Vrrooooommmm..!! Bikers on road

The Bikers: Arvind, Kailash, Sudhakar, Santosh, Shyam, Nitin, Ravi, Ravi Urs and Harsha
The Bikes: Pulsar 150, Pulsar 200, Fiero, and Unicorn.
Safety Car: Kumaresh in his Maruthi 800.

Distance Covered: 950KM

All were set out for a good adventure and a great ride and that is exactly what we got at the end of 3 days. We left Bangalore early in the morning and avoided the city's traffic. Once we were out of the city, it was all about riding in the empty roads with beautiful landscapes that gave us a endless supply of fresh air. A ride through the country side with a cool breeze, the pleasant weather in the morning could not be have been enjoyed better.

With a great band of friends and good bikes we were covering distance in no time or rather that is how it seemed to us. Soon we were in Bidadi, were we had a good breakfast. No prizes for guessing what we had there: thatte idly and vada.

With a safety car in place, we had all our luggage in it and unlike true bikers we had two of them in each bike. We kept changing partners and bikes throughout the trip and that kept us in good company and never got tired of biking for 3 days. 

On our way to BR hills (Biligiri Rangana Betta), we took a diversion and visited  Shivana Samudram falls and relaxed there a bit and by now the clouds were clear and weather had become sunnier. By noon we entered Biligiri Rangana Swamy Temple Wildlife Sanctuary. This was the first time I have entered a forest region in a bike. When opposed to a view from within a car, we could see a lot more from our bikes and the weather here too was cool and enjoyable. Now our bikes slowed down to much lesser than the allowed speed limit and our curious eyes were wondering to spot some thing interesting. With riding a little more than 200KM our first day's ride came to a halt at BR hills Government Guest house. We all got some much needed rest and a food to refuel our bodies... Without having any consideration about the limitations of our body we enjoyed and partied the entire night. The fun fueled our souls and the cards and booze energised our sleepless night.

Day 2 started a little late that we planned and we missed the morning safari. With just a couple of hours of sleep, we got ready and we visited the very famous temple there. Then were off to see some wild elephants in Gopal Swamy Betta. The early morning ride through the dense forests of K Gudi was the slowest and one of the most enjoyed part of the forest ride. The anxiety of spotting some wild animals and the creepy feeling of the creatures that can hurt us made us enjoy the ride. We saw some deer and elephants here. Though we missed seeing any elephants in Gopal Swamy betta, the ride up the hill was a nice one. Here we visited the Gopal Swamy Temple and had a small break and we were back on track and entered Bandipur forest at afternoon and had lunch in Mudhumalai Forest. Never thought that I will ride through 3 forest reserves in 2 days on a bike. We rode through Masinagudi and reached Ooty by evening. The weather here was cooler and we were late for the boating. This was mainly because of the bikers split and total misunderstanding of the meeting points. It was fun though. After a couple of hours of shopping, we were all off to Coonoor. The weather here was very chilly and was very difficult to bike. At Coonoor Ravi had booked a home stay and it was a fully furnished huge double bedroom house with a lawn garden. By the time we reached here all of us were drained out, but that was no reason for us to stop enjoying. We had a campfire in the lawn. Even with the fire the night was unbearably cold.

Day 3, the most grueling day of all: started with slow rides in the ghat sections of Ooty. This was probably the best conditions to ride. The never ending curves, the ever changing landscape, the ups and downs, the teas, and many more best things came along with us in this ride. We visited Kothagiri View point and also trekked a bit here (the view point was a 24 KM deviation from our way back home so we rode 48 more KM.). We got down from the view point to lower lying cliffs (dunno if this was allowed). Riding through these ghats with deadly and unprotected  curves were very thrilling. My most favorite ride of the trip was this 48 KM, I tried to go as fast as I could and the there were no straight roads longer than few meters and we had to take a lot of dip turns and Nitin sitting behind me helped me in balancing the dips by moving his body at every curve. Am sure if we fell of some curve, there would have been no way to find our bodies, as the valleys were very steep. Once we were down and out of the ghats, the heat started to get on us and we were not able to bear the heat. Mettupalyam was like a grill and we all were like a chicken in the grill. The roads in Tamil Nadu are the best I have come across and we were belting in hundreds non stop. We rode like we were going to find the end of the world. We only did that so we could cover more distance before sun set. 

Our route to Bangalore was:

Coonoor  >> Mettupalyam >> Avinashi >> Perundurai >> Salem >> Dharmapuri >> Krishnagiri >> Hosur >> Bangalore.

By the time we reached Salem the sun had already set completely. After sun set we stopped for tea and later for dinner. The after dinner ride was a bit troublesome. Both me and Harsha were on one bike and both of us were sleepy. It was around 11 PM when both of us just couldn't control sleeping. I also had a power nap in a dhaba. There were a hell lot of lorries still we were ripping at 100Kmph. We entered Bangalore at 3:30 AM and we were more than happy to go over the Elevated highway. We knew our journey had come to an end and this is the last place were we could rip. We covered the 9KM highway in less than 5 minutes and here is when I touched the max speed of the trip 115Kmph and by the time we were down, our bike stopped. We had to tow to our house with the help of another bike. One of the best rides of my life

Overview of our road trip:

View Road Trip in a larger map

*zoom in and click on the places to see the details

There were a lot of great pictures take in the trip and its difficult to put them in the post, view albums here

Nitin's Album

Arvind's Album

Sudhakar's Album

Add 2 tb spoons of .... COBRA????

Last night when I opened the kitchen cupboard to take some rice, I saw a snake move very fast. It did not startle me as it moved away from me rather than coming towards me. What surprised me was, how did the snake get into a closed space. The snake was about 2 ft. and it appeared to me as a baby rat snake as there was insufficient light. I started to take out the vessels and tins one after the other. There was no way for the snake to go other than the door, where I was bending and blocking its exit. All of a sudden the snake moved towards me and spread its hood and that's when I realised that it was a cobra.

Now I had to be cautious and I shut the door. Wore my gloves and glasses and then asked my dad to get a sack to put the Cobra. I didn't want to hurt the innocent venomous striker, so I got my badminton rackets. I tried to take the Cobra like a dosa on one racket and held it tight with the other and put it in to the sack that my dad was holding. I made sure he/she was not hurt and that was quite a challenge. We let the cobra free at a far away place.

Since I did not panic and noticed the snake clearly, all was well as it all ended well. Now all of us in my house are traumatised by the hallucination of the snake's presence. Our area is snake infested and I have lost count over the number of snake encounters in the vicinity, but this is the 3rd time a snake has come inside my house and that too inside the closed cupboard. The last time round, it was a Russel's viper and it almost took away my brother's life. Thank god, last night I cooked rice and not my mom, Don't know what would have happened then.

Last night, there was no power like usual and I was all alone. I thought this was the right time for some light painting and did not use any light and was busy light painting in the dark. Now I feel that there is so much that could have happened in the dark. I am so used to my house that, in the night I move around without turning on the lights. I don't think I am going to do that ever again.

I was not afraid of the one snake that I saw and caught, because I saw it and knew it was there. But am afraid of the many snakes that I don't see and feel its somewhere in the house. God's grace that nothing went wrong, but thinking about all the things that could have happened is making me hallucinate. Hope I get over this in few days.

After the 140 heart beats per second job it was time for some photography..

Venomous Visitor

Marvelous hood

Ready to strike

After the incident, one of my neighbours told us that we were lucky that the cobra came home on Tuesday and it will bring us wealth and prosperity. The lady claimed with a lot of jealousy that goddess Lakshmi (Hindu Goddess of wealth) has come home. Now lets wait and watch.. If I don't become richer by next Tuesday, am gonna throw a Cobra in her house.

First Glimpse of the Namma Metro

Namma Metro

Metro Carriage parked on the Ring road!! Lucky to spot it!!
here is few pics for all Bangaloreans

There is a rapid improvement and growth in the infrastructure of Bangalore. We must be happy to have been born in this generation to have witnessed both sides of Bangalore. What we have seen is a underdeveloped Bangalore and what we are seeing now is the developing Bangalore and all of now know that this city will soon be like the other great cities of the world.

Unbelievable!! Believe it

Who is Responsible?

Times of India: 29/04/2010

It is such a sad thing that the innocent are dying due to our doings. When will we wake up? or are we just going to not bother about it like usual. If the forest officials say 12 died then at least 25 of them would have died. I just can't imagine such a kind of death. Dying after suffering from failed organs and immovable muscles (Dehydration causes cramping of muscles). Being thirsty for days and weeks and slowly the body disobeys your intent and every step towards finding water is like walking a million kilometers, your eyes dim, you cant hear, you can barely lift yourself let alone walking.

Please lend your hands in making this planet greener. Lets stop the Global warming.

People who don't Vote.

Last Sunday, 28th march 2010, was the BBMP elections in Bangalore. Only 45% of the people turned out in spite of the election being held on a holiday. Nowadays there are so many polling centres and each centre has many electronic polling booths, so there is no question of waiting for long hours to vote. At the peak hour you might have to stand in the queue for about 15 min. Most of the educated people enjoyed their Sunday by spending their time in their couch talking politics and seeing the news for their election updates.

Should we Respect the people who don't vote?
I personally don't consider them as citizens at all.

Indians never do what they should, but what they do is crib, crib and crib about their plight. I simply don't understand why people don't take up their responsibility but feel they have every right to blame the Government for not being responsible. If the government is not responsible, its because we have not elected the right people. Its a sad thing that the hindrance to the ever developing India is, it's own citizens who don't vote.

Indians sit, talk and argue about politics for hours but on the day it matters, they prefer not to be a part of it. I hate politics but I disgust people who don't vote. I am living in a nation that is not developed, where the taxes are high, the infrastructure is not good, the cities are not clean, and I am being taxed for everything I do, etc. it is because of people who don't vote.

My solution to this:

If every Indian were given a unique Id, just like how it is in many other countries a lot of problems can be resolved including this one. This unique number or alphanumeric Id should be centralised and any activity that is related to the government should be done through this. The centralised database should hold all the details of the individual.

Now when a person applies for a passport, Driving license, Ration card, Government jobs, Bank loans in nationalised banks, pensions, bail, registering land, and wants to use other government facilities like free hospitals, free schooling, ESI, PF etc should be denied if they have not voted even once in the last 3 elections (could be local or central). All the forms should have a mandatory field for the national Id and before processing the forms, their vote status should be considered before sanctioning their request. This should not only imply for new passports, Licenses, Ration cards, etc. but for it's renewal too. This is similar to stripping the citizenship of a person until he/she votes.

Then everyone will vote at least to use the government facilities. Every labourer will vote otherwise his kids wont get free education, or they wont get a ration card, ESI etc. Every one in the middle class will vote too as they will not get a passport, Driving licence, government job, bank loans etc. Every rich person too will vote, as apart from being deprived from all the facilities they cannot register land, Buy or renew their business licenses, etc. Even a person, like a criminal who is not worried about the country will vote, as he will not be given a bail when required if he is not voted previously.

Some people would have been sick or out of town and couldn't have made it to their home town during elections and that is the reason a buffer should be given and should be checked for a minimal voting of once in 3 elections. Saying this, it does not mean that many of them will not vote if they have voted previously, as they might think what if am not able to vote the next time for some reason, then I would have not voted twice in a row and the next time I will be close to losing my citizenship. Nobody would want to take that risk, and vote whenever possible.

Strict rules should be imposed on the people who do not vote. I know a US citizen, who was in Bangalore when the President election was going on and she voted through post. Policies such as this has to be implemented in India too, but this is possible in US as every citizen has a Social Security Number. Without this the NRIs (Non Resident Indian) and the Indians who are out of India will find it difficult to come to India every time when there is an election and participate in it.

I am 25 and since I have been eligible to vote, there has been 4 elections, I was not able to vote the first time as I did not have a Voter's Id. I made sure I got mine and since then I have voted in 3 elections. Hope everyone votes even if strict rules have not been implemented.