Undated Ramblings - Tadoba Andhari

In Tadoba you will rarely see a Tiger
but you are face to facewith a beautiful forest
nice jeep trails flanked by tall machans,
slow moving traffic when Langurs are sighted,
dense Bamboo thickets in which Nilgai hide
and Tadoba lake where you can sight crocodiles.

Besides Tadoba lake
they have taxidermized a man-eater,
a rogue that killed 20 odd, long legged prey
and took 14 odd bullets enroute to
wherever Tigers go when they die;
they have also mounted glossy pictures
showing poor feathered birds trapped in spider webs.

You can't stay within the forest
dear politically un-connected wildlife lover,
(we camped in a hut besides an Elephant hostel)
but at Moharla, where Tadoba get's gated into a Reserve,
the village's shops sell nice Mahuli
and people don't shit out at night for fear of Bears.

Undated Ramblings - Lonar

We rode through fog and cloggy shower rains
(my brain wobbly on two hours of sleep)
on cobbly, potholed, dusty interior roads
to see a full moon glinting
on the briny-watered crater bottom
and drink Old Monk from a quarter bottle
and talk of night-riding and cornering.

I rode slow on the edge
and then walked on my heels down into the Crater's belly
collecting Goa Guthka (sic) packets
to reach one of Lonar's 13 temples
where squirrels officiate and Parakreets preside
to gaze over the silent, emerald green waters.

I puffed my way back, up
out of breath, bloody lunged
and then posed for a mounted picture
looking over the briny depths,
the plantain groves,
the dry, scrubbed basaltic rock
of India's largest meteoritic crater
and then we rode out to Pitalkhora
(and poetry from times not so past).

What's in a name??

Why is this (now "on", now "off") blog named what it is?
And what exactly is my biking philosophy??

"Now, now, now", you may say, especially if you have had a drink with me and listened to me holding forth on biking philosophies. Well, I have grown up too, mate. I do not any longer have a biking philosophy. After all, we could again debate what I am saying here sometime, somewhere with a glass of spirits in our hands, but believe me when I say that when most of us speak of biking philosophies we just extend our biking egos into refined speech.

Today, at this stage in life, I sincerely believe that everyone who has time and money will ride. At the most basic level, it has to do with the overall change in the Indian milieau - better roads, better communications, better roads and of course the sudden realization that "biking" is the "hip" thing, travel is a "mantra", etc :-)))

Today, I also believe that I personally am addicted to the road, that I get my biggest highs only when I have an open stretch in front of me, or when a blind curve rears up ahead. And I would also say that there are any number of such addicts around, all waiting to put together the time and money, plotting their next big rides.

In my own way I have also had to contend with the temptation of crowning myself the "first". LOL, I am just being naughty here, though I am the first in my family to go to Ladakh. And I was the first among 40 odd bikers to reach the specatcular Belum Caves.

And if you are already wondering why I am saying this or what exactly I am saying, let me put it this way.

My only biking philosophy is, "Ek Desh, Do Pahiyey".
Do ride on and ride safe mate, for it is your country too.