A Cup of Tea

I surely like to have my cup of tea as I love it. There is nothing as blissful as having that cup of tea when I need it the most. Early cold winter morning after a night which has not allowed me my regular dose of sleep sure demanded a cup of tea. And so I set myself to find that cup of tea at 7 am, knowing that its going to be difficult in a secluded area where the hospital was located. My first expected stop was the cafeteria located at the groun floor of the hospital which offered little choice on the menu and a machine which deliverd hot milk which could be transformed into tea with addition of sugar and dip of tea bags. Yes I needed couple of tea bags to get the tea concentrated to the level I liked. As I walk out of the ward I see the elevator waiting at the floor above, which swings me into a mad rush towards the call button. These evelators here have a notoreous habbit of making you wait if you miss on. At this point my luck held and caught the car on time. Down in the lobby was my first disappointment as I found myself walking pass the empty cafeteria with its glass doors tied down by a chain. With the need for tea turning into a drive I started calculating my options. I checked my pocket to find the keys to my bike, but the thought of riding the bike in search of tea was discouraged by the bitter cold outside. With the bike out of question I could think of the CCD joint which is just 5 min walk. Am sure they would be serving tea after all they had the same vending machine as seen in the cafeteria , all i needed was some sugar and tea bags. But would it be open so early in the morning was a doubt. At just 5 minutes walk it was an easy chance I took to find my second failure as I saw the shutters jammed down. Another thought springed as I walked pass CCD knowing another 5 minutes down the road was a south indian restaurant, now this was a sure place to get the tea and so I pushed forward in this bitter cold now wanting more and more of this elusive tea. Mid way through my trail the failure raised it ugly head and the disappointment finally set in as sight of closed shutters welcomed me. I droped my head and started walking back, now this bitter cold was feeling more cold.I checked the time - 7:30 am what a god forsaken place was this. How stupid was the person who has built a hospital in such a place. How stupid was the doctor to refer such a place. I just went upto the ward sank myself in the chair put on some music on the phone, closed my eyes and waited. The music seemed to do the trick for me as I opened my eyes it was already 8:30 am which seemed a more hopeful time. As a learning from my prior failure I decided to first confirm about the cafeteria timings. This surely helped reducing the agony of failure, but not the agony of wait. Another 30 minutes is what was expected as a wait. I am not sure what I am doing in such a place where a man cant get his tea in the morning and trust me 7 am is not that early to have tea but its near about perfect time to have tea. I have always lived in places where I get tea by 7.All this thinking kept my brain engaged without making it realize the slow the time was moving. It good that the time doesnt stop for anyone. From situation to situation it at times slows down and speeds up, but never stops. And hence when I got back to my senses the time was right for me to move my butt off the chair. This time i wasn't as lucky as before and at the lobby the elevator made me wait. Another 5 minutes and I was down in the cafeteria. Once on the ground level it was all smooth sailing. I just ordered my tea as usual. Out of my daily habit I asked for a tea bag along with the tea, which was promptly denied by the attendant stating - sir, we don't give extra tea bags. At the looks of it I knew this guy was new, I told him that I have beem having the tea there for last three days and every time I have taken an extra tea bag with its applicable charges. The attendant just informed me that the policy had changed over night and I will have to buy another tea. This actually pissed me off and I responded - what am I going to do with the extra tea- make pickle ? And ordered him to just give me the damn tea bag and take the money for the tea. After having my cup of tea I realized how I was acting like a arrogant snubish ass with the poor attendant. How was he to know how much I had to go through to get this cup of tea. All I want to say to that attendant is that buddy I am sorry. Hope someday you get to read this - thanks :)

Slice of Life..

Randomness still persists, I just feel betrayed by myself. Hoping to change all this in the matter of time which in about to come upon me.

Some are just surprised but many are still shocked to learn that I will be riding alone.
Why are you going alone? What will you do? What will you eat? Where will you stay? Are few of the questions I am getting from the people know and less known.

If only it were meant for others, it would have been simple to justify. But it’s all about me. This ride is going to be all about me. Riding alone gives me freedom to take the road I want, ride when I want, stop when I want.
“Bandar kya jaane adrak ka swaad” – in the same lines those who have never ridden would never know the reasons behind a ride. In my current state of mind I just don’t care much about this world , all I want to do it right. In pure slang I did say “Gandmarane gayi duniya, mai chala”
No other plans as of yet except the ride in my heart, my mind and my soul…

Random thought on comfort .. and may be happiness

“if you want to be heard, speak out” – I totally believe in this. There is no need of shouting when you are speaking clearly and making sense. Honestly I like to speak and it is even more interesting when there is an audience. It is not easy to speak in front of the large audience - so many preying eyes – so many questions. The truth is simple, each one of us has the same feelings in the same situations . acceptance is just one part of it. Once we know that we are not alone, slowly the comfort zone sets in. there is always comfort in knowing that we are not alone. That there are others like us who get nervous in front of the large audience and yet can hold their nerve.
This is the same comfort that the scientist are seeking when they are searching for life in space. Knowing that earth is the only planet which habitats life is quite discerning. The space is so vast. It is hard to believe there is life only on one planet. If we try and look down in totality of space, earth would look like a speck of dust. The micro organisms living all around us make us look so large, but when the reference changes we are nothing more than that same micro organism in space. All we are doing is searching for life, any kind of life which is out there so we would know that we are not alone. The comfort of knowing that life had to be and that it was not by some freak accident that we are on this planet.
Comfort is not just a necessity, but also a requirement. I define comfort as reduced efforts for equal work. As an engineering student I understood that the purpose of an engineer is to reduce human efforts. Now I know why we need to reduce efforts. This reduction is efforts will amount for the comfort. Comfort is a relative term like any other associative term. I have just defined it as I would like it but there are other more true and accurate definition available.
If only comfort and happiness were related.. (to be contd)

I got Screwed .. for real

Getting screwed is not a good idea, but that is what actually happened to me at the start of the Goa trip. And I mean not literally. At quarter to 6 we started riding. It took us about 15 minutes to reach NH4 from the heart of Pune city. Our first stop would be Satara at 120 Km a ride of about 2 hours. The morning chill was wonderful, the road fantastic and the scenery breathtaking. It was early morning and there was no traffic. We were cruising at about 80 km/h. while tackling my first curve on the road I felt a slight wobble on the bike. I chose to ignore the wobble as low air pressure in the rear tyre and was pushing along. Besides the small wobble on the curves there was nothing else of concern. On the straights the bike was handling perfect. The first two hour ride was perfect and we stopped for our stipulated break for some tea and bread butter. During this break my ridding buddy brought out the wobble of my bike. Since he was riding a thunder bird he assumed the wobble was because of my lighter apache. I assured him that it was nothing much than low air pressure and would be fixed by filling up air. Actually I was feeling the air pressure to be low from Mumbai onwards but somehow managed to reach Pune without filling up on the way. So we decided to stop on to the next filling station and get that problem fixed up. the filling station was just 10 minutes away. The attendant of the air filling station was a young boy who identified that there was a puncture in my rear tyre and not just low air pressure. I was surprised actually on how long I had been riding with a foreign object in my rear tyre. On the initial inspection it seemed to be a nail which had embedded itself deep into the tyre. Thanks to the tubeless tyre I did not have to suffer the puncture bad. It was when the boy was pulling the object out that I was able to identify it as a screw. The boy pulled it out and fixed the tyre in no time. We hit the road again, towards Kolhapur our next destination .Now the bike was handling good on the road even during the curve. I was happy and relieved even after getting screwed in such a manner we were on the road without losing much time .

Afterthought on Goa trip ..

It’s almost been a month now, since I have not been on my bike. May be things would have been different if I had not been on the trip to Goa. Probably there are many people who would think that way Even though I had an accident while returning from Goa I believe it was just something which happened because sometimes accidents do happen.

The entire plan of the Goa trip had changed the day I started with the organizer backing out of the event. May be if they had reached out to me earlier I wouldn’t have left home. I was somewhere on the road nearing Khopoli when I first received the call stating that the trip was off as the lead rider had some issue. The trip was to start next day early morning for Pune. I was on my way to pune for the trip and halfway it was like a bomb shell falling on me. But instead of breaking or blowing I told the voice talking to me that I am on my way to pune and would like to continue ahead. I also told him to make the arrangements for me at Goa. The boy was surprised to hear this from me and told me that he would be calling me back in five minutes. So I pushed ahead on the road. In another hour and half I was in Pune. I did not receive the call but instead I had an sms from some other number. The sms gave me a name and number of another participant who was also willing to join in for Goa. This was getting better for me. That is all I could have asked for is another avid rider. We both shared the same kind of passion for riding. The three day trip was a success with just a small hiccup for me at the very end. In those three days I had travelled about 1500 km without much trouble but the failure occurred in the end with just 20 km to go for home. This month long break has provided me with enough time to give an afterthought to my Goa trip and plan out another trip soon.

Apache 180

This advertise of Apache 180 is quite perfect. The machine truly chose me. I was all set with another bike on my mind. I had a lot of time in my hand as my decision to buy a new bike was postponed indefinitely. When I had first set out to buy a new bike, I had my mind set for the Apache 160 FI. I was all set to get that bike but wasn’t able to do so. During this period I really felt miserable. Nearly after five months when Royal enfield introduced the Classic I was relieved that I didn’t buy the Apache 160. Now I had my mind all set for the Classic. By my estimation it would have been another six months before I would have been able to get that bike. All the good things in life have to wait and so I started waiting. Life had apache 180 in mind for me hence on the Christmas eve I was able to get it. That was a Christmas miracle for me ..

Crazy as Crazy was :

The day began as usual. The plan to ride out was there on my mind but not sure about the timings. Me and my friend are both biking enthusiasts. We both got new bikes so we are always planning to hit the road at the earliest opportunity possible. For me the opportunity presents twice a week but for him its only the Sunday. Today being a Saturday I was tentative about him. I was surprised to hear from him today in the afternoon. He is doing a sales job and is always on a sales trip. Today he was on a trip here in Borivali. Now this was very convenient. The surprise was short lived when he told me that he is giving his bike for servicing and only be able to get it back in the evening. I cooked up a quick plan of getting the bike in the evening and going for the ride. When I picked him up in the evening his bike was not ready. Now we were not sure of what to do. There was still day light left so just started on my bike. Without his bike the plan to go far was off. I just thought of going on a short ride to Vasai or Virar and we hit the national highway No.8. It was about 6:30 and getting darker by the minute. By the time we reached Vasai it was already dark and the wind was chilly. I was wearing a jacket and helmet for protection. But my eyes were exposed because I had to put my visor up. My helmet has a tinted visor which was good when I am riding under the sun. But it virtually blinded me at night. When we reached Virar junction I was concerned about my friend, he neither had a jacket not a helmet. The only advantage he had was that he could close his eyes. He didn’t have to keep watching the road. Just as we crossed the junction I stopped the bike and asked him if he wished to push further. Both of us were pretty high by the ride we had so far. I still hadn’t pushed the bike above 90 km/h. after getting his affirmation I started out. Beyond the Virar junction the road opened up, less traffic and suitable condition during the day. But it was dark and chilling. I was barely able to see the road. Slowly I kept pushing my bike, now we were going over 100 km/h over taking every vehicle on the road. Immediately my eyes started watering. They were exposed to the elements, the chilly wind, the dust, the strain of seeing through the dark, partial blinding by the light from the vehicle coming from the opposite direction. All of this didn’t matter. I was going forward pushing the speed. The maximum I was able to reach in this condition was 110 km/h. no matter how much the speed, my general rule is to always stay in control of my bike and hence I just limited myself to that speed which I was able to manage. It was a very amazing to and from ride. This was the first instance for me to push the new bike and see what it is worth. The fastest I have been on a bike is 125km/h and that is a milestone I need to attain on this new bike. May be on my next trip, when I am riding alone. The handling of the bike changes considerably when riding with a pillion who is in excess of 100kg. it puts a lot of load on the bike. I have told my friend to reduce his weight or I am not taking him as a pillion on long rides. The other pillion for whom the seat is reserved is the girl who can take on the elements with me, loves adventure and will have tea with me on a road side tea stall …