Leh Ride preparations

There is a news from my side. Bike ride to Leh-Ladhakh region is on cards. As per the latest revision in the travel plan, the ride will begin on 11 June from Delhi. We plan to have three bikes. One Bullet Machismo 2003 model, one Standard Bullet 1986 model and one Bajaj Discover. The bullets were booked at Chennai Central this afternoon for transportation to Delhi . We expect them to be loaded in a suitable train on Sunday. The bikes will reach Delhi (station code - NDLS) by Wednesday. The discover will be sent to NDLS from Aurangabad on Monday, June 6. The discover is kept ready for transportation.

The bullets needed some repair work, which was done at Royal Enfield's factory owned service station in Thiruvanmiyur. The bikes were taken for repairs on 14 May after some ten day's of waiting. The service station returned the bikes, one on June 2 and one on June 3 after a lot of persuasion, cajoling and eventually after applying some pressure from the top. A few issues which were left unnoticed by REL service station were addressed till the morning of June 4, which is the date today. The rim replacements for Standard'86 was completed at 2.30 am this morning and at last both bikes came into our possession, together.

We, Shri Vidyadhar Tagade and myself went for an early morning ride to Mahabalipuram. Total riding of around 100 km was a blessing as we were running short of time. We still found front fork oil leakage on my bike, which we managed to get rectified at REL service station en route Chennai Central. The culprit turned out to be the loosely tightened screw. There was also an effort to tune the Standard'86's carburettor. Thus were over our pre-tour preparations of the bikes. Ideally we would have like to have the bikes repaired at least four days in advance before dispatch so that we could test them enough to have a good confidence level.

Never the less, the day has been fruitful otherwise. The two bikes have been handed over to Railway Parcel Office at Chennai Central. This matches perfectly with our plan. As per the original plan, we were looking for sending them to Chandigarh but found out today that the direct train runs only on Thursdays which wouldn't have suited our schedule. Upon knowing this, unanimously it was decided that the bikes would be sent to NDLS thus adding a few more kilometers to our desired odometer reading! We are only too happy to ride the extra distance.

Sending of the bikes would not be so hassle free without help from Shri Kannan Dhanushkodi and my friend Kumar, both natives of Tamilnadu. Among the two, Kannan will travel with us all along in a utility vehicle which will be hired from Chandigarh. The hiring arrangements are done in advance. But we might end up in getting a friend's Innova after actually reaching Chandigarh.

I have managed to take snaps of Machismo but I could not manage it for Standard'86 due to scarcity of time. Will upload them once we get the bikes in Delhi.

 

Bullet Machismo 2003

 

Shri Vidyadhar Tagade and Shri Kannan Dhanushkodi

 

Veiled Machismo

 

Veiled Standard'83

Shades of India

Story of a ride to Alamparai fort

(A candid account of the ride on 25th morning to Alamparai Fort in Kadapakkam village near Cheyur in Tamilnadu as told my friend and co-rider, Jam. I am sure you're going to enjoy this lucid narrative. - Prasad)

A superposition of strokes of icy cirrus, splendid and dark heap of cumulus, and the rhythmic rhyme of bell from a nearby church marked the beginning of my Christmas day. The joyous cycle ride from my hostel to the Institute's main gate in cold and crisp air bring in some soothing experience that ended up with a cup of "hot" chips coffee. It was while having my coffee that I self-assessed my health condition - "Should I go for it?". Its only a couple of days back that I caught cold and I have been on medication which had drained all the energy that was left in my body.

"I still can stop all this", I told myself, "by calling Prasad and come up with an excuse". "Sorry yaar, my cycle tyre got punctured...I overslept and just got up...my brother is coming to meet me..."and so many such excuses came to my mind while I aimlessly browsed for an application on my mobile. "Why not I facebook one more time?, or I can check the weather forecast for today", thinking this I opened my application folder from the menu. Something odd caught my eye that time, ya... it was the application I downloaded previous night, but din't install and configure as I slept while the downloading was in progress. What is it? Nimbu or something? No...Nimbuzz. Is it from Google (because it has "buzz" on it)? No! It seems to be a chat application.

Well, its asking me for a tag line! What shall I type here? What's coming in my mind at this moment? Concentrate...Think hard...

I think my inner voice told "Let's do it"! Is this a tag line? Or is there a hidden message that tells me what I should decide upon that moment? Ok...here we go, "Hello Prasad! This is Jam, I just reached main gate. I'll catch bus to Tiruvanmiyur now. I'll call you once I reach the bus stand. Please guide me to reach your place from there on".

No...it's not about visiting my friend's place. Its a different thing. Its a thing that sounds like "motorcycle diaries" of Che. It was decided a week ago that me and my friend Prasad will go on a motorcycle drive in his Bullet to Alamparai Fort and the date was fixed to be on the Christmas day. I didn't ask Santa Claus for a gift, but little did I expect that time that there was indeed a gift awaiting for me to come and pick it up! My confused beginning soon started to evaporate like mist on grass in a sunlight and soon the enthu of the drive overwhelmed me completely. And thus we started our drive, from the periphery of Neelangarai, a drive that will last for a little less than 2 hours with a break in between for breakfast and tea. A drive that would take you to the road that is frequently traveled; the East Coast Road drive to Muttukad and Mahabalipuram; the road with a view of silvery reflection of the rising sun on the tropical waters in front of Nithyakalyana Perumal temple, the road that is used to frequent between Chennai and Pondicherry, the road which is simply used to exploit the pleasure of driving. It requires a different level of enthu to search and find a location such as Alamparai fort through the road that is less traveled by, and such is the enthu my friend Prasad posses, who had frequented to this fort a number of times in the past.

 The entrance

Once a magnificent fort, but now its nothing but ruins, Alamparai fort is located in a village called Kadapakkam, about 50km down south from Mamallapuram. The fort was used during war time and also as a port, thus I came to know from the numerous sources on the internet. When I heard the name for the first time, I thought its "Alam (banyan) + Parai (rocks)", meaning the fort with a banyan tree. We did spot some banyan tree rooted on the dilapidated walls which, once upon a time served as the walls of the fort.

Prasad (left) and myself (right) with Prasad's Bullet

Set in a typical village background, the village of Alamparai fort is a scenic beauty with lush greeneries on one side, and backwater fisheries on the other. The people here are found to be either at the fish market bargaining for the catch, or playing cards under a shady banyan tree. We reached the entrance of the fort, parked our Rajdoot in front of a modern day structure that housed a village family, asked them to take care of our helmets while we are on for the venturing. I should mention the hospitality of those village people here, for only they can not only agree to take care of our helmets, but also asked if we were coming on a long drive without having our lunch. In none of my world would I offer a stranger a meal and hospitality that we experienced!

 The ruined remains

After taking photos of the ruined fort from various positions, we went on a boating trip to the beach through the backwaters. The view of fort from the backwaters tell us how the fort would have looked like once upon a time. In fact, the highlight of this trip is the boat ride through the backwaters, which has got us two new friends, the boat drivers Ranjith and Kumaran, both localites who survives on fishing and taking the fort visitors on a boating trip.

A portion of ruined fort wall lying on backwaters

It's not the "road less travelled" thing, nor the fort or the backwaters, nor the hospitality shown by the village people, nor the drive on long stretches of the traffic less road on which you could not spot even a single bumpy drive or potholes, nor the scenic beauty on both sides of the drive that highlighted our trip, but a simple and extraordinary experience of having a siesta in a temple premises in some remote village located on the ECR road! The nap refreshed both of us and we both could feel the reborn much needed enthu in us that helped us to complete the trip. As my friend said, "If you aren't enthusiastic enough, you can't enjoy the ride".

Srinivasa Ramanujam aka Jam

***

Hidden treasure

Dew drops on the grass blades on the bank of River Panchaganga

Travelling teaches us a number of things. One among them is finding joy in those thing which are at your immediate disposal but you have taken them for granted and have ignored. Sometimes interesting places to travel to are found just next to your neighbourhood. You only have to look for them. When you find and visit these places, you are left spellbound.

Curiously enough, the life too is not much different than this. The things you are searching for a long while are floating around you. And suddenly on one fine morning (or on evening or on, possibly, night), you identify them with their utility to you or a relation which was earlier hidden to you. And realise that that was what you had been looking for since so long! Morale of the paragraph is "look around with curious eyes" and "keep looking".

Sunset at Ganapatipule

It's not every day we find a clear sky over the western ghats during evenings. In this trip to Ganapatipule (Ratnagiri District, M.S.), I was certainly lucky to be able to click a few nice snaps of the sun just before it set into the sea. Posted below is the outcome of the shooting session.

Honey Bee

Honeybees busy as ever.

Venue: Gumbaz Garden, Shrirangapattanam (Mysore), Karnataka

Sunset at Halasuroo Lake

I spent a quiet evening at Halasuroo Lake in the heart of Bengaluru in the ever pleasant company of my cousin Amar Dada. I could unleash my photographic instinct after a long gap as the scene before our eyes changed from late afternoon hues to the dark nightfall. Before the evening I suffered from infection in throat and severe cold for more than two days. I also was suffering from a more than usual tiredness on the account of my day long ride from Ichalkaranji to Bangalore. It proved to be a good change from two-three day's of the compulsory rest. Halasuroo Lake visit cheered me just at the right time.

A walk along Marine Drive of Puducherry

Weekend ride to Mahabalipuram

Santosh has recorded this video of one of the weekend rides to Mahabalipuram on Royal Enfield Machismo on May 13, 2007 with his Nokia N72 camera phone. The road is the famous East Coast Road (ECR). I suddenly thought that I should share it here.


At the same time I am getting inspired about going on a early morning ride. :) Let me see if I can manage to go.

Kottamalai (Vellore)

Kottamalai Trek

Vellore Hill Forts

Vellore Hill Forts

Driving uphill to Shri Jyotiba Temple

Photograph of the week - People

Lovely cuddle

The original image, shown on the left, is cropped from left to remove the red sweater sleeve. The lines are shown to indicate the possibility of application of the rule of 3rd. Thus the image is cropped proportionaltely from other sides. The contrast and brightness is increased to get a better effect. The final image is displayed on the right side.

The more information about the photograph including EXIF data and place where the photo was taken is shown on flickr.com besides the photograph. You need to log-in to flickr.com for the same.

Full size image
What is EXIF data?

Journey by Indian Rail along Hubali Londa Route

Photograph of the week - Animals

Beauty lies in eyes of the beholder.

Place: Near Shore Temple, Mahabalipuram (June 21, 2007)
Camera: Canon Powershot A80
Exposure: 1/15 s, f/4.9, ISO100 (overcast sky)

Photograph of the day - People

Place: Aundh, District Satara, MH, India

Camera: Canon Powershot A80
Exposure: 1/800 s, f/8, ISO100

Photograph of the week: People

Boys on catamaron

Place: Chunambar Beach, Puducherry
Camera: Canon Powershot A80
Exposure: 1/2000 s, f/8, ISO400

ISO100 should have been preferred to get a better colour saturation.

Photograph of the day - People

Place: Vandaloor Zoo, Chennai (TN)
Camera: Canon Powershot A80
Exposure: 1/125 s, f/4.9. ISO not recorded

Aeroplane approching landing strip of Bangalore International Airport