1300 km Ride to Dandeli and Karwar in 4 days

This was to be my longest ride till date. The best I did before was a 768 km ride in 48 hours, and this one was meant to be 1300 km spanning over 4 days. We were going to pass through national highways, forests, ghats and were also going to do some off roading along the way. I was sick of doing many single day and two day rides and wanted to do a longer ride, so this was my chance and I lapped it up.

We left Bangalore on Friday at 8 AM expecting it would be a long day considering we planned to cover more than 500 km and reach Dandeli by nightfall. We started well but were soon delayed by nagging problems with one of the bikes. Though this meant we lost a lot of time, it also ensured proper rest for all of us. We managed to reach Hubli, which is around 430 km from Bangalore only after sunset and it has also started raining by that time. We headed towards Dandeli which was another 100km of riding through not so good roads but were again stopped in the ranks by a flat tire. After another hour long break, we finally managed to reach Dandeli just after midnight, which meant 16 hours of riding. Phew… Off we went to sleep after an hour of chatting..

All the bikes at Dandeli amidst the rain

All the bikes at Dandeli amidst the rain

Sleeping off late obviously has to carry forward to the next day. On day 2 we were supposed to ride to Karwar, which was a port town in west Karnataka and come back by evening. But we were able to start only by 11 am and were stopped by another bike problem for an hour in between. There was some 15 kms of off road biking involved and that was a good experience similar to my off roading experience in Kemmanagundi an year earlier. But all this took time and it was raining too so we managed to reached Karwar only by 4 pm. Considering we were late and there was a beach to relax in Karwar, we decided to stay overnight and leave for Dandeli the next day.

The evening sky at Karwar

The evening sky at Karwar

We chilled off in the beach at Karwar for around 3 hours in the evening. Karwar is only a small town 90 km south of Goa and hence the beach was quiter, and cleaner than the beaches in any other major city. It was a refreshing and relaxing atmosphere as we just sat and enjoyed the cool breeze that was blowing. We wrapped up after the sunset in this quite town, and headed for dinner and other ‘refreshments‘…

A picturesque scene at the Karwar Scene

A picturesque scene at the Karwar Beach

The tar.. it feels best when it touches the rubber

The tar.. it feels best when it touches the rubber

Day 3 was supposed to be a chill out and easy day before another long and tiring 500 km ride coming up on day 4. We chilled out again at the beach in the morning at Karwar and left for Dandeli at noon. This time there were no bike problems and we reached our resort at Dandeli by 3pm. The route was as scenic as it gets. Again there was some off-roading which was a memorable experience. Casual talks followed in the evening and some much needed rest and preparation for the next day marked the rest of the night.

Next morning we headed back for Bangalore from Dandeli at 9am. It was supposed to be another long ride of more than 500 km and we expected to do this in 10-12 hours. The road along NH4 was as excellent as it gets and many of us were doing speeds of more than 100km/hr. As it was the fourth day of riding, there were some tiredness and we took constant water and tea breaks in between. A dog decided to commit suicide in front of one of the bikes causing some damage which resulted in a extended two hour lunch break.

Myself during a break along the way

Myself during a break along the way

After getting the bike fixed, we resumed our journey back and we did two continuous stretches of over 100km in 90 minutes or so. That really helped in covering the distance and we reached within 100 kms of Bangalore by sunset. We last assembled at Tumkur around 7:30 pm and after some tea and refreshments, we started our different ways leading to home. The highways were wonderful all along the way and due to it being 15 Aug, we didn’t see as much traffic in the city as we were expecting. I managed to reach home by 10 am.

After doing 1300km in 4 days on a bike, my whole body was aching like anything. But that was the fun of the ride and a reminder of all the fun we had during the ride. All the high speed riding, through highways and ghats, riding in the rain and the bone jerking off roading was an experience to cherish.

My Thunderbird.. A wonderful companion for a long ride

My Thunderbird.. A wonderful companion for a long ride

P.S. – To see all pics of this trip, click here

What I learned in the last few months I worked on SaleRaja?

Right from August 2007, when we started SaleRaja, it has been like a baby for me. It was something on which we had great hope. SaleRaja was supposed to be our way out of normal day-to-day jobs. I never thought I would have to work for any other company again at that time, and we even got a promising response in the beginning. But soon, the growth in terms of traffic and registrations began to steady out and it was clear that we would need a lot more funding and resources to scale it up to the next level.

With the recession in 2008-09 and considering our background (having only technical skills and no financial, marketing and sales skills), we struggled to get any funding. There was one remote chance of funding or a tie-up but unfortunately we blew that up. Also, my partners decided to part ways because of impending personal issues like marriage and finances, and there I was, running SaleRaja alone in Dec 2008. I got together with one more guy in the beginning of 2009, then with another girl for sales for 3-4 months, at the same time myself managing my day job at Jivox and coding for SaleRaja in the mornings and evenings.

It was around September 2009 that I was alone again (it didn’t work out as expected with the other two). I was still working day in and day out, doing coding as well as sales calls, but it was beginning to take its strain on me. I was no longer enjoying what I was doing, was getting tired and fatigued easily, and my energy levels started to dip for the first time in many years. The 16 hour work days which used to pass like a breeze started to seem like a self-imposed torture. This continued from September to December 2009. It was during these last few months of 2009 that I started to ponder on questions like –

  • Is this really what I want to be doing?
  • Why am I not enjoying this work now if I used to love it so much earlier?
  • Where am I headed if I continue this way?
  • Is there any other view or picture which I am missing here?
“If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” - Wayne Dyer

“If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” - Wayne Dyer

I had jumped into SaleRaja at the age of 23. I also had blind faith in the idea that doing business is not possible after marriage, so this was THE time for me. And I had so much faith in mine and my friend’s abilities that failure never looked an option. I think I got so caught up in these predetermined notions that I tried harder, harder and harder but was unwilling to see the big picture, the picture that there might be something missing from our skill sets, the picture that business can even happen later on in life too, and that these last 2.5 years have taught me a lot even if they have not been as expected.

So what I learned from this experience is that sometimes we get so caught up in our day to day existence that we seldom take time to step back from our daily activities to reflect and observe our life as a whole. It is like we are so much busy in reaching the destination that we don’t even have time to stop for fuel. When we are stressed by situations, we start taking our decisions also in that emotional state. It’s strange how one bad incident can take us off track and get us going in the opposite direction instead. Only if we remember to look things in perspective of our whole life.

Taking time to stop every once in a while and gather our senses is also very important. We have to be calm and make sure we don’t panic. No matter how busy we get, we should always keep some time (a few hours or a whole day) to sit quietly and introspect that we are going in the right direction or not. It will allow us to focus on what we already have rather than what we don’t. Then we can go about calmly making new plans and vision for the future. In this quiet time we can ponder on long term questions like –

  • What all resources do I have now, and what all do I need?
  • What have been the past successes and failures, and lessons from them?
  • What skills, qualities, talents I need and how can I get them?
  • How can I more effectively use what I have right now to get the best results?

Gaining perspective also allows us to be patient and conserve our energies for future riches rather than wasting it on frustrations. It can also prevent us from making a big and costly mistake. Many times we just have to wait before the tide turns in our favor and we can start running again. Sometimes, perspective also makes us aware that we are not going in the right direction, and we might need to take a step or two back before starting again. Like in my case, I realized I didn’t have the resources and skills to pursue SaleRaja. Also, my egoistic view that business can’t happen later in life was getting in the way of making better decisions. It was then I decided to step back and take a break from entrepreneurship, work on to plugging my skill gaps, and then get back to entrepreneurship later on. It was a tough decision back then considering the work I had put on SaleRaja for the last 2.5 years, but necessary, as Steve Jobs remarked in his famous commencement speech, “It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it.”

I am glad I took this time to introspect, and today, 20 months after that decision, I can say I am on the right track, plugging my gaps and will soon be ready to jump into the entrepreneur world once again.

Wah Re India

We are the largest democracy,
With proud we proclaim this fact!
Our economic growth is big news,
As is the huge investments we attract!!

I absolutely love my country,
As it never fails to amaze me!
At times both tragic and amusing,
Its stories are nothing less than filmy!!

We can vote at age eighteen,
And elect our representative!
Yet we can’t drink below age 25,
Who can explain this law’s motive??

Everyday is an irony in India

Everyday is an irony in India

We have the right to free speech,
But isn’t it a grave misconception!
As public order, and even morality,
Can be grounds for police action!!

Among one of the basic human rights,
Is the right to peaceful & free assembly!
But the arbitrary use of Section 144,
Shows the government wants to be bossy!!

Millions go without food daily,
How can anyone miss the contrast?
When the govt. ignores the hungry,
And denies Anna the permission to fast !!

My weekly tweets archive for the week ending 2011-08-15

  • 2 days and 700 kms done.. To be repeated over next two days. #
  • "Whoever gossips to you will gossip about you." #
  • If an article was to be judged for a tribute to a great player, a few could be better than this one… http://fb.me/Vl7qA0qz #
  • The memorable Independence Day last year!! This year it is gonna be celebrated on my bike!! http://fb.me/CdPdHlD6 #
  • When you get little, you want more. When you get more, you desire even more. But when you lose it, you realize little was enough. #
  • Ramadan Mubarak to all the muslims brothers and sisters all over the world. http://fb.me/18FaiQ4de #
  • New poem – Can you go the extra mile? http://fb.me/OqHSvMB9 #

Let Go of Your Expectations

“The best things in life are unexpected – because there were no expectations.” goes a popular quote by Eli Khamarov. How simple, yet how true. The best moments in our lives always tend to be those where something surprises us. And most of these times there are no expectations. We really cherish these moments in life for long. If we start having expectations from these situations too, even they will cease to be enjoyable.

Expectation is a big and hard word. Big because it means and cover so many aspects of life. Hard because it causes so much pain and disappointments in our everyday lives. Expectations are like some fairy tale stories, myths or assumptions which we might have based on our childhood, culture or past experiences. All these expectations only causes friction in our day to day lives, friction between people, friction with situations, and so on.

When a person’s behavior doesn’t match our expectations, or a situation doesn’t span out as we might have liked it to, we can either try to change the person or the situation, or we can let it go. We don’t have any power over how our days and our life will go by. Our assumptions and expectations seem to give us an illusion of some kind of control over our lives, and that is why it is always liberating to let them go. Only once we let it go we notice a world that we have not noticed while we were trying to control the flow of our lives.

Expectations Causes Stress
If we see any of our problems and negative emotions, they are released as a result of some unmet expectation. When we try to fight what happened with a ‘this shouldn’t have happened‘ attitude, the result is friction and stress. We should strive to live our life without expectations from people or situations to be really happy. That doesn’t mean not keeping goals and planning for it, it means taking what life hands us and not try to fight it due to some assumptions.

Accept the World as It Is
We should accept situations and people as they are, and not try to change them according to our expectations. Once we realise that our way of thinking is not the only right way, we will find it easy to change our expectations, or completely drop them. It is not to say that we should not act or do nothing. We should still take actions based on our values and plans, but without expectations. In this way, in case of unmet expectations, we can learn lessons without any disappointments and move on with the next set of plans and actions.

Expectations burden us down, Let them go and Experience Freedom

Expectations burden us down, Let them go and Experience Freedom

Be aware, but Let Go
Expectations are an inherent part of life and as human beings, we will always have them. When we do something good, we will always expect some praise. The important thing here is to notice our expectations, become aware of them, and then let go of them. Most of the times we are not even aware that an unmet expectation is causing stress. Only once we are aware, we can let them go which is truly liberating.

Float in the World
We should strive to enjoy the world as it is, full of all its uncertainties and surprises. Expectations usually blocks us from enjoying the current moment. Accepting things as they are is the key to experiencing freedom. Once we let go, we can really float in life and we will not miss the many goods and positive surprises which life have in store for us every second.

So keep your goals, keep your plans, take actions accordingly, but let go of your expectations of any result. It is not easy to do so, as expecting a result is a normal human way to act. But only as human beings we have the power of letting go of our expectations from others and situations. And personally I have seen, letting go actually increases your chances of success in a specific task.