The Break-Up

So finally I am going to part with her. It been six long, dramatic and most important years of my life. After six year long relationship, it is really hard to realise that we wont be together anymore. I am going to miss her so much. I still remember that first day we met at Khamla square (Nagpur) in my second year . Those moments are still vivid in my mind. She has been my companion since then. She has been with me all the time I needed her-- during my exams and holidays, good days and bad days, enjoyments and fights. She has been loyal and faithful ever since we met and never caused me any major worry (apart from minor scuffles). She knows all the secrets in my life which any other living person may not know. I even did leave her almost for a year when I went to search for a job in Pune. But she welcomed me after 15 months even though I neglected her for all that time. One couldn't ask more than this.

But as it has been said, good times don't last forever and finally I stumbled upon the confrontation of this harsh truth in my life. She has to go. All I can say is that I took this decision for the greater good of both of us. Sometimes I feel like re-considering my decision. But I have been thinking about this for almost 5 months and I cant afford to spend much more time. It has already caused me a lot of agony. I really don't know how much I am going to miss her.

I hope with the entry of RS, life would never be the same again. The RS will definitely help me achieve those thing which I couldn't ever dream of with CC. I hope the chemistry between me and RS will be the same as with CC. Maybe I am asking too much.

So today I sold off my CC, Caliber Croma and welcomed RS, Red Stallion, a brand new red Pulsar200. Hope my relationship with RS will be more fruitful and intense, although its still hard to forget my dear old Cali...

RED STALLION......

The Great Misadventure

1800 hrs
22nd May 2008.
It was an indeed an awesome sight. The first rain of the season had hit earth. The mountains surrounding my office campus suddenly looked refreshing (although not green). All the nearby trees were glowing in green. It was a sight to behold. It was a complete change from the view that we were used to see the whole summer and i.e. heavy sun pounding heat with all its might. The mesmerizing smell of scorched soil damped up in the rain water filled up my nostrils.
This smell made me reminisce the good old school days when I used to cycle back home hurriedly so that I can save the new books in the bag on my back. Then after reaching home, aai’s scolding for not taking the raincoat to school in spite of several warnings. Neglecting that scold and asking for hot food and then relishing it with full heartiness. . Ah!! Those were awesome days.
I was sitting with my friend Ravi on the pavement of our office food court watching the rainbow above the building in front of us and recalling all the olden days. It felt so nice that even he had the same kind of story or share with me. We were so much engrossed in chatting that I forgot what the time was. By the time, we saw the watch, it was already 1930. It was time to go to home after yet another office day but a splendid evening. I hopped on my bike and started on my way back home. I was just happy and just thinking that nothing would go wrong today.
I made my way through the daily traffic and found that my daily route back home was overflowing with vehicles. Not wanting to ruin my evening, took a detour and a long way back to home but with less traffic. And when my house was just 4 km away, some foolish thought entered my mind and I took one more detour which took me home in less than 1.5 km. Big mistake for that day(Cos every day I commit at least one!!!!). But this one was gonna cost me a lot.

The road was fine for almost half a km. I was so overawed by the evening’s proceedings that I forgot to notice when I hit the kutcha road and suddenly I felt “Man! My bike is slipping”. I saw around it was pitch dark and not even a single source of light except my headlamp as this was a small path between Baner and Aundh’s villages. And by the time I could get the control of my bike I sensed that something was terribly wrong. I saw the road in front of me and noticed that the whole road was actually a dirt track (Dirt track racer’s heaven..) But my bad luck, my bike wasn’t a dirt bike. And then came the nail in my coffin. The bike refused to go ahead. How hard I tried, but the bike refused to budge. Then it stuck to me (me the tube light), that the mud has made way between my front tire and the mud guard and the tire is jammed. Thankfully rear wheel wasn’t jammed. Now the million dollar question, how do I get the mud off. It was complete dark and the time was almost 2000. So people were also less. Those who came on bike, saw me stuck and asked me whether the road is bad. On receiving my affirmation, they turned back and went off. I expected at least some one to help. But no one did. I cursed myself and said that as it was me who got myself in this mess, so obviously it had to be me who will get me out. But how??????
Somehow I decided that I will get the bike backwards near a puddle of water and get the mud out as the mud was really semi solid and it refused to come out easily. I tried so many yoga-asana with my bike to get her reverse but failed. Then I somehow managed to lift her rear and turned her 180 degrees. That’s when my bike made love with the mud after a perfect fall. Somehow I managed to lift her up. Whoa! That was some exercise. I was really clueless when an angel dawned upon the scene. Some local boy came up and started helping me. After 5 mins, 3 more laborers on their way back home came to the scene. I asked for help and they agreed. Then all 5 of us lifted the bike altogether and took it to the water puddle. After this task was done, I was panting like a tired horse.

With the sole source of light being a mobile, I took out a pair of spanners from the tool box. Meanwhile my helmet wanted to join the party with bike and happily made a fall into mud while I was extracting the tool box. Now only I was remaining to join the party. But I was in no mood to soak my expensive jacket in the mud. The spanners did help and after intricate effort of 20 mins, we finally managed to free the front wheel. I was so damn tired and engrossed in the work that I fell to notice that a passing by Good Samaritan had stopped just for me and focused his car’s headlight on my bike so that I could get a good illumination. I was really astonished and glad someone at last did offer help without asking for.
Anyway, but now the work was done and I just signaled him that the work is done and he may leave. While leaving he once again asked whether I needed any help, I replied in negative and thanked him with all my heart. I also thanked wholesomely to all the 4 people who helped me. That was all that I could do. I felt a little embarrassed too. Had I been alone, the bike would never have budged another meter. Just then got to know the kid who helped me out and came to know that his name is Santosh and he plies a goods carrier in and around Pune. So this was the other side of all these people whom we curse upon all the time on the road. I have a different perspective of them after that day. When all the bikers like me failed to help me, some local driver helped me out.
Indeed this world is not that bad as we think. It depends on how we perceive the things!!!!!!!!!
So finally my bike was moving. Helmet was all smeared with mud, so I locked it on the helmet lock and then bading goodbye to Santosh, I made my move towards home. Once I reached home, I saw that I was a complete mess. My shoes were almost 1 inch higher because of mud and trousers were full with deep stains of mud. The bike was a combination of black and brown. And to cap it off, when my helmet made a fall, the visor had cracked. So finally this misadventure did affect my pocket. After reaching home, got questioned glances from my mom. First thing I said before she even asked me anything “No!! It wasn’t an accident. My bike got stuck in mud” And then proceeded to explain the complete thing just to make her sure. At last I examined myself and found that I had sprained my back and my neck while pulling the bike in reverse.
Man! So that was one hell of an evening.

Million Dollar Question

Yeah so the million dollar question (in the world of music.. rock music to be precise). Which one is the best Guitar solo till today?
Well popularly its "Stairway to Heaven" by Led Zeppelin or "Comfortably Numb" by Pink Floyd. I beg to differ on that. Please forgive about the bragging which I do about my favorite band Iron Maiden,but the best guitar solo has to be "PHANTOM OF THE OPERA" by none other than the Gods of Heavy Metal. Its really difficult for me to give any other the numero uno status. The solo in Phantom although is a dual guitar solo, but still its the best and I can listen it over and over and over again till eternity!!!!!!!!

And this one is undeniable.....
The best guitar riff of all time is unarguably "HALLOWED BE THY NAME". Heck!!! Name other one??
UP THE IRONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Political Dictatorship

13th May 2008.
Tuesday 1800 hrs.
Tuesday, the first official working day of the week(As on Monday people normally recuperate from the weekend hangover). So obviously I was a bit strained. I left from my office at Hinjewadi on my bike. Traffic was as usual at its best. Somehow I managed to clear through the irritating traffic of Hinjewadi village and made it to the Wakad bridge and as soon as I crossed the bridge, I saw another traffic jam. It wasn't a new thing as the small croosroad after the bridge is always jammed. But as I neared the crossroad, I saw that the traffic was extending beyond it. I started to use the technique which I had learnt while manoeuvring through Hosur Road in Bangalore(trust me, its one of the most hopeless road to drive on with trucks, trailers, hoards of buses, swanky SUVs, cars and two wheelers-- all in the exponential quantities, specially on weekday evenings. Bangalore folks will definitely agree on this.) Anyways Pune is not that far behind Bangalore when it comes to traffic. As I started moving forward, I saw the traffic line as long as I could lay my eyes upon. This was not normal. I hoped it wasn't an accident. Last thing I wanted to see was a gory sight of accident on this messy evening. I kept on moving forward, sometimes at the kuccha road on left of the road or sometimes in the wrong lane to the right. There was no traffic coming from opposite side. I wondered what must be the problem. At last reached the spot where I found a deadlock between a truck coming from opposite side and a bus in my lane. I started cursing these drivers for the stupid mess they had put the me and all the other people behind me. Almost I must have crossed not less than 200 cars and about 50 buses and uncountable number of 2 wheelers. I saw on my speedo that the traffic jam longed for more than 2 km and it took me almost 15 mins to cross that. I managed to cross the bus and that's when I got a real shock. In front of the bus was a grandly decorated truck with loud music being played in from of it. I was not able to see exactly what was all this fuss about. Just then a biker besides me found a detour. He took his bike from above a closed manhole cover onto a small ground which joined the road after about 200m. I gladly followed him. When I made it to the ground, I saw the correct picture. The vehicle belonged to some political party and they seemed to be in festive mood celebrating with all the "sandaal"(Hey! not a girl's sandal. Its a group of drummers who play number of big drums(dholaks) in sync. The noise is comparable to some big DJ night. May be more than that). No one knew what they were celebrating. All I could see was the helplessness on the face of all the commuters who were facing the brunt of this foolish act of the nonsense political party people(goondas to be precise). They were not at all concerned about the trouble they were causing almost thousand people because of this so called celebration of theirs. Had it been some college students dancing on road, people might have swoop them in no time. But as these people are known to have a hand above their head which everybody knows, so no one dared even to talk to them.

Such is the situation in our Democratic India, where all the political parties are free to carry out whatever they want. No one can voice their opinion against them ,because if they do, they know the consequences.
Hey!! am I seeing a Hitler in making??

Why Me?

How often you feel "I wanted this thing." But exactly opposite happens. And then you wonder "Why me God?".
I dont know why ?
Maybe we are so much engulfed in our own prejudices that we fail to foresee what lays in store for us. Even when we can see it clearly, we just dont want to see it or rather believe it. And this leads to our dissappointment.
Sometimes maybe we know that whatever we are doing is wrong, but however we try we cannot stop ourselves from doing it.
And sometimes bigotry may lead us to our disgrace. But the saddest thing is that there is no cure for one untill the person himself faces one of the consequences and realises his mistake". OR he is strong enough to ralise and accept that he needs to change his outlook towards life.
Sounds so simple!!! But equally difficult to put it into practicality.

Do we entangle our life too much just to be free?

This just makes me wonder how much more complex our human mind is which has led the human being in the victory over other creatures on this earth.

One last hope
To rise and break away
Above the fading line
Way beyond the ties that bind
This I know
The risk is worth the gain
It's worth the sacrifice
Way beyond the ties that bind
-ALTER BRIDGE