffs. We call up Navin. Navin is doing some dirt jumping at Sarjapur on his UMF Hardy and will be back after half an hour. We call him up once again. This time he says that he has a got a flat-tire. He will be late. Enough of wait! Time to get home!!! I am feeling hungry! 

For more photos:

http://picasaweb.google.com/amartya.k/YogavanaHills#

My New Bike

It has always been a matter of amazement to see those techno-bikes whooshing past.....the ones on TV screen! On my daily walk to the bus stand I found them passing by ME...in reality! I spotted couple of young fellas with backpacks, pedaling; felt a bit envious about their physique...slender and glowing! Soon I realised it is the magic of excercise....the machine between the two legs (:p..dirty mind! Don’t dive in) has done this magic........

Since sedentary job, junks etc. etc. gave a growth in the girth I thought of buying a bi-cycle....with the resolve to make myself fit and save bucks on auto expenses. So I bought a Hercules MTB. It came as a basic bike with no fork suspension or multiple gears. It was a great fun, I must say! After a long long time I found cycling to be fun...earlier it was a need. The short rides to Indiranagar and Thippasandra never made me tired. One fine morning I took this bike to Manchanabele Dam...not joking! It was a painstaking achievement for me to pedal all the way to Manchanabele Dam. Actually, this trip made me resolute about thinking of a multi-gear bike. Long rides and Single geared bike? IMPOSSIBLE!

I was a bit skeptical about shelling out a bomb during this time of recession and hence kept on negotiating with myself. After a long wait the Hercules MTB was sold and then my Merida Matts 20MD arrived.

Before buying this smooth machine I did a lot of research on Firefox, Merida and Trek. Read a lot of blogs...went through lot of threads on the web. Firefox Target was my first choice because of budget constraint...then I stretched it a bit and I was at the level of Firefox Viper. My friend Vishy said, at the same budget Trek 3700 is available and it is an imported one. The website of Trek is amazing as it gives you the details with product videos. Merida was another brand that attracted me in terms of money and features. Trek was not offering me 8x3 gear combination, with Mechanical Disc Brakes at my kinda budget.

Firefox was out of question after what I came to know about the product.
a) There is no proper after-sales-support at the Firefox showrooms. Sorry to say most of the mechanics don't know about the technology of gears and all.
b) They claim Firefox to be a bike from the UK. But it is not. It is designed in the UK and manufactured in India.
c) The spare parts are not so good.
d) The gears start giving problems after a while.

So I made up my mind on a Sunday and jumped on to the court.......took an auto to J P Nagar and met Venky at his shop. The Merida shop at 100ft road has a good collection of bikes. Venky, being a national champion, has got good knowledge of biking and so is Navin, although he is a very young fellow(Just figured out, he is in B.COM. 1st Year).

Before settling down on my 20MD, I checked out all other models....20V, 40V, 40MD.....
One good thing about Venky is - he is not a mere businessman.
He gave me a lot of suggestions on the positives of each model and how is that going to make difference in the experience.

Time to pay Venky! Navin had already started to fix up the backlight, tighten the screws and nuts. There were three ATMs nearby - ICICI, Canara and Bank of India. ICICI was not working for the cards of other banks. There were some issues. BOI ATM was closed due to some technical failure and Canara Bank was showing some error message. So we loaded the bike on Venky's Scorpio and went to his residence. The swiping machine made life easier. By the way, I got the bottle cage, sipper and lock for free.

The first ride to Airport Road from Chamrajpet was extraordinary. Me sitting on a Merida..I could not believe it! It's like dreams coming true! Flyovers and hilly terrains of Bangalore has not been a problem ever since!

Biking

Since my childhood I was a fan of bi-cycles. The first one I got was when I reached Level 2. It was a different feeling altogether! It took one month for me to find the balance. Since my upbringing was in a village, cycle has always been a mode of transport for me. But I never realized the importance of cycling, until I started gaining weight.

Before coming down to Bangalore I had no idea of how passionate can one be about this particular vehicle, which runs on pure adrenalin. To be honest, I got the new term for a cycle, "Bike." I also met people who are very serious in sending the Go-Green statement to each and every people around them.

Finance people would term Cycle as a low-opex machinery. One time investment and very negligible amount of maintenance. What else do you require?

India, being a hot and humid country, may not attract people to taking to biking for all basic purposes like going to the office.
But weekend rides can be a good way of keeping yourself fit and it is always full of enjoyment, especially when you have lot of bikers, riding in flocks.


Bangalore has always taken the pride of being a beautiful city with nice weather added by the educated youth population swarming in due to the advancement of IT/ITES/TELECOM and others. Now the scenario is changing. With the sudden outburst of people, this city is experiencing the onslaught of every possible bad situation including pollution; air-pollution being the alarming one. To cut the amount of pollution, we need some alternative arrangement like cycle that does not pollute the environment even by a single iota of smoke.

To spread the awareness of cycling Criticalmass (http://criticalmassbangalore.blogspot.com/), holds a biking event on every last Saturday of a month. The rally starts from Cubbon Park at around 3:30-4:30pm and then rolls on to any corner of Bangalore. The best part of this rally is BIKE-SALUTING. I have been a part of this rally and found it quite energizing! You be part of it! Save Bangalore!