Harrowed in Hyderabad...

Recruiting was my job and out-station hiring one of the channels. This highly coveted reason took me on a visit to Hyderabad in October 2009. We had a few vendors there and they were supposed to line up some excellent,  hardworking, smart candidates eager to work for 3G in apna Mumbai. To begin with I couldn't digest how will I be able to recruit the 'aheavii Aekcent' wala Hyderabadi's for the customer service openings we had. But then it was my job to search for the diamonds among the coal ;-). My train ticket was booked and was under RAC. It got confirmed only on the day of my departure. I louee my travel department. At this point I didn't focus much on the fact that my return ticket is on waiting list. You may ask how is that a big deal...well it turned out to be one. It lead me into a messy affair..much on that a little later.

Paradise

I was in Hyderabad for a couple of days. I was put up at Lakdi ka Pul (as one word). The vendors whom I had to meet were in Secunderabad, which wasn't very far from where I was staying. The first day - Surprisingly, I was at this vendors office on time and to my surprise there were no candidates. I mean, I felt as if I was called there to drink tea and inspect the old computers and stacks of files in this 19 and a 1/2th century building. I was there for 5 hours and they couldn't line a single candidate. I was mind strained (you know the word that I wanted to use - but avoiding from a larger viewer/reader perspective ;-)). But you know what saved the day - Paradise. Not Heaven. The famous Paradise Hyderabadi Biryani House. It was bang opposite to where this vendor's office was. I had a scrumptious, spoon licking chicken Biryani and dozed off for sometime. That was how my first day in Hyderabad was - Utter waste.

The second day was better. I went for a ride by the necklace road. Its more like apna Marine Lines. Necklace road is by the Hussain Sagar Lake. I had to be at a vendor at Banjara Hills that day. Banjara hills is akin to apna Pali Hill. A posh Area of Hyderabad with good crowd, clubs and a nice locality in totality. Here thankfully I was presented with some work. You know without it I would have been bogged down with the guilt of spending company money for nothing. I hope you feel me here. I had some 7 candidates to interview. 6 of them could only introduce themselves and I ticked the 'Failed' button of my mind. So horrible in communication. The 7th guy was better but huge ego and a mis-fit. He was an engineer, did MBA from UK and now wants to work in a BPO. Another one rejected - dis time on stability grounds.

So the summary is something like this -
2 days stay - 24 hours of train travel - 2 vendors - 7 candidates met - zero selects - But a scrumptious Biryani.
How impressive!!

My train from Hyderabad was on the same day at 7.30 in the evening. I had packed my bags in the morning itself. Another colleague of mine who was with me and whose native was Hyderabad said it would only take 20 mins to reach the station from LakdiKaPul and I can leave by 6.45 pm. My bad, I believed him and later realized that this is how luck plays with you. We left by the rick at 6.45 and got stuck at a circle on the NH 9. There was some kind of a morcha and mera locha. We waited for 10 mins but no sign of the rickshaw moving. I hurriedly got down and started running towards the Nampally station (Hyderabad Deccan railway station). I had 15 minutes and I had to get my train. I was running with my bags and worse still I was wearing my chappals. People I passed were searching for a camera of 'The Amazing Race' unit. It was a run to remember. I stopped twice to ask for the direction. Every sound of the train smoking black led my heart to skip a beat. I ran ran and I reached just as the train was pulling off from the platform. Luckily the train was on the platform adjoining the station entry and I didn't had to cross any bridge. You remember Kareena Kapoor's introduction in 'Jab we Met'. Similar was my entry but there was no one to help me get in. Only girls have all the fun here.
I managed to get into a second class compartment from where I moved to the AC section. Now if you recollect my ticket was in the RAC mode and I hadn't yet checked if it is confirmed. I earnestly thanked the Indian Railway for having an internet based ticket status checking facility and thanked Nokia for developing a GPRS enabled phone as I checked the status. And surprise surprise - it was still RAC.

I went blank for a moment. The train had started, I don't have a confirmed ticket, I have a night to spend - what to do? I knew that there are no tickets available in the bus as my colleague had enquired in the evening. He was to stay back in Hyderabad for a day and leave the next day. I gained composure with the thought that with a little money to the TT, I could manage something - No no Anna Hazare wasnt popular then. I parked my luggage and checked out the 3 AC compartments. I couldn't see even one empty seat. The thermometer of my hope fell down a bit but not completely. I couldn't spot the TT so spoke to these blue shirted guys who provide blankets and towels in the compartment. They asked me wait till the TT comes and he would surely help. The place where these guys keep the blankets is by the toilet and it has kind of a wooden bench which can be unfolded. I was given a  place there to sit by this generous blue shirt guy. The TT came by 10.15 pm and on spotting me had a angry look. 'What want you here' is what I heard and spent a few seconds decoding it. Well but I knew he didn't have much time for me so I told him my story and he was like, get down and get into the unreserved section. I tried to reason out that I have a 2nd AC ticket so something can be done and I can pay extra. But he was like there are no seats available and that he cant help and I should move off immediately. The blue shirt guy asked me to speak to the 2nd class TT and ask him to help. I thanked him and took a voyage in the train to sport TT number 2.

I have traveled a lot in the Indian Railways and I know the nuisance of someone who has an unreserved ticket sitting on my reserved seat and saying 'Pleaje Adjusht no'. I could have done that (not with that accent), but it's awkward and something I can never do. I managed to locate the second TT and spoke to him. This guy was more calm and helpful. But he also didn't have any seat to give me. By now it was11.30 pm or something and the train was reaching Wadi Junction and I was frustrated. I had to get a normal ticket because right now though I had an RAC ticket, I was a ticketless traveler. I had no option but to get off the train. I crossed the bridge, located the ticket counter. To which place should I take the ticket? I cant sit by the bathroom the whole night to reach Bombay for sure. I found out that the next big station is Gulbarga. I have passed by Gulbarga when travelling to my native in Tamil Nadu a countless times and it did look like a decent place. So, I thought and Prayed that may be I will get a bus from there. I took the tickets and boarded the same train which was still waiting at the station - May be it felt pity on me. I stood by the door for another 1.5 hours and at 1 a.m. reached Gulbarga. I walked out of the station expecting a bus stop but could only locate a couple of tea stalls and a pitch dark road starting from there and ending I don't know where. I asked a local about getting a bus to Mumbai and he said, its like 10 kms away and its dangerous to travel alone at night. That was the downfall of another of my hope.

I checked for a confirmed ticket to Bombay that night or early next day but there was no availability. The next plan I could come up was to take a train to Solapur and a bus from there to Bombay. The next train to Solapur - a passenger, was at 4.30 in the morning. I spent the 3 hours of the night in the station platform. I was damn sleepy, but didn't want to lose my belongings, which above all had the files of the important interviews I had taken of the Hyderabadi's. I sat wondering how exciting this trip has turned out to be. I could feel what people without a confirmed ticket would feel. I could feel what a person lost would feel - though not entirely as I knew my geography :-).
The train to Solapur was on time. It was relatively empty and I boarded the train, selected a berth and went of to sleep. I reached Solapur at 7 am or so. Places look better in the day light, I concluded. My enquiry started - this time in my fluent Marathi. The Bus Depot was some distance away. no luxury buses were going to Mumbai in the morning. Luxury eludes you, the more you chase her. What a learning, from what a situation. Well, I then took a rick and reached the ST stand. Kolhapur is like Pune how it was 10 years back. Very laid back and slow. I booked my ticket in the Asiad ST Bus - The only luxury I could lay my hands on that day. The luxury turned a little more luxurious as I got a window seat. I had a vada pav and chai and started my journey among the 'aamchi maathi, aamchi maansa'. Relating it to a movie - it was like Shahrukh Khan in Swades, minus the background score by A.R Rehman :-)
Till 10 am, the journey was pleasant but as the Sun God decided to show his presence and might, the journey became a nightmare. The rays were penetrating the windows and my skin and mixing with my blood and it was boiling now. The rattling sound of the aged ST bus body when running over the impeccably maintained country roads was deafening. There were times when my seat literally flew up in the air and miraculously got back to the original position - defying all laws of physics, I must mention. I bought a Marathi Newspaper. I hid myself from the sun using the news of the previous day - Thank God.
The lunch of Maharashtrian Thali at some village - the name of which I didn't bother to register, was really good. Atleast food didn't let me down.

I expected to reach Bombay by atleast 4 or 5 pm maximum. But in this trip no expectation of mine saw the lights of accomplishment. I reached Bombay at 8.30 pm and the Next day was a serious feedback session with my admin team and a series of escalations in HOPE (the same elusive character again) that others don't go the way I did.

The Bulleteers...

 3 months had passed since our Kolad and Raigad trip and I was craving for another one. I had a feeling that another bike trip is just around the corner and it just needed someone to take the lead and push in an agreeable place to explore. Post the previous trip we had formed a Blackberry chat group called 'Bykers' and all of us were in constant touch. Raj tossed the idea of another trip, Stanley built the hype over it, Krish suggested the place (Guhagar) and I did the required research of the place. And guess what we were all set. Bala as always...hmmm..you know what they call that...' did nothing ' ;-)

28th, 29th and 30th of October were the dates. The plan was to leave on Friday afternoon and return back by Sunday evening. Since it was the Diwali weekend all the places that we could find on the internet, in and around Guhagar were all booked. I suggested Staying at Dapoli and visiting Guhagar on Saturday. This way we will be able to explore two places and add some more miles into our trip. Stanley found a bungalow and we booked it. But luck was such that just a couple of days before our trip the bungalow guy backed out saying he cant rent us the place and he arranged us another place. I will get back to how wonderful and exotic that new place was a little later. For now lets go with the flow. 

The 3 Bulls

I have a Fazer. Raj and Krish have 500 cc Bullet Classic and 350 cc Thunderbird respectively. It was our dream that we should do a 'All Bullet' ride soon. I sensed an opportunity and tried to rope in my friend Sushant who has a 350 cc Electra. But he couldn't come due to family commitments but the sweetheart he is, he gave me his bullet for the trip. A dream was going to be fulfilled and the excitement knew no bounds. Finally a 'All Bullet' trip, so soon - not expected. On the day before the trip my other friend Josie jumped into the plan and thus the group of 3 riders and 3 pillions was established for the trip of a life time called..aahhh..hmm...actually we forgot to name it...No No..wait a second.. I remember from the last time...'Men who wont quiet being Boys'.

Day 1 -

In the morning I took my bike for some oiling and battery testing. I didn't want trouble in between the trip. 

Set to leave from Vashi

It was very hot in the afternoon. I knew it would be a tough ride since we will have a good amount of ride during the night as well. Krish and me left our building by 1.30 and picked up Stanley at Sion station who had tricked his dad to believe he was going in a car to Guhagar (Uncle wish you were reading this). As we picked Bala from Shivaji Nagar, we saw that a lot of crowd had gathered to see off Bala. He is a super star there, Mind It!!.

Josie and Raj met us at Vashi and we were on our way by 2 pm. 

The route was via Panvel - Pen - Vadkal Naka - NH17 - Lonere - Goregaon - Dapoli. 220 kms approximately.

Near Vadkal Naka

We took the JNPT road to bypass the Panvel city and believe me we reached Panvel in like no time. We killed the traffic of the city. Once we hit the road from Vashi we rode for more than 60 kms straight to only halt at Vadkal Naka for chai. Chai didn't come alone. It got numerous vada pav and misal pav along with it. But, believe me, we didn't hog :-D

Once we left from Vadkal, our next halt was after Kolad, a good 50 kms away. We were riding cautiously and trying to stick together. By the time we reached Kolad it was about 5.30 pm. We took our Map out and checked the way ahead, decided on the next stop and left from there. By now the air was cooler, the sun was settling down into its nest beyond the mountains and it was fun to ride. 

Treasure Hunters

We reached Lonere in another half an hour. From here we took a right towards Goregaon. Harihareshwar is 50 kms from here. Thats another beach along with Shrivardhan that I want to visit soon. As soon as we turned right, we could feel the difference. National highway to State highway :-( - so stark. Bumpy roads. Badly maintained. But then we had no choice. The pillions have a tough time in these road conditions. Bum hurts like hell. But this was just the start. We had another 70 - 80 kms to cover over such pain inducing roads and more than that under the moon light amidst the mountains and the far and between spread out villages. We took a halt as soon as we crossed Goregaon, alongside a bridge. Did some photo shoot here before moving ahead.

Andhere main Pose

Reached Dapoli

From here till Dapoli it was a ride of a life time. No street lights, extremely curvy roads, crossing mountain after mountain, not very visible sign boards. All these though sound scary, added that zing to the trip. We took a few breaks on the way, asking for direction at the villages we crossed by. Everyone kept saying its not very far now. But

The whole group at the Garage Hotel :-)

we felt as if our ride was never ending. It was 9 pm by the time we reached Dapoli ST stand. It was such a relief. In between we missed a turn and hence rode an extra 20 kms odd. We almost reached Khed, whereas we had to take a right some 12 KM's before (Men and directions - you know how). We were completely exhausted by the time we reached Dapoli. Not because of the distance but because of our sore bum. We took directions of our place of stay and moved on. The place which as per the directions was above a Maruti Showroom was actually above a Maruti Garage. 4 rooms built above the garage.We had 2 rooms. The rooms had to be shut constantly as there were swarms of insects outside dying to hug us badly. One Room had 4 mattresses and no beds. The other had 2 beds and a western style toilet. Relief!!. Infact there was a terrace too. It was full of the junk and car spares. Well we didn't mind actually, because luxury wasn't what we were after ;-). We freshened up and went to have dinner at some restaurant (MTDC approved). Pathetic service, bad sea food and over priced.

With that we called it a day. In fact I called it a day. I had slept for only 2 hours the previous night (partying at a friends place) and I was almost dead. Stanley, Bala and Josie saw hangover and had wine before they crashed.

Day 2 - 

The Whole Group - Dolphin sighting

The alarm rang at 7 am. We had our appointments with the dolphins in the sea. We quickly got ready and reached Murud, the beach which is like 8 - 10 kms from where we were staying. After driving at night it was such pleasure to ride the curvy country roads in the sunlight. Every human we passed, we attracted admiration (Ahem! if i can call the stares as admiration). The beach was nice, very long, black sand, sand wasn't very loose. So we could take our bikes inside the beach for a stroll. As I said before, all eyes were you know where :-). The beach was crowded with visitors. There were dirt bikes available for paid rides, there were speed boats, banana boats and also the boats on hire for watching the dolphins. After a few clicks, we decided to pay the dolphins a visit. 150 rs. per head and off we went into the sea. Hardly any distance from the shore and we could see these lovely groups of dolphins sun bathing, occasionally coming out to let out their steam (you know those small water fountains). They appeared shy as they used to not surface above the water as the boat used to approach them. It wasn't difficult to spot them. They were everywhere. But yes, it was difficult to capture them on our digicams. I wish I had a SLR. Inspite of this limitation we took a few good clicks of their fins and tails (as you can see in the pictures). The whole trip was for half an hour. Believe me, it was a wonderful experience. I was a little disappointed as I expected the dolphins to jump over our boat and come and shake my hands and smile at me etc - Sigh!! never happened.

Riding the bullet in the beach and through the waves is so thrilling that it cant be expressed. The sand keeps altering the path of the tires but doesn't push you down. Freshly Wet sand gives the tires a better grip. We did have our share of tires getting stuck in the sand and we using our bicep strength to pull it off. 

All of us took our pictures, posing with the bullet's which you all will soon see as profile pictures on Facebook and blackberry and Gchat and Shaadi.com and Sulabh Sauchalay etc.

We so wanted to do the banana boat ride, but we also had to leave for Guhagar which was another 80 to 100 kms odd. We had heard that even Guhagar has water sports, so we decided to do it there. The plan was to take the roadway via Khed, Chiplun to reach Guhagar while going and when coming back we will come via jetty. There is a Jetty available from Guhagar (20 kms form the beach) to Dabhol. From Dabhol, Dapoli is another 25 kms. This is the quickest route between these two places.

Puncture Zaali..

We left from Dapoli by 10.30 am towards Guhagar. We were like 12 kms into our journey that we noticed Raj's back tyre is punctured. Luckily we weren't far from a mechanic. The next 45 minutes was chill out time for us, as Raj supervised the mechanic. We reached Khed and got connected to the NH - 17 again towards Chiplun. We all were carrying only one pouch with our cash and the cameras. Raj and me had left our wallets in the room. And we were stopped on the highway by the police and we thought its going to be another drama waiting to unfold. We got down. Bala showed his licence, Stan and Josie showed their licence instead of Raj and me. The policeman didn't say a word and let us go. Now when I think about it, it sure was his way of saying 'Respect' to the bullet and MUMBAI :-).

Veg Khana :-(

Post this we halted at Chiplun and then took a right towards Guhagar. The roads here were much better and we had an awesome time riding. We took quiet a few breaks along the way. Raj couldn't stop himself from riding below 100 kph in his classic and we used to be left behind. Then he used to wait for us ahead and that would be an excuse for us to take a break as soon as we used to spot him. In the mountains, 20 kms ride feels like 40 kms. It feels like we are riding for so long but have covered very less distance. Wonder if all bikers feel this.

We reached Guhagar by 3.45 pm. We were freaking hungry but couldn't find one non veg restaurant. All the kitchens were closed. We ended up having Veg Thali at a veg restaurant. Imagine we are here by the beach in Konkan and having veg food instead of prawns and crabs. Such was our state.

The other disappointment was the missing water sports facility in Guhagar. So we instead went for a swim in the sea. We had our photographer bhai (Stanley) take some really nice pictures. God bless him!!

The Baywatch Run

Amazing Sunset

ABy 6 we were back on the road, riding towards the jetty. All of us were going to board the jetty with our bikes for the first time and yes we were excited. Here again the ride of 20 kms took a little over an hour and it was completely dark as we reached the Jetty. 5 - 7 mins and we were on the other side. We were tired by now. And knew that the next 25 kms is not really 25 kms but somewhere close to eternity. We were right; the roads kept going, the roads were more of stoned pavements and no lights and no villages in between. It took us a hour and 30 minutes to reach Dapoli. everyone's hands were busy. Yea, busy holding their bum and imagining a warm oil massage in Phuket.

Bala resting his tired Bum

We had our dinner. And for the first time in the trip had prawns and it was yummy. We filled our stomach and went back to our rooms. Being the last night we didn't want to sleep early. We played Uno drinking wine to end the night by 1 am. I wanted to visit Suvarnagadh, the fort in the sea, the next morning as it was not very far from Dapoli, but we as a group decided to leave early and reach Bombay early so that we can rest and be ready for our grind called work and rat race.

Smewhere on the way to guhagar

Jetty main entry

Bad Roads..

Day 3 -

The ride back to Bombay.

From NH-17 we took the Khopoli - Pali road thinking we will reach quicker and overcome the traffic between vadkal Naka and Pen. This was not a wise decision. The road is pathetic. Though there are so many industries along the way, the road is no good. We will surely avoid it in the future.

However once we got connected to the expressway ahead of Khopoli the roads were very good and we just zipped through to reach our homes sweet homes.

The last halt and a look at the 3 bullets

Bum Pain leads to some innovation

A wild pic gone awry

Ek Duje ke Liye

Josie and Me