my first club ride

I was probably one of firsts to book a RE Classic 500 in Bangalore. Since the time I got it delivered, I have wanted to join a club and start riding long trips; but I was waiting for my engine to complete the run-in. Now, I have completed 2000 kms; got my vehicle serviced and is now fit for long rides, yippee!

I had joined RTMC (Rolling Thunder Motorcycle Club) after I purchased my bullet and I have been getting mails on the announce rides happening month on month. So, this month it was planned to be to Raya Gopura at Melukote.

All the riders were to meet at Town Hall at 6:15 am. There were 16 bullets lined up spanning the width of the town hall entrance. Once everybody assembled, we started the ride after a briefing from the ride captain about the riding practices, regroup points and so on.

As everybody started from Town Hall, we were out of the town pretty soon though Kengeri was slightly congested. The initial plan was to meet at Kadu Mane restaurant in Ramnagara. Since it would be too early to have breakfast, we decided to have breakfast further down at Kamat Upachar – the one that’s McD’s neighbour.

Soon after we had our breakfast, we continued heading towards the destination; our next regroup point being the entrance of Mandya town. We then next met at the exit of Mandya town where we had to take right on to SH47. It was roughly 35 kms of rough roads and some ghat section leading to Melukote. It was continuously drizzling but not enough to wet us, which made riding all the more fun. The roads were wet, too curvy and not too wide; so we had to ride with extra caution. On reaching Melukote, we asked for some directions from the locals and reached the Raya Gopura – the place where many films, especially Maniratnam’s have some scenes of this place.

An awesome place located at almost 3000 ft above sea level is located at almost end of the town and is situated close to akka thangi kola. It is said that a Vijayanagara king took it as a challenge to complete the construction of the temple overnight; but he failed in doing so. The structure that stands today is what he had constructed overnight. You get a spectacular view of well beyond the Melukote town – the temples of Melukote and backwaters of the KRS from the top of the Raya Gopura.

A guide at Raya Gopura walked us down to an abandoned temple (akka’s) adjacent to the akka thangi kola. All the riders gave an informal introduction about themselves and their interests. There were many first time riders like me. I could see riders coming from various backgrounds and professions – fashion designers, radio professionals, entrepreneurs, students and so on. We then listened to story and history of the Raya Gopura, the akka thangi kola, Shravanabelagola and the surrounding 101 temples and kolas from the guide.

We headed back to Bangalore; met at the SH47 – Bangalore Mysore highway junction to decide upon the hotel for lunch. Post lunch we continued our ride back to Bangalore. We met once more for the last time at Mysore road – NICE road junction before everybody could part their ways. From there on we headed back home our own way clocking 310 kms for pure fun ride.

This was my first long club ride on my new Classic 500 EFI. The bike really performed well – refined power in excess I should say, good brakes, needless to say the right ergonomics, comfortable ride – thanks to good shock absorbers and spring loaded rider seat, larger fuel tank (I didn’t refuel enroute while many others did). Overtaking at high speeds like 90 or 100 kmph was an ease with this 27.2 bhp Unit Construction Engine of the new Classic 500 with Electronic Fuel Injection.

Longing to ride longer and longer…

my long pending longing…

  Call it the rebirth or reincarnation or renascence!! The post World War II era’s Royal Enfield J2 is back again in name of Royal Enfield Classic with not just a name change but with a host of technical advances.

  While the oval toolbox, shapely front and rear mudguards, the angular silencer, the exhaust fins, the tiger-eyed headlamps, spring-saddled split seats, the characteristic shape of the fuel tank and the thigh pads ascribe to ‘retro’ looks; the UCE, the twin-spark and the EFI define the technical advances of this marvel.

  Clipper 250, a popular integrated Royal Enfield engine of the past times is the inspiration of the present UCE design – an integrated assembly housing the engine, gearbox and the clutch thereby reducing the transmission losses. The Electronic Fuel Injection is from Keihin, Japan. Cranfield University and Ricardo plc, England have been involved in the validation of the engine and powertrain design. The chassis engineering was done with Vepro, UK, Engines Engineering, Italy. Xenophya Design, UK has been involved in the design since the concept stage itself. The validation of the complete vehicle was done at ARAI, Pune.

  It does not need a mention explicitly as it is evident that Royal Enfield has a huge club of enthusiasts which it woos by the bullets its produces, the culture, events and the activities of the Royal Enfield. ‘Rider Mania’, ‘Himalayan Odyssey’, ‘Tour of Rajasthan’ are few events that RE fans look forward for year after year apart from various long rides organized by several private RE clubs across the nation.

  Knowing all these facts is no matter. Just own one. I have booked mine!!

  Royal Enfield Classic 500 EFI – Inspired by the past, engineered for the future…

 Acknowledgement: All information and images from www.royalenfield.com

… the need for improved mobility

With increased needs for everything, so is for mobility and travel. The needs proceeded towards identifying a good car. The hunt started with an Alto – let’s go!

My requirement was more towards using it for outstation trips rather than for in-city commuting. Two wheelers are the ideal for squeezing in the Bangalore city traffic. So, the hunt continued for a more comfortable and safe car especially during long drives. The search continued and I analysed many cars including i10, Swift, City, Fusion, Verna. At one point of time, I had even booked the Swift. Then later, losing hope on the delivery of Swift after waiting for three months, continued to look for other alternatives in the market. I felt a diesel wagon would be better than a gasoline for it would be far more economical if more used for outstation trips.

I was with a decision to go ahead with the Fusion after having a test drive and finding too spacious and comfortable. But suddenly, my eyes fell on the Skoda Fabia. That was because of a review in an auto magazine that came in handy, perfectly for my needs – The Diesel Hatch Deathmatch. So, I didn’t feel great to see the Fusion review, tagged as ‘the best in space’. My mind was fascinated with the Fabia review, remarked as ‘the best-engineered car’ amongst all the presently available Diesel Hatchbacks.

The Skoda Fabia was launched in the ninth Auto Expo held at New Delhi in January 2008. I went through some of the user forums on some auto related popular websites to get the feedback from the users about the car. One more point worth mentioning here is that when I had gone to test drive a Fusion, I kept aside Fabia (the showroom just next-door in Bangalore) assuming that prices would be high, for its brand name and value. But, then I found to my surprise that it’s priced at almost the Fusion’s price; but with a lot more comfort and safety features bundled in like the ABS, Airbags and with lots of space too. I took the Fabia for a test drive and was impressed with the solid feel and the power of the engine. So, I just went ahead and booked it the very next day! And took delivery on the eve of Tamizh New Year.

Love at first drive! Skoda Fabia!!

me with moi fabia

Unforgettable encounter in Kabini

It was around a month back when I started to plan for an official team outbound for my team in office. Looking at the season, travel time and accommodation availability, we decided to visit Kabini, a place located around 90 kms from Mysore on the banks of river Kabini. We stayed in Kabini River Lodge, a Jungle Lodges and Resorts property. The trip was quite an unforgettable and memorable one because we spotted a tigress in the wild. As many of us know, spotting an animal in the wild is not that easy and one needs to be extremely lucky to spot one. But of course, I have read reviews about Kabini that the chances of spotting tigers and leopards are quite high than other places (forests). I would say, the geographical topography is the prime reason.

We started from Bangalore early in the morning. We reached Kabini by around lunch time. The last stretch of road was quite poor and that took a lot of time. We need to reach HD Kote (Heggade Devana Kote) Hand Post circle from Mysore (approx. 50 kms). Proceed straight for Kabini. When we reach a village called Kharapura, it means we are really close to the destination. There are sufficient signboards at crucial places.

The cottage where we stayed.

Kabini River Lodge is around 35 kms from HD Kote. Our river side cottages were all set ready when we reached their premises. One of their staff briefed us about the scheduled programme during our period of stay. We could see a board being maintained indicating the animals they spotted during the course of last one week and that showed more than three instances of spotting leopards and sloth bears.

We had our lunch there and relaxed for sometime in their picturesque premises. There was an evening tea arranged after which we set out for a safari in the jungle. Since our place of stay was already in the buffer zone of the reserve forest, it didn’t take much long for us to reach the forest. We were accompanied by a driver and a naturalist. His job is to spot the birds and animals and keep us informed about it. Our job is to keep on questioning him to improve our general knowledge. We gained some simple tips and shortcuts to suspect the presence of animals in the neighbourhood. We could spot lots of deers, peacocks, langoors. We also spotted a tusker amidst a bamboo bush blissfully having its meal.

The forest department staff prepares huge salt lick pits. And as days go on, they get melted and dissolved with the soil over that area. They also prepare waterholes nearby so that animals come over there to drink water after they taste the salty soil/grass. This is one way to increase the spotting of animals and these kinds of techniques are deployed to aid them in taking census of animals.

We also spotted a pack of wild dogs lazing around near a waterhole before we headed our way back for the day. So, that was the sunset safari.

Day II:
We were woken up with a cup of hot tea and soon we got ready for another safari. The animal activity will be relatively high during the mornings and evenings compared to other times of the day. We spotted two massive Indian gaurs before actually entering national park premises. The deers were spotted more commonly than the dogs in Bangalore. As we were slowly strolling around trying our luck to spot animals, the driver got a message in the wireless that another group had spotted a tiger. We literally sped to the spot and we were there in minutes.

The scenario was like this. The group who informed us had first seen two cubs crossing the road (the jungle track to be more precise) and they had informed the other groups expecting the mother tiger to cross the road very soon. We were there in the spot before the mother tiger crossed the road. If we carefully listen, we could hear the communication calls happening between the cubs and the mother tiger from both sides of the road. We could also hear the warning calls by animals like langoors indicating the presence of a tiger in the surroundings. A high level of eagerness was prevalent amongst us as none of us has spotted a tiger in the wild before.

The tiger crossed the road as expected. What a majestic walk! And she quickly disappeared into the bushes. It must have been less than 100 ft when we spotted her. Now, we could hear another cub’s cry while she hasn’t still crossed the road along with her mom. So, she had to cross the road again to get her cub along. Around forty people in four jeeps were already there in the spot. And the tigress came back from the bushes to again cross the road. Probably it felt uncomfortable and not so secured with so people around, it just roared once. And that one ferocious roar took the life off us, okay atleast me, for a moment as we were all in open jeeps. We then slowly receded away and left the spot to avoid any further disturbances to the creature. It has its own way of asking the way . Tigers are usually not man-eaters; but such circumstances can give ample opportunities for it to disprove it.

There cannot be anything more interesting than this for a trip. We then went for a boat ride in a motorboat in the river Kabini. The driver was telling that we can go to Tamil Nadu or Kerala from there by boat itself and it is quite close-by it seems. We then returned back to our resort; got ready, had breakfast and started our way back home. We had our lunch in Chilligeri estates, in Mancheli near Kutta near Nagarhole. This is a home stay where I had already tried their food when I had been to Coorg last year around the same time. So, I was able to confidently take risk with a huge group. She had prepared Coorgi style dishes for lunch and it was tasty.

I don’t know if I will get another chance to spot some more wild cats in future. Probably, frequent visits there should help solve this.

The meaning of the “We” in the above story

Hello world!

Anything first related to computers starts with “Hello World!”. So is this.

Started blogging on the Blogger’s Shutterwink one and half years back; having felt the need for some easy to use and access features, I had to move out in search of a better blogging spot. Finally found Wordpress – so I am here.

Here, you must find posts about almost everything that interests me – traveling, trekking, trying out various cuisines and lot more… in essence, my way of life or something more than that. Probably those who know me will know what to look for in this blog… For those who don’t know can get a quick idea from the “About me” page.

silver birthday…

as i turned 25 this year, i celebrated my birthday better than my last years; rather than saying – i celebrated, it was more of my friends’ involvement in celebrating my birthday.

started the day with two calls (at 12 midnight) – one from my friend staying abroad and one from my fiancee.

was around 6:10 am when i woke up to my parents and brother’s wishes, wishing me a prosperous year ahead!

getting out of my bed with a half mind – so early – to wake up now or not? brought the newspaper and was going through it with tv running in the background – still on the bed…

got ready, prayed to god for the well being of myself and others.

i had planned to meet one of my good friends – so started off to meet her. on reaching her home, i was doubtful on her flat number. called her up and got it confirmed. she opens the door after making me wait for few minutes. and she was peeping out of the door – reaction being – she was doubtful if somebody had knocked the door or did she hear something like that!! and then she lets me in. wow! there was a surprise for me. that was an amazing start of my new year. she had arranged, on the table, a nice cake with candles lit up all over the sides. i was really taken aback. i really didn’t know how to react for i didn’t expect that at all – in fact, i started cutting the cake, even before blowing off the candles… another perspective could be it has been ages since i have cut a cake and hence that inexperienced act

that being the biggest different event of the day, the rest of the day went on as usual.

i rather plan for the year on my birthday than on a new year. i wanted to finish my post graduation theory papers successfully, wanted to learn swimming, trading stocks and cooking. i wanted to buy another two wheeler, not exactly another – after disposing off my current!! i wanted to travel more, for i haven’t in the last two years. all my saturdays were spent attending classes. will start as soon as my exams are over – that should be by april mid.

coming back to the day – after roaming around to some places, i relaxed for sometime at home. then, later in the evening, i went to a nice mediterranean restaurant for dinner with my cousin and his wife. started off the day with a home-made indian breakfast and ended up having an authentic italian dinner.

was an amazing day, indeed!! this post is dedicated to all those who made my day special… thanks a ton

my experiences with the unexperienced…

I make no guesses on the guesses you would make after reading the title. So, lemme complete it – My experiences with the unexperienced phase of life. I guess I have come closer.

This is all about a proposal (for marriage) which came on Deepawali and got finalised on my mom’s birthday (that’s Nov. 16, 2006)!!

To keep the post short and crisp, I met her, exchanged views with each other, liked her and gave a go ahead to my parents. And so, the could-be is now my would-be… So, entering into a very dfferent phase of life – from being a carefree single to a more responsible person – lot more pleasant moments to enjoy, challenges to face and experiences that would make a complete man to come!! Lemme face it with cheers…

One interesting and a relevant fact is that early this week, the “Today’s Fortune” in Orkut read “Happy events will take place shortly in your home”. Now, it makes sense