Psycling Wisdom: Life Lessons from the Tour of Nilgiris 2016

Based on a session conducted at the Sabre India Leadership Offsite in March 2017

I used a good chunk of my 2016 December holidays to do the Cycling Tour of Nilgiris aka TfN (www.tourofnilgiris.com) - an adventure that was in the "scheming" phase for over 2 years. Back in 2014 when my wife, Sahina, agreed to let me take 8-9 days off in 2016 to go cycling, I’m sure that she was sure that I would give up cycling by 2016. BUT I took the 2 years to really plan it out and become a stronger rider.

TfN in Numbers

• 7 days of riding – across the Nilgiris (Blue Mountains) through 3 states and 3 reserve forests
• Total distance covered = 901 km
• Total elevation gain = 11,164m! To put this in perspective the elevation of Mt Everest is 8,848m
• Total saddle time = 41h25m
• Number of riders who started the Tour = 107

Life Lessons

Goal setting

When I set my goals for TfN, I had to be realistic. I was competing against professional cyclists – both current & retired, and people who were much stronger than me.

I had to set goals that were difficult yet achievable given my state of fitness, my potential and the time I was willing to invest. It had to be exciting and something that I had to work for, something that would make me want to wake up in the morning, jump on the bike and do those horrible workouts! If the goals were too easy, then there would have been neither a sense of anticipation nor a sense of achievement. And if I went in hoping to win, I would have come back really disappointed.

Taking this thought to life in general, one should be realistic about the goals one sets for themselves. 

There are no universal goals. You have to find your own goals taking into considerations your skills, limitations, potential, interest levels, competition, location and most importantly the sacrifices that you are willing to make to achieve that goal. Realistically not many of us can aim to become the CEO of a fortune 100 company, can we?

You should also decide up front what you will reward yourself with if you meet your goals.

Planning

The way I saw TfN, it required:

1. Ability to ride ~130-160km per day for 7 days
2. Ability to climb well on the bike – there were 3 days of serious climbing
3. Ability to climb Kalahatti – 12km climb at an average 11% gradient, which is pretty long and pretty steep
4. Climbing on a bike is all about power to weight ratio – so the combined weight of the rider and the bike should be as low as possible
5. You must be mentally prepared for the torture of the climbs
6. Nutrition/ hydration while on the bike during the long climbs
7. To spend long days in the saddle 7 days in a row, you have to be very comfortable on the bike

Based on the above, I did my planning around 3 aspects: Body, Mind & Bike.

1. Body

I had to really improve my endurance to be able to ride multiple days at a stretch and I had to become much stronger on the bike to be able to ride up Kalahatti. I had tried my hand at self-coaching and had mixed results. But for something this serious, I did not want to take any chances and I signed up with Bikey Venky’s Coaching Program (www.bvcoaching.in). BV is a veteran of many TfNs and a revered figure in Bangalore’s racing scene. Over the 6 month period before TfN, he really put me through the wringer.

2. Mind

For someone like me, the Kalahatti is a 1h45m climb. That is 1h45m of pure physical and mental torture. If you are not prepared, the mind will give up long before the body does. I spoke to several people to come up with strategies to Tame the Mind.

At the beginning of December, Vishnu (my partner in crime) and I drove down to Kalahatti with our bikes in the car and did a recce climb, to understand Kalahatty the Beast better. With all the training that we had done, it was possible to complete the Kalahatti climb without any stops. That was a HUGE moral boost.

We also figured out our hydration and nutrition strategy for the climb during the recce. For example, on such a steep climb if you stop, it is very difficult to get started again. And while crawling uphill it’s difficult to take both your hands off the handle bar. So how do you open your energy bar while riding? We figured the best way to do it was to open the wrapper at one end and stash it into your jersey pocket and while riding take a bite every 15-30 min. The catch is that when you are deep within yourself suffering up the climb, the last thing you want to do is eat. BUT, if you don’t eat you run out of fuel and you will stop. So you have to grab a bite every 20-30 minutes and a few sips of water every ten minutes.

3. Bike

About 12 months before the tour started, I started upgrading various components on my bike. I spent quite a bit of time with the good folks at CrankMeister (https://www.facebook.com/crankmeisterbicycleworks - the Best Local Bike Store in Bangalore!) researching and bouncing off ideas on possible upgrades and how to source the components.

Finally ended up with a lighter and crisper groupset/ gears, lighter wheels, and a narrower yet more comfortable saddle among other things. At the end of the upgrade cycle the only thing left from the original bike was the frame and the fork and my bike weight was down from 9.5kg to 8kg.

To summarize, once you have your goal clear, PLAN, PLAN and PLAN!

• Identify all the pieces that are required to meet your goal
• Categorize them into different streams if possible
• Research to understand and evaluate options – talk to people/ read/ try out things
• Get outside help wherever required
• Try and eliminate surprises – for example, do a recce!
• Have a roadmap of activities
• Leave room for contingencies

Execution/ Adapting the Plan

Planning is easy, but execution requires a lot of discipline. In my case I had to watch what I ate, complete all the really hard workouts, and wake up really early every Saturday to head out to Nandi (a local 7km climb @7% gradient about 45km from home) – that meant no more late night parties on Fridays! By early November, the Tuesday workouts were life sapping VO2 sessions. Music really helped me through the Tue sessions. By the beginning of the tour, the only music I could listen to was Iron Maiden (The British heavy metal band named after the medieval torture device!). Songs like Die with your Boots on, The Trooper, Hallowed be thy name, Powerslave and the Loneliness of the long distance runner were on “repeat playlist” mode on my phone and iPod!

You can have the best plan in the world, but at the end of the day it is all about discipline and execution. And life will throw curve balls. You need to work around the disruptions and try and stick to the plan as much as possible. And where required tweak the plan to factor in the disruptions. You also need to find the things that help keep you motivated – the reward, music, whatever else might work for you J

Nothing comes free in life, you have to be mentally prepared to make the necessary sacrifices. 

Parting Thoughts

It was an amazing experience riding through some of the most scenic parts of South India. Riding through hills, forests, tea estates, paddy fields, and villages. One of the most blissful experiences was the ride up to Valparai on day 7 - Riding through the hilly rain forests all I could hear were the beating of my heart, chirping of the birds, and the sound of my chain interrupted by the occasional vehicle!

I got to meet a LOT of interesting and inspiring people during the tour:

• The oldest person on the tour was 72 years young and he was faster than most of us
• And the youngest was a 19 year old psychology student who went by the name of Dead Pool
• People with disabilities
• The Management Guru who gave up his comfortable life to become a professional cyclist at the age of 40
• And so many more….

Now that it is over, there is a HUGE void (the size of Nilgiris) in my cycling world. Till I find another cycling goal, I will do the local races and work on increasing my power output using the power meter I rewarded myself with for meeting and exceeding my goals :-D

7 months, 4500km and a Time Trial later...

Looking back at the last 7 months which involved an obscene amount of riding for a “working”, “family man”, some key things that stand out:

Got my new bike

After spending over 4 months researching on carbon frame vs aluminium, endurance geometry vs race, Btwin vs Fuji Vs Trek Vs Scott Vs Bianchi Vs Specialized, 105 groupset vs Tiagra vs Sora  and what not, in early March, I went out and picked up a 2014 Specialized Roubaix Sora (Carbon frame, endurance geometry) from Bums on the Saddle after being inspired in large doses by NJ@BOTS.

When I got home with the new bike late on a Friday night, Sahina had 2 questions:

1. Are you happy with your purchase? If yes, please get on with life! I'm tired of you researching!!!
2. Who is sleeping with you tonight? Me or the bike? 

I must admit, the second question was a toughie ;-)

Did my first brevet

A week after I got my new bike, in early March, I did my first 200 km brevet on my old bike and became Randy Rahul.

I also did an epic 185 km solo ride on Good Friday.

Got new footwear

In June I got a pair of Shimano SPD SL 540 pedals and Shimano road shoes with the SPD SL cleats. The first thing Sahina asked seeing those shoes "With your feet clipped in like that, wont you fall off the bike while trying to get off?"

The first day with the new footwear, the cleats came loose and I shortened my ride. The second day, while trying to stop, I unclipped, and then accidentally clipped back in! Which resulted in me falling off rather spectacularly while standing still in traffic! Fortunately, I hurt my ego more than anything else and thankfully Sahina didn't say "told you so!" when I got home :-)

The new footwear really helps with the street cred, apart from helping improve power transfer and increasing cadence (by about 5%). Of course walking with the SPD SL cleats under your shoes are a pain, but then i bought them to ride, not to walk! (The decision again influenced to a large extent by NJ!)

The Time Trial

The the last thing that happened: The Bangalore Amateur Racing Individual Time Trial (BAR ITT) in late Sept.
When Vishnu (my riding buddy) told me about the ITT, I was in 2 minds! I wasn't sure if I wanted my speed and time to be posted in the public domain and risk embarrassment! Sahina again had 2 questions:

1. Will you win it? Of course not I replied
2. Will you be the last? Probably not, I replied

Those 2 questions put things in perspective! The final push came from Pavan when I got my bike serviced at Crankmeister. 

At the ITT, my target was to do 30 kmph over the 45.6 km distance. I was familiar with part of the route. Tail winds on the way out and mega head winds on the way back. So you have to conserve energy for the way back. I did some basic math on how to average 30 and I averaged 30.1 as per my bike computer, but I had forgotten to take into account that my bike computer is off by 1% :-( as per the official timesheet I averaged 29.7. 

At the end of the day, all of that is fairly immaterial. What the Time Trial helped do is remove a mind block. For the time trial, it was 90 minutes of hard effort. You ride through discomfort and pain.

• Your position on the saddle is off? Too bad, you just push on and adjust your b**ls when it wont affect your progress!
• Sweat is burning your eye? Too bad, just get on with it!
• Your mouth is dry and all you taste is salt in your mouth? Too bad, just hang in there and take a sip when it wont affect your progress.

After the time trial, I have seen the average on my daily rides increase by about 10%.

How I have evolved

Looking at how my riding has evolved over the last 7 months:

• On the new bike my speed improved by about 15% over my old bike; average went from 21-22 kmph to about 24-25 kmph and my cadence went from an average of 77-80 to about 94-95! The cadence going up is something that just does not make sense in isolation! It must be the frame geometry, the position, mindset, etc.
• When I got the new footwear the speeds were still averaging at 24-25 kmph, but my average cadence went up to about 100! The fact that the feet are clipped in I guess helps you pedal faster without worrying about your feet flying off
• I started riding with Vishnu on weekends and my average went to 25-26!
• After the ITT my daily average went up to 28-29 kmph!

On a parting note…

I have spent a lot of time reading up on how to improve my performance on the bike. One of the funniest things I read was this question on Quora “What do you do with your testicles when you ride?”

The top response: “You take them along with you!”

Of course!!! :-) :-) :-)

How I got my Title

I always felt that a title would go well with my name. Getting a PhD seemed like too much work and it didn’t look like the British Royalty was going to give me a knighthood anytime soon. So the easiest way to a title looked like through cycling. Hmmm Randonneur Rahul! A bit like Brigadier Rahul! Sounds pretty cool eh? So how does one go about becoming a Randonneur? It’s simple, you successfully complete a Randonneuring Event!

The easiest one is of course the shortest event, i.e. 200km ride which one needs to complete in 13.5 hours. You ride through a defined route, passing through checkpoints at strategic points. These checkpoints could be manned or unmanned. If manned, you need to get a time stamp from the organizers on your brevet card. If unmanned, its typically a pre-defined ATM from which you need to get a transaction slip with a time stamp. But since this is Bangalore, traditional unmanned check points have been replaced with people taking “selfies” and “whatsapp'ing” it to the organizers at pre-designated landmarks! How cool is that?

The plotting started in December 2013. The Bangarpet 200km in March looked like the best bet taking into consideration my work schedule, travel plans, weather, etc.

While I was physically prepared (daily interval training on the bike, long weekend endurance rides, daily core strengthening, daily stretching, weight loss to get in the most efficient zone….) nervousness hit 2 days before the event. Will I be able to finish? Will my “old” bike and tires hold up? Will the spate of flats I was facing resurface and mess up the ride, will the old chain break? The list of things to worry about was endless…

Based on my averages over the past few months, I came up with a ride plan. Maintain a moving average of 20-22kmph, break of 5 minutes every 20-30km to stretch, refill water, eat, bio break etc. 1 hour break for lunch after 120km and finish the 200km in about 12 hours.

Selfie of a Grumpy Rider @TMB ATM, Hosur

33km 0806hrs

The ride started off uneventfully, but my plan went out the window at the first checkpoint 30+km from Bangalore. I spent over 30 minutes in a line to get a transaction slip from the Tamil Nadu Mercantile Bank ATM in Hosur. And just as I reached the front of the line, the ATM konked out!!! I ended up taking a selfie in front of the ATM, which is probably what I should have done in the first place!!! GRRRR…. 30 minutes to the total time, when i was at my freshest and the sun was not hot :-(

NO! I won’t let these things affect my  morale! I will take these setbacks in my stride and ride on! I will just cut down my lunch break from 1 hour to ½ hour and try catch up with the original plan. 

The next 30-40 km was spent socializing with other riders on the road. You catch up with someone or someone catches up with you, you say hi, chat for a bit and you go back to your pace and they go back to theirs…

After about 90km (about 11am) I hit a really bad patch of road, the sun was scorching down and I started to wonder what the hell I was doing. I should be somewhere with a chilled beer. These waves of doubts kept coming between 11am and 4pm, by which time I also had a nasty headache from the heat. That’s when I realized why it’s called an endurance event! You REALLY need to endure it!!!

During this period I stopped at various places for tender coconut, sugar cane juice, sweet-lime/ moosambi juice with salt, Idli, curd rice and water refills. The villagers were very friendly and very curious. They want to know where you are coming from, where you are going and why you are doing it. Lastly they want to know the cost of your cycle. My take on the whole thing is this: Every one has owned a cycle at some point in their life man, and has fantasized about riding around the whole day on their cycle and going everywhere on their cycle. So when they see someone doing it, they want to know more. They want to know the cost to make sure you don’t need a fancy bike to do it! There was the occasional villager with the “you guys are mad” look as well :-) But thank you sincere villagers for your friendly chat which kept me going!

And then there was this creepy guy who rode alongside me for a while on his moped trying to sell me life insurance!!!!

A Rejuvenated Rider @Emerald Isle Resort, Hoskote

153km 1535hrs

I survived the midday heat with my spirits intact. Around the 153km checkpoint (Hoskote), met a couple of other riders and we all shot each other in front of the Emerald Isle resort.

If I wanted to pull out of the brevet this was the last place I could do it and ride home (~25km) After this I would be going away from my side of Bangalore and if I couldn’t ride any more, I would need to be bailed out by Sahina coming and picking me up in the car…

I assessed myself and felt I could do it. The next stretch of the route was home territory. I knew it like the back of my hand.

Selfie of a Determined Rider @Chikka Thirupathi temple

184km 1729hrs

Reached ChikkaThirupathi temple around 530pm. 184km completed. By now, my butt had started to hurt after the long day in the saddle.

But it was about finishing now. Found a burst of speed and made it to Sarjapur village by 6.15pm. 200+km completed. Just outside my target time of 12 hours!!!

But it isn’t over till you reach the finish point. Another 10+km :-( This involved surviving the madness called Sarjapur village AND navigating the crazy traffic on Sarjapur-Bangalore road in the fading light.

A stop for a banana, another stop to get my reflective jacket and lights going and numerous stops in traffic later, I made it to the finish line at 19:12

YES!!! I’m Randonneur Rahul Md now, and I will get a medal to prove it from Audax Club Parisien in about 6-8 months!

Now that I have successfully completed it and am Randy Rahul, do I want to do it again? Not for another 6 months. I think my sweet spot is hammering out 80-120km on a weekend morning before brunch with family. So my next target is to get my average speed up on my new bike from the current 24kmph to at least 27kmph on 3-4 hours rides. Maybe I will attempt another brevet in the latter part of the year, when the weather starts to cool down and my speeds are higher!

Oh another thing. After I finished the brevet, Sahina said that if all I wanted was the Randy title, she would have certified me as a Randy Old Man!!! Talk about time and effort wasted in the wrong direction ;-)

On a more serious note, what did I learn that i would apply for my next brevet?

• Work on stretching my glutes as part of the daily routine. That’s the only muscle that was sore the next day! 
• Wear bib shorts instead of the regular shorts. They may look funny, but not having the elastic band eat into your stomach will save you from burning sensations after a bio break!
• Wear a light coloured helmet with good ventilation. I have a feeling that my black, poorly ventilated urban helmet contributed to my afternoon headache!

Hmmm... If I'm even talking about learnings to be applied for the next brevet, I guess it means that I would do it again ;-)

I got one invaluable piece of advice before the ride from Sree Ram @Cycling Boutique, which was my mantra during the ride: “During a Brevet drink before you are thirsty and eat before you are hungry. If you are tired, take a break! Credit is for finishing within the cut off time, not for finishing first!!!” 

With my nephew Rohan and a bottle of Gatorade @ Krishna Lilac

While loading up the cycle on the car after the event, Senthil, Rohan and Maya came to meet me with a bottle of Gatorade! Thank you Senthil!

Feb 08 - A Saturday Night in Brighton

Louise did a lot of home work before her leaving drinks, to ensure that the drinking didnt stop when the budget holder left, and identified a bunch of pubs that we could crawl into... Top of the list was this Goth pub just outside Soho called "The Interpid Fox". So from the Barcelona Tapas bar, we landed up at the Fox. While there Carol mentioned that her Son Lee worked at a recording studio on Denmark Street nearby and asked if I would like to meet Lee during a lunch break the next week.

Im not one to say no to a new experience am I? :-)

Next wednesday we were at the Studio during lunch hour chatting up with Lee, who plays in a punk band called "The Loyalties". He mentioned that they would be playing in Brighton the next saturday evening at "The Engine Room" near the Brighton sea front. Hmmm that sounded like a plan.

Over the next few hours I sorted out acco in Brighton at a backpacker hostel called the Grapevine (the erstwhile "Brighton Backpackers") for £10 per night. I was quite thrilled by the rate and asked the dude whether that included breakfast :-D He went "Jheez Man, what do you expect for 10quid? If you give me 45quid, I will tuck you in at night and give you a mug of Horlicks as well!!!" We had a laugh and the acco was "sorted".

So I landed up in Brighton on saturday afternoon, checked into the hostel and went out for a walk. The energy and the vibes in Brighton are very different from London. Its a very alternate, arty and buzzy crowd. Maybe it has to do with the fact that there are a lot of students in Brighton. Maybe it also has to do with the fact that it is the gay capital of UK. Whatever it was, I loved it.

Considering the gig was only at 1900 and I was there by 1430, I had a LOT of time to kill :-) While roaming the streets of Brighton, I came across this band of 4 musicians playing on the street. They were playing a sort of Funky Jazz, Ska, Rap kind of music. Spent then next hour or so listening to them. The musicians kept changing every now and then... with a new drummer coming in now, a different sax player coming in then, a different vocalist for the next and so on...
It turned out they were promoting their gig for the evening at a nearby club called Komedia. They were all different parts of the various bands playing that evening. I was quite impressed by the music and was debating whether to do Lee's Gig or the Komedie Medley... eventually decided to do both :-)

Got to the Engine Room at 1900 to be told that they were running late. So I found the nearest off license and picked up the cheapest can of Lager I could find (it was a can of Grolsch for a quid and it was grotesque!!!) But while drinking on the street I was quite surprised to see that no one else seemed to be drinking on the streets... Odd I thought, but it didnt stop me :-) Finished the can and was lining up with all the other punks at the Engine Room. The crowd was quite cool with a lot of old punks! The first band kicked off at about 2000hrs. The Bass player was an old dude who was walking up and down the street earlier with his even older missus!!! The loyalties kicked off their set at about 2045. They were pretty cool. Check out The Loyalties on their MySpace homepage

After the Loyalties, I decided to ditch the main act at the Engine Room, the Nomads, and check out the Ska/ Funk Mix at the Komedia Club, which was called Comm:Unity Sounds

While walking over from the Engine Room to the Komedia Club, decided to stop over at another off license and pick up a can of beer. I went in and was shocked to see that there was no can for under £1.25. Steep I thought. I asked the dude at the off license what he had for a pound and he said, you take this fosters, its actually 1.30, but you can have it for a quid. Friendly folks eh?

So there I was, sipping a discounted fosters and walking along the COLD sea front, when I came across this cop who was diverting pedestrians due to a fire in some fany hotel on the sea front. After giving me the necessary divertionary directions he asked for my can saying "I can either fine you for drinking on the streets or I can take away your can, i think taking away the can would be cheaper for you!!!" Apparently Brighton has a different set of rules from the rest of the UK when it comes to drinking on the streets...

The sets at the Komedia club was quite cool. Check out some of the music at their MySpace homepage

Check out the music of the individual bands which make up Comm:Unity Sounds on their individual MySpace pages below
http://www.myspace.com/titansystem
http://www.myspace.com/samsara5
http://www.myspace.com/kingporterstomp
http://www.myspace.com/resonatorsmusic
http://www.myspace.com/thescrub

Btw, the beer at these venues were more expensive than similar venues in London. I was commenting about the high prices to one of the staff at the Komedia Club and he goes "Yeah man, its more expensive than London and we dont get paid as much either!" :-(

Hit the sack by about 1am and was up the next morning at 9. While stepping out of a nearby cafe, after breakfast, there were all these people running through the streets. They were running a bloody half marathon in the cold. Anyway, i went back to the hostel checked out and was talking to Steve who runs the Hostel. He turned out to be an erstwhile punk who was more into Ska these days. He was of the opinion that people were MAD to run a marathon in the cold on a sunday morning. According to him, the the only thing on ones mind on a sunday morning should be a hangover. AND, he says it gets worse in Summer in Brighton, when they have a nude marathon and a nude bicycle race!!! Hmmmm the nude marathon must be tough on the women and the nude cycle race tough for the men folk ;-)

On a parting note, when I was taking my car out of the overnight parking, I paid £15 for over night parking. Hmmm expensive, considering I spent only £10 for myself!!!

Easter 2007 - The Mediterranean Road Trip

I had been itching to do a Road Trip through the South Coast of France and Italy since 1999 or so. Call it a 7 year itch if you must ;-)

So when I found myself in UK in 2005, I started scheming to make it happen. After much deliberations and planning, the trip finally materialised during the Easter of 2007. In addition to my wife and son, I also got hold of a mate from my days in REC, Calicut.

As you can imagine, a trip involving 4 people, 4 countries, 11 days and 3500 miles of motoring was quite eventful, especially since one of the trippers happened to be a 5 year old "fast car fanatic", the second a 30+ year old boy who was car crazy, the third a TSM (Thirty-Plus Single Mallu) who was on the phone with mysterious damsels half the time and the last a hapless wife/mother/friend caught in between all that madness.

In the interest of brevity am sticking to the trip highlights.

Trip Summary
Duration - 11 days from the 5th of April '07 to the 15th of April '07
Distance covered - 3350+ miles (~ 5375 km)
Road Trippers - Prithvi (my 5 year old son), Sahina (my wife), Sujith (mate from REC)
Trip Steed - '98 BMW E36 323i
Countries Covered - England, France, Monaco, Italy, Switzerland

Coolest moments
1. Using a Porsche 911 Turbo and a Corvette V8 as pace cars and doing 135mph average on the stretch between Dijon & Reims in France, on the last day of the trip. At one point I glanced at the speedometer and got psyched seeing 145mph (~230+ kmph). Eased off and decided that I wouldn’t cross 140mph. After about 10 minutes, the 911 eased off and I overtook him by maintaining my speed (~135mph). While passing the 911, I stole a glance to see who was driving and whether it was a left or a right hand drive. The guy got cheesed off with my cheeky move and zoomed past me. The ease and oomph with which he overtook at 135mph was like how I would overtake at say 80mph!!! The statement he made was "Don’t try to teach your father how to play" - a literal translation of the Malayalam saying "Appane kali padippikkan nokkaruthe"!!!!

2. Over steering and having the rear end step out at a hair pin bend on some Swiss hill on the border between Switzerland and France. That was the first time I had any car over steer like that on tarmac!!! At the first hair pin, had the rear tires squealing and then biting back in. the second hair pin i went harder and the rear snapped. Felt fantastic to balance the throttle and steering to get the rear back in.....


Hairy moments
1. Nearing the end of the petrol tank on Easter Sunday (8 April) and finding all petrol bunks closed in the French country side. With less than 2 litres left in the tank, managed to locate a pump in Castellane using the GPS, only to find that they didn’t accept Euro currency and UK credit/ debit cards. Then got friendly with a French biker and filled up using his French credit card and paid him cash!!! ( Right: a Scooty doing wheelies at the deserted parking lot at the petrol pump)

2. Following a car into a restricted zone in St Tropez without knowing it was a restricted zone. Realized it was a restricted zone when the bollard came up and banged the car from below. Fortunately it hit the outer edge of the rear bumper. A metre and a half earlier and I would probably have lost my drive shaft and/ or differential!!!!

3. While driving through the twisty hilly one ways in Monaco we got hopelessly lost trying to find the casino in Monte Carlo. At one junction, in a desperate attempt to take a U turn and egged on by navigators, I started to take a left turn. A 5 series behind me started to blast his horn as if all hell had broken loose. That psyched me, but still continued with the left turn. Suddenly there was a scooter right in front and I almost banged into her. That’s when I realised that I was turning into a one way street and that the 5 series was trying to warn me. A few hours earlier I had read in the lonely bible that Monaco has the highest density of cops (uniformed and plain clothed) and that if one was ever in doubt about this fact, to try and jump a red signal. Needless to say, the "near one way violation" left me pretty shaken and not stirred!!!!

Impressed by
1. The AutoStrada joining Nice with Genoa - It is one loooong stretch of tunnels and bridges across mountains and valleys. The road goes through 1km tunnel and then a 1km bridge and then a 1km tunnel and then a bridge and so on and so on forever!!!! Absolutely fantastic! And in Italy, when the speed limit says 120 people treat that as miles per hour instead of kilometres per hour!!! (Right: after driving the whole day, we took a relief break at Pisa and tried to straighten out the tower ;-))

2. The 11km tunnel through Mont Bianco - It is one STRAIGHT tunnel through the mountain on the border between Italy & France. Mont Bianco, I hear, is the tallest mountain in this part of the world.

3. The cities of Siena, Perugia and Nice
Siena - In the main city vehicles other than cop cars and taxis are not allowed. The philosophy is that it’s for the people to live, not for cars to pollute. To add to the whole experience, we met an Old Italian dude, who used to run an Italian restaurant in Chelsea. He gave us the history of Siena and walked us through the best route possible into the square. Historically Siena and Florence have been at loggerheads with each other, trying to be the centre of renaissance. Fantastic!!! BTW, Siena hosts a horse race called Palio. (Now you know from where Fiat gets its inspiration, for its cars in India)
Perugia - This is a bit of an odd ball town. There is a section of the town which is in the underground ruins of an old fort. Windowless yet swanky shops on either sides of a dark underground passage. Jazz is very big in this part of the world. I walked into a Jazz CD shop. It had this narrow door and steep dark steps leading down into an underground "nothing". I asked the storeowner where it led and he said it led to an ancient wine cellar which used to be a Tuscan temple before it became a wine cellar!!!
Old town in Nice - This felt a bit like the Jew town in Fort Cochin with spice vendors and fresh antique sellers!!! The promenade in Nice was like the Marine drive in Mumbai except there were topless sun bathers here. Me and prithvi spent time on the beach while Sahina & Wadax unsuccessfully tried to break into a Matisse museum ;-) The Socca we had from Socca Nisso was fantastic (and cheap).

4. Idyllic isle of "Isola Polvese" in Lago Trasimeno with no roads and its olive gardens




“Coolest” Activity Driving through the tunnel and the swimming pool complex on the Monaco Grand Prix circuit. When Kimi and Alonso raced through the circuit the next month we could claim that we had been there before them this year ;-) Incidentally the tunnel smelt like a fish market.


In a Nutshell The French Riviera was cool. We got to see where the rich go to hang out and let it all hang out. Yacht mooring charges at St Tropez harbour is apparently in the region of Euro 90,000 a week during peak season!!! The average yacht is double the size of a 3 bed house. You can see more Ferraris in front of the Monte Carlo Casino in half an hour than you would see in London in a month!!

And Italy… Italy has a raw charm. People are cool (and the men are good looking according to me wifey), food is fantastic and the landscapes are amazing. Driving in Italy can be "interesting". Lonely Bible suggests touring Italy on a bike and having seen the roads there, it is a FANTASTIC suggestion. The day (Friday the 13th of April) we drove from Tuscany to Cogne (in the alps) through Turin, the change in landscape was dramatic. From rolling hills, floral fields and olive gardens in Tuscany to the farmed planes around Turin to the snow covered Alps and pine trees in Cogne. Italy also has good beaches and dramatic cliff side drives along the coast, volcanoes, history, Mafia infested towns, Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Alfa Romeos, Maseratis and Valentino Rossi!!!

Italy has it all. A bit like India, in a lot of respects.... :-)


Pictures from the trip Given the number of days on the road and the number of cameras involved, there are over a thousand pictures from the trip... Click here to see some of the better snaps from the trip

Dec 07 - Heidelberg Summit on Normal living for Chronic Petrol Heads and Alcoholics

The whole thing started as an attempt at an EU Reunion of the batch of 92-96 from CREC/ NITC.

Due to various constraints and sad reasons, most people (read Wadax, Hari & Deepak Toni) dropped out. So to save the show, Pauly and family graciously offered to host Prashant Ramesh (aka Patta) and myself (RMd) at Heidelberg.

Rahul Cherian (RCJ) and Anjana who were driving through Europe also agreed to join us to ensure that we had a quo'Rum.

The core plan was simple, we all land up in Heidelberg between friday evening (21st of Dec 2007) and saturday afternoon (22nd of Dec 2007) Have a few beers, go around Heidelberg a bit , hang out in the German Xmas markets and then split on sunday evening.

However only Patta landed up on time. I missed the ferry from London on friday afternoon and had to take the evening ferry. So I reached Heidelberg by 1200hrs on Saturday afternoon, having spent friday night in some Koln hotel. RCJ & Anjana reached only by 1800hrs on Saturday, due to cartographic issues.

Once the group assembled, the meetings, moderated by Mr.Jägermeister himself, kicked off in earnest, in Pauli's car. Afterwards we sat in the H'berg Xmas Market continued the discussions over Bratwurst and other German delicacies.

After we realised that we could no longer feel our extremities, due to the extreme cold, we shifted to Parking lot# 12. However,by then Mr.Jägermeister had to leave and we turned to some german beers for 'moderation'!!

We wound up pretty early I think (i dont remember when though...) Pauly played the ever respected role of Designated Driver.

Sunday morning, we reconvened at Pauli's place to sort out the cartographic issues for RCJ & Anjana. Late on Sun afternoon we split and went our different ways. BUT not before Patta gave us a glimpse of his old self by doing a Bottle of Red in under 6 gulps!

Patta flew back to Madrid, RCJ & Anjana continued on their EU road trip & I drove onto Stuttgart to meet another family and then onto Dunkirk before taking the ferry back to London the next morning.

On a personal note, the German section of the Stuttgart-Dunkirk drive was one of the most exhilarating drives ever. I left Germany convinced that High Speed Driving is indeed an alternate and more advanced form of Meditation!

Snaps from the trip are on Picasa at this link

Sunday Shoots at Columbia Flower Market, London E2

While rambling through the Columbia Flower Market, in Londons East End yesterday (10 Feb 2008) came across this interesting studio run by a photographer called Seamus Ryan. He has this project called Sunday Shoots where, every Sunday he photographs for free, the Joe Public who walk in. And each week the shoot follows a different theme.

Yesterday, the theme was VERTIGO and a poster outside the studio described Vertigo thus "When we fall we lose control. In this project the public were invited to really let go and plunge into a metaphorical abyss, revealing a more vulnerable side of their character. The resulting images are an alternative to the heroic conventions of modern portraiture, not to mention being a bit of a laugh."

I was quite amused by the whole thing and went in... But I must admit that when i walked in I was quite apprehensive, since im not much of a "faller"... (when I tried Bunee Jumping, I literally had to be pushed off the platform)

Saw the people before me and had a few laughs :-) So I volunteered to fall and this is what happened...

Check out the rest of his work at <http://www.sundayshoots.com/projects.htm>

One project of his that I really liked is at the link
<http://www.sundayshoots.com/page.php?folio=Hug+1>