Day 17/ 365 – Drive to Nathdwara (2/3)

~ Akshay ~ 3 Comments

We were nearing Vadodara around 3:45 am in the morning. As mentioned in my previous post, my brother had just driven for 7 hours  and was still enjoying the drive.  The NH-8 bypasses Vadodara and there are series of exits in between if one has to enter the city. The highway forms like a ring outside the city. The road from Bharuch to Vadodara is very good. There are no potholes on the road and the road is just too good. I wonder how come Mumbai roads have so many potholes, while the national highways are so efficiently and well maintained. We were driving easily at an avg. of 100 kmph while bypassing Vadodara. Very soon, we had reached the exit for Vadodara – Ahmedabad express way. If the road on the NH-8 was good, this road was beauty to drive on. We were able to touch the speeds of 150 kmph on this road. The 4 lane express way is just a superb road. The best part is again the road has been very well maintained and the exits are well marked. I wanted to try a different route and there was an option to get off the expressway at Anand and take the interior road bypassing Ahmedabad altogether. But it was 4:30am in the morning and we werent any in mood for any experiments. The entire drive in itself was turning out to be a good experiment and I didn’t want to try anything different.

The distance between Vadodara to Ahmedabad is approx. 90 kms and we were able to cover the entire stretch in less than a hour. We didn’t want to go through the city as I had read about traffic police stopping vehicles which do not have a yellow tape on the right side headlight. It is a rule in Gujarat to have a yellow tape pasted on the right side headlight. This apparently helps cut off the high beam light and allows oncoming drivers better visibility. I say they should simply ban fine people driving with high beams on, just like how it is in Chandigarh.  Anyways, that’s a topic for different discussion. We got off the SP road exit. The exit clearly mentions way to Udaipur. We bypassed Ahmedabad and were now again on NH-8. The road between Ahmedabad and HimmatNagar is not a good one and there is one stretch on the road which is really bad with very big potholes.  We then stopped a local dhaba to freshen up. It was 5:30 am and we had driven an entire night. My brother was tired now and he asked me to take over.

After our 15-20 minute break, I started driving and almost got involved in an accident. There was bike which was turning and merging with our road and simply didn’t see the car coming. I had to swerve left to avoid colliding with him. That was like a good wake up call and any lingering sleep promptly disappeared after that. It took us about 2 hours to get to Gujarat/ Rajasthan state border. I decided to have a tea break as by that time I had started to feel sleeping and didn’t want to take a chance of falling asleep on the wheel. After another 20 min break, we were well on our way. The road condition had improved significantly and thus we were able to accelerate. However, the road is full of curves and one has to extremely careful while turning at high speeds here. The road also passes through some towns and again caution needs to be exercised. After driving for another 2.5 hours, we saw the exit signs for Nathdwara and took the exit. The road passes through the RIDCO area (Industrial area) and is full of truck traffic at any given time of the day. It is better to the take the Udaipur city exit as it would take the same amount of time.  We continued through the Udaipur bypass and finally joined Udaipur. The last 50 kms of the journey were now here. This last part was probably the most trickiest for me as I had never driven on ghats before. One has to cross a small ghat before arriving at Nathdwara. We were able to negotiate the ghats without much of an issue an after 15 hours of driving, we had reach Nathdwara at 11am the next day.

 

Day 16/ 365 – Drive to Nathdwara (1/3)

~ Akshay ~ Leave a comment

I wanted to write this post right after I did this trip 6 weeks back, but somehow was too lazy to write the post. Me, along with my family members decided to drive to Nathdwara, Rajasthan on Friday evening and return back by Monday morning. The distance from Mumbai to Nathdwara is approx. 840 kms one way – so more than 1600 kms driving with one day stay at Nathdwara. You got to think, we are crazy. The reason for such a short and crazy trip was that I was joining a new organization and wanted to visit the temple before starting at the new place as I wasn’t sure that I would have leave available to go anywhere in the next couple of months. Also we got a new Maruti Swift and I thought it was a good opportunity to go on a long drive with the family. So with that in mind, I started the process of convincing everyone to join the trip. My wife couldn’t join me to due to work issues, but slowly steadily remaining members got on board with the idea.

We left on Friday evening around 8pm. Initially my brother took the wheels, with me sitting next to him. This was his first long distance trip. I had already done a trip to Pune earlier. He always had issues driving in the night and that day also it was no less. It is difficult to drive when you lights from the oncoming traffic hitting right in your eyes. However, he was able to adjust well after sometime and took to night driving like a fish in the water. In no time he was driving at speeds well over 100kmph and with extremely good control. We halted after crossing Vapi to have dinner. It took us around 3.5 hours to reach Vapi and so far the roads were excellent. Post dinner, also the smooth roads continued until we reach Surat. Post Surat, the roads until Bharuch was very bad. This was also the time when there were extremely heavy rains in Gujarat, esp. in Bharuch and Vadodara. The potholes would appear out of nowhere. We had the car fog lights on, tried the high beam on but nothing would work to allow an early sighting of the pothole. The problem was also that most of the road was very good, and thus we were going really fast. But then a pothole would appear out of nowhere and car would take a hit.

We reached Ankleshwar bridge and found out there was a huge traffic jam and nobody was sure that when the jam would be cleared. Me and my dad stepped out of the car to check out what the situation was. My brother told me to come back quickly in case we needed to turn around. I went and spoke to a couple of nearby truck drivers and they told me that the traffic jam would only be cleared the next morning. I came back and conveyed the news to my brother and asked him to turn around. However, my dad had gone further ahead to ask a few more people, so I called him. Getting no response from him, I decided to go looking for my dad and I asked my brother to stay where he was and not turn around. That was a big mistake. By the time, I found my dad and told him of the development, my brother called frantically to say the turn to the left was blocked by the truck and now we are stuck. We reached where our car was parked and requested the truck driver next to us to reverse a little so that we could take a left turn. The good driver obliged and we were able to take a left turn on to a service lane and drove in the opposite direction. In between our way was blocked by another truck. Again the same request was made and we got lucky this time too and had enough space to wriggle the car out. We drove in the opposite direction and reached a junction and asked a few local rickshaw drivers directions to Bharuch. They asked us to take the Golden Bridge, which is an old bridge and is only used by light vehicles. We duly crossed the bridge and were once again on our way to Nathdwara. When we reached the highway, the road in the opposite direction was full of traffic. Apparently due to heavy rains, the bridge had developed craters and hence traffic was being restricted. We decided to drive safely here as we were faced with oncoming vehicles. After driving for 40 odd kms, the traffic evened out again and we were on our away to cross Vadodara.

It was approx. 3:30am. My brother had driven for almost 7 hours.

Day 15/ 365 – Bowlers bowled out

~ Akshay ~ Leave a comment

So we saw another high scoring game on Wednesday between India and Australia. While India did manage to win, it makes me wonder how the new ODI rules are simply making bowlers irrelevant especially in India where the outfields are superfast, grounds smaller and pitches are a batting paradise. The entire game has been made very lopsided. Earlier, I used to think that the Indian bowlers have lost their mojo, but now I think it is just that they don’t stand a chance against these rules. Reverse swing is a crucial asset for a bowler, especially in dry conditions. But with the two new balls and ball change at 35 overs mark, that advantage has also been taken away. Meanwhile the batsmen have everything going for them. Broader bats, smaller grounds, one less fielder in the outfield – nothing to stop them. If we observe the changes that have been introduced in the game of one day cricket over the last 20 years – most of the changes have been made to make cricket more entertaining – whereby losing the aesthetic value of the game. First came the 15 over rule, which was then extended to 20 overs and has now been reduced to 15 overs again – where in 2 fielders and now 3 can remain outside the circle during this period. Earlier, you could have fielders anywhere and it wouldn’t matter. This gave rise to the batsmen like Jayasuriya, Kaluwitharna from Sri Lanka, Adam Gilchrist, Sachin Tendulkar – the list is endless. Not sure if the bowlers got anything in return. Then the smart men managing cricket decided to come up with a interesting change of allowing 2 bouncers in an over – while this did help bowlers to some extent. Bowling bouncers on Indian pitches is some kind of a joke as the ball sits up nicely to be hit. So the smart men thought.. what else can we do to make it more spicy – right lets now play with 2 new balls at either end and reduce one more fielder from the outfield. So that basically makes bowlers even more handicapped. The truth is – cricket grounds in India have been turned into a slaughter house for bowlers (ours and theirs).

I am not sure how many youngsters out there would really want to take up bowling. What role models do they have? There was Kapil Dev, Javagal Srinath, and Zaheer Khan. Who do we have now? I am sure no kid would want to look at Ishant Sharma and be like I want to bowl like him after seeing get whacked for 30 runs in an over. I believe the pitches in this country need to be changed drastically to ensure that our bowlers get a chance to perform, else the rules need to be changed. I completely agree with MSD that in these conditions the bowlers would prefer a bowling machine then them throwing the ball.  There is nothing more awesome than seeing a fast bowler run charging in and send thunderbolts at the batsmen who is ducking, weaving, leaving good balls and punishing the bad ones. But when the good ones start going over and above the boundary rope very frequently, something needs to be changed or very soon we would have ODI’s being played as 4 innings T20 game and that would be a serious blow to cricket.

Day 14/ 365 – Football Super Sunday

~ Akshay ~ Leave a comment

Got to see one of most exciting matches of the Premier League this season. Billed as the “El Cashico”, due to the enormous amounts of money both the teams have poured in their teams, it was one of the matches to look out for. I have been a Chelsea supporter since last 10 odd years now and though I am not a die hard fan (i.e. don’t need to watch all the matches), I do follow most of their games. I was super excited when Jose Mourinho came on board once again and since then have been looking forward to enjoying some Chelsea success. I was hoping to enjoy that Manchester United but the day was won by brilliant performance of Wayne Rooney. He played like a man possessed and draw was a fair result. The game with Manchester City was the second biggest game for Chelsea and I was glad that they were able to grab all 3 points in the game. Like Wayne Rooney, Fernando Torres was playing like a man possessed and hopefully with him scoring in 2 consecutive games, I am hoping he is back to his best. He seemed to be enjoying the game and didn’t let the disappointment get to him for missing a straight forward goal. In the next couple of minutes, he set up the pass beautifully for Schurrle to score and also hit the goal post with a super shot. During the dying stages of the game, with scores level and points to be shared between the teams, he created the error from keeper Joe Hart and defender to score the winning goal. For me it was an absolute delight watching Chelsea and Torres play the way they did. During the later stages of the game, it seemed like Chelsea were the one looking for the goal and had stepped up the pressure considerably. It was really good watching Chelsea attack and get the result they wanted. I know a lot of people will say it is too soon in the season to mention this, but Chelsea definitely look like title contenders this year. Next stop Arsenal!!

Day 13/ 365 – Race Day

~ Akshay ~ Leave a comment

Last mentioned in my previous post, I was in two minds whether to run the half marathon or no. I hadn’t been practicing since the entire last month and was not too comfortable running the half marathon. Post a lot of persuasion by my brother, I decided to run the race, even though I was not at all prepared for it. The night before the race, I also caught cold, even though it wasn’t too serious to be worried about. Sunday morning came very early for me (4:30am, time when I am usually going off to sleep). Got ready to head for the race with my brother, who was super charged up. Met P along the way. He was running his first marathon, but he was prepared as he had practiced enough. We reached holding area at around 6:20am and did some warm up for the race to begin at 7am. We slowly moved towards the start line and in between I got to see a beautiful sunrise. There were a lot of people who were participating in the race and it was good to see so many people turn up for running. Indian’s are normally not known to run and all, even though we produced the Flying Sikh. So it was nice to see so many people turn up for this event, though this was a fraction of what turns up at the Mumbai Marathon.

The race started sharp at 7am. In the beginning I was able to keep pace with P and my brother. But the signs of not practicing started showing up, once I crossed the 3km barrier. At this point I was simply wanting to kill myself for participating in this event with no practice at all. My ankle had started to pain and swell and even though I was wearing an ankle band, it wasn’t doing much to stop the pain. I had now almost made up my mind to not run the race any further. I could see the Vasai station exit and all I wanted to do was go straight and board the train and head home. My mind kept saying straight and my heart kept saying turn left, turn left and that’s what I did. I turned left. I was running, walking, running, walking and after 30 mins, my running app said you have completed 7kms. I was ecstatic. I knew I still had a very outside chance to beat my  existing time and I started pushing for it. The heat and humidity were now really taking a toll on me. I started to get the same feeling again. Don’t want to continue any further. I wanted to sit down and take a break, but I realized, if I sat down anywhere, I wouldn’t be able to get up and continue. So I kept walking. I tried to run, but my knees were starting to hurt and I felt like ankle was going to swell so much that it would burst outside my shoes. I had managed to complete around 13kms in 2 hours. The remaining 8 were going to be bitch and I knew it (prior experience of running the marathon).

I was now only walking. I tried to run again, but I was just not able to do that. I was extremely tired and all I wanted to do was to finish the race. I trudged along the rest of the route and was able to finish the race in 3 hours and 17 mins. Not the worst that I have performed. The entire race made me realize that I need to be a lot more fitter and at the same time, need to practice before I participate in the next event. I also need to manage my schedule better as currently, I reach home and then go to sleep. May be I should run for a little while and then sleep.

On the side note, the event was extremely well organized. Though I felt they should have managed the traffic better as there were vehicles on the road while the race was ongoing. There were also people walking along the route and were definitely a distraction. The organizers had kept water junctions at various places and that was really great. One more thing could be – they can start the race an hour early as starting the race at 7am is a bit too late, considering October heat and humidity. Overall a good event and well managed and organized.

WP_20131027_003 WP_20131027_004

Day 12/ 365 – Vasai Virar Marathon

~ Akshay ~ Leave a comment

This year I have registered for Vasai Virar Marathon, which is scheduled to take place on Sunday, 27/10. I have never participated in this marathon, though I have been running the Mumbai Marathon since last 5 years. I remember running my first half marathon when me, and my best friends spent an entire night talking and then took an early morning train from Kharghar to CST to participate. I participated through a NGO then. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but at the same time was very enthusiastic for running in the event.  The encouragement that people provided while running has been really great. Since then, every year I have been running Mumbai Marathon and get very excited to run. However, this time it is different. While I have gone ahead and collected the bib for the event, I am not sure if I am going to participate in the event. For this race, I haven’t been able to practice at all, due to change in the sleep cycle, and thus not very sure that I should be running for such a long distance.  I tried running in the National Park over the last 2 weekends, but was not able to run more than 6 kms. So I am guessing, running a half marathon is going to be a huge struggle. Still in two minds about the race. Will probably decide if I am going or no.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Day 11/ 365 – Visit to South Mumbai

~ Akshay ~ 1 Comment

Today I went to  the Press club located near CST to pick up my marathon bib for the Vasai Virar Marathon. I am running this marathon for the 1st time and as usual have not been able to prepare for it. I like traveling to South Mumbai, be it during mornings, afternoon, evenings or night. There is something beautiful about South Mumbai, which sadly is missing in the suburbs. Be it the art deco style buildings at Marine Drive or Victoria architecture which adorns the CST terminus, the cleanliness of the streets or the orderliness of the traffic (you wont find a lot of people breaking traffic rules here), the Khau Galli near Azad Maiden or the cafe’s at Colaba Causeway. Somehow I enjoy being there. The most likely reason for liking there would be – the long walks I used to have with my father when I was a kid. We would go to Fort area due to some or the other work and there was always more than one thing to do. So our preferred mode of travel would be walking. Me and dad would walk for many hours together – he would tell me where each street leads to. Since he was born and brought up there, he knew all the roads. We would go through the old Mumbai i.e. Girgaum area, where there are still chawls and buildings which are as old as 60-80 years in the narrow alleys and roads,  to the swanky, post Mumbai. The best part is more often than not, we would always have lunch at an Irani eatery (which sadly no longer exists), called Bastani and have Chicken cutlet or egg pudding or just plain bun maska and chai. For me, that would be heaven. We would always ensure that we went for lunch there or if we were in Girgaum, then there is this famous vada wala, who sells sabu dana vada and piyush. There are lots of memories associated with South Mumbai for me and may be thats the reason why, I am more or less always ready to go back there.

WP_20131024_002

Day 10/ 365 – Bike issues – final

~ Akshay ~ Leave a comment

So as mentioned in my earlier post, I decided to take my bike to the Kamala Yamaha Service Center in Borivali (E) to get it checked. On checking the bike, the mechanic says that the problem is with.. guess what?? Battery!!! I told him that I have just got this new battery yesterday and I am not sure the issue is with the battery. He told me that I have put a 4AH battery and I should have put a 9AH battery. I told him, the original bike battery was only 3.5AH and this should work fine. I told him to check the wiring and electrical rectifier to make sure there is no problem with them. In case, there is no problem with wiring and the rectifier, only then call me to change the battery.

I got a call from the mechanic that evening that the problem is with the battery and they have checked everything. Reluctantly, I told them to put a new battery and retain the old battery so I can return it back to the vendor. I called them next morning and was asked to collect the bike as it was ready. I was still not convinced that the problem has been fixed. I went to the service center and picked up the bike. Told the mechanic, that if there is any issue I am going to bring the bike right back. He assured me that the problem has been taken care of and I should not worry at all. I took the bike to work that evening. While everything seemed to be working fine, I was just not sure that the issue was really resolved.

After my shift was over, I realized this was now the moment of truth. Either the bike had been fixed or I was in for a long night. The bike started fine and I had just about reached the office main gate that I saw the dreaded “orange” light and the bike stalled. I was now in panic mode as I was 23 kms away from home and didn’t want to park the bike in the garage was would have to come back the next day either ways to take the bike. So I applied the Indian trick of pushing the bike and starting it in the 1st gear. The engine roared to life and I raced against time to reach the service center 23 kms away. All was going well until I reached the Dahisar Check Naka, where the local cops were checking only bikes. The cop asked me to stop and reluctantly I had to stop, knowing too well that the chances of starting the bike now where were very low. After checking my bike documents, I was allowed to go and as feared the bike didn’t start. Here I was 8 kms away from home and around 6 kms away from the Service Center at 4am in the morning, not knowing what else to do but to push the bike until I reach the Service Center.

I must have pushed the bike for approx. 3 kms when a good Samaritan asked me what was the problem. I told him what the issue was and he offered to help push the bike with his bike. With enough speed, I was able to start the bike once again. This time the good Samaritan stayed behind me.. just in case if the bike stalled again. He followed me until I was just a few meters away from my destination (Faith in humanity restored). I finally managed to reach the service center and parked the bike there. Didn’t really want to take a chance in the morning. I boarded a rickshaw and returned home. The entire ordeal had made me very angry and I had decided that I was going to give the service center guys a piece of mind.

I went to the service center in the morning and told them what happened. This time a senior mechanic looked at the bike and immediately said that rectifier is a problem and probably it wasn’t checked properly. He then started to work on the bike right away and after testing with a different rectifier and same battery fixed the issue. Finally after 6-8 days of continuous issue with the bike, the issue was finally resolved.

Day 9/ 365 – Breaking the Karwa Chauth fast with Google Hangout

~ Akshay ~ Leave a comment

Today being Karwa Chauth, day when wife fasts for the longevity of her husband and only eats after seeing the moon and her husband, my wife – G, decided to keep the fast. I wasn’t sure if she was joking or was really keen to keep the fast. So I called her in the evening to check if she had any lunch or anything to eat in the whole day. She replied in negative and I was like why are you keeping the fast as I am not going to be around in the night when you need to break the fast. So she was like I will eat in the morning. Not the one to accept this, I suggested she eat dinner when she reaches home. Dinner time and I call her up to check if she has had dinner and she again says a no. Then she suggests something innovative, she asks me to come on Google Hangout. I wasn’t sure if there would be access available, but I was like let me give it a try. Got the Hangout configured, in the mean time she went hunting to see the moon. After seeing the moon, she came on the Hangout and thus we were able to see each other – breaking the fast. An interesting and a non-traditional way to break a fast.

Day 8/ 365 – 24

~ Akshay ~ Leave a comment

Watch 24 (Indian version) finally on Sunday and must say I have been impressed by what I have seen. It is much better than the daily saas-bahu soap opera that the rest of the channels dish out. Was finally able to watch out something that is gripping and entertaining at the same time. I remember when the original was being aired in the US, my room mate would be like super excited and would leave everything to watch the show and I never used to understand why. After watching 4 hours (back to back) of the series, I can understand why he used to be so excited. Not sure what season 1 of the original 24 covered, but in the Indian version there is an assassination threat to the future Prime Minister of India and the entire season is based on that. Sadly, due to my working hours I wont be able to watch the show when it is aired on TV during regular times, but do have an option of catching it when it repeats on Sunday.  The best part is, the show also gets aired on the HD channel which means very little advertisements and there is overall continuity to the show.  Finally excited about watching something good on TV.

anil-24