Dummies guide for RTO visit for duplicate license

So a few steps for someone who wants to get a duplicate license issued from the RTO:
1. Get ample photocopies of your existing license
2. Take multiple photos of yourself
3. Carry a glue stick
4. Carry lots of change, coins and small denomination rupees
5. Carry a bottle of water/Gatorade , an umbrella, or maybe at least a hat/cap its always hot and sunny here, if not that then it will rain for sure
6. Eat good filling breakfast
7. Plan on reaching around 10:45 AM, officials will arrive between 11-1130 but u go early to figure out where you have to go and what forms you will need
8. Be prepared to shuttle from window to window and queue to queue
9. Whatever happens don't loose your cool, you will be ignored, misguided and also given plenty useless answers don't feel sad, you can bother someone else , eventually I'll get there.
10. Ask if you can apply for a duplicate license since you have lost your original.
11. Save by our original license with you no matter however rundown it is, its very highly valuable document in whatever shape it is
12. If they don't offer you, still ask if there's anything pending and if they need anything else from you
13. Lastly make sure your biometric info is given. They didn't ask me, I didn't know, fr then past 3 months and over, my application was lying around as "not processed"

All of the above if you refuse to accept that getting a license can be difficult and that you can do it yourself....I did.

Flirting with the shadow

At last i get the chance to write again....been waiting for this for such a long time now it's not even funny,,,,

So i was on a work trip to California where i managed to borrow a 2007, Honda Shadow VT750 from a friends friend who now obviously is my best friend (thanks Kata :P) Cannot thank this dude enough to let me borrow the machine,,,and then in a certain way, i think the bike too must have thanked him as much....so get this: this bike was 2007 model, and it only had 1500 miles on it!!!! was pretty much sitting in a parking lot for most of it's life so far!!! hadn't seen the tar or the wind at all!!! i know my heart was in pain just when i heard that!!! It's like I could feel the pain and the urge of the steel-steed calling me,,,,,
So one of the colder evening, i decided to get to the parking place where the machine was parked and rolled up the sleeves to see what all was needed, clearly the bike had no oil or lubrication at all, it barely had any gas and the battery was down.
Used Kata's Subaru and jumper cables, to bring life back to the bike, and gave the ignition,,,and wallah it started,,,but only for a few seconds then it died...did that for a few times and finally it was up and running but again it died,,,just then Kata realized that the bike wasn't EFI, it had a petrol key,,,which was obviously turned to ON and not reserve,,,,the bike needed a drink soon,,,maybe not as bad as we did by that time :) we left the bike as is and went on to get our anyways,,,

come the next morning, we met again and went up to the bike, i got it started and drove it to the dealership for an oil change and some battery tests etc. to ensure i am not stranded in case i decided to take it into the mountains etc.

the first trip i pulled off with this beast was down south form San jose - Michelle Pfieffer park Big Sur and back - ~ 280 miles and approx. 10 hrs of riding with gas and leak stops only ofcourse!

 the bike handles very well, its got decent power, however it was always a little a tad bit less than what i wanted it to have,,,,it was on those long stretches of empty tarmac that you really want to see the tachometer  read tripple digits to you was when you really felt the instability and its almost like the bike is suddenly urging for you to not giving up even at the cost of road contact and you are like neah not worth flying over the road like this,,,if only it had a few more horses maybe yes,,,,

nevertheless the overall journey was more than exciting, took her through winding curves of the highway 17 towards Santacruz, went straight to 1 south from there and then to Monterey, took it to the peir all the way as it was too early and no one seemed to stop me ;) it was fun.
after a few rounds by the streets of Monterey i decided to proceed further, kept on 1 south and started entering the patch where it's difficult for any rider or a driver to not stop every few minutes of driving to take some really great shots of the natural beautiful scenery California's PCH has to offer. each curve you approach s delightful with a crisp mixture of bright sunlight, cold air, Pacific in at least 4 different shades of blue and when you get really close it also throws some white at you which is always welcome, the clear skies and a certain energy in the air,,,brilliant sheer brilliant experience,,,,

the best part about riding in California is that you are never alone on the road!!! i stopped at a certain bridge over look to chat up with a father son team riding their Harley's up the hills, its not that we spoke about anything great, just general how good the day was and how nice the roads were,,,the thing about riding is that everyone who does, and is stopped over at some vista point is almost like he's out of a meditation session,,,,the rider is always happy and a smile always is greeted with a smile, a peace sign is always matched with a peace sign

if i had it my way i might have never turned around but i knew i had to,,,,it was only when i came around all the way back to highway 39 skyline Blvd. and stopped over at Alice's restaurant is when i realized that in fact this journey was my own meditation session,,,I have now made new memories of these places that i had visited before and may have had some unwanted memories,,,,but now it's all cleaned up with brand spanking new ones with this ride.

Isn't that what riding is all about!!!

this ride pretty much was a coastal ride with some really nice curves by the PCH till the Big - Sur National Park and and then all the way back to Half-moon bay from where i took the 280 to get to 39 and had lunch at Alice's before coming back to San Jose

and when i returned i knew i was going once again and this time it was going to be the North of San Jose,,,,i wasn't too sure about the route simply knew basic direction - go north!!! ;) and as i came around on the roads, i kept making my turns and kept stopping for pictures,,,,again one beautiful morning that was too the places i went to were typical tourist spots along with the rare ones too, but i had all the time i wanted since i knew i wasn't too far away form home base and sort of knew deep down that this was prolly the last weekend i had to ride before i head back to home county,,,so had to make the most of it in terms of the ride and the pics and the tourist spots too!! ;)

at the end of this ride too, it was like the bike was now updated with all the spots in NorCal to see or to show its rider,,,,San Francisco, Pier 39, twin peaks, golden gate vista spots, francis drake blvd., tamalpas state park, sausalitos, market street, and so on,,,,

again these places held different meanings to me for different reasons, had different memories associated with the place of the past times but now, all i can remember is I came here riding and had a broad smile on my face when i was up here!!!

One Ride 2012

April 1st - One Ride Riders: me, Pawan, Mikey, Vinit, Nikhil, Arvind, Mahesh, Jammy, Ela. Meetup point: 5:45 @ Airoli toll plaza It had beena while we had taken up a ride, after a lot of back and forth, we decided that we'll go for a small breakfast ride, more like a half day ride that would end before noon or at most around noon. so the obvious destination was Big Wheels and just there was the mini-Bhima Dam. still remm. the place from a visit back last year with Pawan Mallikarjun, it was infact right there, i had decided to go in for the Himalayan Odessey, sweet day that one was :) so anyways we started off, on time, met folks at various points, Airoli toll plaza was as usual buzzing with traffic even at 6:0 AM, most folks met here and so we started to proceed towards Datta vadapaav and took a small tea break there. After some refreshments, began the long haul stretch on NH4, and just as we started off, a groups of super-bikes started off too.... so i distinctly remm. there were atleast 3 Honda CBR1000RRs, a couple of Hayabusas and few Dukati 1198s. super expensive super bikes all of them. needless to say they rocketed past us at blazing speed...just hearing their firing was so satisfying, it was nostalgic for me though...i patiently waited for each one of them to pass by me, loved the view in the rear view mirror and then besides me and of course in a split second the rider was out of sight at the horizon. to sum it up, it was a treat for sure. NH4 ride proceeded, just as any other weekend ride, it was pleasant, smooth and well..honestly very predictable. was however excited about the fact that we were going to do a little bit of off-roading, was looking fwd to that part for sure since the start of the ride and also to have some good meal at BWMC, it had been a while so.... just around after we got off form NH4 expressway section, we were asked to take a diversion, aparntly an 18-wheeler had mis-calculated the height of the bridge and was stuck right under it. and we were missing a couple of riders too in the traffic so decided to halt right at the kamats restaurant in Lonavala. Kamats was a delight, the ever so famous vada recommended by vinit, was truely worth relishing and gobbling down the calories...not one-two or three..but i claimed 6 of them. yes! i was totally gonna gobble down a couple of more, right then i relaised it was the cardio that i had done the previous evening that was making me do that. so i stopped...at 6 vadas...and trust me it ws totally worth it :) At kamats we saw a few Harleys, a few 48's, a couple Nighsters, one V-rod and there were a couple of fatbobs and fatboys too, shining bright in the sun, totally finished products, chiseled to impress any onlooker...we took some pictures, some small talk...asked about the on-road pricing and blah....and then i thought to myself....

bloody hell, none of these bikes have even the slightest bit of dirt on 'em! forget grease marks or mud or you know usual signs of the fact that the bike and the biker went out and had some fun with them!!!

at that point i though to myself....so there it is, the Harley's here are all trophy bikes! or atleast the riders didnt seem to find non-tarmacs stuff intriguing enough... On our way out, Nikhil said to me, so ask 'em if any of the machines to take Ladakh as our bullets did, and that truely was not possible in those machines. I mean ladakh, leh the terrain was simply too much even for a bullet to handle, despite it's configuration etc. let alone a machine that was truely a street ride model like harley's. yet they were charismatic, they had a tuck-in finish and were surely quality machines, just not for the kind of fun stuff that we were about to do ..... we eventually arrived at the little patch of dirt road, it had been made much better since the last time i remm. it so that actually killed a bit of fun, yet again some of us were with pillions so it flew by pretty well with them, i had insisted that we all should go and not let any pillion stay back....the whole idea was to stick together...

up on the dam, the riders look like tiny dots, but it was a good picture to be in still. up the dam wall we spend some time and got back after some snacks etc. reached BWMC to join the 200-300 odd bikes for the day, had some hydration and a nice meal, it had started to get hot yet was enjoyable with the riders and the bikes all around the place.

just then i made eye contact with someone really pretty, tall, long hair, fair, totally a non-biker chick, i could tell form what she was wearing, and she definitely didnt knwo how to wear a bandana, her footwear, her thin fabric kurta style top suggested she def. didnt do this often...she was really soothing a site :) after a little while here, mahesh, mike an ddoc left, we stuck around a little longer, finished food, paid off the bills and geared up ourselves to make a move too... but before i left, i gave that babe a profile and wht do i find!!??? she was following me with her eyes too! and i was a gentleman, gave her the last look and left.... all in all a great half day trip!!! God Speed...