...pulsarider...

Images from Kolad...

2011-11-08T19:14:00.000+05:30

Chokhi Dhani Mumbai Review

2011-10-24T16:06:00.004+05:30

Location : From the Mumbai Nashik Highway turn towards Kalyan. You will find Chokhi Dhani (चोखी ढाणी) .

Parking Space : Ample parking for Cars/Bikes
Time : 5pm to 11pm.
Entry Fee : Rs.500 (adults) and Rs.300 (children). We have to give a preference of the time we would like to have dinner at. This doesnt make the place chaotic at dinner time.

The Entry fee includes Entertainment, welcome drink (Jal Jeera), Snacks (lot of it) and Dinner (too much of it).

We visited the place on a Saturday and to my amazement, it was not as crowded as we had thought it would be.

The welcome isnt what we are used to, with a Dhol and a person dressed as a Horse dancing at the entrance. Aao ji Sethji Aao he said in typical Rajasthani style..

We entered the reception, and boy was it so beautiful. With painted decoration around the walls and status around us we were already feeling as if we were in other state.

We paid the entry fee and off we are on the huge ground where its a whole village set up. love it already !
We had kind of a guide with us who took us to each of the places. He first gave us to the Welcome drink (Jal Jeera) which was nice and cold.

We went on to get ourselves entertained..
Entertainment includes : Folk Dances, Puppet Show, Pottery, Live singing, Head massage(for men), Mehendi(for females). And its worth every penny.

They give their heart out to each and every customer and make sure that we are satisfied. Have not seen so so so nice people anywhere yet ..

Then followed the snacks..
Snacks comprised on Kachori-dahi and Chat along with tea.. followed by a round of Bajre-ki-roti and Lassun chatni. (I did not click any pic as i was too much engrossed in all the eating :D)

We were back to the ground, but this time we were at the section where there are a few games (to be exact 5). Each game gives you 5 chances at a cost of 10 bucks per coupon. We played (Archery, Bowling, Darts, Rifle shooting).

Finally we went off for dinner at 10.15 and were eating till we heard the bell ring :)
Dinner : was sumptuous. It was amazing. It was awesome. Typical Rajasthani dinner with 3 sabzees, rotis with lots of makkhan, chaas papad, etc.

Ratings :
Ambiance : 4.5/5
Entertainment : 4/5
Service : 5/5
Food : 5/5
People : priceless !!

Few images from the place :

Lonavala MTDC Review

2011-07-16T22:03:00.002+05:30

Location : Karla, Lonvala.. Nearly 3 kms from the centre of Lonavala..
If travelling via the express highway, its better to get out of the 2nd exit to lonavala. If you take the first exist, there is a possibility of getting stuck in the traffic heading towards amby valley.

Ample parking space for Cars/Bikes.

The resort also has facitilites for boating as it has a small river flowing right behind the resort..
This location is also a paradise for birds.. especially KFs.. I saw Pied, Common and White breasted KF.
Other birds sighted : Minivet, Tits, Egrets, Cormorants.

Tarrifs : Change according to season. I paid 1300/- for a Garden AC cottage (double bed) in July'11.
There are a lot of cottages/suites over the vast spread of the resort.
But if visiting in monsoon season, its better to pre-book online.
[url=http://www.maharashtratourism.gov.in/index/index.aspx]::The Official website of the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation[/url]

Room service : non-existent. But we had a problem in the geyser at 9.30 in the night and it was fixed at that time.

Restaurant : This is the pathetic part of the resort. Though the food is really good, the service at the restaurant is really pathetic. On any day, the food wont arrive before 30-45mins of placing the order.

attaching some images for reference :)

Garden AC Cottage..

Overall the experience was good..
I would rate the resort : 3.5/5
restaurant inside the resort : 2/5

Kavdi...Kalling..

2011-03-20T15:43:00.000+05:30

How to reach Kavdi from Mumbai...

Distance is just 180kms..

Take the old NH4..

Do not take bypass at dehu road..

Instead keep going straight through dehu road.. chinchwad etc..

Keep following the directions for Solapur, which are pretty visible nearly throughout..

Once you NH9.. Keep going till you reach the first Toll booth..

Cross the toll and keep looking for a small little village name called Kavdipet (its not Kaavdipet)..

Take a left and keep going straight.. You will reach a railway crossing..

Keep going straight till you reach the so called river.. This is where the birds are found..

One can walk on the dam type structure to go on the other end too.. do explore the area..

Keep in mind.. this area is absolutely untouched.. there are no tea stalls.. no shops.. so make sure you take your own stuff :)

Happy birding..

300mm birding @Bhigwan...

2011-02-21T16:37:00.003+05:30

Date : 20th Feb 2011 ..

Bhigwan is a small town located on the Pune-Solapur (NH9) highway.. the main attraction of the town is the birdwatching sight at backwaters of the Ujni dam..

It takes atleast 2.30hours to 3 hours to reach bhigwan from Pune..

I made a halt at pune overnight.. started at 5.30am and reached Bhigwan at 8.00am..
Earlier the better.. more chances of spotting the birds..
Once you reach the highway at bhigwan take the first left which will take you to the Diksal area..backwaters of Ujni dam..ask locals for directions..
At Diksal short boat rides are avaiable.. We paid 100 per head (expensive) for a short ride in the backwaters to spot Flamingos.. This year there are only 2 of them as per the villagers..

Also made me realise that 300mm is not at all enough for birding :(

I couldnt visit other areas coz of lack of time on hand..

here are some of the photos from the Diksal region..

Dajipur Bison Sanctuary...

2011-01-28T21:46:00.002+05:30

did a short trip to Dajipur recently..
Dajipur is a bison sanctuary situated very close to Kolhapur..Around 80kms from kolhapur..
the only problem there is no stay is available close to the sanctuary..one has to come back to radhanagari where lodges are available or has to go ahead to phonda for stay..
radhanagari is 25 odd kms away from dajipur.. and phonda is 13kms ahead..
tank up at radhanagari or phonda as no petrol pumps in dajipur..

Cars are allowed to enter the sanctuary.. but make sure that the car has good ground clearance as the whole 21kms is kaccha rasta..

here are some snaps that i took during this trip..

a Pied Bushchat..

a White Browed Wagtail..

Earlier there used to be a MTDC approved resort (bison jungle resort) but because of non payment of dues it was asked to close down..

a blackbuck near the resort..

remaining pics from the sanctuary..

the funnel spider... very common there..

Brahminy Kite in flight !

and this was a dream come true
the Asian Paradise Flycatcher.. in marathi its called Swargiya(Heavenly) Nartak !

Though we couldnt see any bisons while going into the sanctuary... we were lucky enough to catch a glimpse of two while coming out of the sanctuary..
according to the locals there are around 350-400 bisons in there..

We were happy to spot the bisons and decided to move back to Kolhapur for the night stay..
next day morning we went out to the Mahalaxmi temple and the Panhala..

KAAS Information

2010-10-02T20:21:00.009+05:30

How to reach KAAS :

One has to go through Satara city to visit Kaas..
On the highway.. riding towards satara.. when you see stone quarries on the right side.. slow down.. this place is called Limkhind..
there will be a board which says .. Satara City to the left..
take the left to the go downwards and take the first right.. keep asking locals for MolachaWada..
From here ask locals for Rajwada.. here on there are no problems to reach Kaas..

Distance between Mumbai and KAAS:
KAS is exactly 300kms from Matunga, Mumbai.
Its 23kms from Satara.

How long does it take to reach Kaas :
If you are traveling in a car, it would take around 4-6 hours depending on the speed and number of breaks in between.

What to expect from KAAS :

view of the backwaters of a dam..

not a good idea to park the car on the plateau.. but it was looking good.. so i happened to click..

will start with KAAS specialty now..

here is the next lot..

need doc to recognize this..

some more..

some of them are yet to bloom fully..

these are in bloom, but not as much as the white and the pink ones..

doesnt it look like Alex from Madagascar..

some random clicks..

the carpet !

beast and the best

a few panos from the area..

and last but not the least.. now can i miss the action !!

River rafting at Kolad..Kundalika

2010-08-05T00:43:00.002+05:30

date : 25th July 2010

This place was on the mind for quite sometime.. but dint get like minded people to do it..
finally my office team comes to the rescue and we decide a weekend to be spent at Kundalika..

Kolad is just 150kms from Mumbai on the NH17. Take a left at the board written Mulshi 78kms and you are on right track..
There are a lot of farm houses which can accommodate as well as make the arrangements for river rafting..
We had made prior booking through junglelore.net.
We had booked for a stay as well..
Accommodation was provided at Pooja Farm House which is around 8kms from the rafting site..

some clicks of the farm house..

tent which can house 10 people.. this is where we stayed..

They have built 2 Aqua cottages..

We were asked to be ready at 7.00am so that we could be the first at the rafting site.. and to my surprise everybody was ready at 6.45am..
We had an awesome breakfast of Kande-Pohe and bread-butter and left for the site..
Reached at the site in about 25mins and this is what we see

a few instructions later we were all set to go rafting..

thats our instructor..

he was our raft guide..

all set..

few more instructions..

incase of problem hold the life line and duck in the raft..

me on the left.. listening carefully..

finally we push the raft in the water..

still some instructions.. incase if you fall in water i will throw the rope and you have to catch the rope etc etc..

time to raft..

The rafting perse was OK.. we were told there would be atleast 10 rapids.. but 8 of them were like sitting in a small ride at an amusement park.. and 2 were really thrilling..

the best part of the ride was when we were told to jump into the calm waters and swim along the raft..

Finally were back at the farm house at around 12.00pm .. were served an amazing lunch ..
started for mumbai after some rest at around 3.30pm.. reached home at 8.00pm..

have a few macros clicked at the farm house..

Touching Grandfathers feet...

2010-06-27T16:12:00.004+05:30

date : 26th June 2010

who: Tejas, Samit, Sudhir and Me.

where : Ajacha dongar also called Aja-parvat or Ajoba which means Grandfather..

how : Take the NH3 from mumbai towards Nashik.. Ride till Shahpur and then take the diversion to Dolkhamb.. The base village for the trek is Dehne which is another 10 kms from dolkhamb..

road conditions : awesome to good.. even the internal roads from shahapur to dolkhamb are in great condition.. the rains has still not slashed away the tar.. only a few kms at the end were not in good shape.. else it was a bliss..

what did i do : just ride.. we dint trek as it was blazing hot.. monsoon was actually MonSun with no sign of rains in sight.. We reached the base of the mountain at around 1.00pm with all the stops for photos and eating and timepaas in between..
stayed there till around 1.45 and started our way back to a river that we had seen in between.. Had a relaxing time in the river for over an hour and a half..
Went to check the Ghatghar project.. but we dint have prior permission had to suffice by just looking at the dam wall in the distance..

Reached back home at 7.00pm with 270kms on the odo..

Some memories to cherish ::

Trek to Sudhagad fort

2010-06-25T00:48:00.001+05:30

Date : June 20 2010

Destination : Sudhagad fort

Who : Me, Deepak, Salil, Sanket, Arnod, Arjun and Sankets 2 friends (Renaldo & Ketan)

Me, Arjun and Doc were on bike and the rest were in sankets car.. Deepak was our trek guide..

About the fort :

Sudhagad fort lies very close to Pali (one of the Ashtavinayak devasthan). Its about 2 hours drive from mumbai.

Base village Paachapur i suppose marks the start of the trek. Its about 20 kms from Pali.

The roads are nice and clean with the internal roads being built under the Pradhan mantri gram sadak yojana..

Trek : Its easy for starters like me who are arm chair keyboard warriors.. The actual trek is said to be of not more than 1.5 hours but i took my own time .. nearly 2 hours from the base to the top..

The idea was to start from vashi at 7.30am. But as usual we had some late comers and the start got delayed by more than 45mins..

Doc had already reached vashi at 7.30 and we asked him to move to Datta Snacks panvel where we would catch up..

Reached panvel at 9.00am finally.. Had our breakfast at hotel welcome opposite to datta snacks near the petrol pump..

Left from panvel and took the old mumbai-pune highway (nh4) towards Pali.

Took the right from khopoli and kept riding till we reached the entrance of Pali Ganapati.

Ask locals for road towards sudhagad.

Took some detours in between..

Finally we reached the base of the fort which is a village with no mobile connection at around 12.30pm..

After settling down. We started our trek at 1pm..

Reached the 1st major buruj after a lot of efforts.. I was dead tired during the climb.. It was seemingly impossible for me to go any further.. Glucon-d and water helped a lot..

Finally reached the first main entrance to the fort..

From here it was an easy walk to the main fort.. Reached the top at around 3pm.. Had rest for a while and sandwiches for lunch and started sightseeing ..

Tombs of the fighters on top of the fort..

Temple on top..

Mahadarvaja..

deepak, arjun and salil went to check out the takmak tok while rest of us started our way back down..

It took just about an hour to get down the fort..

some parting shots..

Started for home from the base of the fort at 9pm and reached home at 11.30pm ..

Tiring end to the day but every minute was worth it !!!!

Group ride to Amby valley and Lavasa

2010-06-12T15:30:00.004+05:30

Date: June 06, 2010...

Me, Deepak&friend, Sanket&cousin, Kanti bhai, Glen, Rohan&friend did a short ride this sunday to Amby valley..
Then took teh interior roads from Amby valley till Mulshi..
From mulshi took the road towards Pirangut and finally reached Lavasa..

@deepak - please post the exact route that we took... i dont remember :p

Some pics from the ride as there is nothing much to ride..

Starting with a Panorama at Amby valley.. (click to enlarge)

Sanket and Glen waiting to be clicked...

The internal roads from amby to lavasa are nearly non existent..

break time..

berries called Karavanda in marathi..

We soon started from the berrie break...
Arrival of monsoon makes the sky really photogenic..

We were greeted by the first rains of the morning..

Thats the mulshi backwaters..

(click to enlarge)

this was looking so amazing.. but hasnt come out well :(

again a pano of the backwaters of mulshi..

(click to enlarge)

somewhere on the way saw the thick bamboo plantation. it had created umbrella ..

Soon we were all hungry and had our lunch at some place near mulshi called River palace.. Started from there at around 3.30pm to hug the lavasa curves..

Thats temghar dam in the background..
(click to enlarge)

Chai tapri on the way to lavasa..

Villagers chatting at the chai tapri..

all by himself..

caution.. curve ahead :)

couldnt stitch properly :( but just to give an idea of the roads..
(click to enlarge)

Thats the Lavasa city..

(click to enlarge)

Inside the city.. they have installed huge mirrors at U-turns..

the curve hugger..

Pano of the curve..
(click to enlarge)

This was the last capture of the day..

broke from the group coz of traffic and had to ride back home all alone and in the rains..
but it was worth it..

In search of Krishnabai mandir.. Wai..

2010-05-16T23:15:00.002+05:30

This was a ride i did this saturday (15th May 2010) for personal reasons.. thats the reason did not post this in the meets section.
Asked a good friend of mine who readily agreed.
So now we were two riders..
Black Avenger 200 - Tejas
Black P220 - Vaibhav

Decided to meet at Juinagar as Tj was riding from Thane.. Time was decided at 5.30am.. But as fate would have it Tj forgot his bike papers. I reached there at 5.25am and saw his message.. He arrived at around 5.45 and after tying his bag to the bike we started from there at around 6.00am..

Snap i took just before Tj arrived..

We decided to stop for breakfast at Kamaths lonavala.. But i think 7.00am is too early to be in Lonavala.. as Kamaths was just opening and RK "still" had its locks on..
so decided to stop on a road side stall for some light breakfast.. coincidentally we found Tejas hotel
had two vada pavs and a tea..
Tj infront of the hotel named after him..

Kept riding at good speeds.. Lost Tj in some traffic.. so decided to stop after the Katraj Viaduct for him to arrive..
here he is..

Viaduct captured while coming back..

some random captures near Katraj..

On the way Tj saw a Bail Bazaar near Kapurhol.. we decided to check it out.. Sheeps/Bulls/Cows are bought and sold at this bazaar..

Some portraits captured from there..

And where there is an opportunity.. theres got to be some Jugaad..

We left from here after around half an hour or so.. and kept riding towards our destination.. Ride to the Khambatki ghat is always awesome.. but there was some traffic this time around.. I thought i again lost Tj in the traffic but he actually had stopped for clicking some snaps..
I stopped after the ghat waiting for him to arrive..

For going to Wai via NH4 one has to take a right before Satara.. from the highway its just 12kms inside.. the road is a narrow, tree shaded, single road.. Would feel really awesome to ride there during monsoons.. would definitely be there..
Stopped again to click some snaps on the parched summer land..

Reached Wai at around noon.. and went directly to the Dholya(Fat) Ganapati temple.. Its a famous temple on the banks of Dharmapuri Ghat..
Wai is famous for this temple along with the 7 different Ghats.. I visited only 3 of them..
I was actually in search of a smaller temple called Krishnabai mandir..

Kalas of the Dholya Ganapati mandir..

Thats the reason its called the Dholya Ganapati..

Also nearby is the KashiVishweshwar temple..

Some random shots inside the city..

We also visited the Menavali Ghat.. Many serials/movies have been shot here.. including Kaminaay, Ishqiya, Omkara ,Maqbool, Swades etc..
here is a look of one of the serials being shot there..

Some captures of the Menavali Ghat..

Left Menavali ghat in search of a temple called Krishnabai mandir.. It was a tough task but accomplished in finding it..

Work done.. Time to move back to Mumbai..

Stopped at Lonavala at the Wax Museum.. Dint have many expectations but was really amazed to see the work done.. Sorry i forgot the name of the person who has made these statues..I would recommend everyone to visit this atleast once..

It was sweltering hot and our progress was damn slow.. It took nearly 6.5 hours to cover the distance of 250 odd kms..
Reached home at 22:00 hours totally exhausted.. But satisfied

Black Arrow.. All Black P220 arrives..

2010-03-27T15:53:00.000+05:30

Happy to annouce the arrival of The Black Arrow.. My pulsar 220 dtsi finally arrived today with navi mumbai registration..

First Impression (Negatives) -

* Suspensions feel stiff..
* Display goes off - I dont know about this.. but if the bike is kept on idle for a while (like about 2-3 mins) the Display goes off.. Is this the inbuilt feature like Auto Off or some problem with the display.. Has anybody had this problem. Or Should i take it to the service station and get the display changed?

Some pics attached.. Thanks to Anup..

Side view..

Mumbai to Little Rann of Kutch

2010-01-07T11:02:00.007+05:30

Dates - 25th Dec 09 - 27th Dec 09
Destination - Somewhere around Ahmedabad - Mount Abu? Black buck National Park? Rann again??
Riders
Karthik - D125 .. called KK in the log..
Vaibhav - P180 .. Me..
Amit - P200 .. Mr.Patil or Darthie..
Dhananjay - P220 - Dj..

Distance covered - 1370kms

It was decided that me and Dj would meet under the Bandra flyover at 5am on the Christmas morning to proceed towards Hub (Goregaon). There we would meet KK and Amit at 5.15am.
As it turned out, Dj got late as he had to fill up to the brim before he left Vashi.
I called up Mr.Patil to convey this and asked him to proceed with KK as they might ride slow given we had a D125 with us :)
Dj reached bandra at 5.30 and we were off in 5mins. Told Amit and KK to wait for us out of mumbai..
It was chilling out there on the highway.
The Western Express highway is all set for a fast ride.
The only bottleneck remaining is near Dahisar where we were greeted by huge traffic at a Toll booth..
Given that it was a 3 days weekend everybody was out on the road.

We met KK and Amit somewhere on the highway.. Had a small break and our group ride had started.
We decided to take regular pee and butt breaks wherever necessary.
Next stop was for capturing the beautiful sunrise somewhere on the highway..

Row of Coconut trees on the left

From Rann Ride - Part II

Beautiful sunrise on the right..

From Rann Ride - Part II

Next was a refueling stop for the ones who were not carrying enough..
i captured this there..
the Black Drongo..

From Rann Ride - Part II

Front profile :)

From Rann Ride - Part II

Dj posing..

From Rann Ride - Part II

We had our first group snap here..

From Rann Ride - Part II

and some posing..

From Rann Ride - Part II

We were taking regular stops for drinking and discarding water..
local temple..

From Rann Ride - Part II

locals at the temple..

From Rann Ride - Part II

somewhere on the way..

From Rann Ride - Part II

Next one was a bigger stop for refueling..
found some flowers..

From Rann Ride - Part II

I was multitasking this time.. dint want to miss out opportunities to click birds on the wires..
captured the Long tailed Shrike..

From Rann Ride - Part II

We all were hungry by now and were looking for a good looking dhaba where we could find something edible..
After some riding found one and went in..
after a lot of deliberation we ordered Sev Bhaji and Pav for lunch..

It was from here we tried to call the Forest resort in blackbuck national park but dint get any response. It was then we decided that we would ride to Rann on the next day given that we would reach very late to Bhavnagar and we dint know the road that well..

Some a local Bullet Tricycle called Chakada on the dhaba and our posers were ready :D

From Rann Ride - Part II

Also met a local with his bullet..

From Rann Ride - Part II

Dj posing.. owner watching..

From Rann Ride - Part II

Next big stop came for me when me and Dj spotted a pond near Vadodara where there were Black headed Ibis, Painted Storks, Sandpipers..
here are a few snaps from there..

From Rann Ride - Part II

It was almost sundown now and we were nearly 150kms off the days target.. thats ahmedabad ring road.. turned out to be Sarkhej at the end as Darth wanted to cover 15 more kms before we called it a day..
We reached Sarkhej at around 7.30pm.. Found a nice lodge near the ring road for Rs.400 per room..
Ordered dinner in the room itself and were off for a nice cozy sleep..

Decided to start as early as possible on the next morning as Amit wanted ride across the rann.. We would enter through Kharagodha and wanted to get out on the other end..

We got up on time and all were ready to leave by around 6.30am..
Started from the hotel and reached the ring road only to find Dj and Darth missing.. Me and KK decided to stop at the ring road and tried calling Darth.. Finally after sometime Darth came back and took us along..

Kept riding through the lovely interior roads in search of Virangam from where one has to reach Kharagodha..
Took our breakfast near Sanand..

From Rann Ride - Part II

Saw my Favourite bird for the first time..
Black Shouldered Kite..

From Rann Ride - Part II

For rann.. one has to ride from Viramgam towards Mandal.. There is a left just about 10kms before Mandal which says Wild Ass Sanctuary Kharagodha. Its around 15kms inside from here.

We reached kharagodha and kept riding till the roads turned into barren path.. we knew we were in the Rann..
Kept riding for sometime.. asking people for directions to Santalpur. It was N.E of kharagodha and we were told that we had to go through the rann.. We wanted to do that.
I thought i had my GPS mobile charged only to find that it wasnt charged fully..So we were just marking lat/longs for future ref.
But at one of these discussions with the locals, darth lost his map and got confused. Now we started asking for Sultanpur instead of Santalpur.

Sultanpur was just about 10kms across to the west.
We reached Sultanpur in no time but not before spending some time for photography in the rann.
First sight of the asiatic wild ass

From Rann Ride - Part II

Where do i go??

From Rann Ride - Part II

Still a long way to go..

From Rann Ride - Part II

Ass chaser

From Rann Ride - Part II

Started from Rann towards Vadodara .. which was to be our stop for the night. Stopped at a good looking road side dhaba at Surendranagar. Filled up ourselves to the core and started our journey back to the concrete jungle.

Saw a huge container on one of the dhabas and promptly stopped for some photos.

From Rann Ride - Part II

It was nearly sun down..

From Rann Ride - Part II

Stopped for the night some 20kms before Vadodara. Got a reach cheap deal at 150 per head for the night. The dinner was hilarious. Slept off and decided to roll at 6am the next morning. Got up on time and were off.

Dj saw this small farm somewhere on the way and we went in for some photos :D

From Rann Ride - Part II

Last stop was at Food Island which is about 175kms from mumbai.. But unfortunately the restaurant is closed for the past 2 months.. So had candy bar icecream instead.

Me and dj decided to ride on faster to mumbai as dj had to reach home early.. We met a p220dtsi riding near Jawhar. Dj decided to ride with him as he was going to Kharghar. I decided to move on alone from here.

Going though Mira Road was like going through torture. Potholes and traffic. I though i was having an amusement park ride after sometime.

Reached home at 6.00pm covering the last 175kms in 3hours :D

P.S - i always thought we were 4 riders.. but the photograph??

From Rann Ride - Part II

In search of the Valley of Flowers...

2009-11-02T12:54:00.056+05:30

Planned my most dreamt ride to get Leh'd.. but as destiny would have it.. had to cancel it for my career :)
so i was still in hibernation for nearly six months..No rides.. only commuting is what i was doing...
finally a plan came up.. courtesy.. darth lucifer..
we need to find the valley of flowers he said.. in Maharashtra ...

where did we ride??
destination - Kaas (25kms from Satara)
distance - approx 300kms from Kings Circle
total distance covered in the day - 599 kms according to the odo..

what did we ride??
me - pulsar 180 dtsi
darth-lucifer - pulsar 200
Winzee - pulsar 150
Ambidexterous - pulsar 180
and the odd man out
RazorBlades - Apache RTR the riders with the beautiful Kaas talao in the background.. Decided to meet at 6.00 at Centre One -Vashi..
As usual our dear Darth had a early morning fall in powai.. he had his brake setting messed up.. good he fell at slow speed..
finally started from vashi at 6.45.. The weather was awesome.. actually i was shivering in the mesh jacket..
First stop for the ride was at R.K for breakfast. We reached there at around 8ish..

Winzee seems to be really happy at the sight of wada sambar..

razor and winzee in the background :) left from RK at around 9.. then it was a bliss to ride on the NH4.. The sun was out.. but it wasnt hot.. we were riding at good speeds..
this was somewhere on the way..

Had to keep asking locals for directions..
This is what i was told from the highway...
One has to go through Satara city to visit Kaas..
On the highway.. riding towards satara.. when you see stone quarries on the right side.. slow down.. this place is called Limkhind..
there will be a board which says .. Satara City to the left..
take the left to the go downwards and take the first right.. keep asking locals for MolachaWada..
From here ask locals for Rajwada.. here on there are no problems to reach Kaas..

1st sight of Kaas lake..

We stopped here to click some photographs of the lake..
we also found some wild flowers which were looking interesting..

But the actual valley of flowers had vanished.. the rains this time around were very scanty.. that is what the locals told us.. also we were late by around a months time to check out the flower valley.. better luck next time..
but the saver was the lake.. we had to climb the plateau and then ride down to the lake..
the water was nice clean and cold.. there were a lot of tourists mostly from pune who had camped there.. lot of broken bottles all around..
here are a few snaps..

Some more photography.. of posers !!!

Winzee tops the list with this snap :D
razor posing on two stones... ambi looks on...
thats our darthie..

Time to move on for lunch... Blue valley hotel on top of the plateau with a beautiful view was the place..Did not find any flowers in the valley.. so thought we should click from the garden of this hotel..

This was the last set of shots clicked on the highway..

Riding to the beach.. again...

2009-04-03T12:28:00.010+05:30

Destination - Bhatye beach, Ratnagiri
Distance from matunga - approx 370kms
time taken one way - approx 8 hours (including an hour of break for breakfast and other stuff)

It was a saturday night.. all of us were laughing our hearts out at Sankets jokes.. and in the talks came the plan to ride in a group after a long time..
all of us there were eager to ride.. Vinod had plans of a 500km ride starting Friday night.. but they had to change all that because of me..
thank you all very much for that gesture..

so it was again deepak who had to find out a destination .. and this is what he sent on the mail..
excerpts from the mail..
"With initial places being decided at Tambarde and Kunkeshwar in Malvan- it would only be possible to leave on Friday night. Leaving on Saturday morning riding for 550 kms and then returning back the next day wouldnt make much sense. So I've shortlisted a place called Bhatye Beach in Ratnagiri. As per info from my colleague who is from Pavas which is close to Bhatye, there are ample and inexpensive accomodation options to stay overnight. Here's the pic of the beach. Googled around for a few snapshots of the beach and got this (seems pretty clean):

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/78/154084585_6411a3a066_o.jpg

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/53/154084615_7649676b1e_o.jpg

http://www.konkandarshan.com/tourist/images/bhatye_big.jpg "

so it was decided.. Bhatye beach it is going to be..

Riders list
Deepak -- P150
Revel -- Hunk
Vinod -- P180
Sarang -- P180
Vaibhav -- P180
Dhananjay -- P220
Alkesh -- P220
Glen -- Zma
Arjun -- Zma
Sanket -- Zma
Parimal -- Zma (he joined us later at the destination)

All were to meet at the Palm beach road at 5.00am on the saturday morning and leave by max around 5.15am.. But i got a bit late and reached the vashi toll naka at around 5.25am.. to my surprise everybody (including deepak) was there.. As we were getting ready for the ride.. a silver 180 came near the group and started revving.. no one understood who it was.. and finally after he left we saw the BN sticker.. Vinod chased him and got to know that it was PPS (Praveen Sathaye) who was riding to pune..
Sanket was getting a bit late and we decided that we move on as he could easily catchup the group in no time..

the first break was at the Panvel naka for fuelling the bikes.. Sanket reached there in mean time..
Bikes full, all set.. Vinod took the charge of the road ahead.. Deepak was sweeping the pack.. All riding in harmony were moving in a pack..
Deepak zoomed past me on the Karnala curves.. i could see that he was enjoying them as usual.. he dropped his pace back to join me at the back of the pack..

We kept riding through the beautiful NH17.. to everyones surprise it was really cold on the road.. i was literally shaking inside my mesh jacket.. as the time started ticking everyone started feeling hungry..
We decided to stop at Wadkhal for breakfast but were there pretty early as the hotels had yet to be opened.. so we decided that we stop near nagothane which was around 20kms from wadkhal..
We kept riding at pretty good speeds and reached nagothane in no time.. but the lead of the pack just kept riding..
finally we stopped somewhere on the highway for our breakfast..

Wadapav and missal pav.. garam garam.. was served and a nice hot tea made a really great start to the day..

From bhatye_28th Mar 09

Started from there after our tummys full.. and kept riding till poladpur.. this was going to be the next stop just before the beautiful twisting kashedi starts..
keep riding on the beautiful 2 lane highway..
Stopped just before kashedi for a refreshment break.. had gola-sharbat and lemon juice..

From bhatye_28th Mar 09

start of kashedi..

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The pack was broken now as everyone wanted to enjoy those 20kms of sheer pleasure of the twisties in kashedi..
by now the sun was beating down heavily and me and dhananjay waited for a sip just after the ghats..

All kept riding to the next stop decided.. the top of Parshuram Ghat.. my favourite ghat on the mumbai ratnagiri stretch..
Some riders were ahead of me and dhananjay and some were behind.. we stopped for a refuelling break and all went ahead of us..
deepak was chasing me and thot that i was really fast.. but LOL he dint know that i had stopped..
we met the group again at the top of Parshuram ghat..
its always lovely to stop there.. but always hazy.. the photos of the Vashistha river never come out good:(

river..

From bhatye_28th Mar 09

the lineup at the top..

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the rider..
deepak..

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arjun..

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dhananjay..

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Sanket..

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Vinod and Alkesh..

From bhatye_28th Mar 09

I started out in front of everyone so that i could click each ones photo at the curve..

From bhatye_28th Mar 09

The sun was really heating up everybody.. the water in the bottles was nearly hot.. we had to stop under the shades for some relief..

From bhatye_28th Mar 09

finally reached bhatye at around 1.45pm..stopped again for some colddrinks and nariyal paani..

From bhatye_28th Mar 09

Dhananjay, sanket and deepak went for searching the lodge.. found one for 1500 bucks for 10members..went to the lodge.. got fresh and left for lunch.. had our lunch at a ok hotel not before arjun had to fix his punctured rear..

From bhatye_28th Mar 09

deepak and vinod having some rest while the tyre gets fixed..

From bhatye_28th Mar 09

here we had our lunch..

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next destination was sightseeing the Ratnagiri fort (Baale Killa)

From bhatye_28th Mar 09

entrance to the fort..

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Kadelot point.. that edge on the right had corner is the point..

From bhatye_28th Mar 09

me with the jetty in the background.. where we took our bikes..

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the jetty..

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Bhagavati mandir on top of the fort..

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on the edge of the jetty..

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some posing on the jetty..

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after a long photography session we were back at the hotel.. and the laughter session started which never would have ended had we not want to come back from there..

From bhatye_28th Mar 09

Parimal joined us at 11'o clock in the night.. he went to pune.. dropped in wife.. started from there at 5 and reached bhatye which is 450kms from pune at 11.. that is some awesome stuff parimal.. tussi great ho.. !!
thats parimal.. does he look exhausted.. i dont think so..

From bhatye_28th Mar 09

We rode to the beach post dinner for some HID photography...
please takecare of the incoming traffic as they might get blinded by these beams..

From bhatye_28th Mar 09

that light is of the HIDs..

From bhatye_28th Mar 09

came back to the hotel and dozed of to a nice sleep.. initial plan was to start back to mumbai via NH17 at around 7.30.. but we changed the plan and started back at 5.30 to beat the heat.. it was a nice ride back.. reached home at 2.00pm..

awesome ride once again.. one more memory to cherish..

Riding to the family God.. Velneshwar...

2009-03-11T18:53:00.030+05:30

i had not done a ride since october 2008..the itch to ride was too irresistible..and it was a 3 day weekend to top it up..
Darth called up two weeks ago to confirm for jaisalmer..but work pressure now a days is just too much..did not get time to get my bike ready for such a long ride..had to give him kalti just two days prior to d ride..sorry mate..

But d itch to ride is not so easy to overcome..called up moo anus n ghan..n i would be riding..not to the sand dunes but to d beach sand..destination again one of d konkan beach..

moo..

anus..

ghan..

Velneshwar..

The beach is one of d very secluded beaches of maharashtra..325kms from matunga..

route taken: panvel-nagothane-chiplun-velneshwar..

We decided to start at 5am so that we reach velneshwar before it gets too hot..but as expected we started at 5.45am..The weather was chilly..and d NH17 with all d trees around makes it really cold..
We were cruising on d 2 lane highway with d speeds of around 80-90kmph..The chill was doing its job..i had to stop for d bio break..stopped somewhere on d highway..done with emptying d bladders,photosession n suddenly Vroooom -a red coloured hayabusa goes past us..then again Vroooom-its a silver fireblade..

Its 7.15am when we reach nagothane..about 105kms from d palm beach road..we covered d distance in an hour n 30minutes..have idli-wada-sambar n filter coffee..leave from there at 7.45am..

On d highway..cruising towards d destination..mohit dhananjay ride ahead to click a few snaps at mahad..wait for me to reach there..but im about 2-3kms behind them when i feel d rear wobble.. I stop n check..d pressure looks fine.. So start riding but again feel d wobble ..stop n check again..ahh..d tyre is getting flat..decide to keep riding as d tyre is not totally flat..pass anup who is waiting at a spot to take a snap.. Wave him n move ahead.. Mohit waits with d camera for me.. Show him d flat tyre n keep moving.. Find a puncture shop about a km away from d mahad river.. We were there at 9am..it takes an hour to leave from there..

we keep riding passing mangaon roha khed in no time..get down d parshuram ghat n wait to take d right for guhagar..but one scooter uncle suggests that we take d route from chiplun as we will directly get on d state highway..we had to go through very narrow roads of d town..we were told by d locales that after chiplun there r no petrol pumps for 40kms.. Now d r15 would need fuel after about 60kms..

we are about 30kms from guhagar when i c a board which points to d left..it says velneshwar 25kms..we take this road which goes from d other side of velneshwar..d road has absolutely nothing..n i forgot that mohits bike needs petrol..we keep riding thru d narrow road n reach velneshwar at 1.45pm..

had a very heavy home made lunch at d lodge..dozed off til 5..

Went to d beach.. did some photography and a very nice bath in the Arabian sea. The water is absolutely clean.. one can see his feet on the sand beneath..

We were there till the sun set.. Had wadapav for snacks and moved to the hotel.. came back later in the night to check out the beach. Its just too amazing to resist..

It would be Mahashivratri on Monday so the temple was lit up by the bulbs.. it was looking stunning..

Day 2

Start in the morning at 7.00 am and are cruising at 40-50kmph to save fuel. Fill up at Tali which is about 20kms from Velneshwar.. then it’s a free run again back to home..

Keep taking breaks at regular intervals.

Take a food break at Parshuram ghat.. some photography done there.

At the end of the parshuram ghat

Kashedi.

Somewhere near Raigad..

Then there were no stops for photographs.. reached home at 2.30pm for lunch..

It was a very nice ride and a nice break from the everyday chores...

Birds in my backyard...

2008-10-28T22:04:00.006+05:30

Maina...
Faintail Flycatcher..

Indian Koel - Female..
Small Sunbird..
Golden Oriole..

Harihareshwar

2008-10-26T10:49:00.004+05:30

Was ithcing for a ride for a while now..Finally on friday the 24th i decide the destination will be Harihareshwar..
Harihareshwar is a place in raigad on the coastal line of India famous for its beautiful beach and Lord Shiva temple..
Its situated at a distance of around 210kms from mumbai..

Route taken - Mumbai - Panvel - NH17 - Mangaon - SH97 - Mhasla - Srivardhan - SH98 - Harihareshwar

Started the day at 5.15am.. I am already riding in reserve for the last 2 days..So want to fillup the tank asap..
Go under the sion flyover to find the bunk closed..ride on..
no bunks till chembur maitri park.. reach the next bunk.. its also closed.. Finally find the pump working near Mankhurd.. fillup 500rs worth..9lts..

from here on its ride on.. hit the NH17 in no time.. chill goes thru the spine.. its that cold.. dint even imagine this.. i was shivering.. my helmet fills up with mist..
have to wait and wipe off the mist.. ride slowly now.. i take a hour and fifteen minutes to cover a distance of 63kms and that too when there is no traffic on the road..

ride on.. reach pen and stop for pani.. click a few snaps..

keep riding till i reach mangaon.. take the right from there.. the board says Srivardhan 43kms..
stop at a road side hotel for breakfast.. dont remember the time i reached there..
had a tea and idli-wada..
the roads from here are real treat.. thru the trees and winding with ample opportunity to lean..

this is the ghat section..

just after the ghat.. the roads are again butter smooth...

wonder if he thinks i am an alien with all the gear on me..

but not alls well.. the not so good part of the road is the last 20 odd kms.. its PIA.. one can do around 40kmph but i have my front mag already bent so dint want to take a chance..
this is the road condition..

one more ghat where constrution is going on for alternate road..

but the main road is neglected.. its steep and had rocks and craters and wat not in the way.. have to be really careful.. one slip and u r gone !!
did not click any snaps for the steep section though..

reached srivardhan breach at around 10am to find that the beach was empty.. literally ek kutta bhi nahi tha..

there is a nice little resort type on the beach..

he has caged turkey and ducks..

finally after an hour or so started back for Harihareshwar.. its 17kms from Srivardhan.. the roads.. again butter smooth..
on the way ..

Harihareshwar temple..

going around the temple for Pradakshina you have to go through the mountain and the Sea.. actually its less of pradakshina and more of sightseeing..
climb up..

go down..

thats the steepness..

and go through the sea..
erosion caused by the water..

view of the beach from top of the mountain..

hunger strikes and i move to MTDC. which is just half a km away from the temple..
its a really beautiful and quite place for a getaway..

waiting for lunch i spot this.. no its not a reflection.. might be mating season has begun..

the lunch was starting at 12.30 so had to keep cliking..

finally lunch arrives at 1..fill up myself with the jeera rice.. dal fry and the mangola..

start back at 1.45 from harihareshwar.. a tempo driver tells me to go through Borli village.. so i could skip the pathetic ghat..

route taken while coming back - Harihareshwar - Srivardhan - turn towards Dighe village - Borli - Mahsla phata - Mahsla - Mangaon - NH17 - Mumbai..

but again the first 10 odd kms are craters..with good roads ahead..

reached back to mumbai at 5.45..

statistics..
total distance covered - 440kms..
Fuel cost - Rs.550..
bike mileage - approx 45kmpl..
time spent on road - approx 11hours..

album link..

Ride to Bhandardara...

2008-08-17T20:49:00.013+05:30

Aug 15th 2008 -- 61 years of Indian Independence..
A ride through the craters of NH3 (Mumbai-Agra) we reach the Igatpuri village.. Take a right for Ghoti and from there its on SH21 to Bhandardara.. the roads of SH21 are much much better than the NH3..
Total distance covered 360kms..

Somewhere on the NH3..

Stop just after taking the right at Igatpuri..

anup,amit and gopi..

Gopi trying to catch the clouds through the new Canon DSLR..

portable rain cover..

on the greens..

Macro.. i love..

current desktop wallpaper..

trying to get down the incline on a marshy land..
this is wat happens..Gopi 1st..

Darth ooorf amit 2nd..

can these two push it up..

naaaaaa..
that needed 3 people..

poser!!

red and green combination..

i like this photo.. but for the RTR back there..

the DSLR owner testing it..

Anup..

wonder what he was doing in that field..

Game on.. Counter Strike..

Morpheus..

lake arthur..

spot anything weird..??

he is holding the cam in the right hand and looking thru the left eye..
step into the lake..

four of us..

bike and the background..

the full album..

im on the cover of a magazine!!!

2008-08-08T21:04:00.001+05:30

2008-06-07T17:25:00.000+05:30

Mumbai - NH4 - NH17 - Mumbai

2008-06-06T16:40:00.007+05:30

The biggest merger in the history of Indian Banking has just been approved.. everybody is elated.. all are having a jolly time.. all are happy.. all roles defined.. no work for some.. some already start to slog...
me being into the no work category get a surprise gift.. boss calls up to the desk.. tells me i have a chance... the chance of being at no work for the next seven days.. i agree :).. that was on thursday...
i am all ready to leap onto the two wheels and twist the throttle..
but wait..sunday we have a function.. my bro is getting engaged.. happy for him :) so i cant start on friday night or saturday morning.. will have to wait till monday..
do my packing on sunday night after a nice little family function.. its already 11.45pm.. mom says go on tuesday morning.. but me determined.. an alarm for 4.00am to get up and move on.. but am damn tired running around.. snooze twice.. its 4.30am.. get up hurried.. get going soon..

Day 1 - Mumbai - Kolhapur

2008-06-06T16:39:00.002+05:30

approx Dist covered - 400kms
mapmyindia dist - 395kms
time taken - 7 hours..
route - Mumbai - NH4 - Kolhapur

its 5.20am.. i kick my bike to life.. butterflies in stomach.. havent had such a long run alone.. will i be able to do it.. will my bike have any issues.. i settle as i bid adieu to my mom and dad.. they wish me luck which i needed..
keep riding on the NH4 to reach lonavla at 7.00am.. distance covered till now was approx 92kms.. was planning a stop at R.K.. but doors not yet open.. so stop at the road side stall and have a half litre of Mazaa.. refreshed.. i move on..
NH4 at any time is a treat to ride on.. i reach Katraj Bypass in no time.. distance covered till now 167kms according to odo.. break for 10mins, some motography and move on..

The sun is rising but the temperature isnt..i ride on.. near satara now..

Stop for breakfast soon.. its 9.30am and i have covered 240kms.. coffee + idli and leave at around 10am..

Keep riding on the Satara - Kolhapur GQ patch.. its just awesome.. but at no point in time did i cross 90kmph on my speedo.. reach near Kolhapur and call up my friend.. am just 45kms off the Sugarcane city and there are only sugarcane fields on both sides..
click click..

Reach the spot where my friend asked me to stand and look at the odo.. it says 395kms and time 12.20am :)
Have lunch at a nice hotel and move on the friends room and have an hour and a half of sleep.. get up at 4 and start for Panhala.. its windy on the road to panhala with a lot of vehicles plying that road.. its the Kolhapur - Ratnagiri road.. NH204.. Reach Panhala some 20kms from the city.. pay Rs.4 as entry fee and proceed.. There is nothing left of the fort to be very frank. its just the old structure that can be seen and people people everywhere..
do some click click and move on to the Mahalakshmi temple.. (Family Goddess)..too much rush and in no mood to stand in line.. so have mukhdarshan (face darshan) and move on to the room..

its 7.30 by now and we move to a restaurant/bar for dinner.. its India Vs Rajasthan IPL.. watch the full match .. disappointed as mumbai suffer a last ball defeat ..reach home at abt 00.00 hours and sleep..

Day 2 - Kolhapur - Dandeli

Day 2 - Kolhapur - NH4 - Londa - NH4A - Dandeli

2008-06-06T16:38:00.003+05:30

approx Dist covered - 250kms
mapmyindia dist - 195kms
time taken - 4 hours..
route - Kolhapur - Belgaum - Khanapur - Londa - Ramnagar - Dandeli

Its 8.00am.. i start from Kolhapur.. the odo says 456kms.. road -- NH4 till i reach Belgaum.. then take the NH4A for Ramnagar asking locals the directions.. the tarmac is absolutely fantastic.. sweeping corners with woods all around.. some scenic views to please and no villages for kms together.. if something goes wrong here.. there is no option but to hitchhike ur way to the nearest village for help.. (touchwood) me rode on without any problems...

riding thru the woods i reach an entrance of some sort.. but there is no one to stop and ask.. i ride thru it and keep on riding till i get to a cross road.. there are people here and i ask for direction as i am clueless of what is written on the boards.. had a thot in my mind of click the snap of Dandeli written in english and kannada on the same board and use it as reference.. but never did that.. as there are locals who help out..
reach dandeli at around 12.30pm.. and start the search for a room.. go to a resort and ask if there is a room available.. and its full.. ask for the whereabouts of some lodges nearby.. these people dont want to help.. so get out of there and reach a rickshaw stand.. ask the rickshaw wala who gives me directions.. but i get confused.. ride on the same road 4 times before i get the turn he had told me to take.. reach the Dandeli Bus depot.. there are a few lodges near the bus stand.. call up home to tell everything is fine.. Spot a adventures and touys centre.. ask him for a lodge and he says the State lodge is pretty good.. check in there at around 1pm.. check out here is 24hours if checking in before 6pm to 7am.. nice room for 180Rs. with attached bathroom and a TV for night..

get ready and go for lunch..bill - 17Rs. order - 1 dosa, 1 idli sambar (it has a complementary meduwada) , 1 buttermilk.. check with the dandeli adventure and tours for the River Rafting.. get a deal for 1000 buks.. have an awesome time in the Kali river.. Spot some Hornbill couples with some Grey Eagles and Cormorants.. unfortunately i am not carrying my digicam.. so no click clicks here..
meet a jolly good mumbai family during the rafting..
The Khopkars

get back to the lodge..have dinner and sleep.. next morning have to get up at 5am.. going for a Jungle Safari :)

Dandeli - Karwar

Day 3 - Dandeli sightseeing + Dandeli - Karwar

2008-06-06T16:37:00.001+05:30

approx Dist covered - 150kms
mapmyindia dist - 118kms
time taken - 2.5 hours..
route - Dandeli - Kumbharwada - Anshi - Karwar

up at 5am and all set for the Jungle safari.. others in the group for the safari get late and we leave dandeli depot for the Sanctuary at around 6.25am.. the driver says its too late to spot any wild animals as there are other vehicles that have already gone ahead.. anyways lets try our luck.. spot 4 peahens, 1 peacock, 1 giant squirrel, 2 storks/cranes :p, a python and 2 deers..

back to the lodge at 9am.. have breakfast and am back on the Croc Trail.. people in dandeli say that there are as many as 500 crocs in the Kali river and are generally seen sun-bathing on the edges.. ride for about 5kms with the guide and reach a farmland besides the river.. walk from one end of the farm to other in search of crocs.. spot ZERO !
finally giveup the hope of spotting the giant croc and return.. the guide says his friend has a croc baby at his house.. so we reach the friends place and have some click click with the baby croc.. the body of the croc was very slippery and it was difficult to hold it.. anyways atleast saw a baby croc live :)

bid adieu to Dandeli post lunch.. Plan to go to Goa.. am told that goa is just 50kms from Karwar.. so i think will check out the Karwar beach and then move on to Goa.. ask about the road till karwar at 3 different places and get the same answer.. the roads are good.. so change the plan to Dandeli - Karwar - Goa..
Start from dandeli towards babeli.. a small village from where i am told i have to ride till Kumbharwada.. the roads are again very nice and its the Teak plantation by the Govt of Karnataka on both the sides..
Keep riding thru the forest area.. Spot a bison on the left of the road in the woods.. have no guts to stop and click click.. its a HUGE Muscular animal.. nearly 6 feet tall and really bulky horns.. so decide to keep the throttle twisted.. reach kumbharwada and get a bad patch of road.. take this as an aberration.. but i am wrong.. this aint no aberration.. the punishment keeps on going for nearly 30kms till i reach Anshi.. stop to drink water at the village and spot a Tavera.. its the Khopkars.. they are here to visit the caves.. chat with them for a while and leave after the much needed break.. its getting humid as i start approaching the west coast.. and feeling pretty hot too..
the road after Anshi is just newly laid.. so again back to the high speeds i reach a junction.. where it says Mangalore 279kms (left) and Panaji (101kms) right.. i say to myself "WTF".. its already 3.30pm .. and its just toooo hot to handle.. what should i do.. should i ride directly to Goa? should i stay at Karwar? i dont understand.. so i take the left (karwar being closer).. reach the entrance.. click click..

decide to turn back and go goa.. ride a few kms to turn back and stay at karwar.. search for a lodge.. devbagh beach resort.. full.. bhadra hotel.. room available at 250+10%tax.. ride near the beach.. some lodge Rs.260 single bed..book it.. unpack my stuff but i am feeling suffocated in that room.. so decide to ask the manager to change the room.. he says hotel full.. go back.. pack my stuff.. decide to leave the hotel.. book myself in Bhadra.. have snacks.. go to the beach.. click click.. war museum.. click.. back to hotel.. sleep :)

Karwar - Goa - Ratnagiri - Mumbai

Day 4 & 5 - Karwar - Goa - Ratnagiri - Mumbai

2008-06-06T16:36:00.000+05:30

approx Dist covered - 370kms
mapmyindia dist - 344kms
time taken - 10 hours..
route - Karwar - NH17 - Ratnagiri

Get up at 6.00am in Karwar to a nice breezy morning.. look out of the window and see a beautiful skyline.. the sun is already at the horizon and is getting ready for the day.. so do i..
a click out of the window..

go around the beach for some snaps.. fill up Rs.200 worth petrol from the bunk in karwar which is a shabby looking pump with just 1 person around.. and am off to Goa..
its just rained on the Highway and am riding in some coool air.. feels nice.. stop at Padi for some clicks of the weird structure besides the Konkan rail.. might be water harvesting structure..

i lose my way in Margao.. instead of taking the turn for a bridge i get into Margao.. have to keep asking locals for directions.. finally after being in there for about half an hour i get out on the NH17... Reach goa at around 10.15am.. start calling Guru (a friend of mine who is in goa for his holidays).. we decide to meet at Miramar beach..
ride thru panaji and reach miramar.. am standing there waiting for Guru.. he arrives some 10mins later.. spend some time there and move on the Calangute.. its damn hot on the sea side.. sit on the beach for sometime and move onto Baga and Anjuna.. its the same shore with different entrances...

its 12.00pm and the heat is getting to me.. i finally see my friend off who accompanies me till the highway and am off to Ratnagiri..
keep riding on the twisties and my bike goes into reserve.. and i see no bunks nearby.. reach Rajapur and see a left turn for Ratnagiri which says 35 kms and Kelshi at 33kms.. ask the locals for a bunk and am directed to a nearby IOC bunk.. i tankup and have some rest there.. ask the bunk person for directions.. he says if u go thru the inner road and if anything goes wrong then there is very less traffic on the road so i might have to wait for sometime before i can get any help.. so i decide to take the road that goes via HathKhamba.. after reaching Hathkhamba and i realise i had taken about 30kms more to reach the destination.. its about 4.00pm when i reach HathKhamba and search for a lodge.. there is one bang on the highway.. he says 800Rs. for a double bed room.. i try to negotiate but he says no bargaining..
so i will have to ride 15kms more to get a lodge in Ratnagiri city.. i ride my way to the city in search of a decent lodge.. try a very good looking hotel but he says 936Rs. incl taxes.. i get out.. ride to a lodge nearby.. no rooms available.. ask him for a lodge and i get a deal at Rs.312.. its 5 pm when i check in the lodge.. all dehydrated i have a litre of water and cold water bath.. dinner at a good decent hotel (Maithili) .. come back.. sleep..

Day 5 - Ratnagiri - Mumbai
approx Dist covered - 360kms
mapmyindia dist - 340kms
time taken - 7 hours..
route - Ratnagiri - NH17 - Mumbai

look out of the window at 6.00am .. its cloudy.. there is a huge cloud on the ocean.. wait for sometime watching the cloud move and then i see that the roads under the hotel are wet.. its a small drizzle that passes away.. just wetting the roads enuf for bikers to skid on..
i start at 6.30am.. the roads wet.. a huge dark cloud infront of me on the horizon.. the sun still hiding.. i want to stop for some snaps.. i break.. fishtail.. but fortunately dont loose balance.. keep riding and get my bike into the gravel area.. stop.. click some snaps.. move on..

keep riding on the NH17.. was missing the MeduVada of Hotel Abhiruchi in Chiplun for sometime now.. so decide that i will have breakfast there.. its 8.00am when i reach chiplun and abhiruchi.. ahh have a nice breakfast.. move on..
no sign of rain as i keep moving closer to mumbai.. keep taking breaks at regular intervals.. get stuck in traffic just before Mahad.. there is an accident that has caused this traffic.. the driver of the tempo is still stuck between the seat and the steering.. is he alive.. i dont know.. i hope he was.. on that day i saw a total of 9 accidents that had happened.. this was the 10th.. anyways move on..
Reach mumbai at around 1.30pm.. check my odo.. it says 1582kms :)

what a memorable ride it was... beautiful roads coupled with some adventures at dandeli.. and the beaches of karwar and goa..

kissed the tarmac !

2008-04-13T17:33:00.007+05:30

pulsar180 - Rs.65000
jacket - Rs.4500
gloves - Rs.750

when you dont wear the 4500 worth jacket - useless
slip in a banking and still getting out without major injuries - priceless !

prelude :
i sit as the pillion to get my bike from servicing.. we are at chembur and d rider wizzzez thru till vashi doing a good 100kmph..
get my bike serviced and ready for the lonnng runs...
meet a few friends and are deciding on having a dinner together.. wait for "the rider", but then decide to help him out in his work to get it finished..
he has to deliver some cutlery to his uncle and so we decide me will leave him to the house and then move ahead for dinner..
he sits back.. i turn the throttle..

action:
he says "abhi badla lega kya" (will u take a revenge now?") .. i say "NO", but i see the nice banking turn up ahead and am ready to bank..speed touching around 45-50kmph..i slow a bit and i bank a bit tooo much and the rear looses the grip.. i leave the bike and slide on the tarmac.. gloves do the job of protecting my hands.. but i am not wearing the jacket ! so arm kisses the tarmac... watch "the rider" and bike slide along with sparks towards the divider.. "the rider" hits the divider pretty hard but stand up.. we pick up the bike.. hear people murmuring "thoda dheere to karna tha" (should have slowed down)..

climax:
bike is ok.. i am a ok with my jeans torn and arm bruised.. check "the rider" ,he has got more injuries but none serious.. cutlery - no where to be seen..

retrospection:
overconfidence in banking caused the slide..
should have been more cautious with a pillion behind me..
should have taken the jacket along..

TheSaddleTramps @ Harnai

2008-02-25T20:43:00.023+05:30

Destination:
Harnai Port

Route taken:
Mumbai-Vashi-Panvel-Wadkhal-Mangaon-Poladpur
-Kashedi-Khed-Dapoli-Harnai

View Larger Map

Distance covered approximately - 570 kms from mumbai

Batch-1 Riders:
Vaibhav (p180)
Prasad (Zma)
Ishitiaque (LB500)
Sarang (Platina)

Parimal (P180) - meets batch-1 at Mahad

Batch-2 Riders:
Deepak (P150)
Abhijit (Unicorn)
Amit (P220)
Glen (Zma)
Vinod (P180)

Pillion Riders:
Salil with Deepak
Sanket with Glen

the ride:
It all starts as a small group ride for a weekend to the coastal destination of Harnai.. this is near Dapoli, Ratnagiri, Maharashtra.
Some of the riders decide to start at friday night.. They are all set to ride out at 1am.. messages are exchanged and the time is fixed.. meeting point is the Kings Circle petrol pump.. its 12.30am and Vaibhav rides to Prasad's house who is all set to start the ride.. Sarang is picked up near and the three ride to the pump, fill up the tanks to the brim and are waiting for IshtiBhai..

Prasad calls up IshtiBhai only to understand that Ishti is having some problem with his cramster..so he thinks it might take a max delay of about half an hour .. an hour passes and Prasad calls up again.. This time Ishti doesnt revert the call and they think that he might be on his way.. wait for another half an hour and they get a call..Ishti has still not started.. its already 2am.. by now even the petrol pump workers are perplexed as to what are these 3 upto...
its 3 am and they get a call ..Ishti has finally started his journey from South mumbai..He meets the three standing for 3 hours at 3.30am and finally they start their onward journey at 3.45am..

Ishtibhai the lead and Prasad the drag..

Pit Stop 1 - Pen
distance covered - about 70kms..

Pit Stop 2 - Nagothane..
distance covered - about 110 kms..

Start from Nagothane at 9.30ish after a nice hour sleep.. get a call from Parimal..he was near Mahad..They meet Parimal at Mahad and start their onward journey..

Pit Stop 3 - just before Kashedi
distance covered - about 155 kms..

Pit Stop 4 - Kashedi top..
distance covered - about 175 kms..

Riding the Kashedi at any point in time is awesome.. everything about that Ghat is just perfect.. the riders did enjoy the ride..
They rode for about 50kms and reached Dapoli..Everybody was hungry as the places we stopped were not hotels or dhabas..So another stop at the junction at Dapoli.. This turned out to be the Pit Stop 6..
by this time its all getting under Parimal's skin who had expected a dash to the destination.. but he keeps his cool as usual and moves on with the pack..

Now Ishti's LB needs to quench its thirst.. Pit Stop 7..

Then they just rode till they we able to see the sea..Stop near the beach for some snaps.. by now everybody was looking for a place to place their saddle..Got a great deal at a Hotel Ocean Breeze which is next to the Kamath (MTDC)..

Now the wait for the batch 2 began.. Call up to understand that they have not yet started and its already 6pm..
Ishti and Prasad strike another deal with the hotel guy for the dinner preparations..
Prasad Parimal Vaibhav along with the hotel shef ride to the Harnai Beach Fish Market..

Come back and take some rest.. and are just waiting to hear from the other batch.. there is no contact for sometime.. Tension is increasing in the camp and Ishti tries to calm everyone by lighting the all favourite hukka.. ahh.. all are into the air and everything just settles down....

The batch 2 finally reaches at around 2 in the night .. everyone is tired and most are off to sleep.. some sit back and enjoy the moon lit night..

Next day morning.. Prasad and Parimal decide to leave early as they have personal priorities.. Others leave for the beach to enjoy the morning.. A photosession with all the so called autographers trying their best to get a shot..
They finally leave from there without enjoying the Dolphin ride or the paragliding (Rs.200 for a 2 km run)..They rather prefer the desolated Suvarnadurg and reach there through a water kingdom ride..Guides takes them around for nearly an hour and its time to leave..
Reach back to the hotel.. have lunch.. relax just a bit too much and leave at 5.30pm..Reach Mumbai in the next morning at 5.30am..Covering around 500 kms in abt 12 hours !

First group ride for thesaddletramps was a huge success !

full ablum accessible here

d wild ass ride...

2008-01-02T20:32:00.004+05:30

Riders..
Vaibhav Gokhale - Pulsar dtsi UG2
Amit Patil - Pulsar 200

Destination..
The little Rann of Kutch

Route taken..
Mumbai - Ahmedabad - Sakhrej - Sanand - Viramgram - Kharaghoda

Distance covered..
approx 1380 kms

Time taken..
3 days (29th Dec'07 - 31st Dec'07)

Call up Amit on 28th dec and ask him if i could ride with him..He happily agrees and even gives me confidence about riding along..we decide to meet under the andheri flyover at 6am..
i call up Parimal to get some tips for the loooong ride..as usual he is as helpful as he can be.. lends me his Saddle bag(which definitely helped a lot)..
all packed and ready to leave i put an alarm to get up at 4.30..

29th dec:
fone buzzez under my head.. its 4.30am.. get up right away without any snoozing.. Amit gives a call to check if im up and ready to go..
get ready and go down to put on the saddle bag.. it was easy.. not rocket science as i felt :p
leave from house at 5.45am and reach below the andheri (jog) flyover at 6.00am..
wait there and c a guy all geared up for the ride.. Amit it was.. introduce each other and get a few tips from him for the ride..
Amit leads d way..

As we get out of mumbai it starts getting colder..we reach near manor n decide to take a pee stop.. its damn cold there.. hands are numb.. start from there in 10mins..

keep riding through the truck traffic for about 45 mins.. its around 8 am and we have covered only about 80 odd kms.. stop again.. This time have bread jam which amit has packed for the ride..
This time the stop exceeds the 10mins..
keep taking break after every 50 odd kms.. The tarmac is fantastic to ride on..

...butt shaking back breaking ride to Bhimashankar...

2007-10-13T20:38:00.004+05:30

Wednesday evening i sit in the office after work and prepare a ride plan... mail everyone the ride plan so that they get the feel of the coming ride... guess what! a call from arun saying dhanajay was in town without his AMD powered pulsar...
a sinking feeling of the ride getting cancelled creeps in my mind... and the fears are confirmed by another call from mohit..

Day 1:
its friday and i start thinking hey its a long time that i have gone for a ride.. and Bhimshankar has been on my mind for a long time..
the itching starts to increase as the day goes by.. i start thinking of some alternative for a day ride so that everybody else can join..
but Almighty had different plans..He wanted me to give Him a visit.. and i an idea flashes across the mind.. how abt riding to pune on friday night! stay at uncles place for the night and start for the ride to bhimashankar the next day!! sounds great.. give it a try.. dial -- home -- dad on the other side.. explain him my plan and .......silence....hesitation.....but i get a Yes.... ask my boss if i could leave early..get a nod.. reason -- pune with family :) On the way i pickup glares for night as the new helmet has a mercury coated visor..
Reach home at 4.45pm.. start packing my stuff into the sack.. get a bottle of juice to give me company through the ride..
Start from matunga at 5.15pm.. its pretty sunny so far..Think that i may be able to get to the ghats before the sunset.. blunder at calculating the timing..
Reach Panvel at 6.30 and the sun is already set..take the panvel bypass...decide to quench my thirst as well as my bikes and fill up petrol at a reliance petrol pump at the bypass..wait for around 10 mins before i start for the journey again..
the sun is already behind the hills... just the orange tinge in the sky making the sky look like it was blushing..
Start from Panvel and reach Khopoli..take a pit stop to inform home that the ride is going safe and have reached the start of the ghat..it was dark by now.. the clock might be around 7 with no sign of the orange or red .. it was black sky..
Start the ascend of the ghat with a biker in front of me on a pulsar and a biker with a pillion behind me on a TVS star..
i think to myself.. boon or bane.. none at the end as they stop just at the start of the ascend to have a sutta at the corner shop..
go ahead alone with only the sound of the engine revving.. gears changing.. the ghat is done without any incidents so is the remaining ride till Chinchwad..my pitstop for the night.. reach there at 8.30pm.

Day 2

Alarm rings- its 5.30 am in the morning... get ready as fast as i can to leave for Bhimashankar..
There are 2 routes that we can take if travelling from Chinchwad.. One goes through the city and out to the NH50 and the other is the NH4 till the Nashik phata..
i chose the NH4 as i did not want to get lost in the city maze...
Start from home at around 6.15am and go to a bunk on NH4.. its closed.. but i have fuel which can take my around 80kms.. so no worries...
Start the ride on the newly laid road of concrete..am doing some 80kmph and miss a lane to get to the flyover...thinking nothing i brake.. and a SCREEEECH!!!! i get to hear some @%#@ early in the morning.. i say sorry to the Toyota Qualis driver and start my ride with more concentration this time...
reach the next fuel bunk on the NH50.. around 20kms from home.. closed.. i reached too early they said.. these bunks open at 7am..
NH50 is a great highway to ride on.. its a four laner just like NH4 but with more and huge trucks..
stop to take some snaps of the NH50..

Back on the pulz to ride to the destination ..The sun was getting hotter as the time passed by and the needle was starting to tilt.. The next bunk i see was on the opposite site of the road.. being the 1st time on that road dint know if there will be any bunks nearby.. so decided to take a u-turn and entered the gas station.. NO PETROL said the truck driver standing there.. a bit disappointed i left the bunk but asked the driver if there were any pumps ahead.. and he replied.."bahut saare".. The next bunk and i quench the thirst..
Forgot to mention that there are two roads that lead to Bhimashankar from NH50.. one diverts from Rajgurunagar and goes through a secluded area of Chas and Wada.. and the other about 10 kms longer diverts from Manchar..

Asked the petrol pump dealer which was better... he said if you go through Chas and Wada there is little chance of getting any help if anything goes wrong... but manchar road condition is also better and has more vehicles towing the road so chance of getting help is much much better...
being alone i decide to ride the 10 kms.. which turn out to be around 18-20 kms.. but that was fine..

Ride for sometime on the straight road and see a board telling me that i was about to ascend a ghat. Khed ghat.. stop to take snaps here as well as a butt break.. Some distance travelling on under the hot sun at around 7.30am.. i reach a spot with a small dam built to restrict water.. It was just awesome and jaw dropping to see the scenery all around.. with little mountains surrounding the place it felt like i was standing in seventh heaven..

i stop at the side of the road looking for some place to get down to water...on the right of me is a hilly region where the Villagers herd theire sheeps and cattle.. i wave to the gaavala pavna..and ask him if there is a place to go down...very happily he shows me the directions to the water.. asked him the name of the village .. heard .. Pohe.. which later turned out to be Dohe..

Wave him off to the water and take some snaps..

This scenic beauty was the start of Pokhari ghat..ahh..not out of pleasure but the pain..Apt to its name .. the pokhari ghat is all Pokharlela (pokharlela = dug up in marathi).. its not exactly dug up but its like moon with all craters on the surface with some road smooth..the ghat is of approx 8-10kms..The ride through this ghat drained me out completely.. the butt was totally shaken and by back nearly broken..

The road after Pokhari ghat was even worse.. There is a 2 kms of patch on the road where there are only ROCKS.. supposedly forgotten to lay the tarmac on that.. I would have been a great classical singer had i rode sometime more on that road..

fortunately the rocks led to the smoothest road that i travelled.. and lead to the jungle of Bhimashankar.. The 1st sign board said.."Drive Cautiously We are passing by"..WE=Leopard, Barking Deer,Bear..etc..Amazed to see such a thing..

i was about 30 kms from Bhimshankar at around 8.15am.. had covered approx 100 kms in 2 hours..The remaining 30kms took me an hour and 15 mins to complete..This is how much the road was bad..

Reached Bhimashankar at9.30am.. took some snaps.. decided not to do some daring stunts to check out Gupt Bhimashankar and head back to Pune at 11am reached safely through the two ghats at 2pm for lunch..

Solo ride to Karnala..

2007-07-29T18:41:00.002+05:30

Decided to start at 5.30 in the morning today..meet Mohit Arun at Vashi and go ahead to Karnala..
Got up at 5.00am..n all i was able to hear was the noise that the rain was making on the roof top.. it was raining really hard.. n i was not able to understand how long it was raining.. so called up Mohit and we decided to drop the plan as we had to be back by 10.00am..

but i wasn't happy canceling the ride.. i was so excited to ride that road.. i got up at 11.00am.. and decided to start for the ride alone at 12.30pm..
as i go down to start my bike so did the rain.. it was as heavy as it could be.. so i stopped for a while but the rain Gods had a different idea i suppose..

started my ride in the rain.. It was around 12.50pm then..
i was riding in a heavy downpour.. for a change the roads towards vashi are still in good shape.. so was able to ride at an average speed of 50kmph...

Reached the Palm beach road and my horn started honking continuously.. so stopped beneath the palm beach flyover..tried to remove the wires n put them back..but that dint work.. the horn still honking..a guy standing on a scooter besides me checked it out..he told me the problem was in the button n not in the horns..so that was done.. but the downpour had not yet stopped.. so i decided to wait there for a while..

The rain hadn't stopped yet.. but i was itching to ride.. so started again in the rain.. it was really really heavy and the winds also hard.. riding was made difficult by the bad helmet wiser which the studds helmet has.. anyways had no other choice...but was a great experience..

The rains made way to a beautiful weather as i reached belapur..
decided to fill up petrol near the panvel bypass road.. n took the panvel bypass.. its a toll road similar to the expressway..
reached panvel in no time.. took a right for the NH17 mumbai-goa highway...

the road is all twists and turns.. beautifully laiden.. embraced by nature..
i rode the whole way at a consistent 70-80kmph...saw karnala bird sanctuary pass by me n thot that it was too short.. so decided to ride a few kms more.. rode towards Goa which was just 636kms away.. reached a toll naka and turned back to the sanctuary..reached there at 2.30pm..

parked my bike outside the sanctuary and went in to be disappointed.. there were only 4 cages inside.. one with rabbits.. one with parrots.. one with pea-hen and the last with a pea-cock..
but if one dares.. then there is a Karnala Fort which can be trekked to.. i dint dare it as i was alone n the Fila shoes had no grip..

started back at 3.00pm.. no rains till this point in time.. sat on bike.. n rains.. n the same maddening rains...
rode till the toll naka again to get a feel of the awesome twists...

reached belapur to meet mohit.. made him jealous.. n reached back at 5.30pm to matunga..my residence..
no pics as it was raining so dint take a cam..
but it was an beautiful ride..n the rains made it amazing..!!!

i ask myself...

2007-05-13T19:44:00.001+05:30

is this really what i wanted to do..
is this really what i wanted to be..
is this really where i wanted to go..
is this really what i wanted to c..

i want to see a change in d system..
i know its not as easy..
system changes you in no time..
n also drives people crazy..

change in the system can be brought by u n me..
so lets all join hands..
and make ourselves free...

500kms in a day!! Mahabaleshwar Conquered!!!

2007-03-19T11:12:00.001+05:30

i started from home after watching Pakistan loose in their world cup encounter against the minnows Ireland.. it was around 4.50am in d morning..

i reached Vashi at 5.15am it took me unusually long time to reach there...might be i was driving cautiously in d dark..
but to my surprise everyone i.e Arun, Dhananjay and Mohit were waiting for me...We were each on a bike..a ZMA of Mohit and 3 pulsars...150 of dhananjay..my 180 v1 and arun on 180v2..

i was driving in reserve petrol for just about 4 kms when i reached Vashi..We drove to Nerul to fil up..it was 5.45 n no sign of anyone at de pump...from there we decided to check Belapur station pump..but that too was closed..no gates here but bamboos for sure..
from here we decided to start our journey even if i was on reserve and had driven some distance but not too much to take any chance..so it was fine....
we stopped at a Panvel Petrol Pump where each had put in 500 bucks worth of petrol i.e around 10litres...it was 5.52 am here..

decided to take de next stop at Dutta Snacks for garama-garam vada pav..but we were too early there for that...they had just started cleaning up de place for start...thot of stopping for a while so that we cud fill up our stomachs after filling up our bikes...but decided otherwise..
took a right to pen still in dark and started our journey towards Harihareswar..
it was absolutely dark on the way to Pen..Panvel-Pen road is a twisty turning H'way NH 17 i.e the Mumbai-Goa H'way..with trucks driving all over with all kind of stuff loaded...some of them carry mud and rocks without any cover and it flies off n sticks on ur face..
but driving in d dark is absolute fun..had never experienced that before...no street lights only de headlight to d rescue...people with weak headlights...dont venture out in d dark on the H'ways...the experience cannot be explained in words...u gotta experience that urself!!
The trucks coming from the other side never use a Dipper and we have the lights going directly into our eyes...after a while of driving all i was able to see was 2 circular coloured spots..
reached the Toll naka and i decided to stop for others to join...it was around 6.30 at this point in time...Mohit joined me right after and Dhananjay and Arun came in after a few minutes...everyone said just one thing...SAHI HAI YAAR!!

we left from here to our way to Nagothane which is about 25 kms from Pen...on de way we stopped on a diversion not knowing where to go...me n mohit were at front stopped there and asked for directions..in d mean while other two joined...

Reached Nagothane at around 7.15 for breakfast...Had Idli-Vada and dosa along with nice coffee...really nice taste but a bit costly...
Saw the sun breaking thru from behind the Mountain in front of the Hotel Indraprastha...

There is a really nice informative board of the distances from the place to the tourist places around...This is where it was Arun shouted..abe Mahabaleshwar to sirf 126 kms hai idhar se...Mohit got excited and we decided to go to Mahabaleshwar instead of Harihareshwar as was predecided...

Started from Nagothane at around 7.45am after a nice breakfast...the next milestone was Mahad..around 65 kms from Nagothane...The roads up till now were really nicely laid...The road to Mahad was also great...little traffic on the road and nice greenery all around...
i stopped in between to inform about the change of plan to my bro..there i took a snap in Bombay Pulsars style...

it took me around 5 mins here..in the mean while others had gone ahead...they stopped in the middle to check where is was...they thot i had a puncture..but fortuntely this time around there was no such incident..i caught up with them n we drove at around 80-90 kmph average to our next stop Mahad...asked the directions and were told to take a left at Poladpur near a statue..
took the left after asking..and started the climb to Mahabaleshwar...it was around 9am at Poladpur...The road is a two way road to Mahabaleshwar..
after some distance we started the twisty and turning Ghat section...its around 38 kms of Ghat to reach M'war..the road is great apart from some sections..but that is ok...reached some 14 kms from the top i.e. covered 26 kms of ghat section and decided to take some snaps...

it was about 9.45 at this point in time...it was just 14kms to the top...we drove some distance .. but just 2 kms into the ghat the road got worse...in some areas the road is dug up on one side as there is some road construction going on..and in other parts there are only rocks...me not confident in driving in these conditions was too slow...then some relief but again the same thing...it was just about 4kms but it took out all the air from me...stopped for a while and reached the top!! it was 10.45..so we took nearly an hour to cover 40kms...but funn it was...
did not roam around too much..went to the monkey point but no monkeys apart from the 4 riding bikes..
the view is great from the top..but have to visit after rains...gotta plan this out and for a stay too!!

we decided to come back via Pune...the road is mostly one way and absolutley flat...u can go flat out here...test the top speed and anything u want...we drove at average 90-100 kmph..reached Vashi at around 7.30...
In the end this is one of the best rides i have had so far n will cherish for a loooong time!!

CH*T**A banaya!!!

2007-03-13T23:51:00.000+05:30

being pressed down by the power of money…merit is getting raped in broad daylight…

this is an incident from the college i unfortunately chose for making my career path..i was ranked 171 in Maharashtra and 156 in the university .. so there were other options available..but the fees in this college were lower than the peer colleges…and yes the FEE WAS NOT INTERIM….

i went into the 2nd year MBA by paying what they called "Interim Fee" which was around 57k…and only 2 months left for the final examination and the management wakes one day thinking that there is too much going into their pockets and nothing is left to be given to the few good professors in the college..nothing is left for the construction to go forward… so they decide this… Students of MMS have to pay the remaining amount of Rs.49k…ya u read it right REMAINING amount of Rs.49000…within 15 days..

The Students…a few who were placed on MERIT started their struggle against the Political bandwagon of the College management.. They got the usually UNUNITED class together to standup against the injustice being done on them..The class for a change agreed that yes this is injustice and we would standup against it…

All heads got together to discuss what should be said infront of the management..It was pre-decided who would speak and what was going to be discussed…

It was all going fine in the meeting…

The management trying to break the moral of the students by saying things like

"IF U CANNOT AFFORD THIS FEE…U ARE NOT ELIGIBLE TO EDUCATION"

"U SHOULD HAVE TAKEN ADMISSION IN SOME OTHER COLLEGE"

"MBA IS NOT FOR POOR"

flash back to a day before….the college management gathered the students of the university to brief about something..the students - juniors as well as seniors ( not many present though)..and then the announcement was made that the fee for the college was being increased in consultation to the samiti to Rs.90k. Everyone was stunned but there was hardly anyone who stood up against this…

the one who stoodup was in no mood to take this so easily…and after some explainations from both the ends he was asked what hasnt he got from the college...this is where he got to Merit Vs Backdoor entry issue..in the heat of things he said a lot of things that seemed to be boiling inside him for many days…the intolerance of watching someone go through easily on just the basis of vitamin M..might be one of it…many applauded but was this really the time for all this?? i ask myself…

Justification for the management quota was given in this manner…
"THEY COULD AFFORD TO PAY HIGHER FEE SO THEY TOOK ADMISSION HERE "

Today this guy seemed too frustrated to handle the politics that people play..he started resisting in his own way which many feel wasnt appropriate..and came into the eyes of the management..Politics runs in the blood of our management and this was the opportunity that was bagged very easily…this time seniors were present in better number.. he was called n asked to repeat what he had said a day before..he was asked "do u think u are superior to ur classmates".. he said "excepting some..yes i do"..Management was in no hurry to let him go so easily..so the whole class was made to think that he was the devil among the angels..and the class as usual withdrew support of him thinking of short term rather than long term..

then ……

"CAN WE PAY IN INSTALLMENTS" said one from the back when it had fallen totally silent…and another started to ask for discount…n then more started begging who really dont need what they were asking for…"yes why dont we pay in INSTALLMENTS"…."Installments after we join the job…"
This is what the management needed….the weaker link of the class to standup and say things like these…and it was all over for the merit holders…

anyways this was one more defeat for the people standing against injustice…
we are not going to give in so easily…

there are a few other issues also which need to be taken care of.. but that can be done after everything else settles...