Yellow Biker

Part 2: Ride to Terelu, South Coorg: Bulls Of Mysore 1A

2010-06-17T18:50:00.000+05:30

“~~Sitting here wasted and wounded~~

~~at this old piano~~

Trying hard to capture

the moment this morning I don't know

'Cause a bottle of vodka

is still lodged in my head

~~And some blond gave me nightmares~~

~~I think that she's still in my bed~~”

No-No, that never happened just yet. We kick-start to black coffee and a good morning meeting with our hosts. Skanda seems to have a football and we guys got playing in the rain.

I had a severe fall on my neck.. Yep the neck and I was so goddamn lucky… i know I told it but I never had so many close misses in 2 weeks. Thanks Nahas Pareekutty for the shots…. Its really immortalized for me :p

Its time to head to Bangalore. The 2 of the 3 bikresses come with us. The rain has got to our bones

We enter Bangalore at dusk, and we finally regroup at NICE bypass. Zigzagging thru the Bangalore traffic I reach home. That’s what this ride is about – real fun, adventure, risk, making new friends, getting to know great people! Till the next ride – see ya!

Part 1: Ride to Terelu, South Coorg: Bulls Of Mysore 1A

2010-06-12T23:59:00.000+05:30

The Switzerland of india - Coorg has always fascinated me big time. I missed the RTMC cloud valley ride and was really feeling spaced out. The last ride I did was to rappa in shettihalli of hassan district and the ride before that was a camping ride to kudremukh.

The happenstance -, Bulls of Mysore were celebrating their first anniversary and we were invited. This had to be a great occasion to get know more people and share ride stories.

The concept of this ride was black and white photography. I only dreamed in black and white, all I could see was ginger plants, tea leaf buds, deers grazing in the mist, foggy weather and smiling kodagu men and women in traditional dress.

Woke up at 4 irrupting my log Z's and my black and white dreams, packed up my rainproof tent for two and the sleeping mat, some shirts from my Himalayan-Duo ride that said “ADY” just so that, people know where to find me. Took with me my Canon 5d Mark II, a 24-70 mm f/2.8, a 100mm f/2.8 macro an a 70-300 f/4 lens. All mounted on my lowepro backpack. I knew the weather would be all about sweetness and fragrance in coorg and so I slipped in a bottle of vodka :/

My Dalmatian pet – win-e doggie knew his master was leaving him and was really unquiet. Making all kind of sounds which I bet no musical instrument can reproduce. So I hugged him tight, and left him to cared for by my parents. I reach this NICE road overpass on Mysore road and I am waiting for my riders to turn up. I am ride captain for this ride. Laxmi has dropped out and other two are riding from mysore with the BOM team. Vivid thoughts of my riding alone is cropping up and I see Rajeev Paripurnan taxi down to my side.

Misty Palms is the destination (http://www.mistypalms.in/) the route we are planning is Bangalore - srirangapatna - ilwala - hunsur - gonikoppa - ponnampet - shettigere - teralu - misty palms

1st regroup point: Indradhanush restaurant on the right for breakfast

2nd regroup point: rangannathittu on the right

3rd regroup point: left turn to gonikoppa 5 km after hunsur
4th regroup point: gonikoppa at the left towards ponnampet
5th regroup point: right of shettigere (there is an orange building out there) towards teralu
6th regroup point: after 5-6 km on the left (U turn)

I hogged lavishly into incoming plates of tatte iddlies, khara bath, iddlis and vadas at Indradhanush. But I must admit I was just hungry and the food was really not special.

Not much to do in 2nd regroup point

……. but photograph. I found a strange temple and a bunch of strange women manning a huge SUV now that was fun.

As we entered hunsur, my Classic 500 EFI had a strange sound! I pulled over by instinct jus to see the freaking air-filter box was open. I looked closer and I found the key shaft lock and the shaft. I was on my knees thanking god profusely. I would have been outraged if the open suction hole in the air filter box would have swallowed the tiny lock. I buy 2 rolls of duct tape to shut this airfilter up. A few KTMC riders turned up and were amused to see my 1.5 lack rupee bike, gagged up in gaffer tape

Mysore has some amazing tobacco plantations. Staying with win-e doggie for over 10 years, I am kinda good at my sense of smell. Lol what can I say its true. Rajeev can vouch that I could smell a tobacco field. A few minutes later Mr Badri turns up hotfooting his 500cc enfield. So now the team size is 3. We see a few of our hosts from the mysore bullet club thundering down, while I get acquainted to Mr Badrinath.

As we enter coorg, we are welcomed by winding roads riddled with potholes. Rain lashes, and my Classic 500 is responding to the rain.

One inward curve, I was so confident on the bike, but the bike skid a bit. There was a truck on the other side, so I had to choose between skidding and getting out of the road. I chose the latter and was sitting all calm for a few minutes thanking my stars. The past few weeks have been progressively bad to me, at first I fell out of my trek 6000 MTB – on my chin and hands. 4 stitches on my face and bruises in the thorax, arms, and the derriere ?. Then I was training and I twisted my ankle. I have never trusted in god so much!

Misty palms is located in a very remote location of terelu, coorg. This makes this ride all the more amorous! The weather was all bad by now. Bad for a photographer! But just apt and lovely for the inner me !

This weather - It was foggy, rain drizzling for miles, mist settling in. really cold. Visibility not beyond 30 feet, sounds of water all over, no soul around !
Here are some shots I took of the tea estate.

At the deviation to misty palms, I see Rajeev and badari smoking cigarettes’ waiting for me. And we get into Misty Palms. PC (I think he is the founder of the mysore bullet club) is right there to say hello to us. We meet up with some riders there – Wilson, body500 (bharath), suprith, anand et all. Oh wow – we have 3 bikresses here too! The weather is awesome, the company is great and that vodka bottle pops out! – the good times begin

Skanda – the owner of Misty Palms gets me specially requested vegetarian starter – avvyal. This dish is prepared by cooking all the vegetables in coconut oil and grated coconuts. – Awesome.

These are the last images I shot during this ride

I slept for 4-5 hours and woke up to notice that the party has already started. The mysore guys had organizes a cake and there was a bonfire. The rain was intense, the heat was intense and it really felt awesome being with this entire crowd. There were some photographers out there and we even had a small talk on photography techniques.

The rains subside; foods’ done and it’s time for more sleep for me.

There’s a day 2 episode in the next post

TRIP LOG: Nandi Hills - My debut bike ride

2010-02-06T22:04:00.001+05:30

This is a different bike - a green one!

The usual suspects - Cup, Shobit Bhatnagar, Jishnu, and rotten (Rattan gangadhar) and me planned a ride to nandi hills last week. Shoved the bike into my car, and drove down to cafe coffee day after yelahanka.

Rotten has this funny bike called rockrider with some funny shoes that latch to the pedal, every time he tries to get off the bike, he falls down sideways.

Cup was concerned if this is the way he always gets off the bike.

Nandi hill top is 40 km from CCD. The first 30 km is flat and then the climb starts. The last 3 km is really tough for a debut rider like me.

Cycles arent allowed into Nandi Hills but 4 wheelers are. It was so funny to see us sitting outside the gates while polluting gas guzzling SUVs are in.

The ride down was FAST !! My trek bike touched 60 kph and i went berserk - psycho! - What if the brake cables snapped? Is its Goodbye Lensman ? RIP

Rotten has had 4 falls and is at the base camp. And we catch up with the poor soul. Au Voir, have some whisky for the pain.

At NH7 we are stopped by cops - We like to call them Sarkari Kutte (Government Dogs). These SK's harass the people. Oh well lookie lookie some president is here and we the people - the poor bikers are left on the road with the hot sun and the damn pollution for company. Do our presidents enjoy the same in other countries or are we just "gulaams" after 63 years of independence ?

Oh Mr president and delegation hope you spend some time at the south end circle traffic.

We ignored the cops and moved on.. WTF ? Are u gonna charge an unregistered vehicle ? Or me ?

The ride ends at CCD and i drive back home. Slept like a child!

RMX - Day 11

2010-01-26T20:20:00.001+05:30

Route: Kolhapur - Bangalore

I promised my mom to be home for lunch so i leave from Kolhapur to bangalore (620 km) at 5. The sky is awesome, like the heavens are open

Heres the picture of what i saw :) - I was photographing all the way - and reached home at about 5. So thats the end of a 11 day ride!

Rider Mania 2011 is now claimed by Eastern Bulls !

Next stop - Calcutta

RMX - Day 10

2010-01-25T20:20:00.004+05:30

Route: Vikramgargh - Kolhapur

Woke up at 5 and got riding from Vikramgargh with Rajesh.

Regroup with amit, praisy, bumboo, prateek, haren on the route and some where in the middle of the ride, prateek, haren and i decide to go to bangalore while bumboo, praisy, rajesh planned to go to goa.
I Knew that goa ride is gonna be tough in the dark, so we ended up at HOTEL SONY in kolhapur. Awesome place!

RMX - Day 9

2010-01-24T20:20:00.014+05:30

Post breakfast, we had a dirt track race. Amit and me represented RTMC. Mine was the 1st Classic 500 to race in the dirt track. But before that was a recce ride (BTW no points for this ride), Many of the riders did better in this recce than the actual dirt track.

The path wasnt any good at all. sad that atleast 3 bikers fell down at the curves. The trophy went to i guess baljit singh from roadshakers pune

Every rider mania i photograph some one!. Last year it was DJ Black Jack from 23-ONE. His last year pic is on http://www.flickr.com/photos/100kph/3234360830/

WildChild AKA Dipesh Shah of 60kph was this years calendar boy

DJ Black Jackk of 23-ONE played some awesome rock - loved it and then Sheetal, Anup Taxx and Anukran Singh, Ashish prabhu got on to form a band called "Joint Venture" hehe you know "Joint Venture" the band that ROCKS and ROLLS

THE CROWD!

RMX - Day 8

2010-01-23T20:20:00.004+05:30

Rider Mania opens after breakfast

The raffle bike is a "Mountain Dew" branded green bike that sounds like a - bullet.

Anukaran Singh, makes a grand entry with the wander lust motorcycle club. Revs so much that his engine catches fire. LoL - Feeling the heat @anu ??

There was the disassembly wars, basically one strips a bike bare, and when its done, a rider rushes to get the key of the bike. and the reassembly starts. The first to start the bike and ride it after the reassembly is complete is the winner. RTMC got third place - but that was no reason for not cheering

Slept like a child on the lawn and woke up to a rock show by a hindi band (no clue who). Riddhi from Mumbai weekend shoots was here,DJ Blackjack (The poster boy of 2009 RM) was there too! So many old pals

Sleep Late!

RMX - Day 7

2010-01-22T20:20:00.013+05:30

Route: Aurangabad Shirdi Nasik, Trumbakeshwar, Jawahar, Vikram Gargh, Sajan Nature Trails
This morning in aurangabad, i saw a strange path made in the sky - didnt have my ultra wide lens but captured it on my smartphone.

Awesome!

Guided my google maps, we reach shirdi for a darshan (But not before i got a got a 4 inch nail in my rear). Darshan was an awesome experience, was in the queue for 2 hours. - Never took shortcuts for there's no cheating in gods own home. The guys who took shortcuts - oh well they were the last to leave !

Nasik is a pensioners paradise! Hmm what ever that sign means. The route to Trumbakeshwar was average but then the ghats started later en-route to jawahar. Dine at a nice place at jawahar, and Prashi from RTMC suggests we come to the venue and not to Manor as planned.

The night ride to vikramgargh was awesome fast and dark ! As i reach vikram gargh i see almost 10 bikes - RTMC bikes - Whoa thats a RTMC reunion.

Reach the venue, Inddie Thumpers made us park right. Some friendly guys from the roadshaker club pune, come over and talk with us, the Late night talks go on until 2 am and then i sleep

RMX - Day 6

2010-01-21T20:20:00.000+05:30

Route: Ajanta Caves ñ Aurangabad ñ Elora ñ Biwi Ka Maqbara

We head back to Aurangabad - rajesh goes to the Royal Enfield Showroom called cherry corporation. I go hotel hunting. So many hotels - Aurangabad is costly to stay at. Its enroute to both Ajanta and Elora. Had to settle for a dampy room for 800 bucks a night. Not my kind of stay place but what can i do - we could not camp.

CUP's bike is at the service station and we go on my bike to Elora. This place is awesome, we hire a guide who has an autorikshaw for 150 bucks. He thought i was israeli and wanted to charge me 400.

Ellora is made up of Hindu Caves, Buddhist and Jain caves.

My favorite pic is Shiva Parvati on mount kailash and ravan trying to lift it.

CUP was very adventurous and he went exploring the unexplored. He discovered a girl with her top off, making love. The sculptures in the indra Sabha are explicit, maybe they could not wait. He came out screaming - would'nt you ?

We get back to biwi ka maqbara - "the poor man's taj mahal" and i get to photography again

Rajesh's bike is ready. The owner of cherry was really helpful to us, treated us to some aerated juice. That night we head to a place called Hotel Sagar at aurangabad. The owner Junaid is a hard core biker and wanted us to come over there. I feated on egg biryani - Awesome Must Have!

We ended it by a proper nawaabi paan specially made for yours truely "ADY BABA" by that panwaala.

RMX - Day 5

2010-01-20T20:20:00.003+05:30

Route: Lonar - Sultanpur - Ajanta Caves
Lonar Crater is a deep trek down from teh PWD house - We left our tents and went for a run aroud the crater 4.65 km pebbles, shrubs, bushes.

Lonar Crater shot by a Nokia E71 Camera phone

It has a cool monumental temple in the base. After this run i had a shower in the lonar waterfall and the water was warm! Totally Kewl! We had to give a pass to the daitya sudan temple and rush to ajanta caves.

Ajanta rocks, really elaborate carvings, hidden for 1300 years and rediscovered. The place if blooming with tourists, some naughty child threw a stone on a honey comb and rajesh got stung by bees. Hes ok Hes ok.

We hired a guide - a funny guide who showed us a view point right opposide the caves - thats where we camped that night

This is how Ajanta Caves looks in the morning!

RMX - Day 4

2010-01-19T20:20:00.010+05:30

Route: Pune - Ahmednagar - Aurangabaad - Pimpri - Sultanput - Lonar Crater
CUP had to meet up with an old janagraaha collegue and so we caught up at German Bakery Pune. Kavita was right there. While the old collegues were catching up on lost time, I tried some toast with some roasted eggs - awesome.

German Bakery is quite close to Osho Ashram and its frequented by disciples and some weedheads too

After the meet we lash out on the roads to Aurangabad. The traffic is killer! A night riding session to lonar crater follows. We camp at PWD guest house Lonar. The guest house overlooks on the crater. I attempt some night photography of the crater, but the light is rapidly diminishing and i give up.

Light Painting this night- under the cross beams of the headlights of the bikes - kudos to rajesh for helping me out here!

Night Night! Good Night!

RMX - Day 3

2010-01-18T20:20:00.005+05:30

Route - Wakaar Shop - Strawberry Fields - MAPRO - Panchangi - Parsi Point,Panchangi - Table Top, Panchangi - WAI - Dhom Dam

I wake up to see the KRISHNA river WoW. This is must see place. Definitely in the "top 200 places to tent at before i die" list. We pack the tents, clean the place and move to "Vaibhav baug" strawberry fields. The lady is from karnataka and is thrilled, her son shows us the fields. Amazing seeing fresh red strawberries. Incidentally Vaibhav baug is a home stay too.. Check it out

PratapGargh fort is the next destination. The second largest fort constructed by Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. 4 watch towers, dual lines of fortification and walls on all sides, amazingly strong fort - is owned by the 13th descendant of Shivaji - something like that.

We ride back to mahabaleshwar after the tour of the fort, buy more strawberries for Rajesh's collegue Kavita.

Panchangi is really close to mahabaleshwar, and we head to a place called "table top" - which is a big flat ground on the top of panchangi. I do some horse riding on a sweet white horse called kohinoor.

It was hard to pitch camp on table top as its very dusty. We ride to Dhom Dam - the sun is setting - faster faster - pitch the tents.

Tripod, Framing Setup, pitching tents all in 10 minutes and the sun was gone

This is what i got (look at it hires on flickr)

CampFire at night - Night Night!

RMX - Day 2

2010-01-17T20:20:00.002+05:30

Route - Belgaum - Kolhapur - Panhala - Kudoli - Kasegaon - Karad - Satara - Kanher Dam - Mahabaleshwar

Chorge Misal is a place in kolhapur which serves just 1 dish - the MISAAL PAAV. The exact contents of the gravy is unknown, but its spicy and i oh well -forgot of food for some 5-6 hours. Now coming to know of me, you would find me not thinking of food - very funny.

We then get to Panhala Fort. Nothing much here - move on. On well there was this marathi girl who talked me in to believing how nice she made salted butermilk - 3 glasses and that solved the Chorge Misaal problem!

The mercury dropped as we enter Mahabaleshwar, Kates Point is a nice tourist spot about 5 km from venna lake. The other location Echo point - echos your voice

The monkeys at needle point are funny. This guy climbed up and took a leak right in front of me.

We set up tents at Needle Point - at a place overlooking the krishna valley. And i went down to the city to get food and firewood. Its really like shimla at night, and the maharashtra police was really amazed of how 2 dudes from bangalore are here on bikes.

Cold Night, 1 kilogram of strawberries, Late night photography and here is what i got ! (Look at it hi res and mail me what you feel :)

Done with the day - Night Night!

RMX - Day 1

2010-01-16T20:00:00.003+05:30

Route - Bangalore - Chitradurga - Belgaum

Background
On the 19th of Jan 2009, when we (RTMC) was hosting RM 09 at Ooty, Inddie Thumpers lay claim to host Rider Mania 2010 (we call it RMX). Its now a year since - For n00b's Rider Mania is an event run by a host club where all bikers come over to network, and participate in fun and games. We make a mess of the place :p and exit

Rajesh "CUP" Choudhary and me were the firsts to leave from the bangalore club - RTMC. We plan a Maharashtra Darshan covering Panhala, Mahabaleshwar, Panchgani, Aurangabad, Ajantha and Ellora Caves, the Lonar Crater and Shirdi before we touch base at Vikramgarh where the RMX is being hosted. This ride has always been planned as an eclectical mix of touring, history, adventure, camping, camp fires, food, running, and people. It never was a Point A to Point B ride. and "some one" in his wise frame of mind envisioned this ride as a "Weight Loss" ride and planned to eat only salads and fruits, lets see how it goes

Today we met up at 5AM at mekhri circle and did a straight ride to Chitradurga Fort. Stole some "Channa" from the fields, photographed some sunflowers and the farmers with them

Chitradurga fort is a a very impressive fort built like a snake, built in a span of 800 years. We hired a guide who showed us around for 2 hours.

We were looking for a guy called "kotiraj" (monkey king) the spiderman of india, but unfortunately could not get to see him.

Back those days the way to break into a fortified fort was to break into the doors with a huge log. Now this needed a good distance to achieve momentum - thats how the passages to this fort are shaped like a snake

This is a FUN, Photography ride - that's me!

Halted at Belgaum - the only city which has all the 3 armed forced in the same place - or is it

Rider Mania 2010 - RM-X

2010-01-15T15:44:00.000+05:30

So we are leaving to RM-X by inddiethumpers in about 12 hours. Rajesh has a plan i am pasting verbatim.

We are mobile blogging with pics on http://www.twitter.com/theBikerBoy

cheers
-ady

----------------------------------------- START CUP'S MAIL -------------------------------------

Hey Guys,

I and Ady are starting for RMX trip tomorrow 5 am. Its a camping, photography and riding trip and of course party at Vikramgad and goa with our folks.

We will visiting Panhala, Mahabaleshwar, Panchgani, Aurangabad, Ajantha, ellora, Lonar Crater and Shirdi before joining you guys at manor.

We will join the rest of the gang at Manor on 22nd or 23rd morning depending upon our group plan.

Cheers,

Cup

9739660000

Following is our ride plan

16^th January - Reach Panhala via kolhapur, night halt. Enjoy kolhapuri mutton, 620 kms

Photography - chitradurga

17^th January - See Panhala Fort, Leave for Mahabaleshwar from Panhala ,

Route – Kolhapur – Panhala – Kudoli – Kasegaon – Karad – Satara – Kanher Dam – Mahabaleshwar

Photography – Panhala fort – Kanher Dam - Mahabaleswar

18^th Jan see less of Mahabalewar more of panchgani, nearby pratap garh fort, strawberry fields, night halt panchgani

Photgraphy – Strawberry fields, Pratap Garh Fort, Panchgani

19^th Jan Leave . Early morning drive from Panchgani to pune vai wai and catching up with friends on at pune german bakery at goregoan park and then head for Aurangabad. 320 kms

Photography - WAI

20^th January – See Biwi Ka maqbara and Ellora, Dulatabad fort.. 70 kms

Photography – Aurangabad, Ellora

21^st January – Head for Ajantha early morning, see Ajanta caves, head for lonar crater, night halt at sultanpur.

Photograhpy – Ajanta Caves

22^nd January –Leave at 10 am after visiting Lonar crater and Diatya Sudan Temple for shirdi and and head for manor 400 kms

Photography – Lonar Crater, Daitya Sudan Temple, Shirdi

Below is the route from Ajanta to Vikramgad via Shirdi, Ajanta - pahur – Pachora-Challisgoan – nandagoan – Manmad – kopargoan – Shirdi – Vavi – Sinnar – nashik – trimbak – Khodala – Vada - Vikramgad- Kudan

23^rd morning RMX starts

25^th Morning start for goa with the group. 600 kms

26^th halt in goa, party in the night.

27^th head for bangalore – 600 kms. evening reach bangalore.

----------------------------------------- END CUP'S MAIL -------------------------------------

Laddakh Carriers on ur CLASSIC 500

2009-12-23T22:38:00.000+05:30

Went to check if a ladakh carrier will fit on a classic 500. I carry tent, clothes, tools, spares, sleeping bags, and even photography equipment

The regular metal carrier frame, looks FUNNY on a classic.

I am crafting one NOW.

The Bullet 500 Classic - pics

2009-11-25T12:44:00.000+05:30

First views of the Royal Enfield Classic 500

2009-11-25T12:40:00.000+05:30

Since i got my bike on the 12th of november,

Lets go about what i love.

#1 love the Fuel Injection, i can move to 2nd gear and leave the accelerator alone and the bike goes chugging on its own. Some thing like my cars.

#2 The shock handling s awesome. After riding the bike for a few days i feel the thunderbird i used to own feels like a horse.

#3 Removed the rear seat, cant transport any one, but can ride slow (see #1) love that! I get people walking to me, love the new bike.

#4 Self starter - awesome

#5 head lights like some car - awesome

#6 Maybe its my clutch - shifting to 1st gear is sounds like a thud.

#7 took a friend for a 60 km spin and she feels this is too comfy - does not feel like a ride :(

Lets go over what i don't like:

#1, kickbacks don't happen any more due to sensors. The ignition cuts off. Atleast i don't feel it. Using the kicker is a pain, miss that 1 kick start of my thunderbird.

#2 when you pull accelerator slow , the throttle response has some kind of block at the lower accelerator level. The bike jerks. Happens all the time.

#3 Rear seat looks yuck. But what are mods for ?

#4 The screw on the tiger eye (head lamp) is showing signs of rust.

#5 the tires are funny , if i brake, it skids. If i turn at an elevated wet surface.

AWESOME BIKE IN ALL ! MUST HAVE. This sunday i will be riding to some place close to krishnagiri.

RE Launches the classic 500 in bangalore

2009-11-12T13:01:00.000+05:30

While RE is launching the classic at magrath road here in bangalore, my bike has gone to the RTO for registering

My first impression.. its a TOY ! its short ! i need bigger wheels

heres a pic of the FIRST royal enfield classic 500 in registered in bangalore roads

Booked the Bullet Classic 500!

2009-10-27T19:30:00.004+05:30

Got a call from RE today - "Ady, you are the prestigious, lucky pre-release customer, invited to pre-book the Bullet classic 500"

The next moment i am on my trusty-rusty thunderbird off to book at teknik motors. Green is the color.

FlexPMD exception

2009-09-04T12:06:00.005+05:30

Adobe Technical Services just launched a code coverage tool called FlexPMD to find the worst coding practices in your Flex code spread. FlexPMD runs through code patterns in all referenced mxml and ActionScript files of your project and compares it with the "FlexPMD ruleset" to flag it as either an info, warning or error.

FlexPMD runs in various configuration - command line, ant, maven,I chose the ant version of FlexPMD

I set up my ant build.xml just similar to the one in http://opensource.adobe.com/wiki/display/flexpmd/How+to+invoke+FlexPMD

Modify ant.bat
set ANT_OPTS=-Xms128m -Xmx512m

Create the rules: go to FlexPMD ruleset creator on http://opensource.adobe.com/svn/opensource/flexpmd/bin/flex-pmd-ruleset-creator.html and press export (Looks like the boys at adobe set the browser in full screen - You may not be able export, so pres F11 fullscreen - if you still don't see it use a larger resolution or use tab key/space to navigate/select).

This is a workaround for a FlexPMD Known issue (Quoting from the flexPMD wiki http://opensource.adobe.com/wiki/display/flexpmd/FlexPMD)

* Stack traces can be thrown during parsing. They are caught though during analyzing the code base, and hence fails over

[flexPmd] INFO: rule adobe.ac.pmd.rules.maintanability.forbiddentypes.UseGenericType computed in 188ms

BUILD FAILED
java.lang.IndexOutOfBoundsException: Index: 0, Size: 0
at java.util.ArrayList.RangeCheck(ArrayList.java:547)
at java.util.ArrayList.get(ArrayList.java:322)
at com.adobe.ac.pmd.files.impl.AbstractFlexFile.getLineAt(AbstractFlexFi
le.java:178)
at com.adobe.ac.pmd.rules.style.CopyrightMissingRule.findViolationsInCur
rentFile(CopyrightMissingRule.java:65)

The error occurred at file com.adobe.ac.pmd.rules.style.CopyrightMissingRule, i'll be debugging to find out why we got a IndexOutOfBoundsException later on.. Sure its an exception to be handled
but now i dont care of copyrights missing. I remove that rule by deleting to for class="com.adobe.ac.pmd.rules.style.CopyrightMissingRule"

Eventually this worked

use PMD violations (http://opensource.adobe.com/svn/opensource/flexpmd/bin/flex-pmd-violations-viewer.html) viewer to check your results

The ride to the sinking church at shettihally

2009-06-16T15:30:00.008+05:30

It was a ride never to be forgotten.....never

The plan at our motorbiking club was to jam up in a resort called the rappa situated on the banks of the river hemavathi.The group started at 6 am, but me i got up at 9 AM, and started off from my studio in sarjapur road. Well last night I was doing some late night light brushing shots with my dear photographer friends DJ Darshan Chandra and Rishi Syngai using some wireless trigger and mixed lights.
Bangalore traffic can be hell, and every one wanna squeeze in, cars wanna squeeze in a lane for autos and we motorbikers practice our offroading skills on the pavement. Pedestrians well they have no rights...aren't supposed to walk in bangalore.. Just kidding :P

As i reach kunigal,i see Mr Vijay Mallya's stud farm on the left, the walls all painted with McDowells Number 1, the hooch brand he owns :P (heights of surrogate advertising). This is the same farm where Honorable Minister Mr. lallu prasad yadav is planning to put a railway track thru. Its supposed to be once owned by Tippu Sultan, and i approach the gates just to see if i can get in and see some horses. I was denied entry - its a classified place of some big guy who put a wall around.it.

And i just head away to hassan, the land of the hoysala dynasty, i miss the exit to the resort in shettihalli. This must be the 100th time i miss the exit in so many years of motor biking in so many states of india. TheRappa is like 16 kilometers from the town of hassan. Enroute there is a church called Holy Rosary Church. It is situated right in the bank of river hemavathi. At this point of time, it resembles a building in the video game castlevania or the chapter "the cathedral" in ultimate doom.
This church is of gothic architecture and was built by the french missionaries in 1860. Looks awespiring and spooky from the bridge - this was the hint for me.... i need to make this look like a ruin some thing like what i saw in mortal kombat when the emperor shouts "Bow to me" at ankor wat or wat-ever.

TheRappa is like 6 kilometers from the bridge. As i reach the place, biju, horny uncle and the owner of the place - rappa vijay were there. Not to mention those cook dogs - shadow, brownie and shunti (in kannada it means ginger) I quickly have some vegetarian food and go swimming with other bikers.I wade thru the water - chest deep with my Canon 5D mark II and take a snap of the DAM gates.

The sun was setting, i jump into my boots, on the bike and rush to to do the shots of the church that i envisioned. Unknowingly, to me, some events were unfolding among the bikers. Some tragedy would unfold while i was shooting the church alone. I never knew of this even one bit until i came back to the resort with these prized pictures of double rainbows in the dark against a condemned church.

All these pics are shot with a ND4 P - cokin filter. These are HDR's exposed for each and every detail of highlights, shadows, mid tones and exteme highlights and shadows. All of these are tripod shot, shutter triggered by a cable release.
The double rainbow wasnt clearly visible by the human eye, but its clearly indicated in my pics as its a HDR composite and so the camera sees everything.

Shettihalli is slowly showing on the tourist map, thanks to travel/photography blogs like mine, the media and resorts like the rappa. The church has crushed bottles, broken glasse, and food wrappers all around. Sad but true.

I meet prashi - a fellow biker frantically asking me if i saw Lil Jhonny. I did not see him. In the resort, all bikers are in deep discussion somethings happened. Apparently, Lil Jhonny went swimming for 50 meters and was dragged by the current into the dam gates. After swimming for 2.5 hours, he clung to the dam gates and climbed over... poooffff man now thats something hard digest... 8 kilometers of swimming. Rappa Vijay was furious, he is like - "if you wanted to know the distance, i would have told you its 8 kilometers - why check it"

I was so relieved, in fact i must tell i was not tormented as say vijay or prashi or sandeep or the organizers biju and horny uncle.. i was not knowing of this events at all. But i could see the happiness in others.

The night ended with a campfire till the wee hours of the morning. An eventful day and hats off to lil jhonny... I knew buddy you did not know this would happen but anyways all that goes well ends well - in the well.

Next day i wake up and i find brownie cuddling on Lil Jhonny :P BAD IRISH SETTER :P Now that would have been a picture

.... It was a ride never to be forgotton.....never

Note On The Pictures: All the pictures are (c) Ady/Framed! Visuals if you wish to use this on your work, please mail me on ady at framed dott in

slightly larger pics on http://www.flickr.com/photos/100kph/sets/72157619775792844/

And here comes RM09

2009-01-12T16:30:00.003+05:30

Just cant wait for rider mania 09. A whole 3 days of partying and merry. RM09 is hosted by my club in bangalore - RTMC and so far we have a lot lot of folks who registered

Rock Band, royal enfield bikes, bikers, fun games and tonnes of beer.. that's what rider mania is about

Say hello to my new bike

2009-01-02T14:45:00.004+05:30

By popular demand i am forced to post pics of my new bike the trek 6000

The Jungle Trail - Flashback from the past

2008-12-19T12:09:00.004+05:30

I happened to blog of this very route (muthati-galibore-bheemeshwari) The jungle trail along side river cauvery on

http://100kph.blogspot.com/2005/06/sangam-bheemeshwari-cross-country-ride.html

and the pics are on

http://100kph.fotopic.net/c594365.html

Sangam-Galibore-bheemeshwari bicycle/MTB bike ride Along Side river cauvery

2008-12-19T10:45:00.004+05:30

I am planning a cycling trip from Muthathi Sangam-galibore-bheemeshwari. All Bangalore based bikers are welcome.

The idea is to pack our cycles in a car and head from Bangalore to kanakpura and then to mekedhatu. Here in Mekedatu we park our cars, dismount and re assemble our bikes and head thru galibore.

I am a photographer, and I am looking to capture some real action images…. So if you are a photographer/biker too welcome. We can work together on the strobe lighting

Facts:
Route: Sangam, Galibore – Bhimeshwari. We will be raging our MTB bicycles along side Cauvery river.
Distance: 20 kilometers ?? one way ?
Road type: Mud and gravel.
Date: 26th or 27th December after the ooty ride flag off, very early in the morning from bangalore. We will bike from sangam at 6 AM

Things to get:
Your bike (hopefully not a road bike)
Helmet
Pneumatic pump
Flat Tire Kit and knowledge on how to use that
Control Cables.. you decide from your bike and the installation knowledge
Chocolates, water, salts
Camera if you want to capture this – or never mind I will do that for you 
Iodine patches and first aid kits and a crepe bandage.

I will arrange the other things like permit etc etc

Do mail me at OneHundredkph (convert this into a number) [at] gmail [dot] com, if you want to be a part of this.

There Goes Agro

2008-03-17T14:27:00.002+05:30

I went to agro motors today to get my bike serviced for the chickmagalur trip, I was shocked to see a brick wall constructed separating the workshop. Apparently the whole site was in dispute and the case has been running in the court for like a quarter of a century according to the guys who work there.

Today when i went there, i saw a bunch of rowdies playing carom while listening to the music from a cheap set of speakers connected to an amplifier and a battery. There's a big poster that says karnataka dalit congress (basically a rowdy group) and posters of BRAmbedkar. These guys line up eunuchs on normal days says the manager, but today i could not see them :)

They are not taking any more bikes but in my case he agreed for delivery like next week. Considering with these trouble makers as neighbours i opted not to leave my bike there, who knows it may be target of arson. There is a festive spirit at agro, the chief mechanic wants to retire, the others want to sleep at home. Wow - too good to be true!

I was suggested a mechanic on ORR by them, That guy is like doing a pickup for my bike :) Something unheard of among RE mechanics.

The tale of 2 lenses – ady’s dilemma

2008-02-28T18:08:00.002+05:30

Ok Ady wants a new lens – he needs it now!! He has a 50mm, 18-55 kitty, 70-300 4/5.6f and a 10-20 mn

So ady wants to be a fashion photographer and cannot forget the biker within him needs a wide lens too. He has a 350d with a 1.6x crop.

Ady needs:

Lens for Full Frame ofcource
Image Stabilization
Max Lens Power
Long lens – equivalent of 100mm on a 35mm
Short lens – starting at a normal technical angle of view
Price value – the lighter the better
And No vignetting when he upgrades to a Canon 1Ds Mark III (he has no imminent threat on a crop sensor)

So the lenses under the compare glass are the EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM and the newer EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM.

The 24-70 has a better power, but no IS and a low focal length and is COSTLY
The 24-105 has lower power, IS and high focal length and is CHEAPER

24 – 105 mm
Advantages
Long range
Cheaper
Image Stabilization
L – Build
Lighter, smaller

Disadvantages
Slow Lens
Low power (f/4)
Vignetting

24 – 70 mm
Advantages
High Power, fast
Low Vignetting
L – Build

Disadvantages
Low Range
Heavy, larger

The MTF charts of the 24-105 and the 24-70 (available on the links of the lenses above)

In Closed Aperture Mode,Contrast replication of the 24-105 falls just at 13mm (from the center of the image toward the edges) and the 24-70 falls somewhere around 18 (18*2 = 36) So vignetting could happen earlier in 24-105

In OpenMode, its at 13 mm where the drop occurs but then remember the 105 is a f/4 lens while 70 is a f/2.8

Price factor:

Jayesh/fotocircle asks for 42k, Vinod asks for 38k for the 24-105

So if the price is 100$ more for the 24-70 mm I don’t mind having a faster lens that performs great!

Nikon Vs Canon debacle and my new camera flash :)

2008-02-01T23:12:00.000+05:30

Its so amusing to see 2 guys (nikon and canon users respectively) argue at vinods place in a heated burma bazaar in majestic. That too over speculation on what their cameras can do.

I think its you - the photographer who decides which camera is
better

Dudes fight it over at some photo contest !

In midst of this mayhem :)), i pickup a 580 EX II flash.

Will update my flickr with photos!

RiderMania 2008 rocked!

2008-01-23T23:24:00.000+05:30

I am back! The photos are ready but the blog is not ready (the usual).

The Wanderers did a cool job ! The place was just cool!

DJ BlackJack - hope your throat is just fine (you rock anyways, even when you were playing oldies :)). Thanks for letting me be your reverse pillion - many pics came out just great!

Imran- nice jokes dude - you can just mingle with any one ! You are one hell of a sweet guy to be a biker - hahhah

k-Chat: great job - well done.

The gonna-be long haired guy from highway nawabs - dude you are smart and sweet, keep riding and do mail me !

Anand - dude i wanted to take srisalem - ride was long, photographs took time, so the time was short

Lalit - nice seeing you!! Nice Jeep!

Rider Mania:
2 road survivors
A bunch of noisy Royal Beasts ( ;) )
3 Shillong Bikers,
a handful of eastern bulls
a bunch load of pune guys (road shakers)
a lovely set of indie thumpers
and a load of rtmc bikers.
And a load of madras-bulls

I "might" write a detailed stuff later, but for now Enjoy guys: the pics are at http://www.flickr.com/photos/100kph/sets/72157603778257369/

Preparing for Rider Mania

2008-01-16T12:31:00.000+05:30

Tomorrow - All enfield bikes are heading to that one place - Ramoji film City for Rider Mania (which is on the 18th and 19th January 2008)

I am starting at 6:00 AM from bangalore into the route i am taking is Bangalore-Chikballapur-Penakonda-Ananthpur-Gooty-Kurnool bypass-Jadcherla-Ring road to Ramoji film City.

The gear mountedon my bike is - the usual set of spanners, puncture kit, my camera kit, sleeping bag and ofcource some clothes

The idea of this ride is to photograph and i will be detouring to nagarjuna sagar dam, gooty fort, and the heavenly route between Dornala and Srisailam.

To do this, what i need is a good nights sleep!

RiderMania 2008

2008-01-09T11:15:00.000+05:30

WanderersMC of hyderabad is hosting this years rider mania. RiderMania modeled like the bikeFest is our own desi Royal Enfield way of meeting other bikers. Mark your calendars for 17th 18th 19th january and plan your vacations :)

I am planning to cover pictures of scenic places all thru bangalore to hyderabad. So if you see a yellow biker on the way clicking snaps, do stop by and say hello :)

The Date and Place are:

Date: 18th and 19th January 2008
Venue: Ramoji Film City, Hyderabad

Review on Couch

2007-11-26T14:36:00.000+05:30

So it’s time i treat my neighbors for putting up with me and my dog for a year. So i call up ayan and sharmista and tell them and say ok dudes lets go to couch. Before that i called the manager at couch and asked him to reserve a table for three at 21:30 Military time ;)
Battling through the Bangalore traffic, we get to to the lounge bar. The bar offers valet parking and the valets are very courteous and honest (yes you can leave your laptops in the car)

We go to the first floor and not so much action happening. I love action.. So we go to the second floor. The women are very receptive and i am all smiles - happening place!

Thirsty and with shivering hands i order for a tap of beer (they serve kingfisher). The beer is pretty aerated - not like the diluted beer of Pecos.

Sharmista orders for bull frog which is a vodka based drink. Supposed to have triple sec but this one did not have it. But it was good none the less - quantity was that of a beer mug.

Ayaan orders for a whiskey based cocktail in the menu but the barman does not know how to make it. so he gets another cocktail with whiskey and ice...good luck dude.

The music is loud and there are 6 punjabi ladies screaming at the top of their lungs. The music is predominantly the shit that the new age DJ's place but then they play rock too and finally punjabi munda bhangra songs. It was this bhangra song that helped me identify sardarnis from the other women :) These ladies went nutz and were dancing like Baratis - WOW!

the last order is at 10:45 PM so those of you who want to drink to the wee hours of the morning go to i-bar, tavern or sankey tank (call me if the cops there harass you.. i have videos of them).

Wallet Factor:
250 bucks per cocktail
450 bucks for a royal tandoori platter

Valet Parking: Yes
Crowd - Amazing
Management: Sweet - Amazing service. Promptly tosses you out at 11 PM. Cop Problems (they call us pest problem)
Quality of beer: great

Total damage - 1100 for three !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My cheapest treat so far (or ayan and sharmista were toppers of the guests with the worst appetite list - whatever !)

Couch is on MG Road, Bangalore

Right above Corporation bank ATM

114/1 MG Road, Sai Complex, Above Corporation Bank MG Road - 560001

Phone: +91.80.41512898

[Chak De Goa !] Day #4

2007-11-04T00:20:00.000+05:30

November 4th 2007

I wake up early, rajesh is not joining me this time. He has an additional holiday sanctioned by his boss. My partner is leaving to gokarna and riding on the west coast of india. It’s a SOLO ride baby. I load my bike, and head to panjim thru the old goa route. Its 6:30 when I leave anjuna beach. I stop at old goa and head for the BOM jesus church for a photo session. I then race back to Bangalore

The route I took was:
Anjuna beach-mapusa-panjim-(NH 4A)-oldgoa-ponda-londa-dandeli

The road to dharwad from londa was bad so I took the dandeli road. The road was bad too and I was at a good speed. This is why disaster struck me. I treated the bike like shit and he hit back. The chain guard link broke and the chain was loose. It took me about 60 minutes to fix it. The pain was severe… I sometimes feel why do mechanics get paid so less.

I want prepared… For the chain guard, I did not have the size 12 spanner so I tried a size 13 spanner with the support of a mighty rupee coin – no luck yet. By the time it was fixed it was 1 PM. Bangalore is 520 kilometers from dandeli. I was like oh shit I will enter Bangalore at 11 PM and get killed by drunk bangaloreans exiting the pubs.

It was a relief to see the dharward highway after so much of pain in my bum caused by the bad roads. I stop by the sunflower farm for some pictures and race back to Bangalore. This is where I would test my bike for its ultimate speed.

The route I take was Hubli-(NH 4)-Haveri-RaniBennur

Its 5:30 PM by the time I leave rani-bennur – my stop for a light lunch so that I don’t sleep riding.

I cleaned my visor of my state-of-art helmet with waxpol. The vision from the visor was crystal clear. And I dashed to Bangalore.

Harihar-Davangere-Chitradurga-tumkur-bangalore – I don’t know what these places looked like.

My target was a White colored tavera and I kept losing him – catching him – losing him. This car kept me entertained and I dashed into Bangalore. Had my dinner at peenya – and I was at my home in HSR layout at 11:00 PM. Bang on target.

So there ends my fun oriented goa trip….. do watch rajesh’s blog at http://ragingbull500.blogspot.com for his story !

The pics are are online @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/100kph/sets/72157601933364651/

Total Distance - 1420 KM

[Chak De Goa !] Day #3

2007-11-03T23:00:00.000+05:30

November 3rd 2007

I wake up early and head for some photography exploits. I see drunks sleeping all over the beach, in a lost-it-all mood. There’s always a good side to this - people who wake up early.

I meet up with an English lady. We talk a bit while I wait for rajesh to get up from his slumber. There’s a girl who is into yoga and I must say she was a great object to photograph!

Packs of single men waiting for their prey to pass by. I would say palolem is prelude to what a final retired life should be.

I load my bike, say bye to friends I just made. Rajesh’s 500cc bike is a pain to start while my bike started in the first kick. A visibly tired rajesh and me head to anjuna beach northwards.

My partner needs to get to the nearest royal enfield brand store to fix his bike. I get to Sai Poorna Resort on anjuna beach. Here I haggle over the prices for a room (he asked for 500cc) and I go elsewhere to check. However since I could not find a better accommodation, I went back to the sai poorna resort. The rates are now 700 bucks. Some kind of demand-supply scenario.

Right next to andy’s tattoo studio is a cool goan restaurant with some Bangalore girls. I call them Bangalore girls because their attitude is typical to the dark-straight haired-bit plump constantly playing hard (infact never) to get native Bangalore girl…. You will know what I mean if you know Bangalore. These women have no animal instincts!

Well there’s always good news after bad news – I met the German girl from Munich again. They tried to tell me how we got separated but again I could not understand her completely. I ask her of where could I get a reasonably cheap hotel to stay and they suggest me a cool hotel. It appears these girls know more of goa than me.

We bid farewell and I go to andy’s to get a tattoo. Tattoo is something that needs a lot of research. You need to know what you are getting into. Let me tell you of an example; About 13 years back one of my friends in a hurry chiseled a pic of George Michael on his back. Poor Straight guy – has to live by that 1 minute of bad decision. Rajesh finds my bike parked outside the tattoo studio and we are reunited yet again.

So I say good bye to andy’s place and we both head to chapora fort. Chapora fort is made famous by the movie dil chahata hai. The idea was to take our bikes up to the fort and post the same way amir khan, saif ali pataudi and the other guy posed. And take photographs of it.

We try some cool photography stunts before we collide with the sets of the forthcoming hindi movie – “Coffee Shop”. The hero and heroine are average – if you guys are reading this, we bikers from Bangalore wish you the bests and yeah yeah we will watch coffee shop when it debuts on the silver screen or a pirated DVD - whatever.

We then head to vagator beach for sunset pics. We take our bikes off-roaring down to the beach. Again where there’s light – where there’s beach, there’s photography.

There can’t be a night in goa without adventure.So we head to bagha beach and get into titos. Titos was suggested by the british biologist babe. Rajesh gives me the look and asks me are you sure? I say yeah and we get in. I see a firang guy with a tilak , looking like richard branson, playing the guitar and singing. The crowd is mature. So I look at rajesh and he says he hosted an average part to 4 of his friends and paid 4k last new year. That was good enough reason for us to scoot.

We then walked downtown and tried to crash into the barricades set up by the management of a cool night bar. Apparently we were not allowed in as we were single. I see two babes asking for directions of some ice bar. So I barge in and offer to help them. Well I knew - I knew shit about ice bar but I needed their help to get in.

Me : Hi, ice bar is down the corner
She: Oh cool.
Me: Listen, we are not being let into this bar as its for couples only….. so do you think.
She: Who ?
Me: Just me and that guy on phone over there.
She: Hmm, let me go to ice bar and see if I can join you on the way back.
Me: Oh Sure !
The Other Girl: Our husbands are waiting for us, we will be back. (? With them – naaaah!)

Me – Tongue like a hockey stick - With the W.T.F Look – some things can’t be explained

I then find out that Goa has an election that day and the next and the bar is not serving liquor. But restaurants at bagha beach are serving liquor. So Wining and Dining again.

After dinner we rush to anjuna beach where I bought 26 bottles of Port Wine (number #7), loaded it on my metal carriers and had another dinner and wine before I crashed out.
I had to leave to Bangalore the next day!

[Chak De Goa !] Day #2

2007-11-02T23:00:00.000+05:30

November 2nd 2007

7am: I woke up the next day, the wine is still generating complex chemical formulas in my head. As I pass on the series of restaurants on the beach, I notice one with a few sun bathing beds and an umbrella. So I eat dinner (I could not each much last night) and watch the beach.

10am: The crowd starts to pull in, and rajesh also turns up. We don’t do much but talking to some firangs. I head to a place called Sun Downer. Now Sun Downer is in the other end of Palolem beach. I get two women from munich returning from the place.

Me: Oh, hows it going
She: Oh just ok, ze waterz deep over zhere.
Me: did you happen to see the cool place with rocks out there.
She: What ? zhure letz go.
Me: Ladies first
Both: Koward!
Me: No ways! I am right here to watch your backs

These women are chirping out of their brains I just could not understand what they are trying to communicate with me or which language was it. Going by body signs, I guess one was saying something like I give great head. Well Before it was long, I think they left me, I don’t know – I could not figure that one out. Anyways if there is something I really miss not having brought, it’s my monopod.

Rajesh turns up after some time, he goes ape, starts climbing up the rocks. I felt it would be great to have a photograph of us - two bikers on the rock. I see 2 firangi women again and think of handing them my camera but then memories of saif and christine from the dil chahata hai fame prevented me from doing so. We bump into Satya from Sun Downer, Goa and he gives us some tips that we don’t think needed. But whatever maite – you are fun J

The evening is about photography – Babes, Beach and Booze. Rajesh and me try some beach side running before we go to the Cuba Restaurant, have a short eat and then move to some other restaurant for a drink.

As we are planning to go to anjuna tomorrow we sleep after our “Fishing and Wining” session.Good Night, Goa!

[Chak De Goa !] Day #1

2007-11-01T23:00:00.000+05:30

November 1st 2007

It’s Karnataka Rajyothsava Day (I guess it’s the day Karnataka was incorporated as a state). It’s notoriously known as a boring day with autorikshaws plying around sporting the yellow and red state flag. All the pretty Bangalore women stay at home. There is total security at malls, like the forum. The streets echo with rattling sounds made by cheap silencers fitted on rx-100’s. Now imagine, COOL GUYS like us in Bangalore on a day like this!! It’s can’t be happening!

We have been planning this ride for almost a month. And my busy schedules made sure that today just arrived in to time at all. Rajesh met me last night and we drank merry at the club till about 10 at night. The ride plan of 5 am looks definitely jinxed. I wake up this morning at 4am and call my partner. It’s amazing to hear my call being answered after 6 pegs of rum lodged in his head. I load my luggage, tools, spare parts on the metal carriers mounted on my bike. A clear visor is very essential for a ride without much of light. I wipe my visor using waxpol (a wax polish). We meet at Jewels De Paragon at 4:45am and leave in a bit. The ride is on as per schedule.

Bangalore – nelamangala – tumkur bypass is a wonderful highway. I am not pushing my bike too much. In my view, It is more of a relaxed photography oriented ride.

We have breakfast at tiptur in a place called kamat hotel. Average food, with a heavy stomach (big mistake), We ride on.

This ride is all about photography, and I had an opportunity to practice a lot of my photo tricks here. It is here, I did learn of one BIG thing - DONOT trust the protective-cover of your lens with anyone. I asked Rajesh to take a snap of me riding and he placed the lens cap on his bike. I then asked him to ride around – the cap was somewhere in the cane fields. We spent a good 30 minutes finding the cap.

We stop over at the entrance to jog fall and capture the breath-taking scene of the Sharavathi river.

Lunch was supposed to be at shimoga, but the mad riding to cover up on lost time due to searching and photography made us have our lunch at honavar. At honavar I topped up my fuel-tank paying a crazy 51+ rupee rate for fuel. I should have just filled in what I needed; GOA! was just nearby with a fuel price of 44 rupee per liter!

I enter the coastal town of karwar and try to photograph a very cool scene of an establishment called Project SeaBird. The security guards stationed there prevented us from doing so. So I stop over at the end of long bridge over River Sharavathi,for some awesome night photography of the sea. I notice atleast 8 bullets parked at the park next to the bridge – it’s the Karwar Bullet Club (KBC).

I head to the goa border (just a few miles from karwar). Rajesh was waiting for me for some time now. We then head to Palolem beach (Also called Canacona).
We check into the rainbow beach resort for about 400 bucks per day. The idea is to ride into anjuna and bagha tomorrow at 11.

So that’s the end of the ride to goa. What starts now is the night life at goa J

Rajesh and Me are quick to order Port Wine (Number 7) and prawns platter. In goa, the kitchens display crabs, prawn and squids in the raw form for you to order. The form of cooking is normally tandoori (meat baked in an earthen oven). After downing a few glasses of wine, rajesh decides to test his super man-kind of strengths by climbing a coconut tree. I can’t be left alone right? A few tries, a few ups and downs, we both become masters at climbing the tree. Now, how about that as an alternate profession!

Tired, we move to casa-de-sol for a late night drink. This place is open 24 hours. I notice a very funny talking firang who compares Indians with Thai’s and black-skin-men with Eskimos in a very loud voice. Gosh how I wish I could crash a beer bottle on his head.

The barman was a tamil speaking macha with just his 3/4th’s on. Pulling his stomach in , trying hard to build up his abs. The company I had was a French woman and that loud-mouthed asshole at the back… call it beauty and the beast.

Detecting I could be drunk very soon and probably would face the same fate as saif-ali khan in dil chahata hai, I head back to rainbow with the kind help of an Israeli lady. The dogs of the restaurant found me and are wagging their tails and then I saw the familiar coconut tree. Its then I knew I was home ! When I get in I see rajesh sleeping with all his 4 legs up. Crash – good night goa!

Route: Bangalore – nelamangala – tumkur bypass – gubbi – tiptur – arsikere – kadur – tarikere – bhadravathi – shimoga – sagar – honavar – kumta – karwar – palolem

Kilometers Clocked: ~680 km

A night at the beach, indiranagar

2007-10-25T22:48:00.000+05:30

(In the memory of Rajesh who missed this exiting party, hope he matures and grows up)

Well well well this is supposed to be a motorcycle adventure blog, but the concept is just slipping thru. Its becoming a dudes-having-fun-blog.

with the goa ride just around the corner, i called rajesh and raj for a drink. At first we plan to be at the club but then we quickly change for either NYX, Tavern (naaaaah!) and then finally the beach in indiranagar.

As we land exit the flyover, we see the beach on the left. We are welcomed in and a valet parks our car. As i approach the front office manned by the f&b manager, i notice Its a ladies night.

"Such a right time to grace the beach - i thought to myself"

So i turn to raj

Me: "do we wait here for our wives ?"
Raj W.T.F
Me: Ok lets wait... these ladies shop so much anyways. (the f&b manager is nodding in agreement)

F&B Dude: Why don't you get in and have a drink.
Me: Why not. Would you show the ladies in when they are here.
F&B Dude: Sure, (asks his assistant to give us a great place)

So we guys get into the disco.. Raj is beaming. I am like - oh just again - again

The liquor is like mid-expensive. So we both settle for white-rum. The seating is a view point.. OMG what have we done.

i look around and see so many men (without women of cource) at the bar table... oh poor them! The women are of cource freaking out hearing the music.

There's a voluptuous woman, really cool in a trance - dancing. Wow this is something.

Being a rock guy, an ex-guitarist and an off-and-on headbanger, I really don't understand this music, but it was cool. The food menu is average but it hell tastes good.

Raj gets to the dance floor flaunting his muscles. I get to the floor too and do some cool steps, the v-babe is on my tail!

Time fly's by its 11 PM and the closing bell sounds. Exchanging smiles with the V-babe, we leave wishing her the best in life.

ITS NOT THE END FOLKS !!

We land into paramount,koramangala. And i order chicken-tikka-masala for my pet - win-e and i pack up some eggs for myself. Though i love empire restaurant in koramangala, this restaurant far supersedes empire in terms of ambiance and food quality

That's the cool day that ended with a night called - "A Night at the beach"

The Triple-F goa plan

2007-10-11T10:48:00.001+05:30

ady boy,

here's the plan for goa and for photography..copying to raj incase he gets interested.No brownies to guess but easiest part was to plan for 4th november which is driving back from goa - straight to bangalore :)

31st Oct Start early morning by 5.30 sharp (we have to stick to it)Drive to Mangalore on NH 48 via Kunigal - Channarayapatna - Hassan - sakleshpur - mangalore (360 Kms) Take a Big BreakDrive to Maravanthe on NH 17 reach by late evening and halt for the night (105)

1st Nov Early morning enjoy the sight at maravantheand start after break fast and leave for murdeshvar island(60kms) and drive to Go-karna for lunch(80 kms) and chill out rest of the evening day and night

2nd Nov Early morning see OM Kudle beach, do photography and start after breakfast and reach karwar(60 kms) beach (photography) and finally reach palolem by evening and chill out in the evening and night..port wine and good food....

3rd Nov start for goa city and chill out for full day and night(maybe at anjuna or calangute)

4th Nov Start early and drive back to bangalore 578 kms and reach home by night time..... killer driving....

here are my thoughts why goto goa, jus chill out palolem for two days, its a better, cheaper place, less crowded and lot of foreigners.....also we will save 200 kms of driving....

The "Triple - F" Ride to Goa 2007

2007-10-09T15:00:00.000+05:30

Rajesh, a friend of mine and me are deciding to ride to goa. I have called Jaggu (Part of the Himalayan Duo ride we did earlier this year)

Jaggu will confirm. Posted this ride in Goa Business Network.. hope we get what we want :)

The idea is to ride along the mangalorean coast and come back from the highway

More later!

Meet with Hellmuth Conz

2007-09-14T23:26:00.000+05:30

My photography is getting better (so i feel). Theres a huge improvement from my himalayan duo pics and the far east pics i shot lately.

I ask for a meeting with Hellmuth Conz (no portfolio work online, sorry) day before and i am given an appointment today - 6pm.

I SMS's him and reconfirmed the appointment this afternoon and he preponed it to 5 PM. I explained to him that i have appointments i have already given and the best i could do is 5:30. So the Meister had to wait till 5:30 in a coffee shop.

Its not hard to identify him. I had already seen a pic of him on >BOSS<'s flickr page. I show him my pics on the laptop he is patient to comment on it. He appreciates some "fluke" shots i took and was about to delete it.

Before we leave, i ask him to take some pics of the surroundings of barista. You can find the pics on my flickr page.

Oh you may want to know what hellmuth has to say to me - he says "You need to start from the basic course"

cheers !

Photography Field Day

2007-08-25T19:18:00.000+05:30

I have been asking Mayur from the Bangalore photography club for this appointment since long. BPC was meeting at java city and mayur gave me the 2.30 pm slot on his calender.

I showed him my snaps from the Himalayan duo ride and most of them:

1. were over exposed.
2. Focusing was at the wrong place
3. Colors were wrong due to point #1

I realized that i was a just another lousy egoistic photographer who could not come to terms with the cameras "Automatic" mode function.

In some time, deepika (another member) comes in and gives her views too. Apparently i had not used the White Balance well.

The meeting was more of a lesson on post processing, but the balancing the EV was the point that i needed to learn a lot about.

The pics are at http://picasaweb.google.com/100kph/LalbagBangalore25thAugust2007

Do leave comments on how that was!

Cheers!

Ady

This is some funny article i picked up somewhere

2007-08-20T23:04:00.000+05:30

Bikers Guide to looking at girls and make them look at you (without hurting yourself)

Disclaimer: I never wrote this article. Infact I am not the kind to watch other females of my species. Don’t claim me liable if you get trashed by the public, or you twist your neck. I only pilfered this article from another site (and I don’t know where that is/was or who the author is/was).

Preface
It’s told half the battle is won if a girl looks at you twice. And this article will explain you riders of the “Ultimate Cruiser” on how to achieve this. The first thing a the “other side” notices about you is your uniqueness. So if you ride and dress like a punk on a RX-100 or a potbellied-trader on a Bajaj-Scooter its probably correct to assume that her radars missed you.

How to Dress while riding
If you have a good physique and no signs of a pot belly wear colorful short sleeve shirt, show your biceps out. Dress in some tight jeans which is denim blue in color. Alternatively try 3/4ths some times (but not shorts as girls in India turn their eyes away from you (in shame) when you are dressed inappropriately).. Please remember you should sit 2 inches away from the tank. This will give you a great erect posture while driving. Look straight and pull the throttle

If you don’t have a good body (you are a body one size too big), - no problems, just dress with a blazer and jeans. Any thing to hide your paunch – dude. If a decent girl worth watching sees your, there goes all your chances. Guys with airbags in their belly, please sit as close to the cruisers tank so that it’s covered. Well. Alternately you can buy some tank bags with some vendors hawking it.

One thing good about these tank bags is that your bike will look abnormal and big, so even if you are big and abnormal, you will always get a FIRST LOOK!

Shoes
Shoes are very important! Make sure you have big boots like the one from woodland. Just don’t wear a formal black leather shoe or a cheap brown shoe. If you do, you would look great on some executive-bike. Make sure you have mud on your shoe to depict the “born tough” spirit that your dad passed to you (and his dad did to him).

How to Dress your bike
No matter how dirty your shoe it, your bike should be sparky-sparky J. It should shine. Use that waxpol polish on painted parts and chalk powder paste on chrome. Rub the chalk powder and you get shining new chrome. Bribe your maidservant to do this every two days. Positioning your mirrors is very important. You will learn about this later in this e-book.

The Thump
Its the thump that makes your bike sound different. Use the Goldie silencer. These silencers cost 2000 bucks and are peddled all over India. Don’t use the rocket silencer or the thinner one they make your bike sound like an auto-rikshaw.

So my friends don’t keep the bazooka silencer, or your bike will sound like a greeves – garuda transport carrier.

How to make them feel they are not being ogled at
The most important thing is to make the girl feel she is not being stared at. Women have been gifted with the uncanny ability to detect where in a crowd are the “stares” coming from. They usually avoid that section. So your priority is to make them feel “comfy”.

Now how do you do that ? – Optical Illusion – Stupid!

Buy a reflecting glass (these are great, women love to see themselves in a mirror - yeah) or a dark glass (this is not so great, but chalta-hai types). Don’t get a red or a blue glass, like you used to do when you went to watch chota chetan 3d when you were kids…these are turn offs

Now there is a style in looking… since they cant see your eyeball movement, don’t look directly into them. Look at the beggar on the pavement and take a glance at her (if she’s looking). My advice, forget girls on the other side of the road, she’ll be long gone before anything could happen at all.

Rear View Mirror
Approach
Now you see a great gal
walking on the left. What would you do ? a) ride past her slowly and turn your head to see her or b) ride past her and see her in the rear view mirror.

Well if a’s your answer, this article is just for you !. Don’t twist
your head and sprain it. It’s not worth it dude. Ride close to her at say 10 kmph and you will see her all in your mirrors!

The Traffic Signal “turn the
mirror” approach
Ok
now you are stuck in a traffic signal and you are bored. Your sixth sense tells you that there could be a good girl in the auto-rikshaw on your right. How do you check that? Will you turn? What if she is not attractive? Save yourself the embarrassment! Twist your handle and use the rear view mirrors. – You got two of them!

NOTE: All these work best when you have reflecting aviators.

Final Cut - How you wear Helmet and make them feel noticed
Girls love to be curious. So lets play by their rules be anonymous! Wear a full face helmet. Typically the mouth-piece helmet should barely expose your upper lip. Follow the sixth section described here . If the girl gives you a stare, look at her and smile bright thru the helmet. She will not know for sure how are you smiling but will definitely respond back (positive or negative depends on how you did it).

NOTE: Don’t wear that flip open helmet as a. its not safe for your anteriors. And b. there is no more anonymity in you!

End Notes
Fine, so you impressed some one and she gives you the lead. This typically happens only if you are lucky and extremely good. You will see her lighting her indicators and leading you to some coffee shop (she won’t pull over unless she wants to bash you black-blue). You know what, act innocent and follow her, look and smile only when you are sure she does not have company. In fact I went lucky many times!

FINALLY
How successful you are ? It’s all about horse sense! Do mail me on yabbadabbadoo@yahoo.co.ae

Himalyan Duo Pics UP!!!!

2007-07-25T18:20:00.000+05:30

Hi folks,

After a very long time, i have finally got a chance to upload the pictures of the Himalayan Ride Jag and me participated in.

The route we took was:

delhi-manali-leh
leh--ktop-diskit-panamik-ktop-leh
leh-pangong-man (got kicked out there)-leh

leh-khalse-dah-hanu-batalik-kargil (me)
leh-khalse-lamayuru-kargil (Jag)

kargil-srinagar-pathankot-delhi

The total kilometers i clocked was 3800, jaggu boy did 3600. I had 2 punctures (self fixed) and 1 instance of the tappet coming off. Jaggu had a seized carb-float and timing issues

We were on the road for 19 days (june 8th to june 28th 2007) and have been on our knees to water, snow, sand and real chill temperatures

The pics are at http://picasaweb.google.com/100kph/HimalayanDuo2007. Dont forget to leave comments !!!!!!!!!

Cheers!

-ady

Driving in the rain (Kudremukh to Bangalore)

2007-07-08T22:09:00.000+05:30

Its 8:30 am and Kudremukh is raining heavy. We plan to start our journey back to bangalore.

The kudremukh-bangalore route we usually take is

Kudremukh-samse-kalasa-Balehonnur-chickmagalur-belur-hassan-cr patna-bg
nagar-kunigal-nelamangala-bangalore.

This is a cool smooth route. And you have a great coffee shop located in a plantation after Balehonnur. But this time we decide to go an alternate route

Kudremukh-samse-kalasa-magundi-kottigehara-mudigere-belur-hassan-cr-patna-bg nagar-kunigal-nelamangala-bangalore

The rains are tough, visibility partial, sunlight rare, here are some snaps !

One note on the road from kottigehara-mudigere is horrible, full of potholes and maniac drivers racing over them.

At mudigere, i avoid sankleshpur as the road between sankleshpur and hassan sucks and get towards belur. The road from belur to hassan is a cute highway. Hassan to Bangalore is a 4 way highway.

Lunch was at Kamat Uphar - CR Patna who make nice north indian thalis that cost 60 bucks, costly for its size.

I drive into bg nagar where tehres a very cool coffee shop that make exceptional coffee.. don't forget to try this guy out.. he is exceptional. I reach Bangalore at 4 pm, late but acceptable for the number of win-e stops, photo - stops and coffee stops :)

Retrieving Win-e boy from kudremukh

2007-07-07T22:09:00.000+05:30

Yesterday - I just could not take life without Win-e. My bike came back in perfect condition from delhi on Wednesday. I caught the night bus to kudremukh and arrived at kalasa this morning. This Sleepy, cum holy town of Kalasa (well atleast its the gateway to horanadu) is raining cats and dogs. From kalasa, i was transported in an old battered satellite pickup kind of bus to kudremukh. I asked the bus driver to drop be a few houses away from my home so that i could walk a bit. As i approach my home, alert win-e was the first to notice me and start barking. the other dog - pookie was quick to follow suit. These dogs i must tell you are amazing..

Win-e is seeing me after 5 weeks and he is really excited. he is himself wet due to rains lashing in and he keeps rubbing against me untill we both smell the same. I was planning a trek up the north hill here with my trusted friend - win-e, but the unrelentless rains of this region is not letting me go. Kudremukh is home to a spring called Sitabhumi-Hole and it ends up joining the bhadra river (which then joins River Tunga, forming TungaBhadra). Ditching the trekking plans, we settle for a small 3 kilometer walk to source of the sita-bhoomi source. Half way win-e has 2 leeches in his wet-black-leather-nose and i have 2 more on my leg-calves. So i just pulled the leeches off (NEVER DO THAT), which i regret today, it still itches. The rains come back, and the 3 kilometer walk ended into a 3 kilometer run.

After a hair-dry session for win-e and a lavish lunch served by my mom, win-e and I sleep most of the afternoon cuddling each other, the next best sleep i had after the bharathpur burn out in the himalayan ride 2007.

My Car, The Suzuki Wagon-R is idle for 5 weeks in the garage of a vacant house in this ghost town of kudremukh. Kudremukh used to be a great township with great people where i spent most of my childhood, but its now home to uncontrolled weeds, creepers and mossy empty houses. I turn on the ignition and the car hums to life instantaneously. Not bad for a 3 year old battery.

Tomorrows - sunday, a great day to drive back to Bangalore.

We are Back!

2007-06-29T02:36:00.001+05:30

Jaggu and me have returned back to cool bangalore today. We had a great bumpy flight with go-air.

YES WE HAVE DONE IT! Minus Zanskar.

Bangalore feels soooooo good. 3700 odd kilometers of riding and we are home baby!

The himalayan duo web site will be updated within say 2-3 weeks... lots of material :)

Life without win-e

2007-06-02T23:30:00.000+05:30

My bikes in delhi, my cars in kudremukh, win-e's off too.

Win-E is better off at kudremukh, my home town with my mom and dad. Its a selfless sacrifice my parents have done to raise the kith and kin of us (namely pookie and win-e, just kidding :) )

Win-e is a go getter, he needs an entire forest to a home! Win-E was running thru the wild kudremukh. AND Win-e loves kudremukh

I commute to the office in my mountain bike

Pics later

My first photography classes

2007-05-26T20:50:00.000+05:30

SMS'd chandra (an avid photographer and biker) about my new camera and asked him if he would give me lessons on photographing the Lakes of laddakh in low light. He gladly accepted and turned up at HSR Layout in his "Gangster" kind of spacious SUV (Tata safari). That was some seating comfort !!

So we ended up at coffee day with camera gear, talking of photography. Chandra started off with aparture, shutter speed, ISO settings.. a cool 2 hours of his precious time! Thank you dude !

Here are MY FIRST DLSR images after his classes

I tried to focus on the red ball that Gowda is trying to pocket.

The red is not that good but thats my first ones :)

The NEW CLUBHOUSE Building and the swimming pool

Exposure Time = 20 sec
F Number = 7/2 [3.500]
Exposure Program = Shutter priority
ISO Speed Ratings = 100

Ok Heres a clearer one with a 10 sec more aperture

Exposure Time = 30 sec
F Number = 7/2 [3.500]
Exposure Program = Shutter priority
ISO Speed Ratings = 100

And how can any photography from me go without Win-E around ;)

Exposure Time = 1/40 sec [0.025]

F Number = 28/5 [5.600]

Exposure Program = Aperture priority

ISO Speed Ratings = 100

Say hello to my new camera

2007-05-22T11:38:00.000+05:30

I was always looking to improve the quality of my photographs since the last himalayan trip. And so i though , hey - a DSLR is the one.

Went to brigade road and they were having a 1-week offer "by the showroom" for a olympus evolt 500 DSLR.

e-500 body, 17.5 - 45 mm, 40-150 mm, 1gb cf-1 card (basically the e-500 dzk package), and tripod for 40k.

Went to Jayesh's shop in chickpet and the same was like 8 k cheaper ;)

So i call up Kam, and DJ Sameer and they suggest me the Cannon 350D or the digital rebel XT.

So it is !!!

Cannon Body, Lens, CPL Filter, UV Filter, Case - 23k INR
Memory card - 2GB EXTREME-III some 3 k

26k in total.

Now let me go and learn some thing about photography ;)

How to kill your brand (The PS3 Song)

2007-05-01T14:08:00.000+05:30

This is a very funny video i stumbled across!

This video give a nice message for product oriented guys (like me) - "Dont make stuff people dont want"!

Enjoy !

The Long Weekend - Games and Fun, Gautham Kalra

2007-04-29T22:37:00.000+05:30

Woke up after a wonderful nourishing sleep after the previous day's PT exercises....here are details, Biker Rajesh (don't have his blog URL) dropped in to my home at HSR layout. The plan was that we play Table Tennis at the club. We ended up buying a set of boxers, and swimming at the club for 2 hours.

Rajesh made me do the "Iron Man" where you lie on your toes and elbows. That pains at the ab.

And later we ran for some good time on the thread mill. That was really really tiring sheesh!!!!

With so many calories burnt,
With the Srilanka - Australia final match being displayed by a projector,
With Rajesh leaving to singapore in 2 weeks,
With the club offering 1 peg free with every 2 pegs of black dog whiskey
With our other biker friends partying at Yelagiri (Tamil Nadu) with the madras bikers,
With my Oxodo Aviators crushed by Rajesh's pathetic ass,

We decided to celebrate !!!! And this was reason GOOD enough.

The match was delayed due to rain and we got drunk watching the last match's highlights. So pathethic..... this is worse than the P.E's ;)

So I Woke up after a wonderful nourishing sleep after the previous day's PT exercises and saw an ad in the news paper, Gautham Kalra dressed in a Tartan Tam, Shoulder bag and a black cloak.

the ad reads "HE CAN GIVE YOU A NEW LOOK AND A NEW GIRLFRIEND."

Anyways i thought let me go see this hot shot.

but o-wait i had to drop the crushed-oxodo-aviator at Shades residency road... Now parking is a real problem anywhere in central bangalore, so i drive in to the Taj Gateway, residency road and park the car, visit the reception, say hi to the guy at the counter and get to the shades-shop. The parking in Taj is never utilized so guys please make use of it.

Oh enough of this shit... lets go on.

So i get to commercial street.... the parking is a real problem there too... oh phuleeze.

So i get into the indigo showroom and i meet gautham, kevin and an Indian Air Force Chick (She's good, smart and can give you a great smile). Well gautham came out and shook hands with me. Gautham made me try a few formals, helped me get rid of pink-o-phobia. Met kevin too who helped me with some tips for my "long hair" experiment. Gautham (all 36) and single, lives in delhi/noida, tells me he loves living life full. He makes his own clothes. Used to stay in koramangala, He has no pets, He has all the time for his customers, and he definitely has at least 50x times the time for "his" women.

Started leaving to home at 9 pm, Guys honking, driving like a rabid dog (hehehe that should be a nonsensical original).

and reached by 10:30, that my friends is about bangalore traffic.

That's all for now, thanks for your wasted time (hope that wasn't rude) !!!

The himalayan ride - status

2007-04-17T21:35:00.000+05:30

Jug met me at my office today and we charted out the plan for the Himalayan ride. Its finally happening. This ride, i plan to deploy a better camera than the one on the last Himalayan ride ( Its a cannon A80 ).

So i post up a message in my group:

I am in need of a camera that's state of art, digital and has at least a
10x ++ optical zoom .

Picture details should be good (towards the better). i should not have have problems like bakery did for switching lenses (he mentioned Nikon)

thanks a lot !

-adarsh
and hear this.. Arun replies
"Sorry sir, your demands are too high. What we recommend though is a mobile phone and a magnifying lenses. You are welcome J"
OH MY GOD ! I JUST CANT HELP LAUGHING AT THIS ONE !

Bheja Fry !

2007-04-15T22:45:00.000+05:30

Woke up at 11 to a nice not so bright sunday morning. I spent the previous night watching documentaries - The Iron Wall (Its about Palestinian apartheid, Zionism) and a conspiracy theory of the CIA and the Nazis. Life seems so easy for us huh... we are so freaking lucky

Called up kam and asked him if he would wanna join in for lunch, which he gladly accepted. As usual we did a COP and headed to innovative multiplex in my car to watch a movie called provoked. The idea was to see Aish while she was still single ;) We would have to wait 3 hours for the next show, so we settled for a movie called bheja fry (bheja is brain (colloquial) in hindi)

I could relate to the hero of the movie Rajat Kapoor, the friday parties with friends, the party 1st campaign. What he does in the movie almost juxtaposes with the way i am with my wife....deja-vu!. The remarkable Vinay Pathak did an amazing job playing the bloke. Sagarika is HOT HOT HOT! Milind Soman, and his infectious laughter makes me feel really good. This is a definate must watch movie. Definately too good for Sagar Ballary's directorial debut.

Win-E's pics

2007-04-15T01:43:00.000+05:30

For all of you asking for pics of my son - Win-E , Here's my brother Aditya, Win-E and me!

PS: As usual win-e is looking at the "migrating" birds without permits

Picture Courtesy: Uncle Seena, Somewhere in sankleshpur

This is win-e with pook-e at my hometown. Pookie is a gachibowli bred sweetheart (she is the begaum of nampalli!!) . She beats win-e in speed.. in fact she thrashes win-e in a fight. Call it female-dominance ;)

And thats proud Win-E with his nose up!

PS: He does know when to bend down to a female of his species.

PS: And i never take my wife's comment on "learn from win-e" too seriously, LOL

Rambling on

2007-04-10T01:41:00.000+05:30

One of the riders are dropping out.. Rajesh is opting for a job in singapore. Best of lucks, rajesh. I'm gonna miss a great football teammate and a great comrade at the bar-stool. Hope those cute cross-eyed singapore babes are really worth this ride.

The blue lakes, the deserts of nubra, the cute DOGS of khalsar, the excitement of this ride is keeping me awake!

No name yet for the yearly himalayan episode

2007-04-08T21:00:00.000+05:30

Well i still don't have a name for the yearly Himalayan biking episode. There are NO promising suggestions out of the many i got!

The way i would love to describe this adventure is a "ride that churns out adrenalin which fuels your adventure and die hard, tough get going attitude". What we need is a proper name.

Just noticed that Win-E has put on a few kilos. And he has a paunch. That joker keeps sleeping the whole day. When i woke up this afternoon, i found him sleeping on his back, with his 4 legs up!

In Win-e boy's interest, i had a run with him from HSR Layout Club, thru NIFT, AGHARA Lake, back thru BDA complex and to the club. As memories come thru, At chang-la i could just run (I felt my lungs were burning) half what i could in bangalore.

I plan to do the same again this ride, infact here is what i hope to do.

1. Run a few kilometers in shorts at khardungla ;)
2. Swim in Pangong-Tso Lake ;)
3. Sleep on ice at Tanglang-la ;)
4. Visit URI in kashmir !!!! :)

( ;) )COLD is the least common denominator here

The himalayan biking adventure - revisited

2007-04-02T23:33:00.000+05:30

With the magic magnetic powers of Pangong Tso, the contours of Nubra Valley, the altitude of khardungla still in my head, i just decided to revisit the place again.

This time i weighed the option of a solo ride.

The advantages of a solo ride is quite clear:

You ride fast.
You can stop where ever you want and photograph the place.
Its all fun until your bike breaks down ( Click here to see normal human reaction when the breakdown is trivial ;) )

The disadvantages:

You are lonely, You get depressed (when nature weakens you off) and when you are alone.
You tend to sleep... you need to keep working in your brain.
Stay/Accommodation is costly
No high altitude party's
Other motorists tend to push you off the road...

I called up my biker pals Rajesh and another guy called Jag and told them of this plan. Rajesh asked me to book the plane tickets to delhi... Well i still have a lot of pressure to put on the home ministry to persuade them to allow me to visit some "forward" positions.

This looks like a perennial craze and I am thinking of giving it (this event) a name (Can some one suggest me a name)

June 1st 2007 is the potential date i plan to embark on this trip.

Solo Ride to the Himalayas

2006-07-08T22:59:00.000+05:30

I have posted a new blog called Adarsh's Solo ride to the himalayas.

You can find it at http://himalayan-solo.blogspot.com

A Sangam - Bheemeshwari cross country ride story

2005-06-28T10:12:00.002+05:30

Before I start my tale, its mandatory that I feed some background to this saga. It all started on 21st of May this Year Something looked strange at sangam (The place where Mild River Arkavathy and the Wild River Kauveri meet)… The water was at knee level, unlike on August of 2004 when it was at waist level. While I thought of driving the car across the river, acknowledging the fact that it's not a 4x4 car, I perceived it as a bad idea. Ending the holiday with a trek to Mekedhatu we got back to Bangalore.

Days back, Sarath from the 60kph group posted a Request For Riders (RFR) and opportunity knocked on my door. Opportunity is a haughty goddess who wastes no time with those who are unprepared. I saw the opportunity to cross mekedhatu with the Thunderbird and I was still screaming for more. After touch-basing with Sarath on the 60kph forum, we decide to leave 4 days later on a Saturday. These 4 days gave me ample time to plan ride and synchronize with the forest officials for permission to ride on the fabled forest road between sangam and muthathi.

The Plan

A quick plan was hatched among (pretty much almost among) the riders

Pre-Ride

I obtain permission from the forest department for sarath, his wife, and me, to protect ourselves against trespassing and definite arrest.

Ride

Ride from Bangalore to Sangam,

Ride From Sangam to Mekehat, Across the river (this was my idea of fun)

Back from mekedhat to Sangam

Sangam to Galibore (here is where the forest permission comes needed)

And Galibore to Muthathi

Muthathi to Bheemeshwari

Lunch at Bheemeshwari (organized by the kind grace of Sarath - the Chief Naturalist of Galibore)

Back to Bangalore.

I then touch base with Mr Sarath of Jungle Lodges and tell him of my plan. He was visibly very, very upset that we were riding on bikes on the jungle trail. He even conveyed his feeling about our selfishness and warned us about the elephants. But the forest permission had already been sought for and there was not much he could do. But like all sports, he offered us lunch at bheemeshwari. Special thanks to you Sarath of Jungle Lodges, you were a major source of information. The bikes were definitely non polluting Thunderbird and a Std 350

The Ride Day

We are scheduled to meet up at Khodays Factory Kanakpura Road. But out our-of-towner biker boy Sarath was hovering around katriguppe. After synching on phone, we meet way away from our intended spot in a petrol bunk where I was checking tyre pressure.

We planned to meet at 08:00 hours and its now 08:30. This called for a Non-Stop dash to Kanakapura. We stopped at a lovely kanakapura restaurant that serves breakfast (Its called Raju Hotel) and then I went to the forest department on permit business. Special thanks to this non-corrupt, adventure loving, speedy procedural department.

Bidding adieu to this lazy town, we move towards sangam on the dodda-alla-dahally road.

Mekedhatu is a notified property. This means vehicles just cant enter that place. Two condemned busses lie there that are used to transport passengers across the 4 kilometer forest trail. These two busses are refueled by jerri-cans and do not cross the river. You, the traveler are supposed to cross the river by foot.

Crossing the arkavathi river by bikes, we land on the other bank of sangam. My partner-rider, sarath's, poor wife had to cross walking. Wet sands, 1st gear, sliding thunderbird. This was my idea of fun. Realizing that we are in notified area, un-willing to violate the law for adventure, we back out and get back to sangam.

Sangam to Galibore

Galibore is a fishing camp that is situated on the bank of river cauvery, 9 kilometers from mekedhat. This is run by Jungle Lodges and its famous for those huge fishes. The approach to Galibore is a road (what road????), a mud trail that runs along side river cauvery. Stopping by a huge white tree (terminus arjuna) we were found chilling out by the bank of the river.

After being stopped at galibore by the Jungle Lodge guys, permit in hand, we were let off with a warning that the gate is closed.

The warning looming over my head, we left galibore towards muthathi, again on a rough unexplored road. For some reason I thought the route was just 4 kilometers long. But as we continued riding the end of the road was as evasive as it could get. Dogged with high ups and downs, the trail was getting tougher and tougher. The thunderbird was at its best but the standard 350 was leaking oil. Sharath then confronts me, if we don't see road in 15 minutes, we ride back to sangam. After a small meeting and assuring sarath that the end of the road is near, we are back to what we do best... riding. Note how good you feel after you have encouraged someone else. No other argument is necessary to suggest that never miss the opportunity to give encouragement.

In time I see a gate and a beautiful tar road outside it. Sarath has reached first. The forest gate is closed.

I am damn hungry. Is this why we ran around for so long? Is this the reward? A Tide of panic shakes my body, propagates through my nerves, blood rushing up my head, despair approaching me, I switch the engine off and sit on the bike while I ponder. Leadership has been defined as the ability to hide your panic from others. I was like the Prince Of Persia who was caught in the 7th level when the door closes. Ideas come pouring, maybe we carry the bikes over the forest check post gate…..

Then like the mouse who opens the gate in Prince Of Persia, Sarath, alights from the bike and opens the gate… The forest guards at muthathi were given the wireless message from kanakpura and they kept the gate open!

Crossing Muthathi, we then ride to cauvery fishing camp in bheemeshwari and have a great lavish non vegetarian buffet. After the wonderful service bestowed on us, I leave this wonderful place, indebted to Sarath (for whom we had food) and the guards who were kind and hospitable to us.

Warned by the guards not to go thru Halgoor due to bad roads, we just did just that. Leaving bheemeshwari and heading to halgoor, the roads were initially a pain.

Halgoor-Kanakpura-kaalglipura-bangalore was the route we took back to Bangalore. We arrived at Bangalore at 6 PM.

PICS: http://100kph.fotopic.net/c594365.html

I decided to BLOG!

2004-11-06T21:09:00.000+05:30

November 5th 2004, 19:30 hours:

So I finally decided to blog. Why would i want to blog? Well i have a
pretty colourful life that i want to share with my near and dear and
the would be near and dears ;)

Oh its late, i gotta run to the RTMC meet.. For guys who dont know,
Rolling Thunder Motorcycle Club is a bangalore based motorcycle club.