Memoirs of a Wandering Nomad

The times have remained crazy ... So here is one more from the attic --- This was published in year 2006 on the 60kph (group I ride with) website: Earlier Published as : "Sun and Sand - Murud Alibagh With 60kph" This is the story of my trip to Murud and Alibag with 8 others in year 2006. The narrative may not have captured everything of the trip. Just like that lot of pictures that the camera's lenses cannot capture, for the mind's eye sees more than it can narrate. Also, the story barely tells you what a terribly good time we had. But it is more or less in totality the impressions of my bike ride. It is about the ride where my bike clocked 10,000km. It is also about the ride which made me change my clutch plate the third time ... It is now more than two weeks that I got my 500cc bike from Noida to Mumbai. I am dying to take her out on a long ride. One ride for half a day to Lonavala is exciting and fun, but not enough. So when Gaurav calls me on a Friday and says th...

The cow is of bovine ilk, one end is moo, the other end milk. - Ogden Nash One of the reasons I write posts about my bike rides is that I have a terrible memory. Not only do I forget the details, sometimes I forget even the broad contexts. My typical explanation for this is that all the upper deck is occupied by a large multi-processor, so there is no place for a data bank on the rack, but you and I know that this is just a lot of horse-s**t -- the Aaj Tak news variety, not even NDTV. This is therefore an attempt also to keep a track of some of the most memorable and yet un-remembered incidents that I hope to narrate to 3G (third generation from now). One such incident is when Alok had a tete-a-tete with a cow, the four-legged variety with bovine ilk. What happened was this - Alok and I have been planning a longish trip to cover Ajanta and Ellora. We call this 'the Dream ride'. Now this is a joke, since all riders know that when you are planning a ride, it is a dream ride. When...

The other day Alok called and complained that I have not written anything about our rides together. Now although I explained to him that this is because of a slight technical hitch that he is in Mumbai and I am in Delhi these days and so we have not done rides together lately, I think it is apt that I post some of my earlier published posts for the record and for the sake of the biking partnership we have. This one is about our ride through Tamhini Ghat and was posted on Royal Enfield's site sometime in January 2005 as "Tamhini Ghat -- Absolutely Stunning Rear Gem of Western Ghats". These RE guys try to make a big deal of everything. ;) Cheers, S ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Mumbai-Pune via Tamhini Ghat - Shreekant Vijaykar Date: 18 and 19 Dec 2004 Route: Mumbai - Panvel - Pen [NH-17] - Kolad - Vile - Bhagad [SH-60] - Bhira [Tamhini G...