Kawal wildlife sanctuary – The Moron vs. the Wild

Anirudh revs up the Dicor’s engine one last time to get the huge stone that’s stuck beneath the chassis. The tire only slips further into the loose gravel and refuses to budge from the stone incine that we’ d created. 13:30hrs. Scorching 45 degrees outside.No sleep, no breakfast; Five hours of non-stop walk in the highly de-forested wildlife sanctuary, a dried up river bed on the right and two highly dehydrated people from the team yet to make their way to the car. Anirudh swings the car’s door open, hurls himself to the drivers seat, switches on the AC and escapes into oblivion. I follow suit.

April 30th ‘09

We’re to leave Gachibowly by 16:30hrs. 17:30hrs and Guru is yet to receive his 1942 Ford Jeep by which we were to head to Nirmal forests for a three days quarantine in a wildlife sanctuary. The five of us [ Guru, Ani, Ramraj, Venu and I] finally get to leave Gachibowli at 20:00hrs after a series of delays. Snailing through the city’s traffic we finally touch the outskirts by about 21:00hrs exiting through Shamirpet. A splendid ride for about an hour and a half and we break for dinner at Gangaram. Thanks to the military canvas water sacs slung on either side of the jeep, we have some real good chilled water. Soon we push towards Karimnagar via Siddipet. A lorry driver guides us through the Karimnagar town and from the outskirts asks us to drive straight towards Lakshettipet. Nirmal is supposed to be about 30kms from here. Thanks to a rick plying at those early hours we’re re-directed to the right path and at about 03:30hrs we finally reach the Jannaram Police checkpost.Asif from HYTICOS shows us the dormitory where we were supposed to camp. Remaining folks who’d left by bus to Hyd were yet to reach Jannaram.We crash at about 04:00hrs.

May 01st ‘09

06:00hrs we’re woken up and asked to leave. I’m asked to join three others – Anirudh, Sandeep and Amit who’d reached Jannaram at about 01:00am. We’re to scout for pugmarks and collect tiger scat in the Pemble region of the Kawal wildlife sanctuary. Rajyam- a local villager was to be the tracker for the next few hours. Directions are pretty simple – follow the tracker, grab decent scat samples and pugmarks and get back to the base point by 10:00hrs.

The Pimble region is about an hours drive from Jannaram. A quick round of tea and we push off to Rajyam’s village. Sandeep hands over rice, dal and vegetables for them to cook lunch for us. We finally leave for the estimation exercise by 07:30hrs. Rajyam directs us through a few villages and finally to a point where the vehicle couldn’t move any further. We start the exercise and soon spot pug marks and scat samples. A hike of about an hour or so and we have a decent number of scat samples. Quite a few pugmarks are identified to be from leopards, tigers and bears but no detailed analysis could be done as most of them were on loose soil and the impressions were not distinct enough to make PoP moulds. Rajyam finally states there’s a high probability of finding animals near a river bed which is supposedly just a km away. We’re all excited and start moving in that direction as led by Rajyam. A few minutes into the walk, we see the first ever wild animal since the start of the exercise- a wild boar. It makes a quick noise to the right and runs in an undestined direction towards our rear. This pumps up our adrenaline a bit and we move ahead hoping to have the sighting of another wild animal. A few more sctas and a bit further we see a couple of Sambhars strolling lesuirly.

It’s almost 10:00am now and still Rajyam’s ‘one km far’ river bed is not to be seen. The sun is slowly burning more and more of Hydrogen and the effect is very well seen at this non descript location in the Kawal wildlife sanctuary. Finally after about half an hour of walk Rajyam is elated having reached the waterbed. No animals out here but the very satisfaction of having reached here brings in some respite. Then out of the blue it suddenly strikes me, how unmindful we’ve been in trampling our way to the riverbed and in our quest we’ve mercilessly forgotten that this is a goddamn wildlife sanctuary – the courtyard of carnivorous animals. Probably I was just getting a bit more aware of my surroundings. Wandering in a wild life sanctuatry is so exhilrating! You know there’s nothing much that can be done in case a wild animal wants to make a sweet meal out of you but at the same time there’s this urge to explore and be in the vicinity of just another species of nature’s creation!

10:30hrs. Sandeep declares he’s not going to walk a bit further because of his ligament problem.  By the banks, we notice a bullock cart. Rajyam enquires the villager if he would fancy riding us back to the spot where the car was parked. An outright No comes as the answer. At this juncture, Rajyam states if one of us could get back with him, he could guide us to get the vehicle to a spot pretty close to the river bed. Anirudh and I decide to take it on and follow Rajyam. Sandeep and Amit rest in the shade. The hike back gets more gruelling with the heat taking its toll. We’re left with no water.Two hours and we still do not seem to reach the spot. Anirudh seems to be in a precarious situation and is in no position to move ahead. Finally sense prevails and we ask him to rest in a spot which looked safe. Rajyam and I rush to the car and thankfully this happens to be only about a 10mins quick walk from that place. We pull out a waterbottle and two apples and rush back to the spot where we’d left Anirudh. He thankfully is very much alert and the water and apples revives him a bit.Boy. Those were the juiciest apples I’ve ever had till date! With some motivation the three of us fnally reach the car at around 13:00hrs. These folks had thankfully about 10lts of water in the car. We gulp down liters and finally start driving our way to the river bed to pick up the other two. Rajyam states it would take us easily about twenty minutes to reach the spot. We’re a bit worried about them as its almost been close to three hours that we’ve left them and they themselves are left with no water. The only consolidation was that they were in the shade and had some watersource nearby to bank on if it really comes to it.

After a tough ride through narrow paths , we reach a spot where we get to see the river to our right. We’re just a few yards away from the spot where the other two were left when we realise the vehicle could not move ahead because of the terrain. I walk down to the riverbed with a bottle of cold water but am compelled to get back as they’re not to be seen there. As I get back I see the vehicle in a real bad state. Anirudh had asked Rajyam to guide him down the path hoping to bypass the big stone that was in the middle but due to some miscommunication the stone got under the chassis and was literally pivoting it. Despite several attempts to inch it out, the Dicor refuses to budge. Anirudh revs up the Dicor’s engine one last time to get the huge stone that’s stuck beneath the chassis. The tire only slips further into the loose gravel and refuses to budge from the stone incine that we’ d created. 13:30hrs. Scorching 45 degrees outside.No sleep, no breakfast; Five hours of non-stop walk in the highly de-forested wildlife sanctuary, a dried up river bed on the right and two highly dehydrated people from the team yet to make their way to the car. Anirudh swings the car’s door open, hurls himself to the drivers seat, switches on the AC and drifts into oblivion. I follow suit. We request Rajyam to fetch the other two to the car.

After about half an hour, the three of them return. The look on their faces said it all! Later we get to know some grateful guy had created a fresh water spring on the river bed for them and that is what kept them going till this moment. They relax for sometime and finally at about 14:00hrs we decide to give the vehicle another shot again. With some more trials the stone beneath the chassis is finally removed. The happiness is pretty shortlived as the vehicle soon gets caught up in the loose gravel. The vehicle refused to budge and was only sinking more deep in the soil. All attempts to harden the ground by placing rocks and stones in the gaps only led to the Dicor getting badly damaged from the bottom. For close to two hours in the scathing sun we try our best in getting the vehicle out. Turn by turn finally at around 16:30hrs the vehicle budges out. Avoiding any more delay we outrightly move out of this place all covered in dust and dirt.

We drop Rajyam in his village and decide to head to Nirmal. 17:45hrs we reach Nirmal. I decide to call it a day and head to Hyderabad while the remaining three head to a hotel to clean up and crash. I board an inter district local bus at about 18:00hrs. With a drunkard for company and five hours of ‘rocking’ travel I finally reach Hyderabad at about 23:30hrs.

The wild boar, the sambhars, trails of pugmarks, scat samples, the agonising hike in the blistering heat, miserably stuck Dicor, the drunkard in the local bus and the five hour long ride …was it all worth it? Hell, it was! Been quite some time that I’ve experienced such a LONG day. I’ve literally lived every second of it! And boy, I’m still rich with two more days to spend on other things!

Misc Details:

• Distance from Hyderabad: About 270kms [~50kms from Mancherial Railway station ]. Take a left at Lakshettipett and drive straight down to Jannaram.
• Wikimapia link
• HYTICOS has been successful in blocking civilian movement from 00:00 hrs to 06:00hrs on the road connecting Jannaram and Nirmal that passes through the WLS.

Tiger estimation using Pugmarks:

The Pugmark methodology for estimating tigers may not really be scientific but still looks to be pretty convincing on paper. Here’s an interesting link to understand how this thing works. As far as my understanding goes, tiger estimation in this region is done using pugmarks alone. But looking at the way it was being practised at KWS I fail to understand how close to the actual figures our estimates would be No heed was being paid to check if the impression was of the hind leg or the front leg. Wouldn’t photographs alone do? Why would you want to trace out the pugmark on a glass surface and then on to the sheet? Agreed this method has been in use for a long time now. But I strongly believe with use of technology a much better concrete exercise can be pulled out.

Three cups of tea

The other day I was at the Strand store looking for books on topics that was a bit offbeat when my eyes fell on one that was sandwiched  between two hard bound books. The title read-Three cups of tea. I pull it out idyllically. The front page of its paperback illustrated three kids clad in white shawls intently reading from copies of disheveled books and the subtitle read – ‘One man’s mission to promote peace one school at a time’. Intrigued a bit, I turn over the book to see what this was all about and with that brief description – K2, Karakoram and building schools, I out rightly make my mind to purchase this.

I rarely read when I’m not travelling to and back from work. But believe me, this is one book that’s kept me hooked to it for quite some time! The topic in hand, the lucid language, Intertwining of mountaineering and his mammoth project – I’m not sure which of these made it that gripping.

The first chapter scales you up the K2 in Mortenson’s shoes and as you read through, you’re literally made to experience his struggle for survival on the towering peaks.  Touched by the hospitality shown by the villagers he makes a promise to change their lives for good. That one promise urges him to start on a project which gains mammoth proportions as time flies by. Through the chapters Relin, the co-author, dramatically brings about how Mortenson  works against the wind to setup schools for Kids in villages in Pakistan that have been left untouched by any aspects of the modern world. The last few chapters brilliantly describe how important child education is and how it could be used as a powerful and detrimental factor in combating terrorism.

Reading at times gets you thinking on things much more important that what we keep doing to earn that morsel and secure our future. This is one of those rare books that would put you at shame for having effectively whiled away your time fruitlessly!

Grab a copy of  this book here and do visit their site when you find some time!

The Lost Generation

Came across this amazing video. Indeed creative!

Reflections

Today evening, something just drew me to the the place that changed the way the past few years have evolved. Could not keep away from that road and building that I´ve been avoiding for the past so many years. I walk up the ramp slowly to the topmost floor.The Nepali guard watches me from the corner of his eye. I enter the ward with an excuse and in moments it all gets back in flashes. The beeps and the smell get back memories of days spent here hoping against hope.The ward is just the same. The smell lingers. Just that there is someone else on the bed there. Yet another flame struggling to thrive against the odds.

Someone just couldn´t look in the mirror on April 14th 1999. The plate with assorted fruits and various other items is brought back home without capturing the gaze.And then things changed.

That lad said chances are 60pc! 10 whole years and still I fail to understand on what basis the probability was decided.

Look in the mirror, Moron. Come what may.

The week that was…

It´s been a long long long week! Looks like the client out there has suddenly decided to catch up on things. Deployments are happening pretty frequently and every team claims to be on fire to push their deployment across. Next week looks to be even more hectic.But guess it´s all a part of sweet sweet life .

Caught up with two books this week.

How Starbucks saved my life – Michael Gill

One of those simple yet powerful books that I´ve read after Richard Branson´s Losing my Virginity. At 60+, fired by a person whom he himself  had recommended, Michael walks you through his life as he miserably tumults down from the post of a Creative director at an advertising firm JWT. Exposed to the elite corporate lifestyle for 25+ years he brings out the mental stress he passes through having to work in a Starbucks store as a bartender. He soon learns to come to terms with life; learns to let go of his ego and finally builds up a ripe career at Starbucks. Working at Starbucks in the lower rungs of the hierarchial ladder he lucidly brings out what the real sense of Job satisfaction is and how important it is to respect the job you do however menial it is.

A perfect five on five! If you´ve still not read this book…High time you order!

Go Kiss the world – Subroto Bagchi

Happened to purchase this book from the Strand store just out of impulse. A quick simple read. One of those books that surprisingly got over in a couple of hours. Give´s you insight into how Mindtree was born and how they shaped up. One stark feature of this book is that though each chapter is good in its own sense, there seems to be no continuity in the flow. Wouldn´t really fall into the autobiography groove – Probably a mix of history and gyan. That said you may want to give it a shot

I would give it a 3.5 on a five point scale.

Scoop from the greener side:

• Registered for the Jalori pass – National Himalayan Mountain Biking Expedition 2009 Off to Kulu – Manali – Aut in May – Yippee!Would be byking with 19 other unknown morons for 8 straight days. Their itinerary sounds pretty relaxing though..Gotta wait and watch. That followed by the marriage of a close friend. Seems to be  a promising outing! – All now hangs on my leave being approved!
• Moved from Ibex to Ubuntu Studio. Had to install OpenOffice and a couple of other apps. Feels good with a different feel
• Upgarded the WP version. Played safe and backed up the data. Fell through smoothly though!
• Tweaked the HydVentura website a bit. Lots of modification yet to be done.
• Missed the HBC race. So did a short ride this weekend circumventing the Osmania Univ.

The Kalsubai Call…

14th Mar ´09

18:15hrs. We´re half way up the first stage and my cell beeps with a message – ´Debi has a fatal fall. Critical. Call ASAP´. Limited network on the hillock just does not allow the call to fall through.  Debashish and a couple of his friends had been to Kerala and were scaling down the Chembra peak that Saturday.evening.We´d just started hiking up Kalsubai. I had met Debi,Roy, Manas and Rahul during one of my regular visits to Hyderabad when I was posted in Pune. They were then backpacking and exploring little known places in the country during their break. A down to earth group and you could easily fall in sync. with them in minutes. Last week Debi called me asking for places to visit in Kerala and I suggested Chembra peak. Little did I know how drastic a turn this would be for them.

Finally at about 19:10hrs I´m able to get the line across to Roy. All that comes from the other end is mumbled talk of what happened.Apparently Debi had lost control while moving downhill, stumbled over a rough patch. and had a scary fall downhill. Sparse medical help was available only after three hours. With major bruises there was very limited scope. Next day 06:25hrs he breathes his last. As the message sinks in, I happen to recollect how unpredictable life is. I´ve always believed nature gives you a second chance. Today I´ve learnt – everything in life has exceptions.  May his soul rest in peace.

Post this incident, The Kalsubai trek is not something that I would like to remember but to stick to the ground rule that I would document each and every important event happening in my life, Here it goes.

18 of us from Hyderabad, 12 from Pune and 1 from Mumbai finally decide to head to scale the Kalsubai Peak. I was looking forward to this trek for many reasons – This would be my last trek for some time to come, This would probably be my last visit to Pune and oh yes, Kalsubai is the highest peak in Maharashtra. The Hyderabad team reaches Pune at about 08:00hrs.We board the TT that was arranged by the Pune team and head towards Nasik Phata where we meet them. A brief stop over for lunch at Sangammner and we proceed to Bari.

At about 17:30hrs we start the trek. The first patch seems to be pretty much a simple hike.We reach a plateau in about half an hour. A villager dwelling in a small hut there provides some lemon juice. The weather starts cooling down and in moments you get to smell the fresh smell of rain water seeping into barren soil. And then, comes in the message from Roy. I seem to loose my balance of mind and stop registering all that´s happening around me.For the next one hour or so it´s a somber trek up the peak. I try to maintain my calm by venting all my anger on people who were slow. For the first time ever, I fail miserably in handling my responsibility as a sweep.The hailstorm sets in and it´s almost 19:30 hrs by the time we reach the penultimate plateau.Thankfully the team decides to stay put in the shack there. It gets cold as night sets in.. 31 of us huddle in a 10×20ft shack. Thanks to Bani, we have a tarpaulin sheet to protect us from the hailstorm. In about an hour or so the hailstorm stops. Few folks head up to the peak while the remaining huddle in the shack. I try in vain to distract myself but end up having a quick dinner and crash on the floor. Later, next day morning at about 05:00am, I´m woken up by someone and only then do I realise I´ve slept six hours flat like a log when not one of the remaining 30 people have managed to shut their eyelids in the freezing cold.

Roy´s final news at 06:30 gets on me and I loose my cool once again. I decide to reach the base as early as possible.We reach the base village by 07:30am. The Pune folks decide to head to Bhandardara dam while we head to Pune as we´d to board the Hyderbad exp. scheduled to depart from Pune at 16:30 hrs.We manage to reach well before time and by 05:00hrs next day morning we´re back at hyd.

I´m not someone to fall in for lame superstitions. But this time, Friday the 13th does not seem to have been any favorable to me. I´d better stop misconstruing things and kick back to normalcy.

Details:

Team: 31

Route: Pune – Nashik Phata-Chakan-Narayan Gaon-Ale Phata-Sangamner-Akole-Rajur-Bari

Distance: Pune-Sangammner:~140kms; Sangammner-Rajur:~36kms; Rajur-Bari:~15kms

Altitude: ~5400ft. above MSL.

Endurance: Med. | Difficulty : low [Non Monsoon] Med [Monsoon] . Govt. has re-inforced the ladders and climbing up the hill is not really tricky.

Time : Uphill: 2.5 hrs. Downhill: 1.5 hrs

Transport: Preferably arrange a cab. Base village has remote connectivity. ST une-Sangammner, Sangammner – Rajur, Rajur-Bari

Expenses: ~Rs500 [ Private vehicle ]

Stay: Shack on the penultimate plateau. Well with Potable water during Monsoon

Duration: Preferable opt for an Overnight stay.

Best time to visit: Late Monsoon./ Early Summer

Keep off the grass!

Just another book from an IIM grad. Don’t these nuts have any work? Five point someone, Joker in the pack and now this? Guess even I’ve got to start writing on my sulking life in SCSVMV!

I was just looking around the racks searching for William Fotheringham’s ‘Put me back on my bike’ when I chance upon ‘Keep me off the grass’. Not finding anything else interesting I decide to give this a shot. Way back home in the bus as I read the first few pages, I start getting queer views from people beside me. I care a damn and am instantly engrossed in the book. Surprisingly, every other page has something or the other that gets you beaming out. Be it the typical ‘Collegian’ lingo or the out of the box expressions and language.

If ‘Joker in the pack’ in someway touched upon the lifestyle in the IIMs, this book in various ways has brought about the other side of it. How true only an insider would be able to judge but for a debut novel this is a kickass hit. The story is woven around an immigrant confused desi Investment banker from the WallStreet coming down to the IIM-B in the pretext of exploring India and reaching out to his roots. Unrealistically hilarious, this debut novel of his would indeed strike a chord amidst any person who’s graduated from the IIMs or for that instance anyone who’s experienced college. The pages reek of marijuana and ganja that you’d be stoned by just reading it! Ah and if you’re one of those who is averse to using or reading the so called ‘unparliamentary’ words – this book is not for you.

The epilogue is the best part.Karan tactically walks you through a  self realisation high for sometime and leaves it to you to answer a few questions which seem to crop up in everyone’s mind now and then but is rarely given much thought. Indeed an interesting read!

You can purchase the book here

How contrasting can your own opinions be? Why do you humans [ Remember? I'm not one ! ] take things for granted ?

Enduro3 – 09

07th Feb.- Saturday 23:25hrs.

It’s damn chilly out here and every breath you take in brings out just another sore cough. We careen round the corner and happen to sight a couple of lorry drivers gambling on the roadside by the moonlight. Mallik and I park the bikes  and venture ahead to enquire how far we were from Thangaon. 18Kms is what we get in response. Almost instantaneously I spurt out – Give it a damn! I lose my patience and decide to quit. Quit a race that I’ve been mentally preparing for close to three months now. I believe in my instincts and truly live by it!Another look at Mallik and Trupti only reconfirms the decision – I was not alone.

We decide to move a bit ahead to a safer place, pedal uphill, take a left and glide down the hill. A bit ahead to the left, the rays from my head lamp happens to cause the Enduro vest of another cyclist shimmer. As we slow down we see a lady lying by the corner. A quick glance at him and he lets us know that she was finding it difficult to breathe and their third team mate had left about half an hour back to Thangaon in search of medical help. All attempts to contact the marshals out there was futile.This only strengthens our decision to leave the Enduro3-09 book open this time. Endurance is something you need to test at some point of time in life – But when you realise the odds are simply illogical and you could end up losing something more vital, you’ll know you don’t have to prove to some third person how high a bar you can jump.

That said, let’s move over to the rosier aspects of the race.

06:30 hrs. The pre-race registration begins at the University of Pune grounds. As we reach the grounds, we get to hear the Silver rock band tuning their equipment. Soon, the team leads are requested to report their teams and collect the vests, directions brochure and trash bags.As we adorn the vests and try demystifying the understandably abstract Google satellite maps, teams still scoop in to the grounds with Hercules, Atlas, Firefox, Merida’s and Trek’s. You won’t believe one lad had actually re-modelled an Atlas basic bike to sport derailleur and gears! In about an hour the vast ground is all vibrant with participants, marshals, organisers and people who’d come to cheer their peers. The ‘Silver’ band delivers a pumping performance followed by a random introductory call by the organisers. Meanwhile the teams are spread out on the ground categorically and at about 09:30 hrs. Enduro3-09 is given a flag off.  It’s  a tremendous feeling to witness the swarm of bikes flushing out of the podium.What with high bass rock songs being doled out as each category rolled out of the grounds. Man, You really need to be there to experience it!

07 Feb'09 Early hours - Prior to flag-off

Gearing up for the ride

Performance by Silver band - Prior to flag-off

The Warm-up ride

The first 10kms was a warm up ride from the University of  Pune to the NDA campus [ Chandini Chowk]. In minutes, Pune roads are taken over by the red wave. Heavy vehicular movement literally comes to a standstill and paths are made to give us a free way. Knowingly or unknowingly, the city succumbs to the green drive! At about 10:15hrs we reach Chandani Chowk.

Well, even roses wilt on the Table top

Close to Garden court is where the first ‘Time Check’ -TC begins. Right at the moment when you think all is good, the dirt track begins. Prior to the race, I had this mindset that 80 percent of the roads that we were supposed to ride on, would be proper tar roads and that ‘dirt tracks’ was only for a short patch. Little did I know, this was just the beginning.  A little before the NDA main gate we’re directed to take a left to the dirt patch. The first few minutes are rocking moments. Fifteen minutes into this and soon you get to know what really rocking is! With the mercury rising and you’re ass rising equivalently on the saddle, only time reasons out why you have that splitting head ache. The trail goes on for about half an hour and finally we reach the NDA Polo grounds passing through Table top and covering a few checkpoints.

Wish we were in the Amateur category!

The next section of the race was ‘called’ Orienteering. You’re supposed to follow the instructions, navigate using a compass and  traverse through the hills, reach a specified point and then get back to the start point. All I can comment on this section is that is was a perfectly illogical, purposeless. What sense does it make to trek in the hot sun with no specific goal? In about an hour or so we reach the start point totally exhausted. The guys in the amateur category on the other hand were asked to do paddling at Peacock Bay!

Done with the ‘Orienteering’ we then are directed to head towards Neelkanteshwar Phata touching Peacock Bay, Khadakwadi and Mandvi.Thankfully, you get to fill your bottles with water at Peacock bay. All through the way, you get to see people popping off their bikes and crashing on the ground.Just round the corner yet another team stops over to mend their bikes, the Photographers tag behind to capture pain and emotions. It’s all a silent solemn ride. At about 17:05hrs we reach PC3.From here we’re directed to reach  Kuran fork. This stretch is a mix of flats and slopes. Another two hours of silent struggle through Dawje, Kuran Budruk, Varasgaon dam and we finally reach TC4.

It’s 19:05hrs and we’re almost ripped out. At the TC4 check point a cheerful marshal comes across and gives us directions to the last checkpoint for the cycling section. Just 18 more kms is what she says. Ride straight, keep to your right – few more kilometeres again take a right and soon you should reach Thangaon. ‘How bad are the roads?’ one of us sarcastically asks and to our timed relief she responds saying – ‘Pretty good. Just flats!’.

At 19:30 hrs we start riding towards Thangaon. The purported 18kms remains an elusive magical number. A few people that we get to meet en-route tell us we’re still 25kms away and to add fuel to fire, we get to know roads are very much under construction and they’re in a pretty bad state now. Everty turn round the corner leads you to just another uphill and the gradient always seems to be on the positive side.  To add to all this the road construction work brings about a totally different terrain. All you’re left to do is to push your bike up the gradients!  It’s damn chilly out here and every breath you take in brings out just another sore cough. We careen round the corner and happen to sight a couple of lorry drivers gambling on the roadside by the moonlight. Mallik and I park the bikes  and venture ahead to enquire how far we were from Thangaon. 18Kms is what we get in response. Almost instantaneously I spurt out – Give it a damn! I lose my patience and decide to quit. Quit a race that I’ve been mentally preparing for close to three months now. I believe in my instincts and truly live by it! Another look at Mallik and Trupti only reconfirms the decision – I was not alone. At about 23:30 hrs we take the bait. It just didn’t make sense to continue. Ideally we were supposed to reach TC5 [ Thangaon ] at least by 00:00hrs and complete the second orienteering section by 02:00hrs to remain qualified. We still had a very good chance of being in the race had we pushed a bit more. But the decision was taken considering several factors and it was best to enjoy the remaining part of the race at least.In this mad rush for the past twelve hours or so all we’ve done was to pedal madly on the roads without giving much interest to the ambience around. Only during the early hours of 8th Feb do we really take in the environs! A quick dinner(?) and we crash in our sleeping bags in one corner of the road.

The alarm hoots at 01:00am. We’d to reach the base camp by 04:00am. 18more kms to go and all that keeps us moving ahead is the fear that we may have to ride our bikes back to Pune if we happen to reach late. Just about five kms before reaching Thangaon, we take it easy and catch another nap for an hour or so. Finally at about 06:00hrs we reach Thangaon base camp. Enduro3 09 ends here for us.We leave the Thangaon base camp by the only available state transport bus at about 07:30hrs. Guess this was the only day in the whole year when the bus was filled beyond its capacity! But for a few smiling faces here and there, all you get to see is blood shot eyed faces and idle minds wondering on the day that was yesterday.As the bus winds back through the same route that we cycled, we still see teams still pushing their bikes up the slopes trying to reach the basecamp, teams lying on the sides catching sleep.

On the other hand, a few of the teams had already started the trekking post the night orienteering. Later we get to know they had to hike for about 12hrs, followed by a river crossing and a final sprint of about 40kms to reach the final destination. Two other infy teams – Team Vagabonds [Prawaal, Bani and Revathi] and Team Punctured [NIshant, Pankaj and Nikita] commendably complete the race. Team Punctured lose the second runners up to Team Vagabonds by a whisker of just about three minutes. All said, hats off to their mental endurance! And if this is for just the IT category folks, wonder what act of obeisance would the Open category folks call for!

Team Vagabonds on the podium

A few things that I guess the Enduro3 committee needs to keep in mind while organising the event next year.

• Purandare. Thanks for anchoring this wonderful race but Chill! Out here everyone seems to be talking of your brusque attitude.I’ve not met you in person but that’s the image I’ve got!
• The Enduro3 website for the most part of it does not hold any information on the race details. For people who participate from outstation the dependency is pretty high!
• Not everyone who participates in the race is a super-human. Medical help or emergency action posts need to be setup at least every five kilometeres. Agreed, it’s a lot of overhead but at least radio contact can be arranged!I myself have come across two incidents when people needed help and would have been well off had they got it a bit earlier.
• Guys, I sincerely wonder if the marshals were asked to give wrong stats on the path and distance just to motivate people. If so, we’re highly mistaken. Details such as this just cannot be manipulated. Thankgaon-18Kms, flat, good condition roads? GIve me a break! Knowing one’s goal point is much of a necessity and all are not knowledgeable enough to judge distances based on the google maps provided.
• Agreed Enduro3 is all about endurance testing. But what if a team is miserably down and does not have water?
• Ah, for cyclists Treks, Meridas, Firefox, Hercules and Atlas are much more valuable than BMWs, Rolls Royce and Mercs. You just cannot pile the bikes as in a scrap van when getting them back from Thangaon to Pune.Gosh, a few folks would have spent 20 and 30 grand on them. Theses bikes DEMAND respect. Couldn’t you have brought them more humanly? [Let me see if I can get my friend to send across the picture of the transport truck that he had taken.]
• Teams which have completed the race deserve to be given credit. This year the only differentiating factor between a team that had participated and completed the race was a single strike on the certificate.And oh , Yes. They didn’t even have their names written on them! Next year if you need some help in filling the forms, call in a few more participants to help you out with the certificates. We’ll be all the more happy to show our respect for them!

And a few things commendable about the event this year:

• Awesome flag off ceremony! The red wave on Pune city roads caught quite a few surprised.
• Cool night reflector caps and vests.
• You marshals deserve a heartfelt thanks for those motivating words.[ Probably it was we who construed them wrong ]

All in all, it was a tremendous experience. Enduro3-09 has taught me to defy the saying – Never Quit! and equate it to – ‘Weigh your options!’ and I’m sure when I hit for Enduro3-’10 I’ll be a sharpened diamond with this years experience!

All pics courtesy: Ayush [Team SubZero ]