Journey Blog - Dreaming days to Day 1

Blogging at Hyderbad – (10^th Oct 09)

Dreaming days: The idea and the people behind it (May ’09 – September ‘09)

Wanted to write about this..but then thought of making a ppt. Thanks to Lalit’s idea which we used at IPHU ppt, I am trying to make one…

So please wait for this…coming soon…

Day -3 to -1: The preparation days [Place(s): Bangalore, Travel: None, Dates: 5^th – 7^th Oct ‘09]

Planning: Went to Bangalore from 5^th – 7^th Oct to do the planning for the journey. Thanks to Dr. Ravi, Deepak and Lalit at SOCHARA and Papa of course, the never ending task of writing a note on the trip took some shape. Apart from this we quickly made the detailed plan and tried to compile the contact list. But definitely this was a never ending task and hence we did not try to finish that and just wanted to make sure we put max. people / projects…The leftover part of the contact is arranged as when needed..

Process was great…got some good ideas, which you have already seen in the note…but now I realize is that planning as an exercise will never be complete…hence ability to understand critical factors is important…(Also, in retrospect you always feel that you could have planned better… :P)

Shopping: The other important agenda of the Bangalore trip was to do the shopping for the bike safety accessories…bought Safety jacket, gloves, knee cap…tying ropes…foot pump and some other stuff…will comment on the use later in the blog…got it from a jazzy looking shop near JC Road…some lane…met with some interesting racing guys who gave lot gud suggestions regarding the long drives…

Got Lalit’s help to buy a rucksack…got it from wildcraft…place has got some cool stuff for ppl interested in trekking…prices are reasonable for a exclusive showroom…finally bought a 55 ltr rucksack…

Friends: The other “good” aspect of being in Bangalore is the opportunity to catch up with friends…met with a few and could not meet a lot of people…but as Bangalore is in the scheme of the things again…not a problem…

Day 0 – Mixed feelings…happening day [Place(s): Guntur, Travel: None, Date: 8^th Oct ‘09]

Took a night bus from Guntur to Bangalore on 7^th night…reached Guntur on 8^th Morning…Last day at Guntur…and I had to finish lot of work before I leave in terms of sending my packed stuff to Lucknow...getting arrangements for mobile connection…also mailing the schedule to people so that things are arranged timely…had nice breakfast and sent a few mail and I pushed off from Sachin’s place…

And the most unexpected thing happened…a bike accident…a fellow trying to cross the road…without looking anywhere…just appeared out of nowhere…and of course I was not driving slow (may be around 60 kmph)..but I could mostly avoid a collision but in the process slipped and banged into divider…thanks to the helmet (please note…it works…) I was saved, as it was a major blow on the head…but both my elbows and right knee was bruised badly…also my right heel got some internal injury and was paining…Went back to Sachin’s place and did the first aid…but thanks to the right heel I was not able to walk…with no other option I took some rest after lunch and headed for bike repair and self repair…

Bike repair: Guntur is one place where, I strongly feel, there is no concept of customer care…specially when it comes to the time…(may be because it’s a town with a lot of traders, who don’t have office hours / fixed time to work…since customer don’t ask for it…service provider don’t bother about time..)…without going into details, the bike needed only minor repair but it took almost 3 hrs…

Self repair: Meanwhile I tried to locate an orthopedic doctor who can tell if there is a hairline fracture in the heel or not…although I was 99% sure that there is none…but given the fact that trip is supposed to be started, I wanted to be sure…thanks to customer service again, it was ensure that three hours when bike was getting repaired I was not free…I had to run around from one hospital to another and one X-ray shop to another with a funny style of walking on Old Club Road…but thankfully no fracture found in the end…

I was fine after the accident and was giving funny statements to Sachin & Payel like “Mard ko dard nahi hota” (Male doesn’t feel the pain) (no gender bias here, this is a movie dialogue and is now used with funny meaning)…but this repair business (for both bike and myself) made me real crazy and got real irritated…but thanks to friends…a small farewell was organized, which really helped to bring the mood to normal…thanks to payel, neha, ruchi and meenakshi had a lovely dinner and last session of DMC meeting (read chit-chat) with Anurag, Akhil and Sachin…(Sanjeev out of station)…Got an all weather shoe as farewell gift…thanks friends, the stay in Guntur was memorable because all of you (Specially Payel and Sachin)

Day 1 – It all began…and none as per the plan… [Place(s): Guntur & Hyderabad, Travel: 280km, Date:9^th Oct ‘09]

The trip was suppose to start early in the morning…early for me is generally a difficult thing but thanks to the accident on the Day 0, it made sure it was not possible…got up at 8, and was ready to leave by 9:30 (took time as packing also was not done)…and I thought I shall be off to Hyderabad by 10 AM or so…but now the tricky part came, which I thought will be really easy…this was tying the luggage to the bike…one was a rucksack (with mostly spares and other essential items) and other was a bag (with clothes, laptop and medicines etc.)…it took me more than half an hour to realize that the ropes I bought in Bangalore were mostly useless…after having this discovery took the plastic rope from Payel which was used to dry clothes…another half an hour to tie up the things, and that too in a satisfactory way only…and I started, only to realize that the ropes were touching the tire on the bumps…and hence another 15 minutes to close the matter…thanks to Guntur weather, I was already exhausted and trip was not even started….

Then went to petrol pump and got the petrol tank full…stopped at office (where I used to work) for good-bye and photos and the journey BEGAN at about 12:15 PM from Guntur…with 280 km to cover I was in a bit hurry as idea was to reach Hyderabad before its dark…with not speeding beyond 75 kmph was clocking 50 km on an average, which included frequent stops as I was feeling sleepy & tired and the pain in the right elbow, knee and heel was also not helping to the cause…

No other major setbacks till about 4:30 when I realized that mileage was not more than 30 kmpl…and the bike was giving about 38-40 kmpl regularly in past few months…so I could guess there was some issue with the bike..to verify I tried to speed up a bit and realized that I was not able to go beyond 95 kmph whereas it easily touches 110 kmph on a normal day…it made me stop again and this time for a longer time…I decided to eat something and give bike some time to cool down…on starting again that tuning was way off and raise of the bike was not constant…with no other option and about 60 km to cover, I started again and reached Hyderabad to meet Sudu and went to his place…Thanks Sudu for ‘friendly’ acco at Hyderabad…

Went to sleep after some discussion and home cooked food…Day 1 ended with delay as I was supposed to meet Fr. John in the afternoon…not to mention I was tired like hell and worry about the bike was making me restless….