What is Inner Steel?

Inner Steel is what makes you a responsible role model. Inner Steel is what makes you passionate about everything you do.

Cricket, as a game, lives up to the high of playing with Inner Steel. As Indians, we have grown up and adored our legends who responded to sledges with great cricket shots. That’s Inner Steel. Inner Steel is playing an aggressive game but not an offensive one. Ball tampering is tampering with Inner Steel.

The one cricketer who comes to mind to exemplify the values of inner steel is Rahul Dravid. He stands for integrity and responsibility and has his head held high and come out winner every time he looks in to the eyes of the competition. It’s his passion towards the game, towards the nation that makes him stand apart from the rest. It’s what makes millions idolize him and respect him for his conduct on and off the field. Inner Steel is what makes him keep it clean.

Will leave you with the latest ad of Gillette India featuring Rahul Dravid’s Inner Steel values!

 

Who is your role model whose #InnerSteel motivates you? Blog or tweet about them 🙂

 

 

Minaturizing Kala Ghoda festival

To begin with it was the same old in a new bottle but what the heck the festival always gives us an opportunity to click some nice snaps. This time thought of experimenting with the photos. This post is really only about the miniature effects to some of the popular installations at the festival.

When I rode to Spiti to find solace…

There are times when one loses oneself to the daily rigmarole, the daily routine. Life seems like a static camera roll written over and over again. It needed a rejig. Needed to break the routine and do sometime I had only imagined, only read, only heard. But it had to be done.

Left my job. Left my life behind. Maybe not forever, but for 16-days it was living a life far beyond my imagination.
Did not plan anything except to start from my home in Mumbai at 5AM in the morning and ride till wherever I could before I felt tired and had to stop for a nap!
The adventure began mid-July on a motorcycle, 4 luggage bags, 1 man, 1 soul, 1 dream – Ride to the Himalayas.

Not having a plan or a partner was perhaps the best thing about this trip. Do anything, stop anywhere, go anywhere, stay anywhere – it didn’t bother me. But it did intrigue others.
The trip was made memorable thanks to the many people I met on the road. From being offered cups of tea, to a free room and even butter chicken it was the awe and confusion most people expressed at my desire to ride 5100 kms, alone, on a motorcycle. What I really wanted was to be with myself. What I really wanted was to ride to a place where only few had conquered. What I got….was a humbling experience. To ride in the Himalayas is a truly awe-inspiring experience. But it does humble you. It teaches you a thing or two about yourself. It calms you down. It makes you a different person, a better person. It humbles you like nothing else can.
Riding across 6 states, day and night, covering 5100 kms – started off as one-off journey but ended up being something special.

The journey started off as trip to a destination but the journey itself reverberates in my mind. I remember the roads – good or bad – I remember the people, amazing at heart and quick to help without a second thought – I remember the grand views but what I cherish the most is how I felt after I came back home.

Humbled and satisfied but hungry for more.

Mumbai – Mount Abu – Udaipur – Mumbai: Day 2

Day 2 began quite late as we slept like babies the night before! It didn’t take long to get dressed and get ready to check out. Decided to clean my bike before we left but the water ran out the moment I opened the tap. What luck! Cleared our food and drinks bill and we left for Mount Abu. One small note though: the food at Durga was actually pretty good. Only veg but good nonetheless.

The mountains are calling

We had to stop at a Hero Service Center as Jason’s accelerator cable had conked off. Unfortunately the buggers didn’t have the spare part. We found a small shop on the way to Mount Abu which did have the cable but though the problem was something else and we had to ride with the problem unresolved.

It was only later we came to know the problem was a faulty cable and nothing else! Aargh noobs! Anyways, we continued riding and soon hit the ghat section. Here we realised we could have done this at night as the lanes are well marked. But riding in the day time, ensured we stop at every possible location as we had all the time in the world to reach Mount Abu.

But stopping on the ghats has its perils. Every other car passing by would slow down to have a ‘dekho’ at the aliens with MH number plates in Rajasthan. We were been checked out more than the monkeys around! While this was unnerving at times, we got used to it! I have always loved to ride and for me the ride is what matters more than the destination. The road from Abu Road to Mount Abu is pure bliss. Loved the roads, the corners, the twisties and the ghats! Excellent and well maintained I must say!

After posing around and a few clicks we were on our way to Mount Abu. Was stopped at a check naka but after assuring the cop I was carrying luggage on my bike, they let us go without any checks. We entered Mount Abu.

Paid the entry and vehicle fees and were guided by a hotelier to come check their hotel. We obliged. Didn’t like the rooms and were on our way to another grand hotel search. Checked out a few places including one very very expensive cottage which cost the same as the amount spent in the entire trip! Finally found a hotel – Hotel Swastik. A room for just Rs.550 and a verandah to park, we wouldn’t be so lucky elsewhere! Ok we were lucky at Abu Road and were pleasantly surprised to find good parking space here as well! The owner was particular interested in our steeds and we had a good chat with him on our rides and our experience so far riding through Maharashtra, Gujarat and to Mount Abu.

We eventually went to our rooms after all the bakar bakar (which we didn’t mind really), freshened up and ordered for breakfast. Food was nice and the room service was so darn good. The guy was very helpful in letting us know places to visit, things to do, best restaurants in town and was generally very chatty which we didn’t mind REALLY!

Our first stop was the usual, Nakki lake followed by ‘Asia’s largest Aquarium’ and then proceeding to Toad rock and from there on Guru Shikhar, the highest point in Rajasthan. Yes, we did the usual touristy things but we missed the temple completely!

Nakki Lake

The aquarium was a disappointment! Most tanks didn’t have any fishes and the water looked muddy!

The fishes looked like they would die anytime now! Very unprofessional but we didn’t expect a modern aquarium either!

The best part of the Nakki lake visit was the water snake we spotted! It disappeared soon after the snake spotted us!

It was getting hot here and we decided to go to Guru Shikhar. Now the ride here was nice. It got cooler as we proceeded upwards and I can only image how awesome it would be to ride this small stretch in winters!

Some beautiful scenes were bestowed upon us and this short ride seemed more and more fun! We didn’t eventually go to Guru Shikhar, only went till the point where vehicles were allowed but the scenes were breath taking from here as well!

Nice Rock

Found a nice piece of rock on the way and Jason went all the way up to pose on this ‘raj loves Rani’ rock. Another great view from here meant our trip to Mount Abu was only becoming more and more fun! We returned back to Mount Abu after a sojourn in the mountains and the exotic views, we were back in the heat. So we made our way to the ‘child bear’ shop and bought ourselves an Indus Pride – Indian beer made for proud men. Ok I made up the tag line, but it really was a nice beer! Beer followed lunch at a popular restaurant here. Forgot the name, but the food wasn’t worth remembering either. Headed back to the hotel for a quick nap before we did another touristy thing.
Yes, this was a visit to the sunset point. And it looked like everyone in Mount Abu, hell every in Rajasthan wanted to be at the sunset point.

The sunset was pretty nonetheless though we quickly made our way out of the crowd and back to Nakki lake where we chilled for a while. Discussed, life, riding and even indulged in conversations with other tourists. One guy even asked me for a test ride of the CBR which I had to politely decline. He was amazed that I had earlier seen him ride a black Pulsar and backed off after knowing the little piece of knowledge I possessed! Hmm..fishy.

Day 2 ended with us visiting most of the touristy places in Mount Abu and that left us thinking about what to do the next day. We were short of ideas and time so decided to go to Udaipur. Now Udaipur wasn’t in the original plan and this on the fly plan excited us. A quick chat with the hotel owner, and he told us about the wonderful NH76 that will take us to Udaipur in a maximum of 5 hours! Now, a distance of 150 kms, in 5 hours – Jason and me looked at each other and smirked.It was going to be another good day tomorrow.

Slept off with some drinks and good chicken tandoor. The best part of the room was that it had a balcony for us to enjoy the food and drinks and wind up the night! Day 3 promised a lot! Stay tuned.

Mumbai – Mount Abu – Udaipur – Mumbai: Day 1

Been sometime now since I got my CBR250R and well I am totally loving the experience. It was a 5 year dream to own a 250cc sports touring motorcycle and it finally culminated with me owning the Honda CBR250R. Initial hick ups aside, the bike is what I have always wanted. And the dream to tour on the motorcycle was no longer a figment of my imagination. It was a reality.

Fast forward to September 2011 when it struck me that a 4-day long leave was on the anvil from 6th – 9th October. Having asked around, Konkan was finalised along with routes and destinations. But going solo isn’t my cup of tea, not yet. The trip held promise but not until a gentleman named Jason Bourne (ok added the Borne for cinematic purposes!) showed up and told me about his Mount Abu plan. Now this became my plan. Quite a turn around this but as it turned out it was one of the best trips I have ever done!

So we headed out precisely at 5:45AM from Dahisar check naka to our destination Mount Abu on 6th October. Have never ridden on NH8 this early and the fog was just so mesmerizing. It was a dream world and I slowed down to enjoy riding in the fog as long as I can! It was eerie though sometimes as all I could see was a faint glimmer of a vehicle, mostly a truck, in front of me. We didn’t stop to take pictures here which was perhaps our greatest mistake during the entire trip!

We had decided to halt at 10AM for breakfast. But the sign boards kept egging me on to ride more. We reached Manor. Decided to halt at Charoti. Reached Charoti, decided to stop for breakfast somewhere at the border of Gujarat. This game continued and I realised later how much my partner, who was on a ZMA-R, loathed this idea of riding till hell breaks loose. And ride we did. Reached Ahmedabad in 7 hours flat. Now we had to stop. Made the mistake of going into the city thus we lost precious time negotiating the traffic and in turn, getting lost! Finally found a way out and we were out of Ahmedabad and the first hotel we saw, we stopped for lunch.

Now the roads from Mumbai to Manor are average and get better up till Charoti Naka beyond which the roads are a 6-lane bliss all the way till Vadodara. It was a pleasure cruising at 120kmph effortlessly! The two-lane NH8 from Baroda t0 Amdavad is a thorough disappointment. We did cover it in good time but a 4-laned highway would have been so much nicer! The expressway next to us didn’t help as cars zooming past was a sore sight!

Jason, by now, was not only famished but also didn’t like the idea of riding with me. I prefer to keep riding while his style is to stop, relax, ride – in that order! Two conflicting riding styles but one thing for certain was that we covered a good distance in good time! Now it was time for lunch and we hogged on some vegetarian food – paneer and mushrooms! Meal was good and the price wasn’t much which was great as throughout the trip, I was going to be spending a lot of money on fuel!

Left from here at around 2:30PM and next halt for us was Himatnagar. A heavy lunch reduced our speeds drastically and we took our sweet time to reach Himatnagar. Just 80kms away, but we reached there in around 1.5 hours! From here on, we were cruising leisurely taking stops regularly to keep ourselves hydrated. So while the first half of the journey today was according to my style, the second half was according to Jason’s so that everybody is happy! I must say that really awesome roads helped cover distances quickly and at the same time, allowed us to drive leisurely whenever we pleased to!

First click after 650 kms

At one point on the Major District Road 49, we stopped for a good 45 minutes to just chill. From here on, Mount Abu was still a good 150 kms away and we realised we had driven pretty darn slowly. Picked up pace and we were off again! Stopped finally at around 20 kms before Abu Road to confirm directions. Finally reached Abu Road by 7PM. Spent the next one hour searching for a hotel. We found a few cheap ones, but bike parking was an issue and I did not want to park the CBR on the road especially in Abu Road where everyone was hankering over to have a glimpse of the bike!

Finally found a hotel – Hotel Durga – got a room for Rs.800 and called in a night! We realised we were tired the moment we hit the sack! Day 2 was going to be full of fun and we were already looking forward to going to Mount Abu early in the morning.

The route taken on Day 1 is here.


Cheapest & bestest

Its been long since I posted here but my journey through Mumbai by lanes did not stop. Discovering many hidden jems, cheap restaurants and well, really tasty stuff, I couldn’t help but write about it.

One such is Ribbons & Balloons. Well, not exactly located in the by lanes but it does stock some really cheap and delicious snacks! one such is the Chicken Quiche. Doesn’t exactly look like a Quiche but it is for just Rs.20 and full of chicken. If I had to chose between a sandwich and this quiche, it would be the latter simple because for Rs.20, it doesn’t get any more filling than this! Chicken cubes stuffed between fried exterior, the quiche is pretty heavenly!

Heck, even my cat loves it! And if she does, this has to be a pretty damn awesome product!

Shop at ShopWiki – you will not be disappointed!

The Internet has changed the way we live our lives. It has entered every aspect of our lives including shopping! From mom & pop stores to big brand retail chains to global online retail portals, shopping has come a long way!

The latest entrant in this online space is ShopWiki. Traditionally, online retailers have retailed products only from those who pay for a placement on their portal. ShopWiki intends to change that by giving access to 1000s of retailers from across the globe! ShopWiki has a range of products under the hood going from automotive to kitchen to household equipment! With over 30,000 sellers listed on the portal, the consumer, that’s you, has a wide range of choices with the ability to go bargain hunting which is not the case with other online retailers!

One of the more interesting areas at ShopWiki is the kitchen square where consumers are not just shown the best bargain products but also on how to purchase one! Take an example of the wine glasses section. Isn’t is worthwhile to know more about the bowl, stem & the foot of a wine glass? Isn’t it worth your time to know whether a narrow glass is a good buy for white wine? Is that wider rounder bowl more friendly to red wine? So many questions need to be answered before the purchase of a simple wine glass! However, Once you know the answers, the purchase becomes a fairly simpler process. And to add to that, with a wide range of prices & sellers available, it is the consumer who always gets the best product available at the best possible price!

I recently scanned through their coffee maker section and was astounded to know about the different types of coffee makers available! If you love your coffee get the automatic drip, says the website and they are absolutely right! I have one at home (thanks to my girl friend) & it makes excellent coffee each & every time!

So go on, give ShopWiki a try & you will not be disappointed!

Organise your kitchen with Enclume Pot Racks!

A lot of foodies are also very interested in cooking. In fact, many love to start their adventure in the comfort of their kitchens. But before you do, wouldn’t you want to get the settings right? Wouldn’t you want all your boxes of spices and your utensils kept in an organized manner? The more experienced cooks will tell you that it is important to have an organized kitchen and for those who are starting out, it is a must!

One of the best ways to have an organized kitchen is to buy racks and none better than Enclume Racks. While Enclume has many varieties available one should look at the Enclume pot racks. These are excellent for hanging utensils et al. An Enclume pot rack is useful to organize the most used utensils while making food. Also, don’t forget to check out the lighted Enclume potracks. These are excellent in beautifying your kitchen and at the same time are very practical as well.

The Enclume freestanding pot racks are another excellent addition to the kitchen and one can easily work store their veggies and fruits in the multiple baskets provided with the Enclume pot racks. Don’t forget to stock up on accessories for your prized Enclume pot racks as well. So go on and organize your kitchen and get on with your cooking!

Cafe Lalten, as fresh as it gets! (via Travel and Food)

I love this place especially with its fresh supply of fruit juices and yummy sandwiches!

Cafe Lalten is an innovative name and goes well with the ambiance of the cafe. The decor is chic though very homely at the same thing. A make shift library adorns the walls on one side of the restaurant while the other side is stacked with Cafe Lalten mugs and bottles and other accessories. One can pick up any book and spend hours reading and subsequently forgetting about hoohalla outside. Infact, while we were seated there, we had enough of priv … Read More

via Travel and Food

Cafe Lalten, as fresh as it gets!

Cafe Lalten is an innovative name and goes well with the ambiance of the cafe. The decor is chic though very homely at the same thing.

A make shift library adorns the walls on one side of the restaurant while the other side is stacked with Cafe Lalten mugs and bottles and other accessories. One can pick up any book and spend hours reading and subsequently forgetting about hoohalla outside. Infact, while we were seated there, we had enough of privacy along with a sense of tranquility that resulted in us losing track of time and reaching home late!

We were sitting in the AC section while most of the crowd was in the non-AC section probably for the WIFI available here. Probably that was the reason for the enhanced privacy, if I can say so. Oh my friend also noted that a lot of people who come to Lalten areaantels (slang for intellectuals) probably for the awesome ambiance and the WIFI.

Anyways, back to Lalten, we ordered for Watermelon Juice and Shaadi Walli Coffee. The watermelon Juice was fresh and extremely refreshing in this hot and humid weather. The coffee, besides being very frothy, wasn’t much different than a normal Nescafe coffee.

We also ordered for a Chicken Kebab Sandwich and an almond brownie. The Sandwich was fresh. It tasted fresh. The veggies were freshly cut, the bread felt fresh (and not microwave reheated bread) and the chicken was soft and tender. One single sandwich made me a fan of Cafe Lalten.  Nevermind the great ambiance and the WIFI and the hours and hours one can spend here chitchatting. The almond brownie was a first for me! And they were very liberal with the almonds which truly made it an almond brownie and not just a brownie with a couple of almonds attached.

The food was good, the drinks were refreshing and the ambiance was pleasing. The pricing isn’t too bad either and easily affordable. Lalten also serves Chaat items which is what I really wanted to try but couldn’t as the counter was closed that day! Probably will keep it for my next visit!

Check out the new Chocolate Melange at Costa Coffee

Have been to Costa Coffee a few times and have never had any complaints with the coffee here. The hot varieties or even the cold coffees are simply superb. A recent trip to Costa was no different either. However, what intrigued us was this big slab of dark chocolate kept aside. Their most expensive pastry, the Chocolate Melange is worth Rs.95. The pastry was garnished with thin sheets of Melange which gave the pastry a slightly bittersweet flavour, a perfect combo for any dark chocolate lover.

We had it is ice cream and it went quite well with the cold vanilla ice cream. The pastry itself was warmed up just a bit which, in my opinion, really bought out the flavours! Thumbs up to Costa Coffee for bringing out the Chocolate Melange – an excellent dark chocolate treat!

On a side note what is up with Costa Coffee and Pheonix Mills? There are three outlets in the same damn mall! Can never miss Costa Coffee if you are in Pheonix Mills!

Travel Photo Contest @BlogAdda

What? Another contest? This one is right up my alley though!. BlogAdda’s latest contest in a long line of contests is one where people contest with each other by giving a context to the content of the photos in their blogs. Phew! (trying to be funny is doubly difficult bah!)

It isn’t so difficult to write a travelogue of a certain place but it is so difficult to actually pick out five of your best/favourite photos from a whole bunch of pictures! Come to think of it, travel photo folders in my computer are competing with each other for a place in this blog, as we speak!

That line from Pringoo is so true. Have seen such ‘fast’ travelers who wants to see everything but ends up seeing nothing and more importantly ends up being a lonely traveler without any experience to share, without any experience to enrich their soul!

Shot this picture at Juhu Beach. Had gone during a weekday thinking it won’t be as crowded as it generally is but was proved wrong by the thrones of burkha clad or dressed to go to a shaadi women! A fair was held at the beach with people thronging the make shift shops to buy accessories, household items and anything and everything else with the sea as the back drop. Come to think of it, even the Anjuna Flea market doesn’t offer this kind of view! Saw this balloon guy who tried to sell those balloons to everyone and anyone but if you did not have change (Rs.5), he wouldn’t sell it to you! Ironic in some ways but funny all the way! Sir buy balloon? Only Rs.5 sir. What? you do not have Rs.5. I no sell you balloon!

The dude in the centre got an earful from his supervisor and he kept pleading he did not do no wrong. After sometime another supervisor comes and says some things in a South India language (I think it was Tullu) and you could sense the tension between those two. Once the guy left, the worker was back to doing his job but his eyes said more than what he could possible say with words to his supervisor!

Found this lonely log at Diveagar Beach, Maharashtra. What was intriguing was this erstwhile tree was so close to the sea that I wonder how old it must have been? There were many shrubs growing a little further away but this was different. The footsteps in the background add to the mystery of this photu!

Clicked this at Bhandardara, a hill station in Maharashtra. Bhandardara is popular for its lake, known as the Arthur Lake and fed by the Parvara River. We were here just before the onset of summer so the weather was cool, the water was clear and the sky was blue! This small abandoned hut makes for the best view of the lake no matter what time it is. Imagine getting up in the morning and gazing at the reflection of the sky on the calm waters of the lake. Not many sights come close to this!

This picture is one of my favourites. Clicked at Manori Beach, Mumbai. This was also perhaps the first time when people were clicking me instead of the scenery. Why you ask? Well for starters, I was flat on the ground when taking this picture and onlookers were bemused at what I could be clicking from that height that I couldn’t click standing up. Well, it was the sea shells, which look humongous from this angle!

Hope you enjoyed reading through!

The contest is sponsored by

Kobe Sizzlers, Why Have I not been here before?

Kobe Sizzlers has been sitting pretty next to Spice Tree on Hill Road, Bandra for as long as I can remember. Have preferred to have my fill of sizzlers at Sahibaan on Turner Road but after a bad stomach (that my friend endured, I don’t endure such things as I have a bottomless pit!) we have avoided Sahibaan for the time being.

So when craving for sizzlers, we thought of crashing the party at Kobe’s to try a new restaurant!

Before ordering the sizzler we went through the usual ritual of getting ourselves a few drinks. This included an Ice Tea and Fresh Lime Soda. This was the first time an Ice Tea actually tasted like an Ice Tea. I could taste tea in there, for a change. It was an excellent coolant and could have done with another one too!

The fresh lime soda was the usual fresh lime soda!

Next up was the sizzler! (blame the ice tea for the long wait!). We ordered for a Chicken Sizzler with boiled vegetables. The sizzler was cooked well without burning the underside. The chicken steak was tender and veggies were boiled well. The french fries included were humongous! Thankfully there was no rice included or else we would have fallen asleep at the restaurant itself. The sizzler was excellent in my opinion.

Kobe has strangely gotten bad reviews at Burrp.com but I for one only have good things to talk about the place. The ambiance is no frills but the food is excellent! The Ice Tea was super and so was the sizzler. Pricey though it is, the food makes up for it.

Overall Ratings are:

Price: 3/5

Food: 4/5

Drinks: 4/5

Ambiance: 2/5 -(it isn’t the most well maintained place and one can notice seepage in certain parts of the wall)

Whack!! this Wednesday’

A few observations and much reasoning lead to error; many observations and a little reasoning to a good whacking!

Haven’t really participated in many contests but couldn’t avoid ‘Whack!! this Wednesday’. For those who know me wouldn’t believe I wrote this but ya well, what the whack, here we go!

If you own a car and especially a bike you would be well aware of unruly pedestrians who think they own the road. I, the law abiding biker, come face to face with such pedestrians’ who-own-it-all. Even these are an assortment.

• There are those who will explicitly choose to cross the road when a bike is approaching and endanger the biker’s life and off course their own. Doesn’t matter if the road behind the biker is empty, but if the pedestrian doesn’t cross before the bike crosses, the earth will shatter and the sky will fall down!

• Then there are those who will, after getting down from the bus, always try to cross the road from the front of the bus. Oh ya, the government made the bus of glass so that everyone can see through and through! WRONG! We bikers do not know if you are crossing from the front of the bus because we cannot see you! Off course, with experience you learn to slow down but even then don’t you just feel like whacking the living daylights out of such people?

• And then there are the aunties and uncles who cross the road as if strolling in a nana-nani park. And what’s more, they always find unsuspecting bikers to strut their stuff in front of. I know you think you are the most important person in this world and at the moment when you are in front of a biker, we think the same too because we cannot do anything. But I can whack you now, thanks to Blogadda!

• Oh did I forget to mention the old, really old uncles who love to show their Usain Bolt akin racing skills to bikers. But they know they will lose if they run parallel to us. So what do they do to get our attention and in doing so defeat us comprehensively? Start running in front of us just when they see us hapless bikers. Oh ya you made your point. But uncleji, this ain’t the Berlin Olympics and if are so eager to show off your running skills at the age of 60, why don’t you go to a race track instead?

• Before I forget, there is this another irritating pedestrian who just loves the feel of tarmac and if even there is a 2 feet wide footpath right next to them, they will still choose to walk on the tarmac. Such brand loyalty is unheard of, especially in government circles. Oh and what is worse is they choose heavy traffic situation to display such blatant affection and loyalty for the good ole tarmac. This is the time when bikers are forced to drive in the narrow gap between cars and the footpath and this is also the time the pedestrian chooses to take a walk in the park seemingly aloof of the eager-to-overtake-the-adjacent-car biker honking at em’.

• Lastly, who can forget the holy rickshawallas and cabbies and buses? The most irritating rickshawallas are those who try to overtake a BMW on a highway when the road is clear. In doing so, they not only create a massive traffic jam behind them but also increase stress to unheard off levels in anger management parlance. Not to forget the cabbies who drive at 20 kmph, no matter what lane they are in. And they drive like royalty, like they are driving a Bugatti. Bikers like us are forced to two their line, disallowed to overtake such cabbies because if we do so, we will be breaking our oath we gave our mothers of not racing on the highway. Then there are the buses that just love driving in the last lane and make sure they give not an inch away to the bikers to pass through. Imagine being stuck behind a King Long Bus on the Andheri Flyover for more than 20 minutes just because the bus driver did not reciprocate your incessant honking! More than whacking the driver feels like whacking the bus itself for its way to big and way to powerful. Remember spiderman? With power comes responsibilities and for buses, this power translates into doing what they want because they own the god damn road!

How to know the rickshaw fare in Mumbai without asking the rickshaw driver?

Though of starting a new section called Travel Tips. Will cover tips on the things to do in a city like Mumbai or any other place I visit. Hope to not disappoint my readers.

Starting off with the auto rickshaws that plague the city. The humble three-wheeler can go anywhere and most drivers know the city like the back of their palm. If one needs travel tips, or needs to know about places to check out in Mumbai that are generally not in the list of ‘must see things in Mumbai’ these are the guys to go to.

However, some of Mumbai’s rickshaw drivers may fleece unsuspecting tourists. This can be generally avoided by being aware of the prices charged. Here is a brief on how much one is expect to pay for a rickshaw drive.

The minimum fare for a rickshaw drive in Mumbai is Rs.9.

Beyond that, the fare depends on the meter. It is easy to calculate how much you have to pay even without asking the auto driver.

For instance, if the meter reads 14, then you pay Rs.13 (14-1). The rickshaw meter starts at 10 and hence the minimum fare is Rs.9!

This holds true for all journeys anywhere in the city by any auto. Basically, just deduct Re.1 from the meter reading and that will be the final fare.

However, one must note that this does not hold true after midnight. The rates effectively double after midnight. However, each auto driver carries a rate card with him which displays the fare for a certain meter reading.

ALWAYS insist on seeing this rate card before you pay the fare.

Also, in certain areas of Mumbai, rickshaw drivers operated shared rickshaws. Basically, the rickshaws ferries three people (the officially allowed number of people in a rickshaw besides the auto driver) to certain predetermined destination for a predetermined price. Generally it is Rs.5 per person and the distance covered does not matter in these instances. Two suburbs of Mumbai – Jogeshwari and Kandivili have such auto rickshaws in operations. It turns out to be cheaper for the end consumer while making good profits for the auto drivers.