Discover India on Wheels!

“10 Days, 5,010 KMs, 117 Ltrs of Petrol, 8 States, 35 Cities, 1 Insane Man (Sujay aka Godspeed 69) and 1 Machine (Elena aka Bajaj Discover Dtsi 125)”

It was always a childhood dream of mine to travel across the country. India being such a vast nation with varied traditions and cultures is a world within itself. People with different languages, food habits and attires portray a perfect picture of “Unity in Diversity”. Enough of patriotism and “Emosnal Gyan”, I know sometimes I get carried away with such Emosan. It took me 26 years Oops… (Will be making such mistakes till the time I reach 30 to show off that I am still young to do such adventures) to realize that dream. With Christmas falling close to the weekend and couple of CLs (Casual Leaves) left in my kitty, it was a perfect opportunity to go on a long biking trip. With my fellow MOB (Masters On Bikes) members, we decided to explore ‘Rann of Kutchh’, but destiny decided something else for me. A last minute reality check revealed that it was only me who was available for the trip, rest all had professional/personal commitments. I was upset and grumpy thinking what to do now? Suddenly lines from a famous poet Rabindra Nath Tagore crossed my mind “Jodi Tor Daak Shune Kaeo Naa Aashe, Tobe Ekla Cholo Re” which means “If nobody is there to accompany you for a journey then better keep walking alone” again some ‘Bong Connection’ J.

A quick check on some biking forums and courtesy Google Maps (Thanks to the Google Uncles Larry and Sergey) I decided my new trip route. Since my college days I heard a lot about the Golden Quadrilateral (GQ), a highway network to connect the four metros Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai, which passes through all the major cities in India, so I decided to take the entire stretch of 5,846 KMs over a period of 10 Days ‘All Alone’. Barring few, most of my friends were against this decision and had their reservations over my insane idea, as all of them were concerned for me. Somehow, I convinced them with my ‘New Funda’ i.e. “Insanity is the Mother of all Adventures”. With some quick bag packing; handful of money (In the end I realized that it was actually a bagful of money); enough spare parts; I was all packed up in my new riding gear to start the most memorable journey of my life.

Day 1: Noida-Delhi-Gurgaon-Jaipur-Ajmer-Bhilwara-Udaipur
Date: 25 Dec 2009
Distance covered: 705 KMs
My journey started at around 6 AM in the morning from Noida. I actually couldn’t remember when was the last time I woke up that early on a chilly December morning. The weather out side was not that freezing, but chilly winds at 60-70 KMPH was making life hell, to add on to that, dense fog made driving condition even worse. There was one more MOB biker Gaurav aka Phoenix to flag off my journey from Gurgaon. After some good 2 hour drive I took my first brake at a Dhaba in Baniyala a small village in Rajasthan. I took some hot Parathas and Chai and cruised my way towards Jaipur, since I had a long break during breakfast, so I decided not to stop at Jaipur and keep cruising to catch up time. It was day one and I was not used to the pace of the highway and was running behind schedule. I drove for more then 3 hours non-stop at high speeds to cover more then 216 KMs in one go (I actually broke my previous record of 200 KMs non-stop Chandigarh-Delhi). The smooth ride around Aravalis in between lush green wheat fields was bliss. I took my lunch at Bhilwara, some really spicy jumbo Parathas with Dal and started for the last leg of journey of day one. It was already dark and then hell broke a 20 wheel trailer turned upside down in the middle of the highway, which created traffic jam. I was cursing myself that why the hell I came all alone on this trip, what will happen if my bike gets a flat tyre at this point, luckily everything went fine and I reached Udaipur safely at around 8:00 PM in the evening. After getting some rest, I tasted the spiciest food in the world “Chilly Chicken made in Dhegi Mirch”, I couldn’t control my tears as the food was too hot to handle. With watery eyes I lied down on the bed, thinking about funny looking Dhoti clad dudes riding bikes in Rajasthan and care free Taus of Haryana crossing highways as if they were strolling in the garden.

Day 2: Udaipur-Gandhinagar-Ahmadabad-Vadodra-Surat-Vapi-Thane-Mumbai
Date: 26 Dec 2009
Distance covered: 812 KMs
I woke up a bit late as my body was aching after a 700+ KM drive on the very first day. First time in my life I covered those many KMs in a single day on my bike, but I couldn’t realize that during the next few days it’s going to be many more ‘First Times’ and ‘New Records’. I had routine check up of my bike and cruised towards ‘Land of Modi’ not the IPLwala Modi but Mr. Narendra Modi. The way Reliance petrol pumps out number the combine tally of IOCL, HPCL and BPCL pumps, it’s very easy to guess that you are driving in Gujarat. Here people are very easy going and will always welcome you with a warm smile. I drove Udaipur-Ahmadabad stretch 250 KMs non-stop to save on time. There I had one of the tastiest Dal-Bati-Churma till date and started my journey towards next city Vadodara. To my utter disappointment, I found that I had to take the double lane pothole laden SH3 and SH 60 to catch NH 8 instead of NE 1 because two-wheelers were not allowed on the expressway. The stretch till Vadodara was not smooth as before, may be because of the expressway they haven’t maintained this stretch of NH8. Somehow I managed to reach Surat at 6 PM and Mumbai was still 300 KMs away. I took the last break of the day and drove non-stop for Mumbai. The stretch was pretty bad with lots of construction work going around the Gujarat-Maharashtra border on NH8, but finally I reached Mumbai around 11:30 PM in the night. My childhood friend Amit was there to receive me near the Vashi station. I ended my second day with a heart warming chat with my friend in the night.

Day 3: Mumbai-Pune-Satara-Kolhapur-Belgaum-Hubli
Date: 27 Dec 2009
Distance covered: 590 KMs
Even after sleeping late in the night I woke up early, and was all charged up to explore the ‘Thakreland’. I was a bit sad for not getting enough time to spend in Mumbai. Slowly I brushed aside such thoughts and moved towards my next destination ‘The Swine-Flu Capital of India’ Pune. My friend already instructed me to take NH 4, as two-wheelers were not allowed on the Mumbai-Pune expressway. I was cruising happily on NH 4 when suddenly three Hayabusas overtook me at lightning speed; it felt as if they were shooting for Dhoom 3. Once I crossed Khopoli the ghat section started off. It was pretty dangerous, but I was driving smoothly around the curves (Mandi-Pandoh section in Manali has already made me champion in foot peg scrapping). While cruising through the Khandala Hills I made a big mistake, which in the end turned out to be a sweet one. I took a wrong cut and landed on the expressway, there was no U-Turn or cut to come back on NH 4. Thankfully a UP origin Pandu (Policeman) helped me escape fine and I somehow managed to get into the main highway, but the drive down the hills on a six lane elevated road travelling in between mountains was fantastic, it was pure engineering marvel. After taking a short break in the outskirts of Pune, I took the Satara-Kolhapur section, the roads were butter smooth and I was able to maintain speed in excess of 80 KMPH for longer periods. The funniest part was to see women in Maharashtra sitting crossed legged wearing SarisJ. Once I crossed Kolhapur I entered Karnataka, for the first time I faced problem in communicating with people, I felt as if I was in an altogether different country. It was dark when I left Belgaum, but the six lane roads in the ghat section helped me in keeping up the pace. I can bet if Justin Lin (Director of The Fast and The Furious Tokyo Drift) take a look at these roads once, he will definitely reshoot the movie here. It was around 8 PM when I reached the small and peaceful city Hubli. After taking a stroll in the areas nearby my hotel, I had some local food; though the coconut flavor in every dish couldn’t impress my taste buds but I enjoyed every part of it.

Day 4: Hubli-Haveri-Ranebennur-Chitradurga-Tumkur-Bengaluru
Date: 28 Dec 2009
Distance covered: 431 KMs
Since day three was comparatively easier in terms of number of KMs munched and day four was again going to be lighter, so I was little relaxed. With sun shining bright and green paddy fields giving a mesmerizing view, the drive down to Haveri was awesome. The bad stretch started after crossing Haveri and I had to take a detour through the Ranebennur city as the entire highway section was blocked because of the ongoing construction of GQ. Once I crossed Davangere the roads got better, but still there were some potholes and uncompleted stretch, which didn’t allow me to go full throttle. I took a break at Chitradurga for lunch and from there on, the roads were so beautiful as if I was driving through Europe, green pastures with windmills on the mountains made the entire stretch look like Ireland. Thankfully, the stretch after that was fine till Bengaluru, except the last few KMs, where the traffic was barely moving. Since I reached the city a bit early, so it was a good time to get Elena serviced. The best part was that the mechanic didn’t know Hindi and I didn’t know Kannada, but still I was able to communicate with him. He addressed my problem to utmost satisfaction and then I realized that it’s not about language but about communication which matters, may be that’s the reason even after having so many diverse cultures in the country we Indians are still so much connected (Some senti stuff again). I reached Geetanjali & Nipun’s place and had a great time with the couple. But things were not shaping up well for me from here on, due to instability in Andhra over Telangana issue there were bandhs and violent demonstrations all around the state. Everybody urged me not to take the route further; even I couldn’t decide what to do now, I was in no mood to take back the same route again. Finally after numerous permutations and combinations I decided to head back to Delhi via Indore, with this I went to bed to get some sleep.

Day 5: In and around Bengaluru city
Date: 29 Dec 2009
Distance covered: 49 KMs
After 4 Days finally I was free to sleep as much as I can since there was no more mile munching for the day, but I still woke up at 9:30 (pretty early even by my standards). After spending some quality time with my friend, I decided to give a surprise to my cousin sister, who was living in Bengaluru itself. Around lunch I visited her place and gave her a ‘MTV Bakra’ like shock. She couldn’t believe that I came that long on a bike, after some chat we went out to explore the city on my bike. We drove around every nook and corner of the city and relived our childhood days. In the evening I came back at my friends place and had lots of fun, especially I enjoyed the ‘Hayderabadi Biryani’. Then it was time to say goodnight as I had to leave early next morning for my journey back North.

Day 6: Bengaluru-Tumkur-Chitradurga-Haveri-Hubli-Belgaum-Kolhapur-Satara
Date: 30 Dec 2009
Distance covered: 757 KMs
After such warm hospitality for two days I was in no mood to go back, but had to leave as I had no choice left. I was sure that the day was going to be very boring as I travelled the same route two days before, Till Pune the route was same as I was trying to avoid entire Andhra belt. Suddenly a thought crossed my mind that why not make this boring drive exciting by trying something different. I decided to do some endurance check and drove Bengaluru-Hubli non-stop (400+ KMs in 7 hours and broke my previous record by quite a long margin). After taking lunch break at Hubli I entered the most beautiful stretch on GQ again, with clouds covering the sky, peter-pater rain drops, several twisties and coconut trees along the road, it was like a drive through the heaven. After taking a snacks break at Mc Donalds in Kolhapur, I was so charged up that I thought of touching Pune also, but dropped the idea as Swine-Flu casualties were still fresh in my mind. Finally I had a night halt at Satara.

Day 7: Satara-Pune-Nashik-Dhule-Mhow-Indore
Date: 31 Dec 2009
Distance covered: 792 KMs
I knew that Satara-Indore stretch was going to be the toughest for both Man and Machine, as after six days of butter smooth highways on the GQ section I was about to encounter real tough roads. Quickly I reached Pune, but from there it took around an hour to actually locate which way I should take to reach Nashik, after some half a dozen U-Turns, finally I touched NH 50 and cruised towards the holy city Nashik. The drive through the Deccan Plateau was fun. Dozens of ghats in that section provided perfect opportunity for me to test my corner speeds, long right-handers and 360 degree hairpin curves make NH 50 a biker’s paradise. Unfortunately, I wasted over an hour because of a kilometer long jam at Sangamner. From Nashik I took NH 3 commonly known as AB Road (Agra-Bombay Road), the road was below my expectations, as all the time I had to travel on a two lane road. By sunset I could barely reach Nardana, Indore was still around 250 KMs further, everybody there told me that I should stop here and take the stretch next morning. I was in no mood to spend my New Year in a remote village of Maharashtra. I decided to take risk and later I realized it was indeed a great risk, one could hardly see any roads as there was no sign of tar, with boulders all over the road and trucks flashing high beam at your face from the opposite direction, it was like journey towards hell. Once the ghats started it became even scarier, with no population on that stretch it was like a haunted road of a graveyard. I was not only cold inside but the weather outside was chilly also. Thankfully, last few kilometers were good and I just twisted the throttle to reach my friend’s place before the clock strikes twelve.

Day 8 & 9: In and around Indore
Date: 1 &2 Jan 2010
Distance covered: 53 KMs
After a grand party all night, I was all charged up to explore the city where I spent the golden years of my life. The best part was that many of my friends were still staying at Indore, so the fun factor got doubled. Right from my college campus, favorite food joints, and old hangout places I visited each and every part of the city. It was like rewinding my life all again, I couldn’t have asked for a better New Year gift from God.

Day 10: Indore-Dewas-Guna-Gwalior-Agra-Mathura-Faridabad-Delhi-Noida
Date: 3 Jan 2010
Distance covered: 821 KMs
With a heavy heart, my friends flagged off the final leg of my ten day long journey. I started off very early in the morning, in fact the earliest during the last ten days. My friends back here in Delhi warned me before hand that the entire Delhi is engulfed with fog so better reach on time. Since I was running low on energy and my bike was also very tired after covering thousands of miles, so I could not decide how to complete those remaining kilometers with appropriate breaks in between. A quick calculation reveled that even with just two 30 minutes breaks; it was impossible to touch Delhi before 11:00 PM, which was like suicide considering the weather conditions. After I took breakfast at Binaganj, I decided to test my biking skills to the limit and prepare my body for my next adventure trip, a 1,000 mile in 24 hour Iron Butt, so from there on I drove non-stop to Delhi which was around 600 KMs in less then 10 hours, to add on to that two lane roads till Gwalior, 200 KMs from Agra-Delhi in total fog and last 100 KMs driving in rain made this achievement even greater. Finally around 9:30 PM I reached my home and thanked God for making me complete the trip unscratched. The next morning I realized that during my journey from Indore-Delhi I was faster then both Malwa and Dehradun Express, I just took 15 Hrs.

(Some senti stuff again) In the end I would like to thank my bike Elena (Bajaj Discover Dtsi125) for unconditional love and unmatched performance. Facebook and Twitter for letting me stay connected with my friends during the entire trip, not even for a second I felt alone. My mobile Nokia E71, the only SOS device and writing pad for trip log. Cramster riding gears to make me feel protected all the time. Canon A480-the official camera. Google Maps-the official map. Last but not the least Almighty God for sparing me from flat tyres I had enough of them in my last trip…

SR

IPL vs IPL

I am quite sure that there is one man who will lose his sleep after seeing those three alphabets (IPL) on my blog, no prizes for guessing as it’s obvious who’s that chap. Since neither I had paid any royalties nor did I sponsor any team in the IPL so it won’t be a surprise if I receive a notice from BCCI that how dare I use this term without their permission. This term has become a rage in our country, I bet you ask any Tom, Dick and Harry and they will be able to tell you what IPL is.? Don’t get surprised if soon you get IPL featured as a Noun in a Webster’s or Oxford dictionary. For years three letter words like IITs and IIMs has been a craze amongst student, but nowadays when the IPL season is on everything else takes a backseat. Now I understand this is the reason why we have World Cup every four years, otherwise students would have dismal marks every year on their report cards (Actually it’s one of the primary reasons why I got pathetic scores every fourth year).

The best part this year is that we are witnessing two IPLs; most of you must doubt that it’s a typo, but my dear friends you are wrong. I am talking about the two biggest reality shows running concurrently (The Indian Premier League and The Indian Political League). Yes they are no less than reality shows; you have thrill, excitement, fun, conspiracy, drama, back-biting, abuse. The last two words are highlighted as they are prerequisite for any good TRP raking show these days. This year both the leagues had their share of controversies and media coverage, I feel, the media companies must be cribbing that why these two events are scheduled at the same time. (They don’t have anything new to write these days, as most media companies are just cooking up news to fill pages/slots). When we have two most popular leagues at the same time, one can very well expect some fireworks when they both clash for supremacy. It all started when BCCI and Government of India locked horns over the IPL schedule, with Central Government not taking the onus and leaving it on the individual states to decide, everything looked in a limbo. For few days it seemed that we won’t be having the biggest money spinning event of the year (I won’t call it biggest sporting event as I still consider Olympics as the pinnacle of sports, and in my view there is a much bigger sporting event coming up i.e. Commonwealth Games 2010 scheduled in New Delhi).

As we all know India is a land of ‘Jugaad’ and ‘Jugaadus’, so the organizers managed to pull off things in the last minute. With so many corporate juggernauts and Bollywood celebrities involved, they couldn’t afford to cancel it in its second season. The Indian cricket lovers will be a bit disappointed with the IPL moving outside India, but they must be happy to see the action on the televisions at least. With some big signings this year the matches will certainly be more intense, also the bouncy pitches at South Africa will produce a fair contest between the bat and the ball. With no Bajrang Dals and VHPs there (Most of them will be busy campaigning for various other parties in another IPL) we can expect the eye candies grooving to the tunes after every fours and sixes hit outside the park. The organizers will ensure that if the cricketing skill fails to catch the eyeballs for the advertisers, skin show will at least do that. The IPL season 2 finally kick-started in South Africa; though certain flanks raised their concern on weather conditions there. The organizing committee initially said that there is a chance of rain in England during that time but it seems exactly the opposite, when couple of matches got washed out in the first week itself. South Africa was chosen the destination may be because their board shared a greater percentage of revenue with BCCI, after all in these recessionary times “It’s all about money, honey”.

Both these league garnered quite a lot of buzz in their pre season build up. On one side we had teams declaring their latest line up; taking about their expensive player signings at prices equivalent to the GDP of poor countries; bollywood celebrities joining the league; news on sacked captains; and best of the lot (Multiple Captaincy Theory). On the other side we had election manifestos to lure voters; bollywood celebrities campaigning for different parties; new coalitions and emergence of third front, every other politician projecting themselves as the next PM and same old caste and religion based agendas. It’s ironical to see all these politicians spitting venom at each other, because we know once the election results are out this same lot will be seen shaking hands and posing for photographs when they will be forming a coalition government. There is one interesting trend that has emerged during this election, after the shoe throw incidence on Ex US President it seemed that all our politicians are paying people to throw shoes/chappals at them. I wonder why till date no shoe/chappal thrown haven’t hit the target, because that ways they show that they are still alert enough to run our country.

One thing that gives me immense pleasure is that internet as a medium is contributing in a huge way in both the IPLs (Why shouldn’t I feel so, being in the same industry makes me proud). We have seen some great social initiatives like “Jago Re” which is actually promoting the voting culture amongst youth. Many political parties also rolled out their websites, and are spending huge money to promote themselves. One such party actually flooded almost every website on internet with their banners showcasing picture of an 80 plus year old man projecting himself as a fearless leader capable of providing proper governance. (I actually doubt that person as after looking at his face he himself doesn’t seem to survive next five years, how will he make his party run the government for five years). The IPL franchisees also joined the Web 2.0 bandwagon and rolled out their interactive websites, I wonder how much that will help in creating fan following. I personally feel performance is what ultimately decides fan base and not the PR by the franchisee. But this time the showstopper was one blog that claimed to give the insider story and bringing up news behind the scene. Though nobody is sure about the authenticity of the source but the blog has achieved a cult status overnight, Appam C and Vinnie D are now commonly used lingo among cricket lovers (This also shows the power of web, and its implications that how devastating it can be for any individual/institution, if it is used negatively).

Looking at the level of craziness among Indians for these two different IPLs I think I should contact Mr. Laathi Maroo (Yes, that name is apt for him as he implemented “Danda Raaj” in the cricketing world, where money speaks louder than cricketing acumen) to include some new teams in the competition. Why not have an IPL team full of politicians; it would be twice the fun if we combine Politics with Cricket (Anyways cricket has lots of politics in it and politics has lot of cricketing action, I still remember that UP assembly chaos). Some of you must doubt “politician playing cricket” how can that be possible? My answer is why not! If we have such dirty politics doing rounds within the cricket ground why can’t we have people in the team who are actually masters in doing that work. After looking at the performance of few teams who are placed at the bottom of the league, I can bet it’s not the cricketing skills which make franchisees. Who cares if that team win or lose, anyways there can only be four teams for the semifinal spot, at least that team will be good enough in off the field action; like post match press conferences where they will blame external factors (read opposition XI) for their dismal performance (They are good at blame games).

I don’t know whether I will see such a team or not but I personally feel that the best team should win both the leagues. After all it’s about our country and its people, while one league runs the country, the other runs the emotion of this cricket crazy nation where people might not be unhappy if they don’t get full meal everyday but they are unhappy if Sachin misses a century.

SR