Archive for the ‘Road Trips’ Category

Today’s AIR program

Thursday, March 26th, 2009

The AIR program – Lunch Box – today was more of a frustrating interview than a serious conversation. I have started feeling that radios, televisions or newspapers (mainstream media in general) is more worried about filling the slot or the space and is not much concerned about the cause.

Today I barely had less than 20 minutes (if I cut down the songs and the words of the RJ) to talk about a 92 day trip. The talk was interrupted by songs every 3-4 minutes. There was not much of a coherence in my talk. After going through this blunder of talking about a serious issue like water management in the midst of some silly Kannada songs, I don’t know whether I should ever accept such requests to participate in a radio/television chat shows. May be I will stick to my plan of going to my previous companies and talking to my colleagues about the trip than wasting my time on ventures like these – if you ever have to tell stories, complete them!

Listen to the broadcast – 26th March 2009 (edited)
(Streamed MP3 Audio, 27min 56 sec, 24kbps, 22kHz, Mono, 4.75MB):

Download the program (MP3, 27min 56 sec, 24kbps, 22kHz, Mono, 4.75MB)

Sa(n)d(y) case of Bharuch

Friday, February 6th, 2009

It was about 6:00 in the evening.  We took a deviation near AnkleshwarW to enter BharuchW via SH-76. We caught the first glimpse of Narmada RiverW. The golden rays of the sun made the waters glitter. While crossing the famous golden bridge, I was thinking about how fortunate the people of Bharuch should have been to have such a mighty river pass by their city.


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Tap Water or Bottled water?

Monday, September 29th, 2008

After reading this post – 20 Reasons You Should Stop Consuming Bottled Waterr, I wanted to update you all on what I chose to drink during my K2K trip.

As you all know, it was a 19000km, 3 months long trip. I had to cover every single state of India. Food and Water were two major concerns of all my friends. People advised us to drink only bottled water and eat at decent places. But I did just the opposite… but why? (more…)

Largest collection of GPS trails of India

Monday, September 15th, 2008

Ever since I have completed my K2K motorcycle ride, I have been shortlisting photographs and tweaking GPS tracks. I have been uploading the photographs to Flickr and GPS tracks to EveryTrail.

Since all my photographs are geotagged, I believe that till date, my collection is the most diverse and completely geotaggedphotographs of India. Also, the largest collection of GPS tracks/trails of India (not numbers but distance and place wise) can be found under my profile in EveryTrail.

Here is a simple example of my trip output: (more…)

K2K Trip covered in Taranga

Thursday, September 4th, 2008

My K2K, In search of Water, trip has been elaborately covered by Taranga. The famous water journalist – Shree Padre, came down from Mangalore, spent an entire day with me and Silje to come up with that article. Padre has done a very nice job of summarizing the entire journey in 10 pages. This is the only article which truly talks about the trip and has many good photographs. Though many newspapers covered the trip at various places, the information was very limited because of the time issues. But Padre, together with Taranga has gone beyond all these limitations to come up with a true reflection of the trip.

Thanks a lot Shree.

Thank you Taranga.

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Where do I belong to?

Tuesday, August 26th, 2008

It has been a month now. On 26th of last month at 14:15 I ended my dream ride – K2K. When I stopped the bike in front of my house, I had covered more than 19000km in 92 days. It took me about 1000 hours on the road to touch all 29 states and 5 union territories of mainland India. When the ride ended, it seemed like an abrupt ending – everyday, for past three months, the ride had always ended with either frustration or happiness. It ended with a serious learning for the day and some strategic planning for the day after. But on 26th July, it was all blank. It seemed as if I had lost the purpose of my life… for few days I was without any thoughts about future. Office work seemed dull and meaningless. I started to miss the kind of life I had led for 3 months – a life which was constantly on the move…

How meaningful would it be to have a life just as a bike ride – always with a direction, with a destination in mind and falling in love with the journey itself

Good or Bad, it has to end

Saturday, July 26th, 2008

Nothing lasts – Good times or bad ones. So did our journey. The long dreamt K2K motorcycle ride ended today at 2:15PM.

  • 19100 km
  • 92 days
  • 1000 hours of motorcycling
  • 29 States and 5 Union Territories
  • Crossed major rivers such as the Ganga, The Yamuna, Godavari, Narmada, Sindhu,

I believe this is the first of its kind when it comes to water. Many people have gone around India but never in search of water. Also, I don’t think a man and a woman together have completed such a trip.

Silje may be the first woman pillion rider to go across India on a motorcycle. She may even be the first Norwegian to do so.

Here is the final schedule of our trip (more…)

K2K Schedule

Friday, March 21st, 2008

Modified the route a little more

Wednesday, March 5th, 2008

I modified the route a little more. Now I pass through all 28 states and 5 union territories of India. The updated route is here (more…)

K2K Checklist

Tuesday, March 4th, 2008

Hmm, here comes the checklist. I have divided it into categories. (more…)