The Cycling Experiences

A daily log

I have been cycling for the last few days, after a long break of about 12 years. I had my doubts if I will be able to utilize it for the purpose I had planned for. Recently, I changed jobs, and my new office is twice as far as my old one. So riding to office daily, or even twice a week is completely out of question now.

I thought I should do about 12-16 kms a day, at least 4 times a week. Not from the very first day, but gradually reach that target in a few weeks. The very first day, I did about 5 km. The next, 11 km and yesterday 15 km. I got to my target pretty quickly, which I had never thought I could. Cycling is a lot easier than running in the treadmill I thought. But I used to run about 30 minutes and complete 5 km. So, I thought to reach the 15 km mark, I have to push really hard. But I got to that pretty easily.

Talking about the roads, about 30% of the distance I bike is just gravels or pot holes. The other 70% of it is quite decent. But the BBMP is hyperactive all the year round. And you should expect the unexpected when it comes to roads here. One fine day, you notice, the road you always take to your office is dug up and you would barely able to be walk over them. At times like this, you feel elated and proud when the frustrated gas guzzlers are sitting ducks, and I just lift my bike up and cross over to the other side.

Even on roads which are pretty bad for cars and motor cycles to vroom by, I could still maintain a decent amount of pace. I lift myself up from the seat, curve my shoulders and flex my leg muscles to prepare for those rattly shocks from the rocky terrain, and feel like John Abraham, when my bicycle overtakes all the traffic, and I murmur to myself, "Dhoom machale!!!".

Its been just over 2 weeks, and I have done 75 km already. By this year end, I am planning to complete at least 3000 km on my bicycle. I think that's a decent target for me.

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Got something, for the New Year

Finally, I got it. After months of planning and postponing, I got myself a bicycle. OK. Now stop sneering please. I know you must have heard this plan of mine last year. But, it's finally official. I am a proud owner of a two-wheeler, which doesn't run on petrol.

And that was my first ride. The Bangalore roads are so bumpy, that I realized that it needs a seat cushion urgently. Or may be I should wait for a few more days, and see if I get adjusted to it. I haven't been on a bicycle in the last 12 years. It's quite surprising that I still remember how to ride one. The first few minutes were very awkward, but then I got used to it.

As for accessories, I just got one unusual one, an Odometer. :D

I guess, that would help me motivate everyday, to keep counting the distance and speed.

I wanted to buy a bicycle, the cheapest one, without all the hifi stuff. But when I walked into the showroom, I kept thinking. And I couldn't control my urge of upgrading to a better one. My brother-in-law, who accompanied me, didn't do anything except laughing. He tried to help, but failed at stopping me from spending away all the cash for that extra odometer.

I ended up spending almost double of what I was prepared for. Only time will tell if it was worth.

The current reading on the odometer shows 15 Kilometers, that's for 2 days. My first experience on riding a bicycle on Bangalore roads was not pretty nice. Bumpy roads, pot holes and other crazy drivers are not at all friendly to people on bicycles, but for now, I am determined to ride on.

"Happy Cycling." The bicycle shop guy greeted me when I got onto it. It was a feeling which was a little weird but nice. They don't say the same thing when you buy a car or a motor bike. I hope there's some good reason for that.

Boriyat...

"Boriyat ho rahi hai, kaise hataun isko", a friend asked today morning. At the office, I was also in the same mood, and didn't know how to answer. Actually I was looking for an answer to the same question for quite some time now.

To add to the problems, the world wasn't going to end on December 21st!!! I then replied stupidly to that message, and went out for a coffee. And on the roads, I could see so many vehicles lined up, honking furiously. And then I noticed a traffic display board flashing in red "Today is Monday, No Horn Day".

I then realized everyone else on the roads must be bored, else why would they be honking so loudly. May be the sound waves might be helping them to clear away the vehicles ahead of them, but it was clearly not working.

Had I been a superman, I would probably have left my full-time job, and helped the people on the roads by clearing away the traffic. Or at the very least, kicked the honky vehicles far away into the space.

But, sadly, I am not.

Damt it. Google Chrome is crashing whenever I try to open Facebook.

Anyway, coming back to "Boriyat", I have seen people being very innovative to attack their boriyat on the raods.

1. A girl, I saw, was combing and doing her make up while stuck on traffic.
2. A guy, who was having his breakfast inside his car.
3. Another guy, who forgot to wear his shoes at home, trying to find the right pair of socks from his 10 odd socks stockpile.
4. A few mothers, getting their kids ready inside the car.
5. And so many people, talking over the phones even after the light had turned green.

Isn't that awesome? Everyone, finds a way to get busy, in something or the other. As for me, I have got a bike. I can't really do all these things while stuck in the traffic. So, how do the bikers pass their time on the roads? 

1. Traffic jams are a great time to clean our helmets and glasses.
2. Playing games on your mobile is also a great hit among the bikers.
3. Trying to balance the bike without any support.
4. Getting to know more about cars and their logos.
5. Trying to predict when the light would turn green

How boring it is for a biker on the road stuck in traffic!!! Sometimes, I have had this thought about when they would make flying bikes, and how it would be convenient. Or I have thought about when there would be a traffic system which would ask me to leave my  home every morning, so that I would reach office without hitting any red lights. And if it would work or not. 

Just in time - Again

Continuing from the previous post, the journey back to Bhubaneswar on the Scooty was very very thrilling. Every 2 minutes, I used to ask Ashish to look at his watch while I was on full throttle. The Scooty was running a race of it's lifetime. I had never been in such a hurry before, well, may be I was, 2-3 times, :).

Finally, we did manage to reach the airport on time, just before the checking counter shut down. And Mr. Ashish could fly back to Hyderabad that day. What a relief!!!

People had always doubted my Scooty riding skills, but yet again, I have proved them wrong, and yet again, I won the race against time. I was in a similar situation when a friend of mine asked me to drop him at the railway station. It was in Bangalore and I had a Pulsar 180cc with me then. I made it on time then as well. A few days back I was mocking at Vishal and Gaurav for missing their flight, by 10 odd minutes. Now, I realize the importance of each minute, especially when you are running to catch a flight or a train. Hahaha, but in the end, it's the result that matters. They missed it !!! Kudos.

A Scooty’s trip to Puri

For the people who are ignorant of this word “Scooty”, let me first  introduce this to you.

Scooty is an Indian brand of scooters manufactured by TVS Motors. Basically, it was designed for women, and at one time, was the largest selling scooter brand in it’s segment. Equipped with a 60cc engine, it can hit a top speed of about 60 kmph with a single person. However, the max speed dropped to a surprisingly lower value, somewhere around 45 kmph when you add on a pillion. If you want to know more about this scooter, visit the website.

Well, mine, not exactly mine, but my sister’s scooty is 6 years old now. And whoever rides it now, vows never to ride it again. But during it’s initial days, I used to love scooty rides a lot. :) And, so, there is some kind of attachment between the two of us.

Ok, the story continues. Ashish, who was in Bhubaneswar, for  attending Sidharth’s marriage, wanted to go to Puri. I told him that we can take a car/taxi. Not willing to contribute to the already increasing Carbon levels in the atmosphere, he recommended to avail the public transport. Hmm, Bad Idea, I thought. But, I knew that I will not be able to convince him to take a taxi, he would have never agreed. So, I gave him another better (looking atleast) option. My Scooty. And he somehow agreed.

Well, there was one little constraint. He had a flight to catch, the same day, at 6:45 pm, that very evening. And so, I worked out all the calculations (taking into consideration all the factors, including the max possible speed of my scooty) and arrived at our scheduled departure time, 9:00 am in the morning. Well, true to their reputations, NITKians, never made anything on time. Or they always did something wrong. Ya Ya, I am one of them. But, I can give you some more examples. Mr. Vishal and Mr. Gaurav missed their flights by just 10 minutes who wanted to attend Sidharth’s marriage. Mr. Srinath, who is currently a student at IIM, Kolkatta, by mistake booked a train ticket for the day after when he was supposed to travel. He managed his time well, but had all the wrong data and inputs. :) And I wasn’t even expecting Mr. Ashish to make it to my house before at-least 11:00 am. And I still over-estimated. He reached my house at 11:30 and then we started.

Puri is around 60 kms from my house. And, I just did a test ride on my Scooty. A max speed of 43 kmph. Hmm, Well, at that speed, I thought it will take at-least 2 hours to reach Puri. And we did it. YAY!!!

But the return journey was more fun, exciting and tensed. For some reason, my Scooty refused to buzz beyond the 40 kmph. At the place where we stopped for food, we got a bit late and lost a few minutes there (may be 10 minutes). And, it was already 5:00 pm and there was still some 30 odd kms to cover. If at all, Rajhans misses his flight, he and only he would be the sole person responsible. He did all this, wasted time, which could have saved us a few minutes.

Did Rajhans miss his flight? Did Scooty survive the torture? Did we manage to break the NITKians record of never being on time?
To be continued… 

A Driving License Needed…

Let' me first come to the main point : I DON’T HAVE A DRIVING LICENSE.

Well, I had one, but some crazy fellow dared to enter House No. 490 on 5th May 2007, and walked out unharmed, richer by 5 mobiles, my wallet, some 20 bucks, my PAN card, and my DRIVING LICENSE.

That was my first Driving License, it wasn’t a genuine one though. This little piece of paper made me 5 years older. Though I was born in the year of the BOAR, i.e, 1983, the date of my birth was shown as 1978. Whenever any one doubted my not being an adult, I would promptly show them my Driving License. With this forged piece of evidence, I have evaded so many fines and challans throughout India, mainly the North, South and the East.

Without it also, I have been able to survive the check posts of the Bangalore Traffic Police for quite some time. And I was very proud of it. Last week, somebody asked me, “How come you don’t have a DL?”

I said, “Dude! Who needs a license to drive in Bangalore? There are so many vehicles in Bangalore. You would have to be a very very unlucky guy if you are caught without a license.You can be booked for riding without a helmet, jumping red lights, driving without a number plate, and if you accidently happen to hit a policeman head-on. But you have to be the most unlucky person in the world, if you get caught for riding without a DL”.

And the next time I was riding a bike, well, I guess, I was the most unlucky guy in the whole world that night. Mr. Rwitam Mitra, had to be dropped at his house in Marathalli, for which we had to enter the Outer Ring Road. I was imagining how the cold winds would make me shiver when I will be on full throttle on the empty roads. But, before we could hit the deserted Outer Ring Road, Felix’s always-lit-pulsar’s-head-lights showed me a police waving his “danda” in-front of us.

Little did Mitra know about my loss of that fateful night. The first question he asked, “Tere pass hai na?”

I have hearts of steel, but I was not sure how Mitra would react to my denial. So, I said, “yes I have”. Just before hitting the brakes hard enough, I had second thoughts of using the throttle instead, but I changed my mind. So, we stopped.

There were 3 policemen. Each of them were busy attending to other unlucky people. One of them asked me for my License. I pretended to search my wallet hoping that I would find a pice of paper that would at-least look like a Driving License. Hehe…Seriously, I was thinking this…

But at-last, I gave up. Now the policeman asked me to hurry up and went away to another biker. There were around 5-6 people waiting to show-off their DLs to these policemen. So, we had plenty of time. Mitra did have a license, and we though of a plan. We swapped our roles. It was dark, and we put our brains to work. When the policeman came back, Mitra showed him his license, snatching the helmet from me. Hahahaha… 

The policeman took it and started examining it, asking general questions about our addresses and purpose of late night journey. Everything seemed to be working, till another policemen came along and stood near us. He smelled something fishy, and finally realized the anomaly. Shaaaaaah!!!! Caught again. They asked for the bike’s RC, pollution certificate and insurance, which Felix said, were at House No.490.

We knew what had to be done now. I started counting my money in my wallet in my mind. But, how were we going to make an open offer for bribe to this man? Mitra tried his best to convince them, that we were good people, and are aware of the mistake that we have committed and asked them to leave us just like that. That was not going to happen. I hope Mitra wasn’t very serious about such a thing happening.

Finally, the policeman asked, “How much do you have”. Mitra answered first. “40 bucks”…

What the hell!!!! Weren’t the pop corns and cold-drinks enough?? I had to pay here also?? Well, in the dark, I put my fingers in my wallet, and pulled out 2 notes, in the dark. They were 2 Hundred Rupee Notes. “Unlucky the second time”.

In 2 minutes, everything was settled. We were warned and let off. Just before running off, I thanked the policeman, and he replied, “No Problems Beta”. All the way, till I reached home safely after dropping off Mitra near his house, I was extra cautious, in the look out for another check point. But there were none. I guess, the clock had struck 12, and the unlucky day was over. Thank God!!! We were not drunk, else we would have been behind bars.

The next day, I searched the Karnataka Government website for details on how to obtain a DL. Realizing that I had to spend at-least Rs.200 and dont-know-how-many-hours, I thought, I would just avoid the check posts from now on. I still don’t have a DL.