crossing my own fear

had been a long while since i had been on a long ride, had been postponing things for a while for all sorts of odd reasons. today around noon i realised i had not much to do for the next few hours.

what else should be my agenda than picking up my bike, the tools, some spare tubes, the pump, loads of water and something to munch. around 1:30 i set my foot on the pedal and started off. had been planning to go to Manger for a while but i was not sure whether i will be able to do the steep uphill climb once i go down the hill. though its not that steep still i always think i may not succeed (i think i will go breathless while attempting). but i was dying to kill my fear to go uphill. and decided to ride to such a place where i need to go uphill on my way and down hill while coming back. in such a case i won't get stuck once i am downhill. one such place i had driven down a couple of years back. the place called aravali retreat, as the name suggests they are the low lying hills near delhi known as the aravalis. the ride took me through some villages, some farms (those real farms where people use tractors to plough the fields and one can see lush green crops around), i am not getting into the detail of the route one can check it by clicking on the link below.







after riding for almost 20kms i was finally standing at the foot of the small hill. a hill on which if i manage to ride up it will be a smooth ride back. i was not sure whether i will be able to climb it in a go. but what i was sure of was that i will make sure i climb it up even if i have to take a hundred stops. slowly and steadily i reached the base simultaneously i lowered my gears. i didn't mind how slow the process will be but i had to climb it on my bike. the start was not bad but by the time i was half way through i realised i was falling short on my breath and i could hear my heart pumping at an extremely fast rate. the only way i calculate my the point when i need to stop and relax is when i feel the need to open my mouth to take gush of air into my lungs. the time had come i parked my bike on the side took a sip from my bottle shot some pictures from my camera.






took me some 10mins to get back to normal and again i set atop my bike. slowly and very slowly i kept on riding till again i had to take a break, had to take a sip of water, had to take lungs full of air, in around 2mins or so i was back on my pedal to do the last bit of climb. probably the total climb was around 75-80mtrs, but at that point of time it was the highest climb for me. i realised today i did not only climbed over the little hill but along with it my own big fear.







once over there everything was looking easy did a short off-road ride to a nearby Dargah of Baba Bilasiyan. sat there for a few minutes chatted up with the local kids, who where amused to see my silly bike with gears and a sillier me wearing a helmet for biking. it was fun to see there reactions. soon i set back on the downhill ride after hydrating myself and taking loads of clean unpolluted air in my chest. another hour to go but no more up hills and no more should i be care if they come my way.





i realised today i did not only crossed the little hill but along with it crossed my own big fear.


http://sportstracker.nokia.com/nts/workoutdetail/index.do?id=1754923

critical what??? mass???

till a few year back i used to get impatient every friday afternoon thinking about plans for the evening, always had a handfull of options - movies, beer, an expensive dinner, a road side dinner, long drives and very long drives.
well things have changed a bit. and certain things haven't changed much. yesterday was again one of those friday afternoons and i was already impatient. it was the last friday of the month and i had to be there. had to reach central delhi by 6 o'clock. vijay chowk to be precise.

where is vijay chowk?
the big chowk outside rashtrapati bhawan.

to do what?
to attend the critical mass

what?
the critical mass.

come again?
the critical mass.

what's critical mass?
on the last friday of every month, around six in the evening. a group of bikers come together and pedal through the busy, traffic laden city streets.


but why?
well to let the people know that there are bikers who do exist. and they are a part of the street as much as anybody else. still you can check out wikipedia, wiki knows it more than i do.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_Mass

so?
ya, i made it reached almost on time. to find out people doing a warm up session. some new faces mixed with the old ones. few faces who where just names till yesterday.
a nice round of polite conversations.
learnt from the seniors how to take help of patience and believe in the mission to make it happen.
and finally we started. all of us trying to make two parallel rows to ride along. nicely and slowly took two rounds of india gate circle. it was amazing to wade through the forever flowing traffic. the honking. the screeching. and what not.
i almost had a fight with a car driver who jumped the red light more or less hitting me. well nothing such happened, i never got hurt neither did i fight with him. but that's the point people don't bother to see things around them while they drive specially smaller vehicles.
after two good rounds of india gate we took on to kasturba gandhi marg. not much of traffic till we reach CP outer circle. did a full parikrama of the outer circle before entering the inner one. the road as expected was heavy on traffic, but i'm sure there would be loads of driver who must be feeling jealous to see us easily making way through the traffic as they stood waiting for the others to move. barring the pollution levels being very high riding in CP was fun. after completing the inner circle we took on to baba kharak singh marg. our initial plan was to go back all the way back to vijay chowk with the rest of the group which we could not do as my friends had to give back the bikes to patel chowk metro station from where they where hired.
now we are standing and waving good bye to those who are on there way back to vijay chowk to finish the 12th delhi critical mass.

it's time for us to pat our own back and celebrate success and look forward to next months last friday for the 13th delhi critical mass. once again we all will be at vijay chowk at 6 o'clock on 25th september.

kanandale in kerala

did a driving trip to kerala, managed to take my cannondale along. most of the time it snugged in the back of my car, but once in allepy (alapuzzha) i spent around 4-5 days only on my bike. a small town. the National Highway - 47 piercing right through the town which runs all the way to kanyakumari. the town maybe small but mostly busy with people on the main streets, not only streets one can find canals and water bodies taking a lot of traffic in and out of the town. though the traffic is by no means maddening just that there are people around giving the place a fine character. it was and excellent place to ride the bike. a couple of times i rode to the nearby villages through paddy fields, coconut trees, lakes and ponds. not just coconut trees the place houses few beautiful churches and pretty old buildings. well my kanandale (cannondale) had a great time in those excursions.

my cannondale Q5