Monday, January 10, 2011

The Story of 2.5 years

The reason to come up with this writeup is very important to me .. coz .. in this 2.5+ years i have changed a lot .. and reason for this change is something really noteworthy.

In This  2.5+ years .. i have changed from ordinary to special ..a negligent to responsible person ..and i learned many things with respect to life .. how to respect it and how to live it .. i have learnt the art of patience and more importantly it changed me from a irresponsible Commuter to an Responsible Biker.

Let's Go back some 4 years and u will realize my life was like any other ordinary ppl ..and that time i was working in a company called Lucent Technologies .. and the office was resided on Bannergatta road and which is almost 23km from my home where i stayed ..and my daily transport was ..our own BMTC bus .. every day i need to change 2 buses to reach office and back ..and it use to take more than one hour to travel ..and i got used to it.

Things changed when i brought my First Bike ..Bajaj Platina [100CC] and all of my friends [Engineering friends] started to get there first bikes from there earning and all most of them were going for big bikes like pulsers and apachis .. and i am the only guy who got this 100CC commuter bike .. as like typical milage mindset and even my friends made lot of fun of this bike ..but i still brought it and i was very happy ...

Before this bike ..in our family we didn;t had any bike except Bajaj M80 which belong to my father and i have hardly rode it .. may be all together i ridden it not more than 15 times .. and i have just not good rider that time ... and now i have this brand new bike booked and i don;t even know how to ride bike with Leg gear .. i have never ridden bike with Leg gear .. but nothing bothered me .... as i was very happy that i am getting a bike and that too with my own salary .. i made a down payment of 14K/- and rest on 0% installment which comes some 1600/- per month..

The day came when i need to take delivery of my bike from showroom .. and after getting a call i visited the showroom ..and i saw my bike .. and i am very happy to see her ..and after the sales person explained me all its features .. i was decided to take for temple .. and as it was Monday morning .. there was nearby temple i visited and a quick Puja ceremony  happened within 5 min ..

Now i got bike and without thinking anything i decided to take her to office and that time i never knew how to ride a gear bike [Leg gear].. and trust me .. traveling those 22km to office took me almost 2 hours and bike repeatedly used to switch off at every junction and traffic as i was not used to operate clutch properly .. and during this entire journey more than 25 times bike turned off .. that time ..my mind was thinking going in BMTC bus is much easier ..and whether i made mistake of buying bike ..and some times i used to think ..soo many ppl are riding bike and i can too ride it properly ..and for the next 3 months i rode it very slowly .. i never crossed 30kmph speed and always i was on the far side of the road .. and things improved quickly and i became comfortable with it ..



Next One and half years it became my best friend ..and i started to take it to long rides from couple of km to 100+kms .. and each and every bit i loved it .. and at the same time ..i also became a commuter .. who honks horns irresponsibly ..riding on footpaths ..and cutting  lanes on my wish ..and riding without the lid also .. my believe was ..honking continuous horn will make ppl to give the way .. and many times it worked ..  and now i was soo attached to my bike ..i always took it with me ..every where i go ..and even for morning gym too which is hardly 200mts from my place.

One day while searching on the Net ..suddenly i come across something which instantly catched my mind and eyes .. and which going to change me forever .. It was Yamaha's New bike YZF-R15 .. and instantly i fell in love with it .. it was Jan 2008 and every day i use to keep track of its news .. i never been soo waited in my life and curious .. some time the test bikes used to come showroom in the late evening for parking .. i used to go there and used to see it in flesh .. and in march that is 4 months before the launch of this bike .. i booked it with 5000/- and finally Yamaha launched it in B'lore on July 1st and they invited us [who booked bikes] to launch ceremony which included a fine lunch in a 5 star hotel followed by presentation and launch of it in Garuda mall [a famous shopping complex] .. that same day i waited till late night 3AM to get my bike delivery .. and entire showroom was crowded like anything.

From the day 1 of this new bike my life is filled with joy ..as i was one among the few ppl who got there bikes in first lot .. i was felt special .. the entire ride to my office was which i never forget in my life .. in each and every traffic signal and stop ..surrounding ppl used to ask about the bike and its cost ..its milage ..etc..etc.. and even BMTC bus drivers use to ask about bikes .. and i used to ans them with full joy .. and i started to feel like king.. the same thing went on for months ..every day i used to ans people quarries.

A couple of weeks later i was with a group of ppl who has R15 bikes .. and this is where my real biking interest started.. we used to ride in groups and every time yamaha organized any event they used to call us to participate and treated us like kings ..








Then most important turning point happened .. i come to know about two biking groups which are going to change me in to a more responsible rider .. those are XBhp and BangaloreBikers .. .
I have learned my first lessons of group riding here and over the time .. they turned me in to a responsible biker ..

I started to strictly follow traffic rules .. now i can't cut lanes .. i can't ride on foot paths .. and i started to respect my bike like car .. without trying to squeeze my bike between the vesicles .. it thought me patience .. all this made me more responsible and also i figured it out .. if one persons starts to follow rules promptly at least few of other riders will follow you if not all ...
 
I started touring now ..with my bike ..and with biking community .. it helped me gain more friends and joy of riding ..  i felt there is lot to see and experience in our life than just to sit in home on weekends or sleep like baby whole weekends ..











I have met couple of crashes with it also ..few are my mistake and some are unavoidable..but it never deter me .. all i can say is .. "Car without a Scratch and Bike without a Crash is a myth "
My habit of Biking and out door activities like Trekking and touring ..given me a complete new identity .. and changed my life from mere a person to something different and something more responsible ..
I know my story will be almost same as yours but its special to me as .. i have changed in a Positive manner ... its not like i am completely 100% now .. i still some times rides in a way which is against my philosophy .. and i am gradually over come it .. and when i see ppl with powerful bikes [R15,P220,ZMA] riding like maniacs .. i feel sorry for them and curse there parents who just brought there kids bikes but not responsibility associated with it.

Some words will always holds the punch of truth ..Either in a Movie or in a Novel .. or in a Real life ...Great Power comes with a Great Responsibility

New Year 2011 Celebration at GOA

This new year celebration was the really most funniest and craziest ever .. how much crazy ..well think of a bunch of ppl head towards middle of the ocean  and stright away jumping in the ocean :D with only life jacket.
OR climbing down from 300 foot bridge to take a bath in waterfalls where there is no defined path OR think of few ppl lost in the beaches where thousands of ppl gathered for new year celebration

The plan for this trip started in Nov 2010 and after great success of last year new year trip .. it was obvious that everyone was very much eager to make this trip a success.. so this time we all decided to plan it very properly .. last year it was very much messy .. although it was great success .. still we felt there is a room for improvement when it comes to proper planning..

The place we decided was GOA.. believe it or not .. except 2 ppl ...for rest all of us were visiting GOA first time in our life.. yes ..after finishing 6 years of our Engr collage and work .. so no one has any idea how we can proceed with. and this uncertainty which made us more careful planning at this early stage.

We decided to make it a 3 day trip and finally Ramesh booked 12 train tickets to Hubli ..and we drew up a comprehensive plan for the activities to do there. and there was very energetic discussion went on for moths in a big long mail chains... finally the day come for the departure ... the most important thing to note here was the number of ppl compare to last year .. last year total of 20 ppl went on trip and this year it was 11 [after canceling one ticket] ..the reason .. 6 of the friends were got married this year :D

D-Day
---------

Our Travel journey plan was to leave on 30th night from B'lore and reach Hubli and from there head towards DudhSagar water falls and spend a day there before heading to GOA.. in Goa our friend Sharan's cousin arranged hotel rooms and planed for new year celebration for us .. so our job is to reach there in time.

On Thursday Night we gathered on Yashwanthpura Railway station and just in time everyone finally arrived ..and first one hour of our train journey took arranging our seats/berths with other ppl as .. 6 seats were booked in one train coach and rest 6 were in other ..so after convincing co-passangers and exchanging seats .. its all chit-chatter and jokes and occasional sleep..


From New Year 2011 in GOA


Day 1
----------

As we reached Hubli it was morning 4:30Am and our next stop was Londa junction quickly we took tickets for the next train and after an hour long wait ..we boarded the train to Londa and from there we head towards Ramagharh which is around 10km from there in a jeep .. and later we found that from here there is no way we can reach DudhSagar as there is no connectivity to that station except a passenger train which will arrive midnight .. so we took a jeep towards Last station on Karnataka border .. which is Casel Rock..

As soon as we reached here .. we asked the station master about the trains ..and for our disappointment there is no train scheduled till that day midnight ..after little bit of wondering we come to know that there is a goods train is scheduled to head that way ..and it was our only chance..so quickly we saw an 1.5km long goods train standing in that station .. we wasted no time in talking with the train master of that train ..that is it possible for him to take us.. and the answer was positive .. but we needed to wait for more than an hour to start ..which is no big deal ..considering with the current situation in which we have ..and we made very good utilization of this time by having a biggest photo session here :D

Soon we boarded the Train and this was first time for most of us traveling in a open top goods train ... every one started to enjoy the ride from the beginning and the path is also very beautiful with lot of tunnels and passing through mountains .. and we took really relaxing ride to the DudhSagar station .. once we reached here .. we took a walk towards the water falls which is about 1 km away from where we got down from the train.. as we near it ..we can hear the sound of the water flowing ..and the falls itself was very beautiful ..although there was comparably less water at this time of the season ..still it was enough for us to take some time off our schedule.



From New Year 2011 in GOA
From New Year 2011 in GOA
From New Year 2011 in GOA
From New Year 2011 in GOA
From New Year 2011 in GOA
From New Year 2011 in GOA
From New Year 2011 in GOA
From New Year 2011 in GOA
after exploring the place we realized that we need to head down towards the base of the falls to take bath and there were many ppl already down there ..so it took us great amount of time to head down from the top by finding our own ways and after some trial and error we are able to find way down ..although this process divided us in to 2 groups and each went there own way to reach down ..at the end we all gathered near the falls ..along with soo many other ppl who come here through jungle jeep route from Goa.


From New Year 2011 in GOA
From New Year 2011 in GOA
From New Year 2011 in GOA
From New Year 2011 in GOA
The next 3 hours we spent a great time in the water and enjoying surrounding beauty before heading back to bridge and waiting in the station for the next train back to Londa junction ..after realizing there is no train of trasport towards Goa.. so we took a passenger train towards Goa after long wait .. and from Londa another waiting session to reach Goa..and finally took a Trax to reach goa after long bargaining

Time when we reached Goa is 10pm and already Sharan cousin Veeresh and his friends were waiting near the Hotel ..and as soon as we reached there ..we have dropped our luggage and came back down towards two Trax's which were booked by Veeresh for us and his friends to head for new year party ...

It took lot of time to reach the place which is 45 min drive from Margaov [where we stayed]..and after visiting the place [Beach where thousands of ppl gathered for new year].. we spent lot of time there and the whole day we were doing lot of activity like trek and swim in DudhSagar which started taking its toll of us .. all of us very much exhausted and by the time we reached back hotel ..it was almost 4:50Am in the morning.

Day 2
---------
We woke up late that day and once again Veeresh was there to show us some of the beaches where we can hang out ..so he took us to Harman [Arembol] beach ... after late start from hotel ..by afternoon we reached our destination .. and this beach is very much crowded with foreigners.. although it was clean .. most of us decided to head towards other part of this beach where we can have some privacy .. and we walked through the narrow path where both side enormous number of shops which are selling from fancy items to cloths and gifts covered and was attracting lot of foreigners..


From New Year 2011 in GOA
From New Year 2011 in GOA
From New Year 2011 in GOA
From New Year 2011 in GOA
From New Year 2011 in GOA
From New Year 2011 in GOA
From New Year 2011 in GOA
From New Year 2011 in GOA
From New Year 2011 in GOA
we selected the proper place and spent lot of time there with sea bath and Me and Ramesh went for Paragliding for some 30 min which costed us 1000Rs each.. we spent whole evening there ..and finally we came back to Maragaov Hotel around 12 in the midnight after visiting one more beach Benalium beach

Day 3
---------

We woke up early so that we can visit one more place which we left last night Benalium beach where we can have some water sports .. and as it was sunday and early leaving from hotel means ..not soo many shops and hotels open .. some how we managed to find one hotel for having our break fast and Trust me it was worst .. soon we took Auto and reached the Banalium beach around 9:30Am .. and there was many vendors who provide adventure sports in the beach ..and Luckly one of vendor happen to be friend of Veeresh and it provided us with the ultimate freedom and more than extra adventure than normal tourist, here we had many sports like ..jet skewing , para sailing , and many more ...


From New Year 2011 in GOA
From New Year 2011 in GOA
From New Year 2011 in GOA
From New Year 2011 in GOA
From New Year 2011 in GOA
From New Year 2011 in GOA
From New Year 2011 in GOA
From New Year 2011 in GOA
From New Year 2011 in GOA
Finally we reached back hotel in the afternoon and after a quick shopping we boarded the train towards B'lore .. and as our ticket not confirmed we needed to adjust and travel without sleeping ..

All in all one more year passed and we grew one year older by the time .. but the kid in us will remain as kid only ..with joy and fun .. we all  know exactly what i am saying here .. we never forget the Goa beaches where we played like small kids in the sand ...especially ..Ashok ,Shiva..Mohan , Ramu and Ramesh .  

Personal word : Never visit Goa in peak season or u may left with spending 3-4 time more

Rest of the Pics Here :


  http://picasaweb.google.com/nagoo12345/NewYear2011InGOA#





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