Memoirs of a Wandering Nomad

This is one of my old writeups - from the archieves that is. I think I had first appeared in the March of 2005 on the 60kph site / bulletin board. Anyway, the reason I am posting this today again is to keep the momentum going. I cannot bang my head today and come up with some new stuff, so here is some old wine in -- well, old bottle. Cheers, S ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Speaking of time, I must also thank the ride to Rann of Kutch, for it provided me enough time with myself. Moreover, the settings of yellow sand and blue skies all around you are perfect for meditations on life, universe and other very essential questions like the nature of being, knight templers and cheese omlettes. Anyway, in all these and other random ponderings, I also rambled to myself about the name I should give my 500cc. It is more than a dozen times that people have aske...

I am increasingly getting inspired by the great mastermind of Scott Adams -- not with his political views about the American elections or his viewpoints on free will (and how he and Albert Einstein are in the same league when it comes to that) ... These are all incidental. What I am getting increasingly inspired by, is his ability to write a post every freaking day, over and over and over again. I mean, look at it, how does one find a topic to write on every day? I write only when I am back from a bike ride. But then, suddenly an alarming thought strikes me today. And the thought is this -- Am I getting limited by my physical and practical ability of bike rides and travels? If that is the case, then it is an influence I need to break. Else, what will soon happen is that if I need to think of anything new, I will need to hop onto the bike and start riding. Which is great, only may not be practical always. So here is a post for no particular reason really. I am not riding today, although...

There is something about the Moradabad bypass road. Every time I have crossed this 7km stretch, something wonderfully exciting has happened with me. Most of the times, I have crossed it on a motorbike, and so I have written about the overall journey in some post or the other. Like my trips to Nainital, Saat tal, and the other parts of Kumaon. But I think this stretch needs a special mention too. Which is the subject of this post. Like the very first time I crossed it was on a 100cc Hero Honda Splendor, about 8-year old machine, very badly maintained (all my machines are badly maintained, but run superbly). This was the third bike ride of my life - the first being Mumbai to Mahabaleshwar via the Mumbai-Goa road (same bike), with a pillion; and the other being the more common Delhi - Agra route (again, same bike). I was of the opinion, and I still carry the same to a certain extent, that the machine does not matter much. It is the rider and his style that matters more. So here I am, ridi...