Ghumakkar's Diary

Finally, planned - postponed - planned - unplanned...series of Yes and No...year after years...finally a plan that took a shape to be executed...and finally it collapsed! Fourth year of Planning a Ride to the Top of the World( ly senses ), and it Flopped when the guy who planned it - booked a bed in Hospital for some unknown disease that turned out to 'fresh water worms' but killed his plan! When it starts to feel like cliche (like my life), I get to the point...I am leaving for Leh tomorrow morning! This time - NO PLANS! All I have got is a ticket to Jammu and a return ticket from Leh. What I will miss most on my ride is ofcourse you don't know and I won't tell, but Achtung!  will for sure be missed a lot; but it's his fault - he didn't start the day he was scheduled to be packed and leave for Jammu; perhaps he didn't want to start it alone! Epic ride it is! (Btw, to those who don't know, Achtung!  is my Bull - an RE TBTS 350. What next? I don...

Goa was on the cards when we planned it, but as the date of riding neared plan changed and changed a lot. I was a lonely rider on the NH 4, and wasn't sure about the place to stay on the first night of the ride. Goa isn't,  like , much of fun for an introvert like me ( yes introvert, else I would have been telling stories than writing ;) , and so I was all ready to stay somewhere in a roadside motel en route on the first night. Night before the ride, I received a  call from Vinni minutes after I posted about my ride on Bisons’ forum and twitter etc. He not only got me a room booked at Hubli with help of Mr Sanjay Hubli’s 99Cannons Bullet group but also advised to visit Gokarna especially Om Beach. As it told ( wrote ) earlier, riding alone I was way ahead of time and reached Hubli well before sunset. So, I replanned the plan again and took a right turn ( by actually turning left on NH 4 and then through an underpass ) towards Gokarna. Gokarna...

Sometimes when it’s call of your Soul, you ride Solo! When I started, due to heavy rain couldn't take a pic of the group.... So, finally when even the last guy cancelled the ‘just’ a week old plan to ride to Goa and then Bangalore; I decided to do it solo! After all, I planned it, and after not being able to ride to Ladakh for the reasons which themselves failed later, I was to ride on any cost! This ride had been a memorable ride for a lot of reasons, especially with a lot cases of ‘just happened’ things. A lot of things just happened and I had to change the course or rethink about it at least. To start with, I proposed and we planned this ride just a week before the actual ride day. Samzy, Sandy, Monty, Rudra and Deepak said yes to it and later due to some personal commitments kept declining. Last being Deepak who said no, just the day before the ride. Ride plan was to start early morning in Mumbai, reach Goa as early as possible, have fun, ride next day to Ban...

What’s the highest intensity of itch you have ever tolerated? Well, it actually depends on the person; some just can’t survive it a day, others have mastered the art of living with it forever. I had this itch of riding for last few weeks. After multi-unsuccessful attempts to ride on a Sunday with friends, last Sunday was the ultimately the savior. All I need a little scratch, if not a long ride. I had had a plan to visit the Global Vipassana Pagoda at Gorai. While preparing for the ride, I remembered a picturesque spot about which Abhimanyu , my unofficial photography guru, told. This spot is somewhere near Mumbra. So, I decided to first visit this place, have some snaps and then ride back/ahead towards Gorai for some 50km a side ride. It certainly was an unplanned plan; and I was really happy to be on such a subtle ride. View Larger Map I started at about 11:30 and took Belapur-Thane Highway, and at Kolwa, took the NH 4 towards Mumbra. On the way I gave lift to a roa...

All it takes a little courage to take the first kick, rest just happens…. Mehsana is a small town, located at about 70 kilometers from Ahmadabad, and 600 kilometers from Mumbai. I had been planning since eons to ride up to Mehsana to meet my friends at ONGC Colony, Palavasana. Using eons may look like an exaggeration of my emotions, but if you own a Bullet, have dreamt a 600+ km ride on the day you bought it, and still not able to do it in over 6months, you will understand what I mean! The actual plan had been postponed for umpteenth time, when inspired by an utterly boring week in office, I finally decided for the trip. It was just another Wednesday, when I started working down the details of the route on Google Map, tried to learn it, browsed through some blogs for Mumbai-Ahmadabad trips, and called up my friend at Mehsana that I’m coming! :) Wednesday night and Thursday pre-noon time, I spent studying and planning the route. In evening I got my Bull checked up at R...