Ghumakkar's Diary

‘ Sir, wake up, it’s Victoria ’ some sort of voice-management, of course with due courtesy, and it banged on my ears again ‘ Sir? It’s Victoria, didn’t you want to get down here… ’ Fighting the universal conspiracy, I tried opening my eyes and listening to the conductor simultaneously,   yeaah multi-tasking ! ‘ Oh, yeah, thank you! Thanks !’ a formal smile, rubbed shoulders (it wasn’t crowded, I was yet sleepy) rubbing my eyes I stepped down of the tram. “ Wooo….Man! Where I am? This is not Kolakata, forget it, this is not even India !” I stepped down apparently from Kolkata Tramway at   Maidan   near Victoria Memorial, but it wasn’t the same. There was no   maidan , no typical Kolkata traffic, no Victoria Memorial and it was something else. Fishy! No it wasn’t fishy. I looked back at Tram, it wasn’t like Tram either. Highway 31 Bikers' Restaurant ‘ Have I had grass? No, neva! So, how did I disembark a metro when I picked up a tram an...

“Roads are quite like our lives with so many types of curves. None can predict what’s on the other side. Enjoying the Blind curves of Life” I met Ranjit at Andy’s garage, on the Planning day for the RM East ride. He was the one interested in riding back to Mumbai via Varanasi -Delhi route. My wish to ride on NH2 had some selfish reasons; first, that I wanted to visit my home at Varanasi on my Bullet since the day I bought it and second, that there’s a saying in Geological world that on an expedition never take the same route while traversing back to the camp, it helps you experiencing more and more of the terrain. Until 23rd January night, I was unaware of riding plans. Guri paji asked if I am game to ride Golden Quadrilateral with him and Ranjit. I was like – hell Yeah! So, it was stamped and we geared up with GoogleMap, Ranjit’s Maps Of India book, and advices from all who have had ridden on Delhi-Kolkata highway. View Larger Map As planned we prepared to start a...

Though I tried my best to keep my last post on Mumbai to Kolkata ride as short as possible, I know it was one of the long posts, people like me, try to avoid. Interestingly, still I forgot to mention a few stories of ride. Like, the Ghost stories by Kaka that we had on our Sholapur and Elluru sleeping bag nights, Shyamal’s potty- katha (tales), the gadgeted modified Classic 500 with cool speakers of Jerry the Sikandar and Akhtar bhai’s beautiful modified ol’ Electra with number plate flaunting 786 on it. Thinking about the ride and possible write ups, now I’ve started firmly believing that epic like Mahabharata can only be wrote on a ride ! Now as told, this post is about the RM Event days and nights – 22nd and 23rd January 2010. About RM , I’ve already posted a few weeks back, day before we started the ride. Anyways, if you don’t want to read entire post, here’s a quick summary. RM or Rider Mania started in 2003, as an Annual meet of All India Bullet Clubs, with Royal Enfield’s ...

Starting from 16 th January 2011, I went through my life’s Best Fortnight on my Bull – the TBTS, on the awesome Indian National Highways, for an 11 days’ of pure ride with purpose of attending the RM East 2011 at Kolkata and to live nomad life, with the civilization but the Highways’ way! As it for sure is none less than an epic of 5400 kilometers’ ride, I will be story telling it in 3 parts; 1 st on ~2500 kilometers’ Mumbai to Kolkata ride, 2 nd the RM East 2011 Event Days, 3 rd describing an about 3000 km Quadra Ride from Kolkata to Mumbai via Varanasi, Agra and Jaipur. This part, being first in the series, is on Kolkata-Mumbai ride. The Inddiethumpers flag Probably it’s the Indian mentality to wake up at eleventh hour and do all that can and cannot be done to be prepared for the event at its best! I don’t count myself amongst the lot, but at times I can’t really help. Though I started preparing for my grand ride to Kolkata for RM East 2011 well in advance; I had to ...

Less than 2days to go before we’ll start for the RM 2011, the Annual Extravaganza organized and celebrated by the Royal Enfield Clubs of the India, in the third week of January. The Mania, or better known as RM, started way back in 2003, when Vernon Dias, from Madras Bulls, ideated to meet. He along with few friends, fueled the very thought and gave the forthcoming event a name, The Rider Mania. RM has established itself as a paradise for all the Bulleteers. It’s a place where the honored ones who ride Bullets meet, share experiences, enjoy and feel the thump. Goa was first destination to host RM-2003, with about 70 bulleteers. It was, indeed, organized by the Madras Bulls. Next year’s was organized by the then-patron Royal Enfield Motorcycle Co., who has also got registered the name “Rider Mania”. With the passing years, conflict of interest between RE and the community started taking shape, and 2009 was the first time when RM was organized without any help from RE MC Co. Kudos...