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

here we stand

once again we rushed our way through the peak hour traffic to gather at vijay chowk. at around 6:30 PM we kick started our second critical mass ride in delhi. the ride was pleasant, the weather is also i guess great for bike rides. not too hot, not too cold. the total ride was around 13kms. we missed some of the friends who couldn't make to the ride. still i'm sure we will keep on increasing in numbers just that we need to keep our patience.
more importantly what i know is - that this is not the first Critical Mass Ride in delhi nor is this the last one. riders will keep on changing but the ride will keep going on.

a short trip with ups and downs

as a self proclaimed biker the time had come for me to stop doing the talk talk and try do a ride. and specially after last weeks ride with the bikesonroad i realised how slow and unfit i am. my daily rides to office is not sufficient to keep pace with the world. finally this saturday morning i decided to ride on the gurgaon-faridabad highway. i still remember what the road used to be 5-6years back, now we call it a highway it was no more than a village road i would say. anyways now in it's new avtaar it looks tempting to drive or ride and hence i started. the first uphill coming my way shook my spirit a bit but then i decided to make it till teri at any cost. as once you cross teri the road is flat and for me that won't be an issue as going uphill. also i really wanted to have fun on the downhill on my way just after crossing village ghata. all my dreams where shattered once i reached the slope after ghata...

there was a massive traffic jam early in the morning.



people where stuch there i don't know since when some of them where taking u-turns and back to gurgaon. similar thoughts cam in my mind. but yet again the the realisation of being. of being on a bike enlightened me. and i started seeing the gaps betwen the truck & the tavera. between the alto & the indica. between the qualis & baleno. and here was I the smoothly gliding through the unseen passages and in around a minute through with the jam.



by the time i crossed the jam, i started having other plans for the route to be tracked. took a left turn towards aya nagar from teri (instead going straight for faridabad) and pedalled past the village coming my way. though these villages are not more of small rural pockets inbetween the larger cityscape. and very much a part of the texture we see in google earth of delhi and it's neighbourhood. they seamlessly blend into the fabric of our urban landscapes. giving it a nice relief, watch it in google earth looks pretty fine. as i was riding through the narrow lanes of the villages never realised when did i cross the border and enter delhi. nothing to worry it's not one of the problematic borders.



took a short break for a photo session. and again i kept riding via khullar karms to m.g. road.




as about to reach the main road i met bandharv ram the mobile industrialist who goes from place to place on his bike and and repairs those folding beds we get. and once we over use the beds for whatever reason we need bandharv ram to fix it. well thats another story to be touched upon on another occasion.



waving goodbye to bandharv ram i touched the m. g. road and the sensation of maddening traffic could be felt in the air, a deep breath would be filling your lungs with the smoke and dust of the passing traffic. traffic created by the lesser known creatures of the world who work on saturdays (hahaha atleast this weekend i hope i'm not working).

middle of the road one can see the grand construction of delhi metro on it's way to connect gurgaon with the main stream. and on the left side can be seen the leftovers of the once flourishing m.g. road retail sector, which had been demolished or shut down a couple of years back. though some sparks of life can be seen as some shops have re opened and doing business.




as i pedaled towards gurgaon, got used to the traffic. and kept my all time lazy pace. a bit before aya nagar crossing saw this small roadside shrine, which i had otherwise always overlooked. didn't get down just took a couple of shots sitting in my bike and carried on, the woman there was probably expecting some shoot charges and looked a bit dissapointed at my early leave.




in the next few minutes i'm in gurgaon and on my regular commuting area. another short photo session



trying to make my bike well traveled mountain bike. prefered to follow the longer route home with a bit more of uphills, somehow this time it didn't tire me at all and soon i was home downloading the pictures on to my machine. and here i am finally writting down the trail.

trail to bhondsi

this morning around 7 of us did a ride to a nearby village of Bhondsi. We all are from gurgaon and the trail started from sohna road. most of the guys were regulars and seemed to be fit enough except for me. we pedaled upto the village temple next to a pond, where we could see ducks and peacocks. took a short break there. had a photo session. and off we started back did a short detour to take a full round of the pond. the road was excellent for biking. most of it had trees around and almost negligible traffic. on our way back we stopped at a chaiwala after a short dirt road. i had to get down and push my bike through. chai accompanied by matthi and parle glucose biscuits. back on track in while we hit the sohna road and soon we where back home. the entire trail was around 25kms or so.