Its all About The Bike

A Good friend of mine once said " 4 wheelers move the body , while 2 wheelers move soul". Someone like me who's only dated 2 wheelers in too much of an obsession would instantly identify with these lines. While 4 Wheelers are tagged with luxury,temptation and speed of course, 2 wheelers on the other hand share a greater identity .They represent Freedom, Breaking away, the wind, Adrenaline rush, They're all about Manhood and celebrating the same.

Lemme take a small example to Bring the contrast between the 2 of these modes of land travel. you have a guy nicely dressed in silky bright Formal Attire driving his Merc, and on the other Hand there's this Guy driving his Bullet 350 with a heart thumping noise, dressed up with his leather jackets and gloves. Whom you wanna watch??...For me though , I always wish i could be the latter guy. It makes me wanna branch out from the usuall and experience the sheer experience of Cross roads and Off country Biking.

Now to talk about my biking experience, I was lucky to get a Bike too early in life.That was in my PU days, I owe my parents a lot for this. When many of my friends around me were happy driving a honda Activa, peps and kinetics , one fine day i suddenly landed with a PULSAR DTSI 150. Previous to which i was zooming around in a bajaj Chetak of 1987 model, The scooter which my dad used. Its pick up of course was on full throttle,Other notable feautres included Hand gear, Fill Oil when you fill petrol, returned a mileage of 35km every ltr, Tyres having completely gone bald gave me enough room to try skidding, and all sorts of stunts that i felt capable off.

To talk about Pulsar 150 , the model is in immense demand ever since then, Constant upgradation and timely variants have given Bajaj a unique Brand Value. Although it isn't comparable to the kind of experience a Royal enfield would give you on road, but i'd still rate it high cos it was a complete package.

Its been 6th year successfuly that i've riding my bike and i don't have a single Complaint, bearing some minor itches here and there, like for instance a guy like would always feel why aren't bikes much more taller??.

Some of the memorables that i'd wanna recall here,

1. My chemistry Sir in the PU tutions intially felt that i was a spoilt brat who just unecessarily got a bike and would go down in the PU exams because of this. Later i scored a 100

2.The days of CET councelling, probably some of most carefree and joyful. The best days in my life. The arguments between Govt and the Colleges wouldnt settle and the councelling wouldnt happen. So this bought us ample time. Frequent MG road atleast thrice in a week to catch up on all the latest movie flicks(This was in Symphony, My favourite theatre, front rows, 50 Bucks) Bowl at Amoeba, play Games, Collect a lot of coupons and eventually exchange them for dolls. Bike ensured a 25 mins Transit time between MG and home.



3.The 4 years that followed into engineering was split between 2 years of BMTC just to be more responsible, what i mean is economical and the last 2 years the bike had to be pulled out due to irregular timings and increased travel time with buses.

4.Occasional trips outside the city along with friends in the college had also had a part into my biking diaries

5.The recent past has seen a couple of long biking trips out of bangalore, the one worth mentioning is the 1 men army trip taken to Ooty and a host of places around.
Managed to knock around 900 kms on the trip spanning 3 days.
It is during this trip i had some memorable experiences driving around the steep curves of Cunnoor, The lonely Roads of BRT Wildlife Sanctuary. The buzzing roads of Bandipur and Madumalai. not to forget the 45 odd Hairpin curves of masinagudi Ghat
.the one thing to wind these all would be the Drive back home on the mysore bangalore highway that goes fully crowded on a sunday evening. Ripping at 80-100kmph, squeezing between vehicles, maintaing bumper to bumper distance.The Sudden throttle. these are some of things that can bring in your adrenaline rushing


I could take more about my bike, but i shall hold the rest of the space for an equally interesting vehicle. Not that nobody knows about it, But we have forgotten. Some of the precious and fond gifts of our Childhood is left unattended rusting in our Attics.I had a similar story not untill long i discovered what a vehicle i had been missing riding all these days

No registration Number,
No Licensce
No Helmet
No Documents, Insurance
No Fuel
No maintanence

Yeah , A Cycle needs a desperate foray back into our lives, like never before .Thats the need of the hour.



Shall be Continued.....

BRAHMAGIRI- "the walk in the clouds"

Karthik’s weekend escapades
Season:August 2010
Brahmagiri, Coorg, Karnataka
August 14th, 15th 2010

Team size: 22 people
Travel: 24 Seater Mini bus
Trek Expense: Around 950 Rupees/head
Includes travel, permission and food expenses

Places Covered:Irupu Falls,Brahmagiri peak, Munikal Caves

Day1: Friday night pick up from DG bunk at 11:30 in the night

Day2:Reach Virajpet, Ponnampet, gonikoppal and finally Srimangala
Finish breakfast at Srimangala, The places houses a couple of small restaurants, they’re non-veg by default. So vegetarians will find it difficult to digest their piece of meal at this place.








Irupu Falls:

It is here where the trekking flags off. The permission for trekking, camping and the charges for the forest guest house costed a whopping 7k Rupees. The Lkshmana Theertha River plunges in cascade from a great height at this place.

The initial trial takes us through a lot of bamboo bushes. The leaches that were the prime concern throughout the trek had already started getting attached to our shoes. Soon the inclination gets steeper and the heavy bag packs makes it difficult to take on the heights. However these steeps are no concern to someone who’s a regular trekker.

Soon we come out of the forests, and the plains treats us a visual delight. One can see peaks spread with beautiful flowers upon them that makes it appears like a carpet complimenting to its beauty.





Memorable moments:

Crossing the stream, the water here was chillingly cold. The couple of guys who managed a bath truly need some applaud.

The Groundnuts that Rajesh had bought were in Great demand.

The king size leach that I found here fully absorbed sucking blood inside my shoes.

The watch tower that stood tall, I shall remember this tower.

.The Narimale Guest house, This place was where we were housed in the night.It still makes me confused on how could anyone build such a fully fledged building at a place this high in altitude. How did they ever manage to get so much bricks, cement,etc.

Later in the day we left to Munikal Caves on the kerala side of the Mountains. The walk we had here is rightfully to be named the” walk on the clouds”. With visibility dipping to as low as less than 4 Mts by the evening, The joy of walking on the mountains without a heavy pack is something that can only be felt, than said.

The dinner in the night was cooked inhouse with mithun adoring the head chef post, soon we were able to relish Chapathi’s with hot Curry freshly cooked with lots of vegetables .Shavige Bath was also part of the menu.

Meanwhile the leaches had done lot of damage to my legs. The blood wouldn’t clot. This left me bleeding all throughout the evening and I had to even shelf the idea of using the sleeping, instead slept on a mat alone. My legs that were actually bleeding profusely had to put inside a carry bag before sleeping along with the carry bag until my knee.

Day3

Woke up early at 6, we left the guest house by 7.30 and headed towards the Brahmagiri Peak. We were treated by some beautiful peaks on the way and a couple of elephant encounter, both in single and in groups.

The climb to the top was a daunting task. It took several stops and several sips of water in between. We were greeted by a herd of Sambhars around 30 in number; they were suddenly quizzed to see us in their territory.

Spent around an hour admiring the beauty of the landscape that lay around us. The view was mostly subdued due to mist that lay surrounding us. The group of 7 elephants at the foot of the peak was picked up by the cameras. We then gulped on all the food we had brought along with us.

The group then split into 2 groups while getting down from the peak. A few of us choose to take the path through Kerala and the rest of them got down through the same path that was used to climb.

The 8 of us then decided to try an alternate route back to the forest camp that apparently went into a tizzy and 3 among us got into trouble with the elephants and the Guard had to come back to get us out of trouble.

We then made it back safely to the forest base camp from where it took us one hour roughly to get back to Irupu falls. Thus the Brahmagiri Trek had officially ended. Got into the water and enjoyed the thumping falls, they have a masseur effect on the shoulders. This was a rejuvenating experience

We got back to the Base as soon as it gets and left for Bangalore, stopped by at Gonikoppa for dinner and made it to Home by 3:3A,m

BANGALORE ASCENDERS( BASC)

I thanked my stars a 100 times that I found this amazing group of people. They’re so much fun and professional.They do things the way it’s meant to be done(Trekking). Thank you guys. You’ve been totally great. Loved trekking with you people.
Now I proudly call myself a BASCian

Bangalore Heritage photography

Karthik’s Weekend Escapades

August-2010

Event Date:
August 8th 2010

Intent:

The primary idea of the event is to capture on camera some of the few remaining structures of the yesteryear. In the recent past, Modernization and population explosion in some way has taken away the old charm of the city that it used to be in the 90’s. The way the city ever keeps changing colors, I found it interesting to capture a few of its marvels on photograph. This I believe will add up to my collection and am sure I shall look back at it for the years to come.

I found it suitable to cover the entire event journey on cycle as this will give me multiple advantages. I would be able to cover all the places with ample time and details as I would be slow, since the event is being planned early morning on Sunday the experience of cycling empty roads will be totally welcome. The joy of pedaling is an experience that is always enriching and delightful. Smaller causes like diet, health don’t really play a part. Cycling is just about cycling without strings attached

It would be very important for me to be at my first destination as early as it gets. The more the people, vehicle more harm for the photographs. Looking forward to capture the places keeping people at bay


Agenda

Start from home by 5’o clock in the morning.

Padmanabanagar

Hanumanthnagar
(Rama lakshmana & Gavi gangadhareshwara temple )

Ramakrishna ashrama

Gandhibazaar road side market and bull temple road

National college

Taxi stand

KR Park, Indian institute of world culture

Lalbagh West Gate

VV Puram Circle

Kr market and mosque

Chickpet

Avenue Road

SBM, head office

UVCE

Vidhana soudha

GPO, Bangalore

Raj Bhavan

Basava Bhavan circle & planetarium

Central Telephone exchange

Karnataka high court

Cubbon Park

Venkatappa Art Gallery & Museum

Chinnaswamy Cricket Stadium

MG road

Utility Building

Mayo Hall

Army School, Hosur road

Christian Cemetery

KMF Diary & india’s first 3 layered fly over at diary circle.

IBM, Bannerghata Road (This place once housed the Drive-in open movie theatre)

Ragigudda (Jayanagar 9th block)

Banashankri Temple (the richest temple in Bangalore)

Wind up in Padmanabanagar


Google maps estimates the journey to be around 48 kms

I wish the roads remain empty and the day remains nice and cool.



Shall return back to the post with the pics guys