I know wht I did in summer.....

Wakeup around 9ish, take a bath, get out of the house call out for friends from the neighbourhood if they don't come out keep yelling till his mom yells @ u n says " VO SO RAHAY" then roam around till u find some company, another wolf to your wolf-pack (hahaha...)

Walk upto provision stores arnd to get small random candy - sorat, churan, big-fun(bubble gum), sugar coated saunf, amla supari, pepsi(not the bottle, plastic tube), gola, green tamrind, chanya-manya bore, karamda,
Start 1st half with cricket, gulli-danda, das-bees (with marbles) then rush home to watch fun_time on DD @ noon....giant robot, tom n jerry, snow white and wht not...
Then have lunch fatta-fat, n gather @ someone's house with your stash of comic books - spiderman, superman, batman, amar chitra katha, tinkle, diamon comics - chacha chowdhary
Read these and sorta bring them to life in your imagination!!!

No sooner the sun tilts towards the horizon by a bit, rush out of the houses again and start off again!!!
Football, khamb-khamb (pole-pole), donar-pani(land n water), jhatta-patti, lapa-chupi (hide n seek), sankhli (chain-chain), building round, lagori, daba ice-paaees, langdi, koyba (apologize some of these I don't have. Aclue of their translation to english...predominantly a marathi dominated game pool) and keep playing till
a. Your legs ache like they're gonna simply fall off...
b. Mom yells in the whole colony n announces tht she'll not take u in unless u made your way home right now!!!

Year after year, I grew up but the games were still the same...the routine didn't break. Such was my summer vacation....I so distinctly remmeber...

After arnd 2 decades of Njoying summers that way... here i am... I'm spending time with my cousins borthers.

1st day started with a live cricket match - MI v/s PW in Wankhede....and I thought playing cricket was the true fun @ their age!!!

then there was glorified version of koyba - a bowling session they enjoyed it but I doubt it was as much fun as playing gotti n lagori...













I feel in these times, kids are exposed so much, a little too much!!!

I didn't know wht adult movies were abt. While I was busy enjoying the things mentioned above, but today some damned movie "RAGINI MMS" is gonna release n it had. A prop placed right in the middle of a family cinema hall - a bed; n the poster said it happened here, she was chained on this bed blah blah - and it was a threesome!!!

W T F!!! M sure there gonna be a lot of kids tht'll come out there n ask "mommy whts a threesome???"
Someone really needs to keep a check on these things I feel...
My childhood was less advanced, I didn't have my laptop/ ipad, I didn't know wht a cell phone was, I didn't have the odacity to ask mom/dad the money to watch a match in wankhede, I bought an "expensive" pair of clothes for 350 bucks!! (200 for jeans, 150 for a Tshhy...but I had fun it was an experience!!!!
And now here I am waiting to watch RIO - 3D in Red lounge am sure it'll be an experience...not a memory
My young cousin brothers will have a lot of experience, @ this young age....
but I wonder if their eyes will ever be dreamy (like mine @ the mention of comic books), their tongue's watery (@ the mention of amla supari n sugar candy) when they blog abt. It someday....
I wish they do....I so wish they do....

Shot from my BlackBerry®

Life's too short for traffic jams....

So it's 5:30 pm, on an april friday in bombay, so the mercury must've floated arnd 30 something...it took me abt. 20 mins to move like a few feet...

I finally reach the 3-way cross road after milan subway on the service road approaching towards santacruz station and I realize the traffic havaldarsaab tht usually chanellizes the traffic is MIA(missing in action) imm. I also realise that today we have no hope of this clog unclogging. Unless ofcourse we get someone to fill in for our dear pandusaab.

It took me only a few seconds to realize tht in the interest of global warming ( and out of my firm belief - what I got to do, only I got to do ;) ) I put the bullet on center stand on the road and with my helmet On I entered the clogged scene. Soon I found out 2-r elements of the puzzle n get them to straighten out.
Here I am taking matters in my own hands, requesting some, yelling at some and also swearing at some...

In the next minute or so, I saw tht everyone was following my lead, and simply doing as I was asking them, move a lill fwd, little right/ left back a little, keep certain postion clear on road etc.

It took me a while, but I did get the flow going.

Turned my back n went to my bullet and moved on, but ofcourse I had no confidence in how long wud it flow so I decided to catch hold of the next available govt. Servant and "request" him to try and help out...

We've always been good at following orders, haven't we! That's just how we are engineered frm the core!

I met a couple @ the next intersection, I requested, I get "vo humara area nai to hum kuch nai kar sakte" they were atleast abt. 3 of them standing @ sv road singal @ milan subway.
I knew they'd hesitate. I know I'll have to prompt, when I suggested them to call the control room and send someone to help public - one of them called.

I cannot help but remm. Those days when in sunnyvale we'd have long back logs of cars n trucks the day signlas/ lights wud be out of order, but u could garantee that you need not panic, you need not honk, your turn will soon arrive and soon enuf u'll get outta there n it'll all be over, without any cop having to ensure of that happening.

Civic sense is 4goten so quickly on our roads. W/o the white-khakhi mamu everyone just turns into a PT class w/o a prefect, everyone suddenly wants to do his/her own excercise!

If only everyone by themselves, w/o any prompting cud ponder for once...life is actually too short for traffic jams...
Shot from my BlackBerry®

we forget and then the natural outcome is to forgive...

"to err is human, to forgive is divine" don't u get it! humans are to make mistake and only those who are divine/ godly can forgive...the rest of us aren't supposed to forget !!!
unfortunately this and such other sayings are common to us humans and we all try to be gods. my argument is why? why do we have to be gods when we can hardly play decent humans?

i saw the news article in yesterdays ET - http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/mumbai-terror-attack-lets-tahawwur-rana-confirms-pak-govt-isis-26/11-role/articleshow/7968120.cms an article that supposedly confirms Pakistani governments hand in the 26/11 Bombay attacks.
the only image i had in my head right away was mr. Manmohan singh sharing a smile and a handshake etc. with Pakistani PM - Gilani.

I question myself, so what just because it was a few yrs. ago, now it was ok to play paki players and also ok to bloody greet their politicians to be invited and watch a cricket match with us? and plz. don't give me that BS that they just found out about their involvement....i mean for gods sake! we've got decades old bollywood movies that clearly depict how deeply their govt. is involved with all the terrorism!

so had the attacks been more recent, we show our disagreement, we make big statements, we claim this and that...and slowly when things become old, we let it go? after all do we only stand for the righteous virtues only when it's a fresh development? and eventually just let it go? i mean i can sympathize with common man, he's got enough on his plate to worry about, but what about those whose job it is to stay as a pillar behind such virtues! what about those who literally are responsible for what history we will make of these days for our future!

I've noticed this in personal life as well and...it's very difficult to keep the conscious clear and remember for a fact whats right and whats not to be let go, whats not to be forgotten, even if it's ages old. because if everything is all about circumstances and about timing, and everything dies down with passing time, then whats the point in having morals and virtues in the first place! we might as well accept everything and not be disturbed/ startled even when shit happens!

the point I try to make is we make mistakes, shit happens to us - but don't let the time let you forget it, keep it alive in your conscious, 'coz the day you forget; you can not make a difference and bring justice to yourself.....

paach yaar from firangi dhaaba to queens necklace + lot of bhankus in between...

so it all began with the thought " you got to do what you got to do!" over the past few yrs. i've started to believe in this phrase in the very literal meaning of it...and in fact i'd change it to say " only you can do, what only you've got to do"

every friend has a property(not real estate, am talking about qualities, characteristics u may say) of himself/ herself. and over the yrs. and those properties/ characteristics make the "personality" of that person.

And believe it or not, there is actually a list of it that we maintain in our own subconscious......and the better you know that person, more detailed is that list and most of the times, we don't even know that list exists - unless of course you've considered/ discussed it with someone else...(and am sure after reading this blog quite a few of you will try and find that list in your own head for at least one of your friends....)

the best situation of that list to show it's effect is with your old long lost school friends because in your childhood you spent more time with them, more awake time with them than even with your parents, so in effect you know your school friends more than anyone else sometimes, even better than their own parents!

back to the list and the reason for mentioning it...so this list actually tells you what to expect when you are meeting this old friend of yours. you spent time catching up with the old stories, and talking about some others who you are in touch with but your friend/s aren't and vice-versa etc. the talks are not at all about an interesting topic but still you sometimes get goose bums while talkig about them...in effect what your mind is doin is a coupel of things...you are talking about those incidents, those people and you open up a window into that time, and secondly your mind is also checking the list it had for this friend...after  awhile you may also say the most commonly used line "yaar tu to bilkul nahi badla" and this comes when your mind is done completing the task it had started it's lik ethe little "done" check box on your monitor after it's done scanning something....

last night i met with 5 of my school friends together ( i keep bumping into them individualy sometimes) but what made things special was that all of us were together - this was one of it's kind event ever. considering we've spent about almost entire schooling age - up to about 16yrs. (of which at least 12 we all could consciously remember ) we were all eager to meetup.

I was instrumental in following up and co-ordinating to make sure we have a agreeable place and time etc. and thats when i realised, that it's my thing! i gotto do this else it might never happen, and literally it's true! folks have been in the same city and all it takes is someone to be the driving force, glad i can be that and it's not just this conglomeration, any other one as well...so it's sort of agreed that driving folks together is my thing, it's my property and when others talk abt. me, maybe they have that on their checklist on the top.

the agenda was to get into cafe leopod but was too crowded/ expensive since it w as asat nite, we instead got some pan togo and landed up in nariman point, had our pans and conversations started, sitting on the marine drive pavement, we spoke about a gamut of things, real estate prices, stocks, investments, anna hazare, cricket world cup, over crowding of bombay, traffic jams (yup that came up even at midnight 'coz we were stuck in one @ chowpatti!! - so officially ppl have amandate to get out of the house post 10 and start driving it appeared as if, last night), desi-mentality of bosses, hopelessness of staying in india, hopefullness of staying in india, corruption once more, and ofcourse the usual " arrey i saw this guy form school...Or arrey merko vo mili thi..." some topics were really great to share as they brought out diverse opinions etc. but one thing you can never go wrong with such re-grouping is that you get be yourself...the one you were as a school going kid w/o any hangups w/o any reservations, just pure bhankas...
i guess that's why we all love such regroupings....and that's why as i've recognized arranging/ driving such re-groupings is my forte, i'm just gonna have to keep doing it eh!

the best part was...when i asked fir kab milenge? everyone responded..."jab tera SMS ayega yaar!! "

7 days, 3200 kms, an event of lifetime

when the thought of goin on a long ride comes to your mind....you don't seem to be thinking so much about the technicalities of the actual ride...the only thing that comes to my mind is infact that open landscape...no traffic on the road and endless thumping....

i actually would say it was the sole reason that attracts me to it....

so it all began one fine day in the office when i saw the ROK banner on the RE website a small little notification that said - registrations open , i said ok great i can make it through, the next think i knew i was taking prints of stuff they needed from me and started making the package needed to submit for the registration.

didn't put in a lot of thought into it - it was  a blink decision - 8 days, riding everyday, going to places i've not sen before - sounded like my kind of stuff to do. calle dup home and "told" that i'm going ( one advantage of beinga grown up is that you don't ask permissions, you tell them :) thought u live in the same house with your parents...)

Soon i was done with the papers submisison and now the next thing to figure out is how to get to Ahmedabad. ride was th efirst though but again hadn't done it ever so was not too particular about whether it was a good idea or not, esp. because of the inexperience on riding on sch long journeys on road here in India. after considering the rush in trains/ bookings decided that i need to get the tickets done and will try to pull in the motorcycle on the same train and that would be the easiest. but again was hovering the thought of riding all the way through on my mind, only needed a mild push to go for it and i knew it in my heart that i'm going ot do it - ride the bullet from home to Ahmadabad straight up...

soon enough i got in touch with a couple of guys on email who wanted to ride along to Ahmadabad so it was decided that we are all riding, got the train tickets cancelled out and started preparing for the long haul...

before the ride:
had my shoei taken out from the store room, got my jacke pulled out as well, the back support, gloves etc. these things came out after over a yr. they were used with my CBR the last time, purchased some knee/shin protectors and got spare cables etc.

got basic preperation done but nothign too into detail - was wanting it to be a less than too organsied a trip - so intentionaly left a few things undefined/ as is.

and then the experience started on 11th friday morning @ 4:00 am - i packedup a bagpack with basic essentials - it was still atleast 15 kgs in wieght - and kicked the bullet @ 2669 kms to start off my adventure ride from home. got to ghodbunder road where i met up with vinit and pavan, we syned up for a few minutes and started off to our journey towards ahmedabad.

starts @ 2669

5:00 am we started off and by 8 am we were in Daman - the plan was to stall over and pick up some alcohol and then proceed along towards surat and then finally to ahmedabad.

breakfast in daman was good, but we got delayed due to formallities of picking up the permit etc. nonetheless we were on our way to surat around 11 form daman and then a few moe delays here and there got us upto surat by around 1 - stoped by for lunch and then started off further on to reach lots of stop points and ultimately ahmedabad by around 9:30ish

SNAP! right outsie ahmd ciy, my clutch cable snapped off and i pulled over to the side of the busy narol naka. got the cable out of the bag and called up for help to vinit and my BIL - hirenkumar, before they came around i had already taken out the original broken cable and was abt. to replace it with the new one. was extremely impressed with the simplicity with which you can do the clutch cable change - you might do it w/o even a single tool - with your own bare hands and maybe gloves - it was that simple!!!

the next day was introductions and then departure was early morning th next day from ahmd towards kutch, now i could give an acount of what exactly happened and how and so on but that you can get even by reading any of the bogs/ run down of the trip anywhere. what i want to put on records are hose few moments of this trip that've left an impression on my mind and those moments are how i'll ultimately remmember this trip

1st day in the little rann -the real deal started, we were riding on the terrain thats called "RANN" it's basically parched soil that was wet once upon a time and then the moisture was lost which tearsup the soil - almost like dead skin, the idea is to ride on it on pre-driven roads because otherwise the terrain could be surprising for you.
the fact that when a vehicle rides on this terrain, it leaves a mark - kinda like a groove that's abt. half an inch deep tells you that the flat terrain only looks flat, it may suddenly sqoosh in and the bike may react to this dipping differently depending upon the speed, balancing conditions and the angle at which the wheel is riding on it. ideal thing to do is to keep the handle loose, legs close to the motorcycle and handle straight and of course speed that keeps you comfortable and on the terrain, a tip that when reminded comes in handy early on in such ride
when i was doing 90-100 kmph on the rann, there was a sense of thrill goign thru mymind, the bike vibrating , engine thumping, wind blowing hard, also keeping the sped up with fellow riders so that you don't get lost/ left behind and you tryin to make sue you don't hit a wet patch that can be dangerous for you, it's all of these elements that make riding on that little rann a unique experience, something that sems pretty boring but whiel you are riding into nowhere on the long stretch of "flat" land, there are so many things happenieng between the rider, his bike and the road below that it's nothin less than a roller coaster ride!

Riding @ 110 kmph on tar road with best visibility - thee have been distinctively only a handful of times wen i have trid he max limit on both myself as well as my machine. it as on hwy 280 from mountain view to SF on my CBR600RR when i had done 100 mph. at that moment i knew that this is probably the highest i've ever gone (apart from when i was sitin in aircrafts); that thrill is something else al together, and wierd thing is that the thrill lasts only for a few moments. and then sanity kicks in and you realize that what you are doing is pretty dangerous and u cannot give anything a chance to ruin it for you for ever, so then you readily let got on he acci and soon the thrill is replaced by a wOw and then a phew...so it's one of those things where you only want to enjoy it momentarily and keep i that way..(in some level i think it's pretty close to going to a stripclub isn't it..if you started doin it on a regular basis, it's risky, plus it looses the thrill factor ;) )

somethign similar was experienced when i tried out the bullet to 110 kmph, flat road no sign of animal/ human on the road and enough room to try the max but due to the way the bullet is designed i can tell that it's not a bike for high speeds at all, it feels like a very light machine at such high speeds, a small pebble or a little dip/ bump on the road can ruin it for you big time...so i did try110 once and then kept it that way for about 20-25 seconds and then realized that it's not a smart idea esp. on a road that's not too familiar, again that sanity kicked in and i bid farewell to the thrill factor.



a glimpse of the nilgai - an animal that looks part donkey, part buffalo, part giraffe! was riding on a deserted road when suddenly the terrain started showing me some green and while i was appreciating the vegetation around and suddenly i look to my right over the shoulder - this wierd looking curious thing popping it's head out and running towards the road. for a moment i comprehended it to be a  donkey - but then it was too tall for a donkey, could it be a horse? it was too high for a horse as well, took a second glance again and saw it was nothing that i had seen before. it was only after the ride that day in he night when other riders talked about what they saw it was confirmed that the animal all of saw was a nilgai - an animal thts rare.

rid on a road that's called India-pakistan road by the fencing that seperate our land from pakistan - a dirt road that was parallel to the fencing where suddenly the thumping sound of the bullets, in unison with the raising dust and sand - cried out "Don't mess with us" saw the sardar post, pointed out our exact location on the paper map met with the Jawans great feeling, suddenly it registers that you are so close to something that's a part of history. left the BOP no. 1115 with a sense of fulfilment, Oh and almost forgot to mention those curses we uttered while riding back to those pakistanis!

riding to BOP muchi was another experience of a lifetime - riding on stones/ boulders was what it was, thee was no road but only certain white markings that borderline the stones that you are supposed to ride on from the stones that you are not supposed to. while i was riding on those, i felt pretty bad for my bike, poor thing was dashing on and bouncing off of so many different sized stones that it was a very bumpy ride.

the one thing we cudn't do was ride on the salt desert - something that i will leave for some other time maybe....maybe kutch maybe death valley who knows....