tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-370602682024-03-08T01:00:21.250+05:30Here I amMy trips, my dreams, my family, my passions, my likings ...Nalin Bakshihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09564955060512476138noreply@blogger.comBlogger94125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37060268.post-5994963832130523342009-08-07T08:12:00.003+05:302009-08-07T08:17:33.171+05:30Indian Air Force of the future<p>One more IAF plane crashed in last 10 days. It was a training aircraft.Both the trainer and the trainee died in the crash. IAF has gone down from one of the best to one below average. The training time had to be reduced because of the lack of a super sonic trainer. The one we have is a very old class. Graduating from which, the young recruit has to fly the flying coffin aka MiG 21. Air Force around the world mean the latest in technology and military hardware. They have the most cutting edge technology in the world. But IAF, na... they still fly the MiG 21 which is already in the museum of a lot of Air Forces. These are the same planes with which we fought the Indo-pak war of 1971, which means that they are at-least 38 years old. Reminds me of Fiat <i>padmini</i>, we laugh at people who still drive it and are amaze at the fact how they can drive a 20 year old car and here we have 38 year old aircrafts to defend us. What has the Govt Of India been doing?</p> <p>The MiG crashes now and then have made people un-confident about our air force. Sadly no one among the public is asking why? MiG 21s are not the only ones, after that we have the aging fleet or MiG 27s and jaguars. MiG 29 are also getting old. Add to that, we are already short of aircraft. Instead iof sanctioned 39.5 squadrons, we have only 34. God forbids but if tomorrow we are pushed into battle, things won't be too good for us.</p> <p>But this year things have been improving. And Congress seems to be taking bold steps under the leadership of Dr Manmohan Singh.The same man who saved India in 90's when India's economy was in shambles. Now lets check out the the good side. The Il-78 (Ilyushin -78, Russian) refuelers are here, which mean that IAF can send fighters any where in the world. That is how we got to participate in USAF's advanced training course - <b>Red Flag</b>. That's not the only good news, we are also getting AWACS (Advanced Warning And Control System). AWACS are special aircraft with a huge RADAR on top of them (check the pic on the left). This allows forces to see far deeper and in event of war will give India the edge. The AWACS we have is an Il-76 aircraft with Phalcon RADAR (Israeli). India already operates the Ilyushin 76 heavy lift cargo aircraft and using the same means we already have a service base in India. In addition to this IAF will also procure C-130 medium lift cargo aircraft from US (Manufacturer: Lockheed Martin, USA).</p><p></p> <p>This is not it. IAF had few years back signed a deal for 140 Su-30MKI (Sukhoi 30, M:Improved, K:export version, I:India) air dominance fighters, the number of which have been increased to 230 now. Its a unique aircraft because IAF bought the best airframe which was Su-30MK, got it improved to a Su 35 level, got best avionics from Israel and Europe and got them integrated.</p> <p>Another good news is that IAF has inducted the hawk super sonic aircraft too (check the pic on the right). Though, currently in process, this latest induction would mean that IAF can go back to the grueling training that IAF pilots used to get. With low risks, the new pilots would be trained better.</p> <p>And now finally MMRCA(Meduim Multi Role Combat Airraft) deal for 126 aircrafts is coming into reality. And the contenders are one of the best. Here is a glance:</p> <ul><li><b>F-16 IN</b>: The most advanced F-16, if ever built would be for the IAF.</li><li><b>F-18 F:</b> The highly advanced F-18 used by US Navy.</li><li><b>Rafael: </b>IAF wanted the Mirage but French Dassault came out with the best they had, the all new Rafael.</li><li><b>Euro-Fighter: </b>This is the best the Europe has (excluding Rafael) to offer.</li><li><b>JAS 39 Grippen</b>: This one from Sweden is not the best but certainly cost effective.</li><li><b>MiG 35</b>: The son of MiG29, this new age avatar is the most agile aircraft in the world.</li></ul> <p>For more on MMRCA deal you can check out this link: <a title="MMRCA Deal" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_MRCA_competition" mce_href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_MRCA_competition" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_MRCA_competition</a> (opens in new window)</p> <p>Had enough good news? No.. then here is the dessert - after the failure of <i>Kaveri </i>engine for LCA, the indigenous aircraft will be fitted with a foreign engine. IAF had long been unimpressed and was afraid that Govt might force it to use ingeniously built engine. The new proven engine will make sure that this delayed aircraft is combat worthy and if hopefully approved by the IAF, it would be the first indigenous combat aircraft.</p> <p>While all this coming too late for India, but thankfully, its coming. Threat from China is no more being ignored by Indian government. We still are completely depended on foreign suppliers for our defense procurement and its high time that we start building good products in India. They need not be world class but they should not be a flop show. I hope the future governments do take this up-gradation of our armed forces ahead because in this new age of nuclear war, if a war erupts, we should have our men in uniform equipped with best we can give them to take the fight to the enemy and come back winning.</p>Nalin Bakshihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09564955060512476138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37060268.post-82401930862516150192009-05-24T06:31:00.000+05:302009-06-08T04:54:38.435+05:30R15, The review<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153); line-height: 12px; font-family:'Trebuchet MS';font-size:11px;"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 18px; font-size:12px;">Yamaha came back to India with a bang. The bang which is now know as the R15 (R one five). 150CC, 17PS and R1 DNA, that describes R15 in a nutshell. But frankly, is the bike worth the price? I would say so. If you are looking for a sports bike, with race primarily in your mind then this is the bike for you. And quite frankly there are not much racing bikes in India anyways. The close second to this would be the Apache RTR. R15 delivers what it promises, a circuit racing bike. The tires, the posture, the engine all suited for only one purpose – racing. That is exactly why the bike has an 150 CC engine. In order to produce high RPMs essential for a racing bike, they had to make a small engine which could deliver so. To increase the efficiency of the engine they also provided with fuel injection. The delta box frame from R1 has been used in this bike too, giving great balance and bringing strength to the chassis. Don’t let the thin tires of the bike elude you. These soft compound tires might not look good but they are great on circuit.</span><div class="entry" style="font-size: 1.1em; "><div class="snap_preview"><p style="line-height: 1.5em; "><strong>The Engine</strong></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">The small 150CC engine is quite capable of pushing the bike to 130KMPH plus. Though you might feel a lack of pick up but a good revving won’t displease you much. The bike has 6 gears in all , the gear ratios are very well set and help you keep the bike at good rpms. Needless to say the bike is not made to deliver good mileage so don’t expect much. It could go anything from 25KMPL to 45 KMPL depending on how you are riding and on what kind of a terrain. The engine is smooth and the FI does seem to help. The gear box is very smooth and clutch responsive.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; "><strong>Chassis</strong></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">The chassis is the patent Yamaha <strong>delta box</strong>. This gives the bike a good balance and strength. The mono-suspension in the rear provides better stability. In theory it does, in practical, I don’t know, but the bike seems to handle bump really well. The bike has a low ground clearance so you might need to watch out for speed breakers which are thin but high. Both the front and rear wheels have disc brake. The brakes are very responsive and give confidence to the rider. Jamming both the brakes doesn’t shake the bike much and inspires confidence.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; "><strong>Posture</strong></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">Truly a racing one, you can ride with a back at 80 degrees or you can lean with your waist on the tank to allow for more aerodynamics. Crouching on the tank initially feels odd as you have to lean a lot in comparison to other bikes, but one gets used to it quiet easily. The foot rest are well placed and you feel in unison with the bike once on the move. The center of gravity of the rider is pushed forward and does help a lot once you get on the curves. Leaning off the bike is quiet easy too. So far I have not seen or heard from anyone who would be able to lean so much that the foot rest or the stand would touch the ground as in case of pulsars, so basically the limit of the bike is just you and the traction with the surface below the tires.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; "><strong>Front Console</strong></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">The front console is feels big once you are on the bike. The digital console is very decent, digital speedo with analog odometer makes for a impressive look. The white back light for the speedometer is very pleasing. The numbers are big and are easily readable. You have the option to keep record of two trips. The fuel in the bike is indicated by bars on the left of speedometer and when the bike is low on fuel the last bar at the bottom starts to blink. Often the light starts to blink way in advance. And if you still don’t refuel and the bike is very low on fuel, the last bar will disappear.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">The clip on handle bars on the bike are well positioned. Though they feel small but very adaptable unless you are a huge guy. The handle bars don’t put much stress on the shoulders and the position of brake and clutch lever is nice. The buttons are smooth, appealing and large enough to easily switch. The bike does remind of RX 100 when you switch these buttons.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">Lights: This is something which distinguishes R15 from other Indian bikes. The lights are undoubtedly good, but for some good is not enough and so they opt for white lights. A good 35W pair should do the trick without being a problem for your battery. Some might find it strange but both lights turn on only when you are at high beam. Else only one will work. This is to more to do with battery than having one light only as a high beam and other as normal. Both lights turn with same focus, but you have the privilege to change the angle as both lights are different.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; "><strong>Riding the bike</strong></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">Riding the bike is fun. The bike is light and still stable at high speeds too. Cross winds doesn’t seem to affect it as much as one would guess. Another thing I had doubts for was the gear ratios. 6 gears for 17PS bike seemed too much but I got used to it very quickly. Once you get the speed, slowing down is not something you would want. And this shows on road too. While others would be slowing down on turns you might be even thinking of revving it up more. The confidence on the bike is just too good which actually makes the bike worth the money. On straight lines the speed is as good as a pulsar 220 or even more at times. The superb handling makes it a pleasure to ride.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">You would often hear a strange sound coming from the engine, which is non other than the radiator working to cool the bike. The foot rest are small and feel odd when you wear the shoes with soft sole, but this is a racing bike, so you should not be complaining. I was not pleased with the position of the brake lever on the foot and sadly the bike provided only a small angle to change.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">Riding with someone with a pillion is ok within city limits, on a ride out the city, this can seem painful on your hands, since the pillion would be leaning and braking would put extra stress on your hands. But this again depends on the kind of rider you are. Some brake a lot, some very less. So it would all depend on you .</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; "><strong>How good is the bike to tour?</strong></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">There has already been a successful saddle sore attempt on the bike. But this doesn’t actually mean it’s a good tourer and I don’t think so too. The posture is not good in for long rides. Royal Enfields, Karizma and even the 220 would be way better and easier to ride on long routes. The high RPM engine is also the culprit, riding a Karizma or Pulsar 220 at high speeds is easier as both the bikes are low RPM bikes, which mean low vibrations at high speeds. Also if you plan to use bags (bags especially made for touring bikes or your normal backup or anything), tying them to the bike is not that easy. The cramster which we tried on R15 rubs against the plastic which comes out too much from the rear. But people have been using plastics etc to reduce the rub off from the bags. Also once the bike gets heavy, its pick up drops substantially against the like of Karizma, 220 or bullets. The low ground clearance can also be a problem if you would have to do bit of off roading or riding on the tracks like leh. This is bike is not meant for such riding. But this is something one should be okey with since R15 is a sports bike and not a tourer and as said in start of this section, a person has already done saddle sore (1600KMs in one day) on the bike, so nothing should stop you for using this bike for touring.</p><div class="mt20 clearfix"><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold; ">Specifications as on the official Yamaha site</span><br /></div><p style="line-height: 1.5em; "></p><p class="beginning-right" style="text-align: center;line-height: 1.5em; "><img src="http://www.yamaha-motor-india.com/product/r15/img/specs_r15ps.jpg" alt="YZF-R15" width="198" height="108" /></p></div><p style="line-height: 1.5em; "></p><h2 style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-weight: normal; color: rgb(189, 147, 79); font-size: 1.25em; line-height: 1.15em; padding-top: 1px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(53, 48, 42); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; "><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://www.yamaha-motor-india.com/product/img/specs_engine.gif" alt="Engine" width="542" height="21" /><br /></div></h2><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="542" summary="engine" style="text-align: center;width: 100%; border-collapse: collapse; "><tbody><tr><th style="border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(53, 48, 42); text-align: left; ">Engine type</th><td>Liquid-cooled, 4-stroke, SOHC, 4-valve</td></tr><tr class="bdt-gry"><th style="border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(53, 48, 42); text-align: left; ">Cylinder arrangement</th><td>Single cylinder</td></tr><tr class="bdt-gry"><th style="border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(53, 48, 42); text-align: left; ">Displacement</th><td>149 .8cc</td></tr><tr class="bdt-gry"><th style="border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(53, 48, 42); text-align: left; ">Bore & Stroke</th><td>57×58.7mm</td></tr><tr class="bdt-gry"><th style="border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(53, 48, 42); text-align: left; ">Compression ratio</th><td>10.4:1</td></tr><tr class="bdt-gry"><th style="border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(53, 48, 42); text-align: left; ">Maximum power</th><td>17PS / 8,500rpm</td></tr><tr class="bdt-gry"><th style="border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(53, 48, 42); text-align: left; ">Maximum torque</th><td>15 N.m / 7,500rpm</td></tr><tr class="bdt-gry"><th style="border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(53, 48, 42); text-align: left; ">Starting system</th><td>Electric Start</td></tr><tr class="bdt-gry"><th style="border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(53, 48, 42); text-align: left; ">Lubrication</th><td>wet sump</td></tr><tr class="bdt-gry"><th style="border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(53, 48, 42); text-align: left; ">Engine oil capacity</th><td>1.0 liters</td></tr><tr class="bdt-gry"><th style="border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(53, 48, 42); text-align: left; ">Fuel tank capacity</th><td>12 liters</td></tr><tr class="bdt-gry"><th style="border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(53, 48, 42); text-align: left; ">Fuel supply system</th><td>Electronic fuel injection</td></tr><tr class="bdt-gry"><th style="border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(53, 48, 42); text-align: left; ">Ignition system</th><td>T.C.I</td></tr><tr class="bdt-gry"><th style="border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(53, 48, 42); text-align: left; ">Primary / Secondary reduction ratio</th><td>3.042 / 3.000</td></tr><tr class="bdt-gry"><th style="border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(53, 48, 42); text-align: left; ">Clutch type</th><td>Constant-mesh wet multi-plate</td></tr><tr class="bdt-gry"><th style="border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(53, 48, 42); text-align: left; ">Transmission type</th><td>Return type 6-speed</td></tr><tr class="bdt-gry"><th style="border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(53, 48, 42); text-align: left; ">Gear ratios</th><td>1st=2.833, 2nd=1.875, 3rd:=1.364,<br />4th=1.143, 5th=0.957, 6th=0.84</td></tr></tbody></table><h2 style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-weight: normal; color: rgb(189, 147, 79); font-size: 1.25em; line-height: 1.15em; padding-top: 1px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(53, 48, 42); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; "><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://www.yamaha-motor-india.com/product/img/specs_chassis.gif" alt="Chassis" width="542" height="21" /><br /></div></h2><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="542" summary="chassis" style="text-align: center;width: 100%; border-collapse: collapse; "><tbody><tr><th style="border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(53, 48, 42); text-align: left; ">Frame type</th><td>Deltabox Frame</td></tr><tr class="bdt-gry"><th style="border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(53, 48, 42); text-align: left; ">Caster / Trail</th><td>26° / 100mm</td></tr><tr class="bdt-gry"><th style="border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(53, 48, 42); text-align: left; ">Tire size (Front / Rear)</th><td>80/90-17 / 100/80-17</td></tr><tr class="bdt-gry"><th style="border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(53, 48, 42); text-align: left; ">Brake type (Front / Rear)</th><td>Hydraulic, single disc (Front / Rear)</td></tr><tr class="bdt-gry"><th style="border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(53, 48, 42); text-align: left; ">Suspension type (Front / Rear)</th><td>Telescopic / Linked type Monocross</td></tr><tr class="bdt-gry"><th style="border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(53, 48, 42); text-align: left; ">Headlight</th><td>12V35W / 35W+35W</td></tr></tbody></table><h2 style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-weight: normal; color: rgb(189, 147, 79); font-size: 1.25em; line-height: 1.15em; padding-top: 1px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(53, 48, 42); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; "><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://www.yamaha-motor-india.com/product/img/specs_dimensions.gif" alt="dimensions" width="542" height="21" /><br /></div></h2><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="542" summary="dimensions" style="text-align: center;width: 100%; border-collapse: collapse; "><tbody><tr><th style="border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(53, 48, 42); text-align: left; ">Overall length x width x height</th><td>1,995mm x 670mm x 1,070mm</td></tr><tr class="bdt-gry"><th style="border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(53, 48, 42); text-align: left; ">Seat height</th><td>790mm</td></tr><tr class="bdt-gry"><th style="border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(53, 48, 42); text-align: left; ">Wheelbase</th><td>1,290mm</td></tr><tr class="bdt-gry"><th style="border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(53, 48, 42); text-align: left; ">Minimum ground clearance</th><td>160mm</td></tr><tr class="bdt-gry"><th style="border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(53, 48, 42); text-align: left; ">Dry weight / Curb weight</th><td>120kg / 131kg</td></tr></tbody></table></div></div></span>Nalin Bakshihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09564955060512476138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37060268.post-69109876618773477742009-05-15T06:34:00.000+05:302009-06-08T04:55:45.153+05:30Get ready its paint ball time<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153); line-height: 12px; font-family:'Trebuchet MS';font-size:11px;"><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">One gun, 100 paint balls and 5 enemies - my friends but thy shall have <strong>NO Mercy.</strong></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">Back at Chandigarh with friends, we decided to play paint ball. It was me, Saahil, bandhu, Narinder, Kalia, Sanket, Enu and two others. Saahil took us off PGI route to the place. The arena was decent size with simple set up. There were trenches, sand bags, tires and wooden planks in different design placed startegically.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">Me, Saahil, Bandhu and Narinder. The start was fantastic, the owner pointed the gun at a sand bag and fired 2 shots. The bag burst open. It was good enuf to scare enu. Sanket was the daring one, he asked the owner to fire one directly at him and he didnt budge a bit. That was gud enuf to give me confidence.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; "><strong>Narinder’s trial shot</strong></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">My team was all set in khake dangris, Sanket was talking to us when Narinder pointed the gun at Sanket and bam – one shot straight at the helmet, more of a face covering than head. A long slime saliva dropped from his helmet. The ball had hit just in front of mouth and and some parts had enter his mouth when he was talking to us. His mouth, lips were swollen but he was back in the arena in 2 mins after rinsing his mouth, guts man!</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; "><strong>Game on</strong></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">Me and narinder made a team and Saahil , bandhu other. Their task was to cover us. Just like in the movies i started firing like a commando. Bandhu was out in no time. They were 5 and were moving towards and we were pinned down. Nari made a hit, but that guy refused to accept that. I made only one kill. All that hero thing didnt work.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">I got number of hits and so did Narinder, but it was one fun event.</p></span>Nalin Bakshihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09564955060512476138noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37060268.post-45739452053791178172009-04-22T06:36:00.000+05:302009-06-08T04:57:43.165+05:30New learnings<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153); line-height: 12px; font-family:'Trebuchet MS';font-size:11px;"><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">Ever since I shifted and started to stay alone, life has been a teacher for me. All alone, I have all the time to think about me and what I want to do with my life. And if one listens and looks around closely, there are a lot things one can learn from. And one of the things I am learning from is other’s failures. I never judged people, I still don’t much; but now I have started to look into their way of thinking and start to analyze why are they where they are.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">Fortunately people or incidents in my life have been teaching me lots of things. Few of them I would like to share:</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">1. Those who are not successful are so because they don’t know what they want. Thats why those who dream big tend to be more successful.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">2. Hard work is not the mantra, smart work is. My boss asked me to write a logic in one day’s time, though it was not a one day thing. Then later on that same thing he asked to me write some other code in one day time, again it was a way too optimistic thought. Then again couple of such pieces of code. I worked hard but I knew it was not going to solve the problem. After weeks when the design team rejected the code, the work came back to me. This time fortunately my boss said – ok! just do it and finish it once and for all. One day planning and two days coding.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">The code is now bug free.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">3. People who are good managers tend to do better. There are no super men, but there are super managers. Every successful man is either a successful manager or has one working for him. You can’t fight the simple fact that there are 24 hrs in a day and that you do need a good 7to 8 hrs sleep every day. You have to manage your work, life, family etc in these 24 hrs only. If you do it, you are a winner.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">4. Money is source of happiness. I must have mentioned it on the blog that I was never after money. I am still not but what I have realised is that money is important. I should not do wrong to get it, but if I can get it through right means, then its a great thing to have. And as my uncle says: “Those who say money doesn’t buy happiness don’t know the shop to buy it from”.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">5. No point betting on a pony. No matter how much you want the pony cannot beat the horse in a race (under normal conditions). The pony is going to be a pony and horse a horse. We cannot change them and we shouldn’t expect much too. I have to say this but my company is like the same, they are a pony and they would always be one until they change their DNA (style of working). I have spent years in that company but they still don’t realise my efforts. And there is no point continuing if they continue to do so…</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">6. Compromises don’t work: Thy shall not compromise. Compromises don’t work and thats a fact. And I don’t want to compromise any more. I know I can’t escape it but for most part of my life, I will not. I am where I am today because I compromised on something or the other. People might call me rude now but thats the fact. There are things I will compromise for but those would be for friends and family.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">7. Give time to friends: I have not given a good time to friends, no thanks to my hectic office schedule. But I need to break this jinx. I need to go out and spend quality time with friends. What is life without friends and family?</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">8. Early retirement. I never thought about it but there is something like this too. If you have worked good and earned lots, its time to retire and enjoy life. But this would only happen if I earn a lot. So One should plan early and get it done.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">9. Nothing beats a good plan: A good, thought out plan is hard to beat. The more planned it is, the more likely it is to survive. If you think and think through, you can work on a path for which you have done some research and this always help. Instead of waisting time on what to do when you reach a problem, spend time to choose path without a problem.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">10. Successful generals are those who have a great back up plan. This I read somewhere and still have to think about. But what it states as you might conclude is an alternate plan if things start to go wrong or don’t fall at right places. If you have a back up plan, you can always switch to that. The back up plan might be different but the objective must be the same</p></span>Nalin Bakshihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09564955060512476138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37060268.post-38616327823767381302009-04-21T06:38:00.000+05:302009-06-08T04:57:01.816+05:30Ride to kashid<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153); line-height: 12px; font-family:'Trebuchet MS';font-size:11px;"><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">Had fun time riding at night to kashid. At one of the ghats there were small illuminating reflectors by the side of the road. The light from the motorcycle was illuminating them and I wanted to see if I can ride fast enough so that the dots become a line.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">Night riding has been fun so far.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">We didn’t get a place to stay so had to sleep on the beach. Sleeping on the beach at night, it was fun I must say.</p></span>Nalin Bakshihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09564955060512476138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37060268.post-28700335901555098662009-04-07T06:38:00.000+05:302009-06-08T04:59:14.148+05:30Night ride<div>Dark night, curvy roads going up and down, two riders and no one on the road </div><div>Paradise!</div><div><br /></div><div>Two engines roaring on a quiet, empty road, the light beam just sufficient enough to light up the next 15 meters on a hilly track and one doesn’t know if the road is going to turn right or left, it doesn’t get scarier than that. Reminds of another late night ride where I was going fast all set to take the tight right hander when the High intensity light from a bike behind light up the road and i saw at the very last minute that its a hard left instead. Had he been slow I would have been down the hill.But tonight I can’t control the itch to throttle up. The speedo moving between 60 to 80KMPH on way to lavasa. There is just no straight line (there are a few stretches but a very few).There was no plan to ride at night, I had to deliver a diary to a friend whose number I just couldn’t get through so what to do? I thought perhaps it was my phone so I called a friend and we got talking. Few minutes later it ended with a ride plan.Me and somanath met at Chandani Chownk (pune, India), sayan didn’t show up. Somanath said – “hey we won’t ride fast tonight, around 80KMPH* only”. And I was thinking to myself – “80 at ghats, i would be happy if I could touch 60 on those roads”. But you can’t control the adrenaline. It takes over you and when the mood is ride, the mind is at peace, the bio senses just start to perform with great efficiency. I just kept going faster and faster till the sanity part of the brain told me – “hello, your not a motorcycle world champion, keep in limits”.It was a fun ride. Wish I could record it.</div>Nalin Bakshihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09564955060512476138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37060268.post-80338084413168402362009-03-29T06:41:00.000+05:302009-06-08T04:59:45.407+05:30The year ahead<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153); line-height: 12px; font-family:'Trebuchet MS';font-size:11px;"><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">Well everything seemed to be going right, the big hammer of recession hit the market and everything shook as if an earthquake had come. Thankfully in India things were not bad, thanks to the congress in power. But with elections around the corner and the mass unaware Indians heading in for voting, there is no clue what will happen if some other government comes. Add to that I am among the irresponsible Indians who would not be voting because I was too unaware of deadlines. Aware of the world but not aware of times. And its just not me, its the millions of so called intelligent Indians who would be on the same path.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">The plan ahead:</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">1. No more mr nice guy. Every one loves the nice guy, he helps, doesn’t complains and remains satisfied. Its not an easy life but he can’t change it. Neither can I, but this is a path I will take from now on.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">2. Money – it does matter. Well one of the few negative things about good people is that they are not after money. My dad was not and so I was not. But, things have changed. Sadly, it took me too long to realise this. Can’t help it – I am a piscean.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">3. Physical build: OK! I am just 72Kgs. I was not thin like I am today but things didn’t go well initially and i let them be like that. BIG MISTAKE. Fixing this is now a priority. No matter what I have to do it.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">4. Knowledge is power: Well everyone knows this but if you are in technology area, its a must. I need to work on it and brush up my skills. No more and more .</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">5. Buy a car: Yes! A small car to drive around.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">6. Motorcycle more: Go faster, longer and work on some tricks on bikes. I want to ride to shimla from pune and back or atleast go to goa. Yeah! I haven’t done that till now.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">7. Start night life back again. More disc, more partying.</p></span>Nalin Bakshihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09564955060512476138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37060268.post-36958539877186357412009-03-29T06:40:00.000+05:302009-06-08T04:58:31.317+05:30I want a new….<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153); line-height: 12px; font-family:'Trebuchet MS';font-size:11px;"><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">List of new things I want:</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">1. A new more powerful motorcycle: Something more like 400cc and available for couple of lakhs would do just fine.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">2. iPhone: do i even need to say anything about it.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">3. New car: Well I would want to drive a ferrari 360 but I think i could settle for i20.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">4. New computer: Two 21″ screens, quad processor, 4GB ram, a good cooling cabinet would do just fine.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">5. A new gal: Its sad but things always don’t work out. But who says the same old gal in the new avatar won’t do the trick.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">6. A new helmet: That is if I do something better on the motorcycle.</p></span>Nalin Bakshihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09564955060512476138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37060268.post-87849278044351633192008-11-21T06:44:00.000+05:302009-06-08T04:53:21.629+05:30Chinmay's last ride with us<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153); line-height: 12px; font-family:'Trebuchet MS';font-size:11px;"><div class="snap_preview"><div class="entry"><div class="snap_preview"><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">Life moves on and we are bound to take different paths someday.</p><dl class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="display: block; border-top-width: 1px; border-right-width: 1px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: solid; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-right-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-bottom-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-left-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); text-align: center; background-color: rgb(243, 243, 243); padding-top: 4px; margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px; -webkit-border-top-right-radius: 3px 3px; -webkit-border-top-left-radius: 3px 3px; -webkit-border-bottom-left-radius: 3px 3px; -webkit-border-bottom-right-radius: 3px 3px; "><dt class="wp-caption-dt"><img class="size-full wp-image-141" title="The Majestic Deccan Plateau" src="http://sayanjana.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/p2150046.jpg?w=450&h=337" alt="The Majestic Deccan Plateau" width="450" height="337" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-color: initial; " /></dt></dl><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">By Sayan Jana:</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; "><strong>Chinmaya (Kalingaputra)</strong>, a fellow <a href="http://www.bikenomads.com/" style="color: rgb(216, 215, 211); text-decoration: none; "><strong>BikeNomad(BN)</strong></a>member has decided to move out of Pune as a career move. With this note, we decided to meet for a quick ride to Mahabaleshwar….little did we know that it would turn out to be one of the finest rides in my view at BN.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">Initial plan was to explore <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahabaleshwar" style="color: rgb(216, 215, 211); text-decoration: none; "><strong>Mahabaleshwar </strong></a>and return to Pune.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; "><strong>0745hrs:</strong> For a change, I had my sleep in installments….waking up once at 0130hrs, 0245hrs, 0355hrs, 0430hrs and finally 0555hrs (without the alarm ringing once). It was as if, my soul was waiting for this ride. Taking the morning shower in cold water (I just love it), doing my morning puja, I reached CC (Chandni Chowk) at 0735hrs-perhaps, was the first one to arrive for a change(normally, I am 5-10mins late). Quickly rushed to the nearest tea stall for a quick cuppa tea and a smoke.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; "><strong>0750hrs-0810hrs:</strong>The entire entourage arrived – Amit(New BN member), Abhishek(Zulu) with Vaishali(First time ride with BN – A Mass Communication student looking to make a documentary for her project), Nalin, Somnath and Chinmaya. Introductions follow up soon with Route Mapping and pit-stops….Finally we hit the roads at 0815hrs.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">Once, we cleared Pune (Katraj ByPass), our Speedometer refused to go below 100km/hr. Going as high as 110-130km/hr, we soon covered 60-65km, when Nalin started complaining that we should stop for breakfast….Fortunately, everyone agreed since Zulu was way behind the gang. Being in Maharashtra, what else could be better than my favourite <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vada_pav" style="color: rgb(216, 215, 211); text-decoration: none; "><strong>Vaada-pao</strong></a>?</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; "><strong>1000hrs:</strong> We move ahead….cleared ‘Kambhatki Ghats’ (BN’s Favourite)[mountain passes on the Western Ghats in Maharashtra], we take the right at ‘Wai’ towards Mahabaleshwar. Reaching Panchgani Table Top, everyone decided to take a quick break.</p><div id="attachment_108" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 460px; border-top-width: 1px; border-right-width: 1px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: solid; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-right-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-bottom-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-left-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); text-align: center; background-color: rgb(243, 243, 243); padding-top: 4px; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; -webkit-border-top-right-radius: 3px 3px; -webkit-border-top-left-radius: 3px 3px; -webkit-border-bottom-left-radius: 3px 3px; -webkit-border-bottom-right-radius: 3px 3px; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; "><img class="size-full wp-image-108" title="Nomads stopping for a quick Photoshoot!" src="http://sayanjana.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/p2150006.jpg?w=450&h=337&h=337" alt="Nomads stopping for a quick Photoshoot!" width="450" height="337" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-color: initial; " /><p class="wp-caption-text" style="font-size: 11px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 4px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 4px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; ">Nomads stopping for a quick Photoshoot!</p></div><div id="attachment_110" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 460px; border-top-width: 1px; border-right-width: 1px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: solid; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-right-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-bottom-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-left-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); text-align: center; background-color: rgb(243, 243, 243); padding-top: 4px; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; -webkit-border-top-right-radius: 3px 3px; -webkit-border-top-left-radius: 3px 3px; -webkit-border-bottom-left-radius: 3px 3px; -webkit-border-bottom-right-radius: 3px 3px; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; "><img class="size-full wp-image-110" title="Our Steeds!!" src="http://sayanjana.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/p21500081.jpg?w=450&h=337&h=337" alt="Our Steeds!!" width="450" height="337" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-color: initial; " /><p class="wp-caption-text" style="font-size: 11px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 4px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 4px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; ">Our Steeds!!</p></div><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">The sun was pleasant around this time but was continously warning us to be prepared for a tougher day. We soon reached Mahabaleshwar where Chinmaya & Somnath suggested a place for the famous ‘Strawberry with Cream’.</p><div id="attachment_112" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 460px; border-top-width: 1px; border-right-width: 1px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: solid; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-right-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-bottom-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-left-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); text-align: center; background-color: rgb(243, 243, 243); padding-top: 4px; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; -webkit-border-top-right-radius: 3px 3px; -webkit-border-top-left-radius: 3px 3px; -webkit-border-bottom-left-radius: 3px 3px; -webkit-border-bottom-right-radius: 3px 3px; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; "><img class="size-full wp-image-112" title="The Beasts !!" src="http://sayanjana.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/p2150013.jpg?w=450&h=337&h=337" alt="The Beasts !!" width="450" height="337" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-color: initial; " /><p class="wp-caption-text" style="font-size: 11px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 4px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 4px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; ">The Beasts !!</p></div><div id="attachment_102" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 512px; border-top-width: 1px; border-right-width: 1px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: solid; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-right-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-bottom-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-left-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); text-align: center; background-color: rgb(243, 243, 243); padding-top: 4px; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; -webkit-border-top-right-radius: 3px 3px; -webkit-border-top-left-radius: 3px 3px; -webkit-border-bottom-left-radius: 3px 3px; -webkit-border-bottom-right-radius: 3px 3px; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; "><img class="size-full wp-image-102" title="Final Route for Sunday !!" src="http://sayanjana.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/route3.jpg?w=502&h=714" alt="Final Route for Sunday !!" width="502" height="714" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-color: initial; " /><p class="wp-caption-text" style="font-size: 11px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 4px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 4px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; ">Route Map</p></div><p style="text-align: center; line-height: 1.5em; ">A quick stop and we were busy relishing the strawberries with cream. Everyone was in a good mood so we decided to avail the opportunity and planned our route for the rest of the day. Here, we met Harshvardhan (BN Member) who was supposed to join us from Pune. Finally, we decided to proceed via Old Mahabaleshwar – Tapola – Bamnoli – Kas – Satara and then, return to Pune.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">So, finally with Route decided, we proceeded further towards Tapola.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; "><strong>1330hrs:</strong> We finally reach Tapola after a doing lot of bird-watching and sight-seeing in Mahabaleshwar. It seemed as if our Sun Lord was quite pleased in seeing us that he started showering his love in the form of strong heat rays.</p><div id="attachment_120" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 460px; border-top-width: 1px; border-right-width: 1px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: solid; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-right-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-bottom-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-left-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); text-align: center; background-color: rgb(243, 243, 243); padding-top: 4px; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; -webkit-border-top-right-radius: 3px 3px; -webkit-border-top-left-radius: 3px 3px; -webkit-border-bottom-left-radius: 3px 3px; -webkit-border-bottom-right-radius: 3px 3px; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; "><img class="size-full wp-image-120" title="View of Tapola from The Ghats" src="http://sayanjana.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/p2150015.jpg?w=450&h=337" alt="View of Tapola from The Ghats" width="450" height="337" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-color: initial; " /><p class="wp-caption-text" style="font-size: 11px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 4px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 4px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; ">View of Tapola from The Ghats</p></div><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">A quick lunch and off we went towards Bamnoli – Kas – Satara. This route had something exciting stored for all of us.Initially, the road got narrowed, then the metalled road became ’semi-metalled’, this time introducing loose gravels and rocks to us. Further down the line, ’semi-metalled’ roads became unmetalled roads. And, this all happened for a distance of 55-60km from Tapola.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bajaj_Pulsar" style="color: rgb(216, 215, 211); text-decoration: none; "><strong>pulsars</strong>(150/180/220)</a> started sreaming, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero_Honda_Karizma" style="color: rgb(216, 215, 211); text-decoration: none; "><strong>Karizmas(ZMA)</strong></a> started moaning while the<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamaha_R15" style="color: rgb(216, 215, 211); text-decoration: none; "><strong>Yamaha(R15)</strong> </a>started crying with pain.The riders realizing that Nalin(Yamaha) and Somnath(Karizma) were way behind the gang, decided to give some rest to their <strong>@^&$</strong>! The moment we got off our steeds, we actually realized that there was dust all over our bike, our jackets, trousers and our visors. This truely was the best part of the ride!</p><div id="attachment_122" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 460px; border-top-width: 1px; border-right-width: 1px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: solid; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-right-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-bottom-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-left-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); text-align: center; background-color: rgb(243, 243, 243); padding-top: 4px; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; -webkit-border-top-right-radius: 3px 3px; -webkit-border-top-left-radius: 3px 3px; -webkit-border-bottom-left-radius: 3px 3px; -webkit-border-bottom-right-radius: 3px 3px; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; "><img class="size-full wp-image-122" title="Ruff-n-Tuff" src="http://sayanjana.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/p2150018.jpg?w=450&h=337" alt="Ruff-n-Tuff" width="450" height="337" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-color: initial; " /><p class="wp-caption-text" style="font-size: 11px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 4px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 4px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; ">Ruff-n-Tuff</p></div><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">As we stand doing some stretching exercises, Nalin and Somnath arrived….in short, the R15 and the ZMA finally arrived.</p><div id="attachment_131" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 460px; border-top-width: 1px; border-right-width: 1px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: solid; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-right-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-bottom-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-left-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); text-align: center; background-color: rgb(243, 243, 243); padding-top: 4px; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; -webkit-border-top-right-radius: 3px 3px; -webkit-border-top-left-radius: 3px 3px; -webkit-border-bottom-left-radius: 3px 3px; -webkit-border-bottom-right-radius: 3px 3px; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; "><img class="size-full wp-image-131" title="Nalin & Somnath finally Arrive" src="http://sayanjana.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/p21500241.jpg?w=450&h=337" alt="Nalin & Somnath finally Arrive" width="450" height="337" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-color: initial; " /><p class="wp-caption-text" style="font-size: 11px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 4px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 4px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; ">Nalin & Somnath finally Arrive</p></div><p style="line-height: 1.5em; "><strong>1500hrs:</strong> A quick break and we immediately hit the roads again. Little did we know that the roads would become metalled within a kilometre’s distance. With twisties being our favourite, Somnath went on as fast as he could….without realizing that we should admire nature at times. The gang decided to take a break. After stopping a while, Nalin realized that Somnath was missing and tried to catch him but Somnath, he was way ahead. So finally, Nalin and the rest of the gang gave up the chase and took a break at a lake in Satara….playing with water….like school kids out on a class picnic (over here, adults on a BN Picnic).</p><div id="attachment_136" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 460px; border-top-width: 1px; border-right-width: 1px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: solid; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-right-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-bottom-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-left-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); text-align: center; background-color: rgb(243, 243, 243); padding-top: 4px; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; -webkit-border-top-right-radius: 3px 3px; -webkit-border-top-left-radius: 3px 3px; -webkit-border-bottom-left-radius: 3px 3px; -webkit-border-bottom-right-radius: 3px 3px; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; "><img class="size-full wp-image-136" title="Lake - Reminded us of school days' class picnic" src="http://sayanjana.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/p2150039.jpg?w=450&h=337" alt="Lake - Reminded us of school days' class picnic" width="450" height="337" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-color: initial; " /><p class="wp-caption-text" style="font-size: 11px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 4px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 4px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; ">Lake - Reminded us of school days' class picnic</p></div><div id="attachment_138" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 460px; border-top-width: 1px; border-right-width: 1px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: solid; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-right-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-bottom-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-left-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); text-align: center; background-color: rgb(243, 243, 243); padding-top: 4px; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; -webkit-border-top-right-radius: 3px 3px; -webkit-border-top-left-radius: 3px 3px; -webkit-border-bottom-left-radius: 3px 3px; -webkit-border-bottom-right-radius: 3px 3px; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; "><img class="size-full wp-image-138" title="Fatso Nalin with sayan(black tee) and chinmay" src="http://sayanjana.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/p21500421.jpg?w=450&h=337" alt="School Kids on a BN Picnic" width="450" height="337" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-color: initial; " /><p class="wp-caption-text" style="font-size: 11px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 4px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 4px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; ">Fatso Nalin with sayan(black tee) and chinmay</p></div><p style="line-height: 1.5em; "><strong>1630hrs:</strong> Unwilling to return to Pune, we make up our mind and take the last stretch to Satara. Rip all the way….uphill and downhill….reached ‘Kas’….where the Western Ghats have created a natural set for Bollywood or, pehaps….for Hollywood! How could our BikeNomad fellas resist from posing infront of the cameras?</p><div id="attachment_147" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 460px; border-top-width: 1px; border-right-width: 1px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: solid; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-right-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-bottom-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-left-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); text-align: center; background-color: rgb(243, 243, 243); padding-top: 4px; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; -webkit-border-top-right-radius: 3px 3px; -webkit-border-top-left-radius: 3px 3px; -webkit-border-bottom-left-radius: 3px 3px; -webkit-border-bottom-right-radius: 3px 3px; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; "><img class="size-full wp-image-147" title="Me and my R15" src="http://sayanjana.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/p21500491.jpg?w=450&h=337" alt="Nalin and his Yamaha R15" width="450" height="337" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-color: initial; " /><p class="wp-caption-text" style="font-size: 11px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 4px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 4px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; ">Me and my R15</p></div><div id="attachment_148" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 460px; border-top-width: 1px; border-right-width: 1px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: solid; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-right-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-bottom-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-left-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); text-align: center; background-color: rgb(243, 243, 243); padding-top: 4px; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; -webkit-border-top-right-radius: 3px 3px; -webkit-border-top-left-radius: 3px 3px; -webkit-border-bottom-left-radius: 3px 3px; -webkit-border-bottom-right-radius: 3px 3px; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; "><img class="size-full wp-image-148" title="Our Steeds - Hero Honda | Yamaha | Bajaj" src="http://sayanjana.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/p21500551.jpg?w=450&h=337" alt="Our Steeds - Hero Honda | Yamaha | Bajaj" width="450" height="337" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-color: initial; " /><p class="wp-caption-text" style="font-size: 11px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 4px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 4px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; ">Our Steeds - Hero Honda | Yamaha | Bajaj</p></div><div id="attachment_149" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 460px; border-top-width: 1px; border-right-width: 1px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: solid; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-right-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-bottom-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-left-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); text-align: center; background-color: rgb(243, 243, 243); padding-top: 4px; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; -webkit-border-top-right-radius: 3px 3px; -webkit-border-top-left-radius: 3px 3px; -webkit-border-bottom-left-radius: 3px 3px; -webkit-border-bottom-right-radius: 3px 3px; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; "><img class="size-full wp-image-149" title="Chinmaya with his Bajaj Pulsar 220" src="http://sayanjana.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/p21500531.jpg?w=450&h=337" alt="Chinmaya with his Bajaj Pulsar 220" width="450" height="337" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-color: initial; " /><p class="wp-caption-text" style="font-size: 11px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 4px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 4px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; ">Chinmaya Nanda (Kaling putra) with his Pulsar 220</p></div><p style="line-height: 1.5em; "><strong>1800hrs:</strong> Finally, we head towards Satara and after a quick refreshments start for Pune immediately.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">Finally reached Pune around <strong>2000hrs</strong> with Nalin, Chinmaya and Amit as the remaining members had taken different routes to enter Pune. A quick stop at Cafe Coffee Day, we proceeded to our nests….I reached around 2130hrs….further, had to get ready to attend a wedding. Attended the wedding….perhaps, amongst the late-comers, finally managed to return home by 2330hrs.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">As I went off to sleep, I recollected every moment of the day spent with BikeNomads….someone totally new to the group like Amit and Vaishali, someone who has helped the group grow like, Nalin and someone who have tried to contribute in someway or the other, like Abhishek, Somnath, Chinmaya and Me!</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">Riders: Chinmaya, Nalin Bakshi, Abhishek, Somnath, Amit Dubey, Vaishali and Sayan Jana<br />Image Courtesy: <strong>Amit Dubey</strong></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">Written by a friend and fellow BN rider: <strong>Sayan Jana. </strong>(<a title="Sayan's blog" href="http://sayanjana.wordpress.com/" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(216, 215, 211); text-decoration: none; ">http://sayanjana.wordpress.com/</a>)</p><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><br /></span></div></div></div></div></span>Nalin Bakshihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09564955060512476138noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37060268.post-78732474496252062752008-11-19T06:45:00.000+05:302009-06-08T05:00:58.585+05:30R One Five<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153); line-height: 12px; font-family:'Trebuchet MS';font-size:11px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(189, 147, 79); line-height: 15px;font-family:Georgia;font-size:14px;"><br /></span><div class="entry"><div class="snap_preview"><p style="text-align: center; line-height: 1.5em; "></p><div class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 510px; border-top-width: 1px; border-right-width: 1px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: solid; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-right-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-bottom-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-left-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); text-align: center; background-color: rgb(243, 243, 243); padding-top: 4px; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; -webkit-border-top-right-radius: 3px 3px; -webkit-border-top-left-radius: 3px 3px; -webkit-border-bottom-left-radius: 3px 3px; -webkit-border-bottom-right-radius: 3px 3px; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; "><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/httpwwwmouthshutcomusermariner2html/3032000638/" style="color: rgb(216, 215, 211); text-decoration: none; "><img title="One Five" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3049/3032000638_16af5c4773.jpg" alt="One Five" width="500" height="254" style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-color: initial; " /></a><p class="wp-caption-text" style="font-size: 11px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 4px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 4px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; ">Screaming Ahead</p></div><p style="line-height: 1.5em; "><strong>25Th Oct 2008: </strong>A blue beast stood wrapped in plastic, waiting for its rider when I walked in looking for the the king chetah among the chetahs, it looked at me and I looked back. Taking my time I looked at it and inspected it as it stood in shadows. I looked around, there were others too, but this one was the <strong>one. </strong>I smiled and took of the wrappers. It had to be this one.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">I took the delivery of the bike on 26th as Iron should not be brought home according the <strong>Hindu</strong>Culture. As the bike was being cleaned before delivery, I gave dad the keys of the bike and asked him to take it out <img src="http://s.wordpress.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif" alt=":)" class="wp-smiley" /></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">The run-in was a lengthy thing for me, I had already done run-in of two bikes in less than a year’s time and doing it for the third was making me impatient. But it had to be done. I kept the bike as a surprise to all, waiting for the 1,000KM run in clock to get over and what could be better than a ghat (twisties) section just after that. First time I opened the throttle to 7,000 RPMs as the tiny engine roared to life. The balance perfect, the brakes as of a chetah, this light bike made its way up, ahead of others. But the real performance test is yet to come, as Chinmay waits on his Pulsar 220 to see if this Chetah is faster than his panther. Only time will tell.</p></div></div></span>Nalin Bakshihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09564955060512476138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37060268.post-660654958592317742008-09-08T06:51:00.000+05:302009-06-06T06:52:37.330+05:30My R15 Test Ride<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153); font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 11px; line-height: 12px; "><div class="entry"><div class="snap_preview"><div id="attachment_106" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 310px; border-top-width: 1px; border-right-width: 1px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: solid; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-right-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-bottom-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-left-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); text-align: center; background-color: rgb(243, 243, 243); padding-top: 4px; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; -webkit-border-top-right-radius: 3px 3px; -webkit-border-top-left-radius: 3px 3px; -webkit-border-bottom-left-radius: 3px 3px; -webkit-border-bottom-right-radius: 3px 3px; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; "><a href="http://nalinbakshi.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/me-on-r15-a.jpg" style="color: rgb(216, 215, 211); text-decoration: none; "><img class="size-medium wp-image-106" src="http://nalinbakshi.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/me-on-r15-a.jpg?w=300&h=161" alt="Riding the black YZF R15" width="300" height="161" style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-color: initial; " /></a><p class="wp-caption-text" style="font-size: 11px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 4px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 4px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; ">Riding the black YZF R15</p></div><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">So i got my third ride on the R15, the first two were not close to being called a test ride, but this time I had a good time on the bike.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; "><strong>The bike:</strong> Well if you have money to spend, then this is a bike to buy. Why did i tell that? Well because the price tag doesn’t justify the 17PS power of the bike. Even if you read the magazines, you would see that most of them compare the track performance of the bike but not over all.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">The bike is designed like a sports bike and it feels like one too. But here is one more thing it feels like – Sports bike with no power. Its like</p><div id="attachment_107" class="wp-caption alignleft" style="width: 310px; float: left; border-top-width: 1px; border-right-width: 1px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: solid; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-right-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-bottom-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-left-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); text-align: center; background-color: rgb(243, 243, 243); padding-top: 4px; margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px; -webkit-border-top-right-radius: 3px 3px; -webkit-border-top-left-radius: 3px 3px; -webkit-border-bottom-left-radius: 3px 3px; -webkit-border-bottom-right-radius: 3px 3px; "><a href="http://nalinbakshi.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/shelly.jpg" style="color: rgb(216, 215, 211); text-decoration: none; "><img class="size-medium wp-image-107" src="http://nalinbakshi.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/shelly.jpg?w=300&h=252" alt="Shelly" width="300" height="252" style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-color: initial; " /></a><p class="wp-caption-text" style="font-size: 11px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 4px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 4px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; ">Shelly</p></div><div id="attachment_109" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 310px; border-top-width: 1px; border-right-width: 1px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: solid; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-right-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-bottom-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-left-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); text-align: center; background-color: rgb(243, 243, 243); padding-top: 4px; margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px; -webkit-border-top-right-radius: 3px 3px; -webkit-border-top-left-radius: 3px 3px; -webkit-border-bottom-left-radius: 3px 3px; -webkit-border-bottom-right-radius: 3px 3px; "><a href="http://nalinbakshi.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/me-again-on-r15.jpg" style="color: rgb(216, 215, 211); text-decoration: none; "><img class="size-medium wp-image-109" src="http://nalinbakshi.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/me-again-on-r15.jpg?w=300&h=225" alt=")" width="300" height="225" style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-color: initial; " /></a><p class="wp-caption-text" style="font-size: 11px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 4px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 4px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; ">:)</p></div></div><p class="postmetadata" style="text-align: center;margin-top: 3px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 3px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; clear: both; font-size: 10px; color: rgb(85, 85, 85); line-height: 1.5em; "><br /></p></div></span>Nalin Bakshihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09564955060512476138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37060268.post-7659408579994879652008-08-21T06:54:00.000+05:302009-06-08T05:04:41.242+05:30Still in office :)<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153); line-height: 16px; font-family:'Trebuchet MS';font-size:11px;">It’s 2:40 AM in my watch and I am still in the office. Wow! I haven’t sat this long ever in office. And in this break I am writing this blog entry. There have a quiet a few things I wanted to write about, Olympics, Bindra and India’s first gold medal which is one hell of a thing, Pune traffic, growing threat of terrorism – the blasts and how simi activist are becoming active while most of the young crowd seem to be unaware about the ongoing activitis and the latest in the list was Musharaf quitting, lets see how long can he survive – this is what he doesn’t deserve considering what he did for his country.</span>Nalin Bakshihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09564955060512476138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37060268.post-58022552835256747202008-07-30T07:55:00.000+05:302009-06-08T05:01:55.447+05:30Wild Hogs<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153); line-height: 12px; font-family:'Trebuchet MS';font-size:11px;"><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">Just saw that movie and I like it. 4 Bikers.. open road and freedom. Wow! I never felt this good while riding even <img src="http://s.wordpress.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif" alt=":D" class="wp-smiley" /> . But its a good 3rd angle to what we bikers do. And now I realise that what my brother has been able to do. Creating a group <a href="http://www.bikenomads.com/" style="color: rgb(216, 215, 211); text-decoration: none; ">bikenomads</a> which is recognised nationally by bikers and motorcycle companies. Its one huge achievement.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">Riding bike on an open road not knowing where you gonna stop, what you gonna do, just open road, 10 days off and few close friends. This is one thing that I wanna do. And I would remember one thing from the movie – “loose the watch”.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; "><span style="text-align: center; display: block; "><object width="425" height="350"></object></span><br />Movie Trailer</p></span>Nalin Bakshihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09564955060512476138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37060268.post-20860128568398731212008-07-10T06:47:00.000+05:302009-06-06T06:48:37.704+05:30Riding Formations<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153); font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 11px; line-height: 12px; "><div class="entry"><div class="snap_preview"><p style="line-height: 1.5em; "><strong>S</strong>o you are going on a trip with bunch of riders and you are new to the group and suddenly someone says “we will use staggered formation”, what do you do. Reaction depends on people. But here is small info tip to tell you what what is. These formations have different advantages and disadvantages. So I am putting some light on what they are.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; "><span style="text-decoration: underline; "><strong>Staggered Formation</strong></span></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">In this formation the bikes move in pair of two. The leader is on the right front, the follower to him/her is on the left and behind by few meters. The person following him is on the right and just behind the leader like in the picture shown. The advantage of this is that both the leader and the person following him/her has a good view of the road ahead. And the leader simultaneously has a view of two riders on its left-rear and the one just behind him. The riders in the middle can look at the rider in front, front -right, rear-left, rear depending on where he/she is.</p><div id="attachment_125" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 507px; border-top-width: 1px; border-right-width: 1px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: solid; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-right-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-bottom-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-left-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); text-align: center; background-color: rgb(243, 243, 243); padding-top: 4px; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; -webkit-border-top-right-radius: 3px 3px; -webkit-border-top-left-radius: 3px 3px; -webkit-border-bottom-left-radius: 3px 3px; -webkit-border-bottom-right-radius: 3px 3px; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; "><a href="http://nalinbakshi.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/staggered1.jpg" style="color: rgb(216, 215, 211); text-decoration: none; "><img class="size-large wp-image-125" title="Staggered formation" src="http://nalinbakshi.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/staggered1.jpg?w=497&h=87" alt="Staggered formation" width="497" height="87" style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-color: initial; " /></a><p class="wp-caption-text" style="font-size: 11px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 4px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 4px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; ">Staggered formation</p></div><p style="line-height: 1.5em; "><span style="text-decoration: underline; "><strong>Trail Formation</strong></span></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">Train formation is one in which the rider follow each other in line. Useful in tight roads and turns. Its important the people following maintain a good distance among each other. The disadvantage is the visibility. Rider in front can see few behind him, the ones in middle have limited visibility of traffic ahead.</p><div id="attachment_126" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 507px; border-top-width: 1px; border-right-width: 1px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: solid; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-right-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-bottom-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-left-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); text-align: center; background-color: rgb(243, 243, 243); padding-top: 4px; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; -webkit-border-top-right-radius: 3px 3px; -webkit-border-top-left-radius: 3px 3px; -webkit-border-bottom-left-radius: 3px 3px; -webkit-border-bottom-right-radius: 3px 3px; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; "><a href="http://nalinbakshi.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/trail.jpg" style="color: rgb(216, 215, 211); text-decoration: none; "><img class="size-large wp-image-126" title="Trail formation" src="http://nalinbakshi.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/trail.jpg?w=497&h=114" alt="Trail formation" width="497" height="114" style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-color: initial; " /></a><p class="wp-caption-text" style="font-size: 11px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 4px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 4px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; ">Trail formation</p></div><p style="line-height: 1.5em; "><span style="text-decoration: underline; "><strong>Line formation</strong></span></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">In this all bikes are in a line. This is good to make your presence felt but not good option to try.</p><div id="attachment_127" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 507px; border-top-width: 1px; border-right-width: 1px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: solid; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-right-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-bottom-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-left-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); text-align: center; background-color: rgb(243, 243, 243); padding-top: 4px; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; -webkit-border-top-right-radius: 3px 3px; -webkit-border-top-left-radius: 3px 3px; -webkit-border-bottom-left-radius: 3px 3px; -webkit-border-bottom-right-radius: 3px 3px; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; "><a href="http://nalinbakshi.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/line.jpg" style="color: rgb(216, 215, 211); text-decoration: none; "><img class="size-large wp-image-127" title="Line" src="http://nalinbakshi.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/line.jpg?w=497&h=114" alt="Line" width="497" height="114" style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-color: initial; " /></a><p class="wp-caption-text" style="font-size: 11px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 4px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 4px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; ">Line</p></div></div><p class="postmetadata" style="margin-top: 3px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 3px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; clear: both; font-size: 10px; color: rgb(85, 85, 85); line-height: 1.5em; "><br /></p></div></span>Nalin Bakshihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09564955060512476138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37060268.post-58254381164385419852008-07-09T06:49:00.000+05:302009-06-06T06:50:36.184+05:30Leh Trip Log<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153); font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 11px; line-height: 12px; "><div class="entry"><div class="snap_preview"><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">Leh Trip Log:</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">Day 01: 29th-May -2008 Jammu – Pathankot [Broken Bridge]<br />Day 02: 30th-May -2008 Pathankot – Manali<br />Day 03: 01st-June-2008 Manai<br />Day 04: 02nd-June-2008 Manali – Keylong [bike oil leak]<br />Day 05: 03rd-June-2008 Keylong – Sarchu [AMS]<br />Day 06: 04th-June-2008 Sarchu – Leh<br />Day 07: 05th-June-2008 Leh<br />Day 08: 06th-June-2008 Khardungla<br />Day 09: 07th-June-2008 Pangong Tso<br />Day 10: 08th-June-2008 Leh-Kargil<br />Day 11: 09th-June-2008 Kargil-Srinagar<br />Day 12: 10th-June-2008 Srinagar – Pathankot [Rains + water crossings]<br />Day 13: 11th-June-2008 Pathankot – Chandigarh<br />Day 14: 12th-June-2008 Chandigarh<br />Day 15: 13th-June-2008 Chandigarh – Delhi<br />Day 16: 14th-June-2008 Delhi – Noida</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">29th-May -2008 Jammu – Pathankot [Broken Bridge]</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">After reaching Amritsar we took a cab to Jammu in order to reach fast. With things deteriorating in Srinagar due to the Amarnath Shrine Land issue, our plans of taking the Srinagar route seemed to go down the drain. The only alternate was to do it via Manali.<br />After reaching Jammu around 01:00PM we took bath and lunch and decided to leave for Pathankot. My CBZ had some starting issue. It was nothing but some minor issue. I noticed that my bike’s leg gaurd had some wear and tear. It was that Sravanth’s bike had come off the stand and fallen on my bike. When the truck guys put it back in position, they didn’t notice that our leg gaurds were touching. And with jerks and all the leg gaurds had worn out each other.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">We left for Pathankot around 03:00 PM and after withdrawing cash etc.. I think we left Jammu around 3:45- 4:00PM.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">Sravanth was quick to pace out. We were ripping on the Jammu Pathankot road. I decided to stop for some water and then Hrishi noticed that his bungie came off. Luckily we had stopped for fuel else things could have gone bad for us.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">After reaching Pathankot we wanted to cross it and ride one hour before stopping. But later on we came to know through someone that the bridge that we were going to take had collapsed. And since Hrishi didn’t want to ride at night, we decided to halt at Pathankot.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">Day 02: 30th-May -2008 Pathankot – Manali</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">The fun ride. Pathank to Manali was fun ride. Good roads, low traffic and best of all hills. I made quite a few videos on the move. We also stopped at a river. It was off route but it was fun. Stopped and took some pics before we marched ahead.<br />The argument- I was feeling hungry after riding so much .. but Hrishi wanted to skip lunch. It was around 5:00PM and I started feeling hungry. I didn’t realise that when Hrishi said no riding in the dark he meant no riding 1 hour before it goes dark. For me dark would mean at least when you need to switch your lights on – sunset time at min. But for Hrishi it started even when sun was visible ahead. This roughed up things between us which later came up when we were looking for a Hotel. We stopped at Himachal tourism guest house, though the place had booking for the next day – which meant moving to a different hotel, Hrishi was adament about staying there despite himself making agree on the fact that they would not stay at anyplace which required changing rooms in the morning. I didn’t ask much, Hrishi had either an ego issue or he was dead tired.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">Day 03: 01st-June-2008 Manali</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">Since we had to change the room, we spent half the next day shifting. Sravanth couldn’t do rafting and I could do para gliding which I wanted to. We did some shopping though.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">Day 04: 02nd-June-2008 Manali – Keylong [bike oil leak]</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">Keylong and our first pass “Rohtang”. Hrishi and Sravanth took Dimox, high altitude sickness medicine. Doctors whom I had asked said it wasn’t required so I didn’t take it. We packed break fast from the resort and left for Keylong early morning around 6:00AM. Again me and Sravanth were quick to reach up. Taking pics and making videos on the way. Rohtang was a good place. I had taken only two bread slices and in the mean time Hrishi and Sravanth ate the whole pack <img src="http://s.wordpress.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_sad.gif" alt=":(" class="wp-smiley" /></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">The clouds were coming up and so we decided to move. If the clouds would come on the road then riding would be an issue. 2Kms from there we were riding down. There was a group of Israeli cyclists. They were riding like hell.. one of them overtook Hrishi on the way down.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">The army convoy. I had seen convoys before, but convoys here were huge. 10 trucks – no, 20 – no, 30 – no.. these seemed like 50 (donno if that was the case). We were stopped by the MP (Military Police) to let the trucks pass first. After they crossed, we started. We had to overtake a whole 50 of those. I let Hrishi and Sravanth pass. Halfway through the convoy I saw Hrishi standing. His footpeg had come off. Again the trucks over took us. We started to ride and over take them. Then we saw Sravanth standing and taking pics. Now Again we had overtake them. THis was getting irritating. With virtually no road, the trucks were</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">To be continued…</p></div></div></span>Nalin Bakshihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09564955060512476138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37060268.post-5580018546480256412008-06-10T06:48:00.000+05:302009-06-06T06:49:42.343+05:30Back from Dandeli<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153); font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 11px; line-height: 12px; "><div class="entry"><div class="snap_preview"><p style="line-height: 1.5em; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">4 Days of BN Meet</span></span></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">4 Days of freedom</span></span></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">4 Days of life worth remembering</span></span></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">486KM ride one way.</span></span></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">Dandeli, BN annual meet 2008 was one event to remember. 480 KMs of one day ride <img src="http://s.wordpress.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif" alt=":)" class="wp-smiley" /></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">Dandeli was place for BN Annual meet. Riders from different parts of the country would meet at this place. Dandeli is a natural habitat for wildlife, its more of a jungle you can say. Located in Karnatka, this place is more like an isolated place with very few tourist.</p><div id="attachment_121" class="wp-caption alignleft" style="width: 298px; float: left; border-top-width: 1px; border-right-width: 1px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: solid; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-right-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-bottom-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-left-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); text-align: center; background-color: rgb(243, 243, 243); padding-top: 4px; margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px; -webkit-border-top-right-radius: 3px 3px; -webkit-border-top-left-radius: 3px 3px; -webkit-border-bottom-left-radius: 3px 3px; -webkit-border-bottom-right-radius: 3px 3px; "><a href="http://nalinbakshi.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/pune-dandeli.jpg" style="color: rgb(216, 215, 211); text-decoration: none; "><img class="size-medium wp-image-121" title="pune-dandeli" src="http://nalinbakshi.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/pune-dandeli.jpg?w=288&h=300" alt="Pune - Dandeli Route" width="288" height="300" style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-color: initial; " /></a><p class="wp-caption-text" style="font-size: 11px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 4px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 4px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; ">Pune - Dandeli Route</p></div><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">Day 01: <span style="text-decoration: underline; ">The ride day</span></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">We were supposed to meet at<em><strong>Chandani Chowk </strong></em>at 05:30 AM and leave at 6:00 AM, but I couldn’t sleep properly whole night, anxiety I suppose. Finally I woke up at 04:00 AM, it was too early so I had corn flakes and slept again only to wake up at 5:00AM. I didn’t want to disturb my roommate so I quietly did all I could.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">Finally I left at 05:30 AM and reached <em>Chandani Chowk </em>at 05:55AM only to find myself alone. I called up Chinamay to ask where he was only to know that all had assembled at a <em>tapri </em>and I was the second last person to reach , Abhishek Haldar (jolu warrior) was last. We left at 06:10 AM.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">I knew that I was going to be slow so I took the responsibility to follow along with Sayan, a guy I could trust.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">Soon chinmay and Somnath started ripping and were way ahead, jayraman was slow on his Pulsar 180 so was Harshad as his bike was new and had not completed its run in which meant that me and Sayan had to ride at same speeds as well.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">Since me and Sayan dragging behind stopped couple of times to take pics. We stopped 3 times for the pics which left us way behind. We were some 30mins behind Harshad. We stopped next to a bridge to take some pics. The scenery around us was very good and Sayan as usual was on to getting his pics clicked. I spotted few sea eagles but unfortunatly I didn’t have cam and sayan’s cam didn’t have the essential zoom <img src="http://s.wordpress.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_sad.gif" alt=":(" class="wp-smiley" /></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">We reached Dandeli around 6:30PM, way late than we had expected. The banglore guys Gautam and Gaurav were already there. The guys from Hyderabad had not come. The guys were slow due to bad roads and they managed to reach only around 12:30 to the destination.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">Day 2: Synthery rocks, croc trek and bonfire</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">The second day everyone woke up at ease. I think I woke up at around 7:00-8:00. I don’t remember. Abhishek (Jolu warrior) who slept late at 12:30 was awake early while Chinmaya and Sayan who had slept early were still sleeping. After having breakfast I was getting ready for the ride only to know later that we were being given 4×4 to travel. Sayan was quick to get in and have him clicked. He got very good snaps of him. Soon everyone there got on the 4×4 to get himself clicked. There were two jeeps for us. The drive was fun, I was on the back of the jeep with Amod. The drive was downhill and the jeep behind us had some heavy weights. The driver of that vehicle had to brake many a times to slow down the momentum <img src="http://s.wordpress.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif" alt=":)" class="wp-smiley" /></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; ">[Add pic of sythery rocks here]</p></div></div></span>Nalin Bakshihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09564955060512476138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37060268.post-66936294022448362622008-04-11T06:46:00.000+05:302009-06-06T06:47:14.958+05:30Life means<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153); font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; "><strong>Life means:</strong> A winter evening, four friends , mild rain and four pegs of whiskey……….<br /><strong>Life means:</strong> 100 bucks of petrol , two rusty old bikes and one open road……………<br /><strong>Life means</strong>: Maggy noodles at hostel room at 3:25am………………………<br /><strong>Life means:</strong> One preparatory leave , one night , one book and eight duffers………….<br /><strong>Life means</strong>: Three old friends , three separate cities , three coffee mugs and one yahoo<br />messenger…………….<br /><strong>Life means</strong>: One girl , one number , four friends and a fight……………..</span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153); font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153); font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153); font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">life means: </span><em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Friends………….</span></em><br /></span></div>Nalin Bakshihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09564955060512476138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37060268.post-48712974799984292312008-02-24T22:10:00.003+05:302008-02-24T22:17:45.329+05:30Moved to wordpressHey all!<br />I have moved to wordpress.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://nalinbakshi.wordpress.com"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_UW8fYQ8bp-s/R8GfH7CaTfI/AAAAAAAAAdo/FmfeMrBSxks/s400/screenshot.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5170588805653745138" border="0" /></a><br /></div><br />Please go to:<br /><a href="http://nalinbakshi.wordpress.com">http://nalinbakshi.wordpress.com</a>Nalin Bakshihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09564955060512476138noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37060268.post-6231334581212515052008-01-19T13:26:00.000+05:302008-01-20T02:59:19.549+05:30Changing bike scenario in India.<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_UW8fYQ8bp-s/R5Jfk8mu9GI/AAAAAAAAAdI/95Qc55pSJUw/s1600-h/Ninja+250.jpeg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_UW8fYQ8bp-s/R5Jfk8mu9GI/AAAAAAAAAdI/95Qc55pSJUw/s400/Ninja+250.jpeg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5157289611641156706" border="0" /></a></div><span style="font-size:180%;"> T</span>hings were going smoothly for biking in India. With the coming of Pulsar 220 it seemed that finally a rivalry between Bajaj and Hero Honda would result in new powerful bikes in India, bikes which riders like me crave for. BUt then Yamaha pulled the biggest surprise. They officially came with R1 in India. A 1000cc monster costing Rs 12 Lakh. But this was not their biggest surprise. Yamaha came with a new RC15 150cc bike in India which would revolutionise the industry. Yes! few months from now we would be able to see the effects of this revolution. What am I talking about? Well take a look at the list of things shown in Auto Show this year.<br /><br />1. Yamaha RC15 150cc 20BHP, Rs 90,000/- to Rs 99,000/-<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://lh6.google.com/praveen.sathaye/R4uywXnBHkI/AAAAAAAAM98/Jfc_c82Twsw/DSC03881.JPG?imgmax=512"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://lh6.google.com/praveen.sathaye/R4uywXnBHkI/AAAAAAAAM98/Jfc_c82Twsw/DSC03881.JPG?imgmax=512" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />2. Yamaha FZ 150cc 20BHP, Rs 80,000/- to Rs 90,000/-<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_CVNYlY2IQrhga5XoF0JOLDt7dtzKW7l2xjODpGr0qiZC7F56pSTmnEz9MRISpAgK9dbaC9Z16VIo04WZ-_UqK4fsf6kaE9Zwq-bXj5ESIPBauz93wT6ujz69PNg_KH6PykVpew/s1600-h/yamaha_fz1_03.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_CVNYlY2IQrhga5XoF0JOLDt7dtzKW7l2xjODpGr0qiZC7F56pSTmnEz9MRISpAgK9dbaC9Z16VIo04WZ-_UqK4fsf6kaE9Zwq-bXj5ESIPBauz93wT6ujz69PNg_KH6PykVpew/s400/yamaha_fz1_03.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5157298545173132402" border="0" /></a><br />3. Kawasaki Ninja 250: 250CC 30BHP , Costing around 1,75,000 to 2,00,000 plus.<br /><br />4. Bajaj KTM.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2GyS9rWDuED63goYolJVqor-C1UBdZBJgMvH25f0jBFEhl_D9KOI2hYVzmijvrq7N3gG1Vo_Hv2DKp19bw4k387PwQl31JfNwZ_ItkeEsMgdQowcMF5gWTUCA7n5oga8erqeXvA/s1600-h/ktm_duke690_01.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2GyS9rWDuED63goYolJVqor-C1UBdZBJgMvH25f0jBFEhl_D9KOI2hYVzmijvrq7N3gG1Vo_Hv2DKp19bw4k387PwQl31JfNwZ_ItkeEsMgdQowcMF5gWTUCA7n5oga8erqeXvA/s400/ktm_duke690_01.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5157299558785414274" border="0" /></a><br />5. TVS Apache RTR FI: 160cc, 18 BHP, Rs 70,000/- to Rs 76,000/-<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Question:</span> So are people going to buy these?<br />It won't be something strange if some one asks that at the time when Tata has come with the Rs 1,00,000/- car, then who would buy such expensive bikes?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Answer:</span>There are many. In this growing country of entrepreneurs, there exists a niche segment of people who earn good and are ready to shelve out money for these mean machines. There are many like me who would want to buy one of these mean machines.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Question:</span> How is this gonna effect the Indian biking scenario?<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Answer: </span>Well things are sure going to get exciting. Till now there were basically two major segments. The superbikes and the rest. This rest were then sub-divided between different segments of bikes. With the coming of high-end bikes, more and more people are going to go for these Rs 1,00,000/- to 4,00,000/- segment bikes. Exclusive bike groups would possibly come up. People who want to race/ride with similar bikes or those who are in just for the snob value.<br /><br />So, are we going to see some new biking groups come up. Yes! we are.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Question:</span> Does this mean that older groups like bikenomads going to suffer?<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Answer:</span> Bikenomads is a group of riders who like to tour. So whether its a superbike or not it doesn't matter. Also, many of the nomads like Vibhu, Navendu , Dr Arnob ets would also be buying these bikes. So most of the current groups are not going to loose.Nalin Bakshihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09564955060512476138noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37060268.post-27862747632205059312008-01-17T22:48:00.000+05:302008-01-20T03:18:03.950+05:30Get aside "No brakes"<span style="font-size:180%;">I</span>t was just another day for me, I was riding my black bike. I was around 12 that time. Life was such a simple thing. As usual I was riding my cycle fast. I was coming back after playing a good game of cricket. I was in my street and I was riding a bit too fast for the lanes. It was then the car in front of me braked a bit too hard for my anticipation . I was like, damn. I pressed the lever to brake the rear tyre. Unfortunately for me the the brake cable snapped from the end of the break lever. I quickly jammed in the front brakes but my bad luck, the cable of this also snapped at the end of the lever and now both the cords were moving horizontally like an inverted pendulum. "oh shit.. front brakes gone too" dancing in front of me as if saying "nai nain naina nai na" like kids do.<br /><br />With no brakes I hit the rear bumper of the car, "aaaahhhhh" I had landed with my balls on the cycle rod. Everything in the world seem irrelevant. Even the fact that a cycle can't balance itself on two wheels. And then "dham" I had hit the ground.Nalin Bakshihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09564955060512476138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37060268.post-36114870317195949082008-01-10T22:48:00.000+05:302008-01-10T23:01:10.083+05:30A heartbreakEverything was going smooth, I was thinking which bike to buy. After all consideration i opted for Hero Honda Karizma.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_UW8fYQ8bp-s/R4ZQusmu82I/AAAAAAAAAbI/NjW1FulA5bU/s1600-h/zma.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_UW8fYQ8bp-s/R4ZQusmu82I/AAAAAAAAAbI/NjW1FulA5bU/s400/zma.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5153895586749936482" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">Hero Honda Karizma</span><br /></div><br /> The yellow stallion was going to be my new ride. It had been long since I had something new to ride and I couldn't wait to burn the rubber. But then the rumors of Yamaha had started flowing around. A 22BHP beast with looks of R1.<br /><br />Rumors come and go and only few of them ever come true. Finally today Yamaha showcased the R15 at the auto-show and officially came on web with it <a href="http://www.yamaha-motor-india.com/Auto-Expo08/home.html">http://www.yamaha-motor-india.com/Auto-Expo08/home.html</a><br />. The bike looks great on paper. Technically the bike is a class. The looks, better than anything available right now. But then like a suspense movie they said this:<br />"<span style="font-weight: bold;">In the winter of 2008, a new force strikes in the sports bike world</span>".<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>Thats cool but which winter? The one in the beginning of the year or the end of the year, as in January- February or November-December. Or is that it would strike and then would let people wait till mid of the year.<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_UW8fYQ8bp-s/R4ZR-Mmu83I/AAAAAAAAAbQ/kGcR3A8nZbU/s1600-h/R15.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_UW8fYQ8bp-s/R4ZR-Mmu83I/AAAAAAAAAbQ/kGcR3A8nZbU/s400/R15.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5153896952549536626" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">Yamaha R15A (right)</span><br /></div><br /> Its difficult to wait for it. If one remembers, the Bajaj Pulsar 220 came around a year later after its first video. I hope Yamaha has already done its road tests and is ready to jump in with the bike soon.<br /><br />Though the bike would be priced something around Rs 1Lakh (1,00,000). But all I can do now is wait for some credible information.Nalin Bakshihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09564955060512476138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37060268.post-40981623599535288072007-12-23T15:02:00.000+05:302007-12-23T16:33:41.842+05:30Hampi Ride<div><br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">BN 2007 Annual meet.</span><br /></strong>Bikenomads southern India was meeting up at <a href="http://www.bikenomads.com/wiki/index.php/Hampi">Hampi</a> as part of the annual ride. Though I wanted to be a part of this but time was a constraint. I had taken too many off this year and my boss wasn't keen on letting me go on more unless it was very necessary. So for me the ride was just to see off the guys to Satara and then join them two days from then on their way back.<br /><br />I had my bro's <strong>zma</strong> (HH Karizma) for the ride - friday <span style="color:#666666;">(23rd Nov 2007)</span> and people were to meet at <strong>CC</strong> - Chandani Chowk (Pune, India) by 6:30 and I was still at home and it was 6:15 and add to that there wasn't much fuel in the bike. I started off fast.. needed to refuel.. refuelled it but what the hell I had just 200 bucks (petrol Rs 50 a liter). It sure wasn't enough for Satara and I was already 30 KM + from <strong>CC. </strong>I was riding as hell that day - not to mention it was fun. When I reached <strong>CC</strong>, no one was there. I called up bro and he told me that were regrouping at a secondry alternate which thankfully was on the outskirts of the city and not farther. I reaached there on time, just before they were to set off.<br /><add><br /><br /><br /><br /></div><p align="center"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdCh9hZ1Yj25_WN1KvBb-YLhjcZOMh3p7a1my01lh3YLd_SzUA6S-t_onhzNVI5k6jKty9hkvNtxROiYOEUckvlPjio2gSGcJT3sXoUY8I7WpsgEs4H6fgk7qux64qJ30SzRd0IA/s1600-h/meet+up+at+katraj.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5147120533538534194" style="CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdCh9hZ1Yj25_WN1KvBb-YLhjcZOMh3p7a1my01lh3YLd_SzUA6S-t_onhzNVI5k6jKty9hkvNtxROiYOEUckvlPjio2gSGcJT3sXoUY8I7WpsgEs4H6fgk7qux64qJ30SzRd0IA/s400/meet+up+at+katraj.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="color:#666666;">Pic Taken after the start.. only few left for the pic</span></p><div><br />It was good to meet all of them that day, Praveen Sathaye too had to call off.. he had an interview. All of us set off with Capt Chitnis on his 220 and Nav had come on his bullet. Rest on their zma, unicorn etc. I rode along with the group 50KM short of Satara. I was getting late for the office and had to turn back..<br /><br /></div><p align="center"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhz1ERqjS909RbnKzIf9tZgy-xOBLN38Uv0S-uV82kiXsFKixjBB_Xxth9WyZcT6dsrXU7uBXDK_K0w0Nn4hXZC0rEJnoegeFNMev3vSDTqyqJSIiNcn_MRo1mWPGmdDtXlOi28g/s1600-h/way+back.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5147121817733755714" style="CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhz1ERqjS909RbnKzIf9tZgy-xOBLN38Uv0S-uV82kiXsFKixjBB_Xxth9WyZcT6dsrXU7uBXDK_K0w0Nn4hXZC0rEJnoegeFNMev3vSDTqyqJSIiNcn_MRo1mWPGmdDtXlOi28g/s400/way+back.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="color:#666666;">On my way back.</span><br /></p><div><br /><add> On the following saturday, I got a call from Praveen Sathaye, asking me if I wanted to join him for a ride half way through to Hampi and then come back with the group. I was busy on Sunday and I told him I would join them from Katraj. I reached katraj and called up Bro and Praveen.. they were a 100KM from Satara. So instead of waiting I decided to go to Satara. Reached there and kept waiting and waiting and waiting... I got a call from Praveen that they were just 10KM from where I was but there was no sign of them. I was just wearing my mesh mix jacket and it was cold so I thought I would jump in the car and let bro ride the bike. I was looking at the road when I heard the dog horn. Doc Arnob has it.. and then suddenly some 10-11 bikes zoomed passed and a 220 stopped next to me. It was Arpan. I told him I would come on car and Vibhu (bro) would catch up with them. I called bro then and he said he was 30 KM from the place.. that was a hell too far and I was not waiting any more, so I told him that I am continuing on the bike. </div><div><br />With zma I had got into the feeling that catching any one while riding this bike is easy, but these guys were no where to be found. This was getting interesting. I caught up with them and continuing with them was an experience. Prasad was riding Doc's bike, Doc Captain's, Capt was with bro, Harshad was riding prasad's bike. And all of us were doing 80+ on a high traffic road.<br />Prasad was using the Doc's bike's special horn, lights and what all to make the road clear for us and the rest kept zooming. It was a great feeling.. people were staring out of the window to see what the hell these bikers were upto.. It was dark and risky but still these bikers were pushing .. at one point we would be slow due to the traffic at around 75-80 and then with in seconds we would be 120KMPH plus. This was getting better by the minute. The guys wanted to take a break, they were riding since long. We took a break at "Joshi wada wala" where al regrouped, including bro, bhabi, Mrs and Mr Chitnis.<br /><br />The bombay guys were in a hurry so we let them off. We few pune guys started together... the road had become broader and traffic suddenly felt less. On the way back throught the katraj tunnel I accelerated the bike to full throttle, I was not maintaining any group now.. As I looked down I saw the needle at 142KMPH and that was like wow. Though I realised that this must not be the true speed but then I sure knew I was fast.<br /><br />We dropped Chitnis to his place and me, bro and bhabi came back. It was 12:00 already and I was hoping that we would be back by 8:00. It was another leason, then when you go out in a group always be ready to be late. In all it was a fun ride and I was now feeling that I needed a bigger bike. </div>Nalin Bakshihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09564955060512476138noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37060268.post-69865191919270377652007-11-24T16:51:00.000+05:302007-11-24T17:34:58.642+05:30The Red BarronBorn in Kleinburg, near Breslau, Germany, was this young boy whom the world would<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEith9NqzterzVCkZYhFAdkR8PmcsuoPmg8Ka6ZU1X-4ukJqlRtRBC888u7VhiaeIA-bKGSxfAkt4dQ2nGEGyJq9vJAa7GOfCx4vW32qo1Pj76sHsKgD4t9FQif_TvetY_nbmHn1Zg/s1600-h/Red_Baron.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEith9NqzterzVCkZYhFAdkR8PmcsuoPmg8Ka6ZU1X-4ukJqlRtRBC888u7VhiaeIA-bKGSxfAkt4dQ2nGEGyJq9vJAa7GOfCx4vW32qo1Pj76sHsKgD4t9FQif_TvetY_nbmHn1Zg/s400/Red_Baron.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5136366084285561346" border="0" /></a> remember as the fearing Red Barron - <span style="font-weight: bold;">Manfred, Freiherr von Richtofen</span>. The pilot who was the fear in skies. Such was the courage of this pilot that he painted his plane in red - telling everyone in the air, ground or water near him - here I am, come and get me. The red colour both acted as fear and target for him. For some pilots it was the most fearing thing while for others it was the target to kill. Richtofen is credited with 80 confirmed kills, the highest ever (till now, and should remain).<br /><br />Richtofen initially joined the German cavalry unit which later served in the first world war. Disappointed as he was not able to do much in the war because the cavalary unit had became obsolete due to machine guns; Richtofen applied for the German flying service. Little did he knew that he would become the greatest combat pilot ever. After few years in service Richtofen joined the first fighter wing of the German air force where he met Oswald Boelcke.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSNpKUQIL460VesxOPHMrlnJ0ceKFngMP9aEpEpJfxCgTJsj6CUzFWQ8avIwcIP01Q7kQQnQ7Ie73A_ugnUDxqEKH_yYAooxwRY7oKAR2Drlt59YO-YfnyvKC4lkx57uxuhxG2Sg/s1600-h/OswaldBoelcke.jpeg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSNpKUQIL460VesxOPHMrlnJ0ceKFngMP9aEpEpJfxCgTJsj6CUzFWQ8avIwcIP01Q7kQQnQ7Ie73A_ugnUDxqEKH_yYAooxwRY7oKAR2Drlt59YO-YfnyvKC4lkx57uxuhxG2Sg/s400/OswaldBoelcke.jpeg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5136366367753402898" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">Oswald Boelcke</span> was the man who created Air Combat also known as "Dog Fighting". The same that you must have seen in movies like Top Gun, Iron Eagle, stealth or the likes. Though with time and technology the dog fighting has become rare, but even today most pilot say that if in dog fight you ignore the rules of Oswald Boelcke, then the chances are you won't come back alive unless the others do the same. Richtofen regarded Boelcke as the greatest, in his own words he says that "I am after all only a combat pilot, but Boelcke, he was a hero". Unfortunately for Germans Boelcke died in an air crash when one of his own squadron pilots hit him during an air combat.<br /><br />Ricthtofen continued to server the country and his squaron called the "Flying Circus" became a pain to the allied forces. Non came close to this man who's kill grew more and more. Richtofen also succeded in shooting down a famous rival <span style="font-weight: bold;">Lanoe Hawker</span> a British ace once again proving his superiority.<br /><br />With span of time, Richtofen grew emotionally weak. In a series that I watched on him few years back, one of relatives stated this - Richtofen was looking at a picture of him along other pilots, like the one we have of a batch. When his mothered asked about the pilots one by one, he kept nodding in a no about them ... at the end he said - "They are all dead". Over the years, the war had got into him. He was always under the pressure to lead and show by example. And this later paid dearly to him. Manfred von Richtofen was shot down on 21 April 1918. The death of the pilot had been a big controversy with various agencies seeking credit. Richtofen was shot down during pursuing (at very low altitude) a Sopwith Camel piloted by a novice Canadian pilot, Lieutenant Wilfrid "Wop" May of No. 209 Squadron, Royal Air Force. In turn, the Baron was spotted and briefly attacked by a Camel piloted by a school friend (and flight Commander) of May, Canadian Captain Arthur "Roy" Brown, who had to dive steeply at very high speed to intervene, and then had to climb steeply to avoid hitting the ground. Richthofen turned to avoid this attack, and then resumed his pursuit of May.<br /><br />It was almost certainly during the last stage of this pursuit that Richthofen was hit by a single .303 bullet, that caused such severe damage to his heart and lungs that it must have produced a very speedy death. In the last seconds of his life, he managed to make a hasty but controlled landing in a field on a hill near the Bray-Corbie road, just north of the village of Vaux-sur-Somme, in a sector controlled by the Australian Imperial Force (AIF). His Fokker was not badly damaged by the landing, but it was speedily demolished by souvenir hunters. One witness, Gunner George Ridgway, stated that when he and other Australian soldiers reached the plane, Richthofen was still alive but died moments later.Nalin Bakshihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09564955060512476138noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37060268.post-10755733404942876772007-11-15T23:49:00.000+05:302007-11-16T14:45:47.048+05:30Black Hawk DownI thought joining army was simply about valour, courage and duty. Many movie makers tried to showcase the dramatic tales of war and have come really close. Movies like "Saving private Ryan" were able to show that its not a simple game being an army man. NBut one movie changed the whole essense of being a soldier, that movie is "<span style="font-weight: bold;">Black hawk down</span>". I realised that pain is easy, its the knowledge that it's (pain) coming that makes you feel scared.<br /><br />Black hawk down is based on actual events of 1993 in Mogadishu (Africa), where a civil war was going on. US Forces along with UN forces were trying to establish peace, along with supplying much needed food and medicine.<br /><br />Here is the trailer of the movie:<br /><center><object height="355" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/AUJ6cxWdZwA&rel=1"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/AUJ6cxWdZwA&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="355" width="425"></embed></object></center><br /><br />The above video tells the story in short. You really have to see the movie to understand it better. The movie is mostly action based with no flying heros or super cool effects. The movie won the Oscar award for best sound category. <br /><br />Here is the video from the movie.<br />Situation: Second black hawk has been shot down and two Delta Force commandos are asking permission to go in and secure a perimeter till the ground forces move in.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Word of note: </span><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-size:85%;" >The video is violent and not for kids. So don't watch it if you are a weak heart.</span><br /><br /><br /><center><object height="355" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/t_1-Bb_KaDQ&rel=1"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/t_1-Bb_KaDQ&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="355" width="425"></embed></object></center>Nalin Bakshihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09564955060512476138noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37060268.post-51176621586600280932007-11-06T22:19:00.000+05:302007-11-08T12:14:59.983+05:30The Dog!<span style="font-size:180%;">I</span> was checking my blog when I saw the link to complete profile, as I went on <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_UW8fYQ8bp-s/RzCdbeO6jDI/AAAAAAAAAZ0/zuQZlA48gEs/s1600-h/dog.gif"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_UW8fYQ8bp-s/RzCdbeO6jDI/AAAAAAAAAZ0/zuQZlA48gEs/s400/dog.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5129773070872644658" border="0" /></a>to check it stated: <strong>Zodiac Year:</strong> Dog.<br /><br />I searched on it and came to know its a part of Chinese Astronomy. Though I am firm believer of Indian culture which I think is superior to the Chinese (what ever china has, we had earlier and wasn't it the Chinese travelers who came visiting us to learn?) but one can't ignore the fact that while our culture went on to peace and simplicity of life, Chinese went for war and other things (this 'peace in India culture' also something about I would be writing shortly).<br /><br />So I checked on the wikipedia and I found the following about my year, the year of the Dog.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">"The eleventh animal who arrived was the watchful</span> <a href="http://www.gotohoroscope.com/chinese-zodiac-dog.html"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">Dog</span></a>.<span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">"</span></span><br /></div><h2><span class="mw-headline"><blockquote></blockquote>Attributes</span></h2>Like his animal namesake, he is Loyal with a capital "L". He is the one who people are most likely to turn to when they need help. The dog person will come through every time. That is because he/she is sensitive to others and empathizes with them, particularly if someone has suffered an injustice; he/she reacts quickly with the same feeling as though he/she had been personally offended. Friends know that they can rely upon their Dog friend to keep a promise or remain cool in a crisis. <p>Dog types are honest, intelligent and straightforward. They will take on any responsibility that is given to them and you can be sure that they will do their job well.</p> <p>People born in this year tend to be difficult, upset and shocked more often than the other signs.</p> <p>Dog types do not tolerate weakness. They will work to push the weakness or the whole person with weakness out of their lives (the pack) if the behavior continues.</p> <p>The dog is loyal, unselfish, and idealistic. They can sometimes be worriers and overly critical. Dogs go best with tigers and horses. Their friends are other dogs and also rabbits. Dogs get along worst with Dragons, whom they perceive as arrogant and all flash with no substance.</p> <p>Dogs ideal jobs: politician, actor/actress, teacher, writer, movie director</p><br /><h2><span class="mw-headline">Traditional Dog attributes/associations</span></h2> <table class="wikitable"> <tbody><tr> <th>Attribute</th> <th><br /></th> </tr> <tr> <td>Zodiac Location</td> <td>11th</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Ruling hours</td> <td>7pm-9pm</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Direction</td> <td>West Northwest eastwest</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Season and month</td> <td>Autumn, October</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Gemstone</td> <td><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamond" title="Diamond">Diamond</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td>Color</td> <td>Navy blue</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Roughly equivalent western sign</td> <td><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libra_%28astrology%29" title="Libra (astrology)">Libra</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td>Polarity</td> <td><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yin_and_yang" title="Yin and yang">Yang</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td>Positive Traits</td> <td>Loyal, modest, dependable, generous, patient, intelligent, honest, well-meaning</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Negative Traits</td> <td>Nervous, quick-temper, restless, self-righteous, pessimistic, critcal, petty, accusing</td> </tr> <tr> <td><br /></td> <td><br /></td> </tr> <tr> <td>Most Compatability</td> <td>Horse, Tiger, Pig</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Semi-Compatability</td> <td>Rat, Ox, Rabbit, Snake, Rooster, Dog</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Incompatability</td> <td>Dragon, Monkey, Goat</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p></p><blockquote></blockquote><br /><p></p>So having read this I sure agree to the positive traits :D, but pessimistic , nahhh thats not me, atleast most of the times. And other thing is that I am just too plain moody. But in all I like what I read, perhaps you would want to try out you year try this link : <a href="http://www.gotohoroscope.com/chinese-astrology.html">http://www.gotohoroscope.com/chinese-astrology.html</a>Nalin Bakshihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09564955060512476138noreply@blogger.com1