Sightings at the Kumarakom Bird Sanctuary

I am no orinthologist, but I did manage to get some birds in flight and rest. Rather candid. But here they are. We had a ride on a country boat through Kumarakom’s backwaters. And bot did it seem like an Amazon basin. But more about that in a seperate blog for today by Bunny.

An Eagle ( or a vulture ? )

Snakebird

SnakeBird

Flight Plan

SnakeBird

KingFisher

The Great Indian Roadtrip meets Roadtrip

We were tired, sleepy, and ready to call it a day at 10 in the morning. That's how our day started in Bangalore. At this stage we had put about a thousand kilometers on the clock in the last two days and most of that was on gravel roads while riding at midnight.
It was 4 in the afternoon after we finished with the press meet and I was too hungry for anymore photo shoots. After more useless waiting around some of the Bangalore Xbhpians came to meet us and that is when we decided to go to the Roadtrip.

After a little roaming around in circles and a minor accident a dozen hungry bikers reached the Roadtrip for a well awaited refuel. The Roadtrip is a restaurant with a biking theme, I've seen many biker clubs but this was the first biker restaurant I'd been to. The attention to detail is quite impressive, everything from the Handlebar door-handles to the Bullet headlight lamps made the ambience very bikerish. Here, instead of having useless wall-hangings or paintings they had 2 BSAs and half a Bullet hanging from a wall, if they wanted to make it anymore realistic they should have made it compulsory to wear a helmet while eating.
Neeraj, the owner of the Roadtrip showed us around and then we sit down to our five hour late lunch. When you open the menu you'll see the list of the two-dozen TV channels that the Roadtrip was featured on, I was too hungry to think and I nearly ordered a plate of M-tv.
The food in the Roadtrip is a little weird for a biker hangout, I don't know if its just me but I always imagine a typical biker to be a fat beer drinking, beef eating hooligan but on the menu all I found was pasta, spagati and some other fancy Italian and Mexican food. If you ask me I'd rather eat out of a headlight and drink out of an oil can ' but I guess this place has to cater to the metrosexual biker too. All said and done, the food was great and I had three or four helpings using starvation as an excuse.
After an hour more of chatting and going through almost every auto magazine in the shelf we were tanked up and all set to go. Going to the roadtrip was a perfect way to start our stay in Bangalore and going there with the right crowd is also what its all about.

That might have been your ex-bike’s headlight

Inside the Roadtrip

Sunil Gupta with a BSA ( I hope I got it correct ! )

Inside the Roadtrip

To go to the Roadtrip :

3524/1, Park service Road, Indira Nagar
560032
4115 5848

Our schedule for the next few days :

2nd Nov : ooty to munnar 282 kms ( 1 night )
3rd Nov : munnar kumarakom 230 kms ( 2 nights )
5th Nov : kumarakom kovalam 176 kms ( 2 nights )
7th Nov : kovalam to kanyakumari 80 kms - rameshwaram 350 kms ( 1 night )
8th nov : rameshwaram to pondicherry 435 kms ( 1 night )
9th Nov : pondicherry to chennai 135 kms ( 1 night )

Day 62 : Oct 30th : The Day of the Beast

It was there in my mind. Since the day Bangalore became closer in the GIR I knew I had to see it in flesh. Somewhere amidst the millions of motorcycles of Indian origin and hundreds of bikes of Japanese origin in Bangalore this was the diamond in the coal seemingly carved out by god's artisans and sent here to generate the emotion known as envy. Venu had been supremely cooperating by taking out time from his busy schedule allow us to be graced by this bike's presence. A bike which turns head even in the superbike infested western countries. It is that exotic and yes ' expensive. Exclusivity with practicality is what Brutale is. Brutally vanquishing any competition that would even think of doing a catwalk with it on any road in the world ' be in the by lanes of Mumbai or the streets of Milan, we are talking about serious design sense, curves and angles that would render a protractor and the most expensive geometrical instruments useless even if you went across trying replicate it. Welcome the handsomest bike yet on xBhp. My 1000RR looks a bland old man with a bald head with a haywire dressing sense.

Other things that happened on this day realy take a backseat. The highlights being that me, Bunny and Sunil went to the Prabha eye hospital to get conjectivitus treated.

The other being Venugopal working all day on the jupiter’s stubborn and useless disc brake. But that deserves a seperate blog entry for the dedication the man showed and for his sheer technical prowess.

The Beach

Everyday everyone of us go for a walk, be it an evening/morning walk through the gardens, walk to the neighborhood grocery store, or just a general walk, but have you have thought how thought provoking a just a 100 yard walk could be? Well, today, I just experienced this.

I always had this desire to see a beach at least once in my lifetime, but never thought if I’d ever get to a chance. Luckily, god was kind enough to make me eligible to be a part of the GIR team. So, from day 1 of GIR Leg 2, I used to just think about when we would reach a city where we could find the beaches. The first city to provide this opportunity to me was Mumbai, but I reached Mumbai very late and moreover we had a tight schedule in Mumbai with all the press meets and presentations that we didn’t get a chance to visit the beaches of Mumbai, but I knew that my first beach day is not too far. We reached Goa from Pune after riding for some 13 hours. Goa is famous worldwide for its beautiful beaches and we also had planned to get accommodation in some beachside hotel or resorts only, but it was not before 10:30 p.m. that we reached Goa, and Aneesh (a Goa xbhp member) had already arranged for us to stay at his place. So, there was no chance that we could even get a glimpse of the famous Goa beaches. In the morning also, we (me, sunny, and bunny) went for a ride along with a Goa xbhp member Venkatesh. We went everywhere, churches, island, market, restaurant, but no beach yet. As we were heading back around 6:30 p.m. after photography and sightseeing and all, I was getting desperate by that time. But luckily, Ashish was out searching for some beachside room for us the whole day and he finally managed to find 2 really nice rooms on the Benaulim beach . After we were done with the dinner, sunny went inside the room and only me, bunny, and Ashish were left outside. We didn’t even realize when the coversation took a turn and we started to talk about life and some serious stuff. Soon after this, Bunny and Ashish got busy on their phones and I just started to walk on the beach.

It was 11 p.m. already, quite dark, cool wind was blowing off the sea, only couple odd people around, the only thing I could here was the sound of waves, which were sometimes threatening to swipe everything that came in their way. I don’t know why, but I was in quite a somber mood at that time. I just kept walking and thinking about god knows what. There were a lot of thoughts that were coming to my mind - life, family, home, job, friends, career, etc. Sometimes, a big wave would come and wake me up from this, but I just kept falling into that deep sea of thoughts.

As I said earlier, you cannot realize how thought provoking a walk on the beach could be until you’ve been there. The whole atmosphere was so romantic that its impossible to describe in words. If you are a creative kind of a person, a walk on the beach could be the biggest source of inspiration for you, it can just stimulate your senses like anything. I was perhaps in some other world during those 5-10 minutes. Finally, I recomposed myself and came inside the room to sleep, but I already had planned to go to beach early in the morning to catch the sunrise there.

What better way to dwelve into a sea of thoughts.
So, I woke up at around 6:15 a.m., took a camera, and went back to the beach. What I saw there in the morning was even more touching than the night itself. The beach that was quiet just a few hours ago was full of life at this time. There were people doing yoga, there were some little kids playing the water, some fisherman preparing to go into the sea to earn the bread and butter for their family, some tourists/locals jogging on the beach; and some guys like me just looking around curiously, taking pictures etc. I came back in the room after walking around some 4-5 kilometers and spending around 2 hours on the beach wondering about the creativity and the forces of nature as to how could this sea, which is a source of life and income for so many people around the world, can take lakhs of lives in just a few minutes (remember last year’s Tsunami?)?

The most enviable job in the world

Like living life is not a job big enough for anyone, we all want a job which would pay us of course, but also give us that satisfaction that we crave from deep inside. Every Job pays ' but the question is are you doing the right job? Are you happy doing it? How much you get as salary and incentives comes after. I have met so many people who are earning near a lac per month ' but their robot ness of talking and doing their work exposes it all ' they are not happy. Not satisfied. What good is a job when you cannot give the love your family deserves, no free time for sports. What good is it if it makes you forget what is it to have popcorn while watching a flop flick in the local theatre ' only to be with your loved one. Chocolates ' not seen many people high up in the organizational hierarchy eating as they much as they would want to openly. The corporate world is so artificial, so stifling ' a definitive creativity killer.

These were the thoughts which were flashing through my mind after I worked for almost five years in the computers industry as a computer graphics artist. I have worked in GE as a Flash Programmer, in crest Communications, Mumbai as a permanent trainee in Maya and 3d Studio. Both of these world class organizations claiming to provide employee centric work environment. If it were that in reality why would I be not happy working for a hefty salary? Perhaps I am different from others? Or perhaps the difference lies in the fact that I was gutsy enough to admit that I couldn't take their farce of stimulating creativity in the employees using boring tools like LEAN, Six Sigma and etcetra. The big organizations make a mockery of their employees and lead them to a prison where the employees themselves cannot escape from even though the doors are always open.

The biggest enemy and jailmaster, as we all realize somepoint in time, was me myself and no one.

Two paths were there for me ' keep working in one of the most preferred organizations by employees in the world and reach dizzying heights in its corporate hierarchy after slogging my ass for decades and even then being left with pitiable experiences of lunches with my colleagues and that odd trip arranged by my employer as a 'stress reliever' every three months or so in a bus loaded which would not resemble less that English speaking fish market, exuding nothing more than exhibits of the latest mobile phones they got and mockery of their team leaders. Pah! Needed something more solid than these memories after I retire.

And so kicked my job and my team leader and chucked by job midway of an 'important project'. The next day sat down and analyzed where the hell I want to take my life and and how would I explain this to my family and relatives, and most importantly how would I earn my bread. After all I wouldn't want to miss out on those cool movies and popcorn every weekend.

Luckily, the answer to the last question was to discover my talent and utilize it in such a way that it would allow me enough time to work on my hobby ' xBhp. The answer was freelacing. Yes, all the time, freedom and flexibility you would ever need in your work. I could create a one to one relationship with my client and harness it later on to do something big.

The biggest freelance project for me always was ' xBhp.com. It satisfied my hunger for biking as well gave me a live platform for testing out new designing concepts and subtle brand management strategies. Those things which prolly you would get to learn in world class design institutes like NID ( National Institute of Design ).

I also believe a job is one which would make a better individual out of self. It shold carve you in what you want to see yourself as in the mirror. Instead I carved out a job for myself and then let it carve me. I was the happiest person in the world doing photoshoots with exotic bikes in early mornings, seeing my good pictures made me felt that I was progressing, seeing the bad ones made me feel I had a long way to go. I had been bitten by the shutterbug. Little did I know that I would be even more happy than this 2 years down the line ' which is right now ' executing one of the most enviable jobs in the world ' discovering India on the best wheels, with the best people, with the best equipment, with the best companies and foremost thousands of xBhpians analyzing my work. And what more could you ask when you are in the company of such talented people like Bunny Punia ( who also left his job in BIKE India for this trip - thank you my friend) , Sunil Gupta ( who took 3 months leave from his job as a Medical transcriptionist even though he is the only earning member in his family and Ken ( who is a adorable father and took serious time off from his job as a fancophone tourist guide to lend his tremendous experience and expertise ). The young people in the team Ashish and Gurpreet - hope this will be an experience which will turn tem into more responsible men, even though they are doing their best in their capacity and at the young age of 20 years. I also thank my wife for being so understanding and tremendously patient in waiting for 2 years to find out if my dream of this trip will come true or not. I hope I did not fail you and you finally understand why I left my job and you still were with me as my girlfriend. And I remember you used to give me that extra money when I was broke. Would also like to thank all those lovely people in the big companies because they understood what I wanted to do. Any finally my mother - who gave me everything that she had and me a man who could stand on his feet and face the wild world and still dream.
What a team. Rocking!

If I were asked to leave this job and do something else I would only perhaps think about it if I were asked to : Build a Disneyland, become an Astronaut or the obvious - a World tour on bikes.

Why is the Great Indian Trip a job for me and the rest of the riders involved in it ? We are responsible to the bikers present all over India and on a farther perspective, people all across the globe. We have a job to show them that how beautiful India is, we have a job to show the big two wheeler companies in India that the Indian performance biker has finally arrived. Seeing a bunch of latin dancers and stop dead in their moves open there mouth in awe when a 125CC moped passes by is not what I would love to see. Reclaming your life on a 150CC bike? I would rather take a CNG bus which would have atleast some road presence.

I will end my essay here and to let you know that if you want a job as enviable as mine ' go home and think what you want, what your strong points are, and just do it.

And yes you wont find that job on naukri.com. It is right there in front of you, an aura waiting to be created, a vacancy which is waiting for the right person to fill it in for eons. And only one person can do one special job for which he is sent to do on this earth.
If everyone would discover what their perfect job were to be, it would be Genesis Reloaded.

I have discovered mine. And I fucking love it.

A quote from Fort Minor’s Remember the Name song which is absolutely apt in this context :

” This is ten percent luck, twenty percent skill
Fifteen percent concentrated power of will
Five percent pleasure, fifty percent pain
And a hundred percent reason to remember the name!

Mike! - He doesn’t need his name up in lights
He just wants to be heard whether it’s the beat or the mic
He feels so unlike everybody else, alone
In spite of the fact that some people still think that they know him
But fuck em, he knows the code
It’s not about the salary
It’s all about reality and making some noise
Makin the story - makin sure his clique stays up
That means when he puts it down Tak’s pickin it up! let’s go!”

You can visit my personal website at : itsASunny.net

And until my next job..Ciao!

J-U-G-A-D : The Indian Village’s Asron Martin
One Man's junk is another Man's Ferrari

posted by : Ashish Divakran ( Gasoline Junkie )

Jeremy Clarkson thinks the East German Traban is the weirdest vehicle on four wheels, some stupid British company imported Ambassadors to England because they thought they were cool and they wanted to run them as taxis. I had an American friend who wanted to take an auto back to America. Yes, all these three vehicles are weird, ugly, falling apart and serve no form or purpose other than taking people in all discomfort from 'A' to 'B'. But I'll guarantee you this, you ain't seen nothing yet until you see the JUGAD.

In Hindi or some other North Indian language Jugad means makeshift arrangement, or to be more precise makeshift arrangement in the easiest way possible. This means a Jugad can be anything from a bullock cart to DC modded sportscar, but there are two common types of Jugads.

The first is a three-wheeled contraption somewhere between a Bullet and a bullock cart. Firstly I don't know why the heck this three-wheeled madness exists in India, in nature do you see animals with three or five legs? Then why can't man learn a little from nature before building an auto? But still auto technology is miles ahead of Jugads.
Now that the chassis was sorted out with some reused metal rods and the three wheels were stolen from one and a half bikes, they needed something to power this scrap mobile. A few years ago Enfield introduced diesel Bullets, I thought it was a terrible flop because none of them are seen on the road. I was wrong, because all the engines were stolen from their respective bikes and used in these Jugads. The front end of the Bullet is stuck to the rear end of the bullock cart, then a chain connects the front sprocket to the rear fixed axle. Oh forgot to mention, the rear sprocket is hand cut, this has to put every motorcycle fabricator to shame. For the final touch the front is fitted with a few hundred lights, I'm not talking about little led lights, these Jugads probably nicked the lighting from a Pink Floyd concert.
According to the owner, his machine returns 30 kilometers to a liter of diesel and that's probably cheaper than running a P150. What more? You get more attention than when you are riding a superbike. Being soo good, why isn't this machine the next big thing? Why isn't it India's answer to the American Harleys and the British Triumphs? Well there is just this one reason, the Jugad gets better than this!

Yes, this next Jugad is as good as it gets. It is the Aston Martin of village technology, it is the coveted ride of the ' who is who' in every village, it is pinnacle of personal customization. It is a machine that sources its power from a Crompton & Greves water pump. I spent time staring at this machine wondering which planet it belongs to. It was soo captivating, when we were in Fatehpur Sikri I was taking videos of Jugads instead of the Bulland Darwaza. I've also spent time looking under the hood amm actually there is no hood, but anyway here is a brief description of how they are made.
Couple of years ago in one of the old five year plans the government gave all the farmers water pumps to improve the states irrigation facility, even now farmers can buy them dirt cheap because they are all subsidized.
In America a man called Donvesco had a jet engine sitting in his backyard so just like what any American would do, he strapped it to his car and broke the speed record in it. Now, half way around the world in Uttar Pradesh one of the guys got inspired by that and thought to himself "I don't have a jet engine so I might as well try with a water pump." And that is how the Jugad tradition started.

The body of this Jugad is also acquired free of cost or almost free, you just need to cut down your neighbor's tree when no ones looking at night. Cut the tree into a few planks and there you have the platform of your ride. Now mount the engine in front, mate that water pump to a jeep gearbox (you'll get extra points if that is also stolen). To get the front wheels you will need to steel the front steering assembly from a tractor or a jeep and for the rear wheels anything will do, even roller skates. For the gas tank you can use any old drum or metal pot, and that will double up as the drivers seat as long as it's not too rusted.
Okay, by now all the engineering is sorted out. We need to think about the most important thing in an Indian automobile, the horn. The problem with the Jugad here is there is no battery, the engine is cranked to a start and unlike the three-wheeled Jugad this one doesn't have any lights. Again here the solution is simple, with about 10bucks a day you'll able to hire a kid to hold a torch at night and swear at fellow drivers so that works better than a horn.
Yes, now your very own, do it yourself Jugad is finally finished and its time to take it out to the dragstrip on a Saturday night to do a little showing off. Now that your racing the quarter mile, it will take a little getting used to because water pumps just go on and off, there is no variation in RPM. So all the torque will be unleashed almost instantly and there is no redline.
My biggest fear now is with all these Jugads on the road everything else is in danger. In an Aston Martin you can specify what wood you want on the dash and in a Rolls you can even specify what breed of cow should cover your seats, but with which other vehicle do you have a say in the wheels, body and even the gas tank? And does a Ferrari have a horn that can say bhenchood hatja?
And with Jugads becoming such a fad, all the parts on every other vehicle is not safe. Like think of the poor farmer who went to town to buy groceries, when he came back to his tractor it had one less wheel. At least the dude who needed this wheel for his Jugad was kind enough to leave three wheels so the farmer could drive back home.

John meets GIR

The GIR team with John in home

Sunny with John and the GIR Fireblade

Reel meets real. Some people might find this phrase apt for what we experienced today. But in my opinon, John Abraham has set a different example for us. He is for sure a reel biker after Dhoom, but he is much more in real. A humble down to earth guy he invited us to his apartment at Band Stand after the media came to cover us and John at the CCD Bandstand. Being at the top and still being humble is a quality is hard to nurture. He shared quite a few of his experiences with us and the most adventurous of his rides being the one in which he crashed the R1. Only we could feel what scapegoat he was made in that accident because the same thing happened with us in Jaipur when Sunil was involved in an accident for no fault of his. Bikers to Bikers ' how easy it is to communicate. Be it between John, the superstar and me, just another bikers. "Are you here to talk about bikes or are you here to talk about Cricket.", this is what John sharply pointed to a journalist who drifted way off the point in context and was asking about the ongoing ICC championship. I think Sunil Gupta was most excited to have met up with John. ( Of course by no means it was a small thing for us ). I will ask SunilG to write a terrific blog about his meetup with John.

Sunny and Bunny walking through the GIR Leg 1 picture of the day book