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...

Have you ever appreciated that visiting few places becomes a religion for you? Like, visiting that particular chae wala shop around the corner in Kolkata or that old movie theater that has stopped screening new movies in Old Delhi since a long time or that particular CCD in Lucknow where you had coffee with your soul mate? Nostalgic, isn't it! I find this theory true to our travelling too. Just a view of Vishwanath Temple of BHU, idling at Assi and Dashaswamedh Ghats of Banaras, trekking every year at Naneghat, bathing at Nagaon - Alibaug are the few of the travelling things that I do almost every year. The new entrant to this annual travelling pilgrimage list is Kas Plateau. Just like the last year we rode to this place again and were happier than ever. Trivia Kas (Kaas) Pathaar or Kaas Plateau is located in the Satara District, some 30 kilometers off NH-4 (now NH 48) towards West. Plateau is about 300 kilometers from Mumbai via NH-4 and 375km via NH 17. We took...

Rajmachi has been one eluding dream ride for me. Every time it had been planned by the Inddiethumpers , the guys I ride with, for a reason or two - I couldn’t make it. So, this time when it was planned on a Saturday night, I took no time to confirm my attendance! Map to Rajmachi Rajmachi is a small village, some 15 km from Lonavala – a famous tourist destination. It’s a well-known 15km easy trek. But, the real adventure is to ride to the village, and so Ride to Rajmachi has always been a dream ride for the Riders.

Don’t ask why I didn’t go to Banaras for Holi this year, I am already writing a novel on it; will take time, but if you will ask I will make sure you buy that crap in dozens.  Anyways, as I didn’t go to Banaras for Holi (cliché warning), I rode to the Gadda Mania – which has been elusive for me for last few years.  Gadda Mania at Lonar Crater Gadda Mania is another religious ride for the Royal Enfield riders of the country celebrated at Lonar Crater every year on post-Holi weekend, unlike Rider Mania which is organized at different parts of the country annually. This mania to ride to Cosmic Gadda or Gaddha (pit) was started in March 2008 when some lunatics ( interestingly its celebrated on a weekend closest to Lunatic’s favorite day of Full Moon ) from Wanderlust MC and InddieThumpers planned to freak out and were endorsed by Wanderers and Highway Nawabs from Hyderabad. And, the legends say the Meet became a ritual in just a few years with more and more clubs and...

I have been to Jaisalmer an era ago, when travelling was more about getting pampered by parents, buying or at least wish to get one or the other thing, taste each and every street food, and then to share the stories of rail-journey, hotel room, bus-guided tours when back to school. Except for that we, a group of boys and girls from my railway colony , had camel ride on some dune, saw where the movie Border was shot and also witnessed shooting of a Rajasthani movie ( where a dude from our group pissed off the actor calling him Uncle ), I don’t remember much. So, this ride to Jaisalmer was just not another ride but also a journey down the memory lane. Nostalgia was of different sort when the city recalled me how that childhood tripping which had a girl from my class annoyed another girl for the obvious reasons :) Longewala to Tanot - a Must do Road Khuri Dunes Khuri sand dunes (also Khoohdi or Kuhri) are not that famous as are the Saam or Sam Sand Dunes , but we have bee...

So, let’s call it a year. Through a lot of ups (!) and downs (yes!) over some 365 days classified in to 12months, the day is finally here, when I can finally say it ‘was’ a year and the coming ‘year’ would be actually better. I, who belongs to the species of human beings generally called as brats , have shed a few layers of my not-so-narcissistic admiration for self in last year – to say. The way this all and that is happening (yes it’s still happening and not reached the death) I would never be able to love myself, reach the earlier level of self-respect ever, and yes I said ‘ever’. But the post is not again about the love of my life – I! It’s about what I am wishing from the coming year and for what I would actually try. Life!

Dear Achtung! It has been 3years since the day you entered my life and changed it completely. With over 35000 kilometers to show, hundreds of stories to tell, number of friends to boast, lengths of highways to conquer and an oath to live the rest of my life as a Rider, I am overwhelmed to write any further.... Achtung!   and Me (thanks to Vineet for the click and Abhimanyu for the edit) Thanks for accepting me as your Rider, it's an honor :) Yours truly, Punit Dubey

So, I finally could ride to Kaas Plateau last Sunday. Almost a year back I came to know about this place, popular as Maharashtra’s Valley of Flower, in a Jet Airlines magazine; was scared to miss visiting the place this monsoon and wait for one more year. Trivia Kaas (Kas) Pathaar or Kaas Plateau is located in the Satara District, some 30 kilometers off NH-4 (now NH 48) towards West. Plateau is about 300 kilometers from Mumbai via NH-4 and 375km via NH 17. We took NH-4, which is obviously a faster and better option to ride, though NH-17 is more scenic and the last leg of some 70 km through ghats would be rather amazing to ride.

‘ 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...

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...

‘ So, you must have been to lot of exotic places? ’ she asked, I could feel the spark in her voice. ‘ Not a lot exactly. There are so many places here to see in one lifetime ’. A pause, a long thought, some sure silence, ‘ only if you’re endowed with eyes’ , suddenly I realized I went a little too far. ‘ Ohh, never mind. Tell me, what people you met? And, girls? Don’t you dare to lie… ’ Blind people certainly have ability to sense any physical or emotional commotion. Before I could dive into apologies, she changed the mood. ‘ Ahh, Aunt Tessy, don’t tease me. You know me. I do ride with people, but girl- ahhh never been my cup of tea ’ She smiled, ‘ poor chap you are! Well, what you think about this lady? Game for a ride? ’ ‘ A blind date ’, (shit) I blurted! She jumped, ‘ In true sense my boy! Let a woman teach you a thing or two! A Blind Date!’ a miles long smile, stretched with brightened wrinkles, and a tinkle in eyes . I'd never been on a ...

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...

  Date: May 8, 2212 “ Armour? ” Done! “ Goggles? ” Done! “ Helmet? ” Here it’s! “ Alarm? ” Set! “ Sleep? ”, I beg, someone please hunt down some sleep for me.” LNSD or Last Night Sleep Deficiency is not new for the riders. From the accounts of my great grandfather, who rode the old iconic Bullet in India, I know riders who rode more than two centuries ago, have also had problems in sleeping on the night before the ride. Medicos call it LNSD, we call it – no we don’t call it anything, we have just got habituated to it. This is sort of anxiety, anxiety to witness the thrill of Life that is about to be offered in a few hours, when I would ride my latest M-ron 1800 on its maiden ride to Moon ! Yes to moon! After Neil Armstrong ’s first Step on moon, M-ron became the first 2-wheeler capable to ride in no-gravity to sub-gravity atmosphere . To earn an M-ron, I spent my whole life, well not whole life, just the time between my first dreams of moon the day I could save...