Review on Couch

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

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

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

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

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

(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

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

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

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

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

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!!!!

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)

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

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!

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

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

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

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)

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

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

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 !

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

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

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

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

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.