Breakfast was a smoothie, followed by self made gajar ka halwa. Usually I do my dessert experiments at night, but wanted to gift the younger daughter something sweet before I left, hence the early morning kitchen duty. Cycled to the mandai to buy 3 kg oranges and 2 kg guava. Reached Town hall, off Tilak Road, at 0745 hours. Followed Ravindra Joshi so did not have to ask for directions. Had never been to the Town hall before this. They have two tennis courts and one badminton hall. The reception area looks grand with its wooden beams. Was told that Bajirao would meet Mastani here.
Town Hall Interior
Almost 50 guests were present to see us off. Medha, Narendra’s better half, compere-d a small show. The chief guest was Ashish Kasodekar, who during the lockdown, ran marathons in Pune University for 60 consecutive days. What was touching was a gift he offered to our cycling group veteran – 82 year old Mehendale kaka. A set of visiting card sized sheets with cartoon quotes to inspire sports people. Narendra read out one. It showed a runner in the Himalayas, with snow falling on the road. Caption: There is nothing like bad weather. Great words of encouragement for a bunch of cyclists out to enjoy the Hyderabad sun.
We left around 0930 hours. City traffic wasn’t too bad. The first pitstop was near the serum institute / Akashvani. Bhawalkar Sahab had a quick chat with his ex colleagues at the Serum Institute. Bhushan had to take his breakfast in time, so we stopped at Hotel Vaishali in Manjari. I remember eating at a doppelganger Vaishali on the other side of the road. The menu was only displayed at the cash counter. Realised that the poha and upma were off the menu. There was a separate counter for the cheaper stuff outside the restaurant. Most of us ordered from there.
We rode at a leisurely pace and reached Hotel Kanchan at Yavat, around 12:45 hours. Had a light lunch. Decision was made to not start cycling before 1500 hours. Was thrilled to see Nitin Damle having a post meal siesta on the hotel floor. The hotel had burned down in a fire a few years ago. I was told that it was then built like a wooden palace. The new place was work in progress, so we did our eating in a large shamiyana. The waiters were courteous. One of them was also named Jugal. So a jugalbandi photograph was taken with Jugal Rathi.
Jugal-bandi at Hotel Kanchan
Chaufula is only 12 km from Yewat. The terrain was rolling. I wonder if National highways had the same gradient range as Indian railways, would it lead to fuel savings? Must do this math sometime. Also a cost benefit analysis of gradient reduction versus fuel saving. Accompanied by an impact on the environment for the extra cutting and filling.
Reached Hotel Samrat at 1600 hours. Short siesta, followed by a quick bath. Explored the town with Anil after that. The two touristy places were: a lake 10 km away, and a fort, 15 km away. Didn’t visit either. Walked down to an EV showroom. The best seller is a Chinese scooter that retails for Rs 64 k. Uses a lead acid battery. I think it is premature to write off this family of batteries. When range is not an issue and per day usage is low, lead acid makes for a compelling case.
There was a Tata LCV showroom next door. Was pleasantly surprised to see a Tata Ace electric in the sales lot. The dealer has sold one electric Ace so far. Pricing, at 9 lakh, is competitive, thanks to FAME subsidies. This is for the vehicle with an aluminium body. The steel half body vehicle retails for a lakh less. Range is 120 km in real life, so a limited set of customers. The magic figure for range is 250 km. But the customer is not ready to pay Rs. 15 lakh for that. The benchmark is CNG. I think the government is doing a good job by keeping CNG prices in a band that is forcing electric vehicle OEMs to come down on pricing. Absence of CCS2 fast charging was not a concern. The only customer they have had, uses it on a milk run. Does about 50 km, charges at home. Did not find the staff to be too well informed on the electric.
There was a Tata heavy commercial vehicle showroom also in town. No vehicles on display. The only thing I could see in the showroom were 50 twenty liter drums of DEF. DEF stands for Diesel Exhaust Fluid. It’s nothing but liquid urea. A spray of urea is injected into the engine exhaust. In the presence of a catalyst, this helps convert the NOX to nitrogen, carbon dioxide and water. NOX refers to a mix of N20, NO and NO2. The N2O is what can keep you in good humor – it is the laughing gas which anesthetists probably still use. But on a more serious note, it is 298 times as bad as CO2 because of its radiative effect, and the time taken to break it down. The NO is readily oxidised in the atmosphere to nitrogen dioxide. NO2 is a major pollutant and component of smog. It reacts with water to produce nitric acid – and acid rain. Need to visit the Vitesco / Emitec catalytic exhaust factory at Talegaon, where my friend, Vishal Sadafal, works.
Chaufula seems to be a local auto hub. One can reach Supa on Satara road and Shirur on Nagar road from here. The Supa road is much wider than the Shirur road. Lots of garages.
The parked truck at Chaufula was loaded with steel bars –
which were definitely warm at 70 deg C
There were the usual kirana and chicken shops, quite a few eating joints and a fair number of hair cutting salons. The most interesting retail outlet was a harmonium maker. He was busy making a Dhol. The base basic raw material is goat skin. You can make only one dhol from the skin of one goat. He gets the bleached goat hide from Solapur. One large circle is cut and the side cuts are used as reinforcement at the edges. He uses a thick thread to sew in these reinforcements. The thumb rule is to use a thread which is 9 times the diameter. What was interesting was the needle. It was right angled. It takes a lot of effort to push the needle through the 4 millimetre thick goat skin.
Reinforcing the Dhol
We had a vada pav at a roadside stall which was a Maruti Omni, with all panels in stainless steel and a kitchen. It goes back home every night from its Highway perch. The wada pav had been pre washed with black tea. Anil was thirsty after eating pakoda and wada, so we slaked our thirst with watermelon. A lot of folks had recommended that we go to hotel Jagdamba, on the highway, for dinner. This hotel has an interesting pricing strategy: a standard discount of 50% on all menu prices. Perception of value for money goes up because of this.
We eventually had dinner at Jai Ganesh khanawal. Like at lunch, we went in for a shared thali. Reminded me of my mom’s food . I think you need to leave the highway to get healthier food. Highway restaurants compete only on taste and spice. Our khanawal friend was asked for a second helping of dal, bhindi rice and shira. Rs. 90 for the thali. Only Rs 20 for the extras. Pura Paisa vasool. Should have gifted him some fruits as a tip. Mea culpa. We were back at the hotel at 1945 hours. Found that a thali dinner had been arranged at Samrat hotel. Skipped that.
Pune Hyderabad Day 2
Nandu Bhatewara – The Big Boss of the Rally
One of the big challenges for an organizer is to get the group motivated for an early start for the day’s cycling. The law of averages indicates that someone will be fighting battles in the loo till the last minute. So our 0630 departure usually happens at 0700. This in a way is good, as that’s when sunrise happens in this region in February.
Morning time is when you do some sprinting to move up the average speed. Decision was made to have a pit stop for breakfast at 08:30 to 0900 hours some place. The breakfast groups were split into 3. Terrain continued to be rolling, with the roll increasing as we approached Bhigwan, where the backwaters of the Ujjani dam end. The flamingos love this relatively shallow marsh. Both humans and flamingos thrive on the fish that are found in abundance in these waters. We did not catch a glimpse of our pink feathered friends, as they typically depart around Jan, after having arrived in October.
SANY is a Chinese construction equipment manufacturer which has put up a large plant in the Chakan MIDC. Wonder about the indigenization levels.
On the way, we passed Kurkumbh MIDC, which is the hub for the chemical industry in Pune. A few kilometers later, we also cycled past the huge plant of Bilt graphic paper. Would have loved to have a dekko. Have seen their plant at Yamunanagar, but the Pune one is more modern. Sinar Mas, an Indonesian company, was the original owner of this plant. They got into trouble with the local farming community over water rights of the Ujjaini reservoir. I guess only this desis can manage desis. The Japanese have understood this. They have continued to exist in India with joint ventures, read Suzuki and Toyota. It’s easier to manage political pressure in that case. So the plant was handed over by Sinar Mas to Bilt.
The highway crossing the Daund Baramati railway track
We had a lovely service road from Kurkumbh onwards. The tar cost on service roads is usually not of the same quality as the main road. But that’s a compromise that was made, given the slower paced traffic. Bhahawalkar Sahab is the veteran of Highway cycling in our team. He cycled from Bhuj to Arunachal in 45 days and recently did Pune to Kanyakumari. His advice of staying on the left side of the white line was well appreciated.
Overtaking usually happens from the left. You have cars only a couple of feet from the cyclist. Fast moving objects create a favourable tailwind. But one is apprehensive about the driver getting diverted by a call during this high speed overtaking.
View from the Service Road
A breakfast of poha / upma is always safe. Bhawalkar saab’s homemade methi parathas were yummy, but heavy on the tummy. I really should eat more fruits during the day to help maintain my energy levels. Around 10:30 we took a water break and realised that the Indapur Hotel is only 30 km away. Decision was made by some of us to have lunch at the Indapur hotel. After 1100 hours, average speed starts going south. So we reached between 1300 to 13:45 hours. One group stopped at a famous highway dhaba for lunch and reached at 1500 hours.
Finding charging points with shade is a rarity
85 km is a good distance to ride. In my mind, most road trips should start at 5:30 and end around 13:30. After which lunch and siesta should happen. Evening should be devoted to exploring the local geography. There is always so much to learn from Bharat.
Anil Jhamtani – on his first cycle rally
In a short evening walk got tempted by a khanawal. In Maharashtra, the word khanawal indicates a place which serves a thali. We found one which served in Bhartiya baithak style, which means you sit on the floor and eat. Unfortunately this place is closed on Saturdays. Next point of interest was a chulha seller. His chulha had a battery powered centrifugal blower. This pumps air through the wood fire, increasing efficiency. The seller claimed that 1 kg of food is sufficient to cook a meal for 10 to 12 people. My friend Nilesh Hiremath had some apprehensions: due to the fan, constant ash flies all over the room and also the food if it is left open. Also the Fan/electrical components can go bad sooner.
Bhagyalaxmi shegdi, priced at Rs 1800
Walked past an Ola showroom. They have launched Ola s1x at rupees 85 k. Ola has done some value engineering with switches. They have borrowed units from an ice motorcycle. The LCD is a mediocre seven segment display. I guess you need to give reasons for folks to upgrade. Realised that it comes with a 2 kWh battery pack. Range is expected to be 50 to 60 km. What I loved was that it also comes with 3 and 4 kWh pack options. This is something I have been advocating for a long time. Let the customer decide what range is appropriate. I have paid rupees 1k as advance for the ola S1 air, but I am still not sure of service support.
The Ola S1 X Speedometer
There was a get together with local IMA doctors. Indapur taluka has about 100 members of the IMA. And most seem to have decent patient load. Had an interesting chat with an MD medicine about the declining trend of general physicians or family physicians. Even an MD medicine doesn’t want a GP tag attached. They would rather be called a diabetologist or an ER internist.
He narrated an anecdote about Jayant Patil, a senior NCP politician. A year ago our friend, who was then a senior minister in the cabinet, had gone to the Juhu beach for Ganpati Visarjan. He came back and experienced acute chest comfort. Specialists were called in from Breach Candy, but the pain was still there. Meanwhile Sharad Pawar advised Jayant to go to the sarkari JJ hospital. It was already 9:00 p.m. and no senior doctor was around. A young MD student had a dekko at the senior minister and within 5 minutes removed a sting from the foot. Relief was instantaneous. The next day, the super-speciality doctors from Breach candy were called in by Patil saab to get some training in medical common sense from this young man.
Part of the reason for the decline of the GP / Family Physician is the mindset of patients and their tendency to do a self diagnosis. It is rare for a cardiologist to send back someone with chest pain even if he suspects it is just indigestion. Give someone a hammer and they find nails all over. So ECGs and angiographies are sure to follow. Some of my management friends should think about how we can reposition preventive health so that it can compete with the more organized breakdown mafia. The GP is the one who can benefit the most from a shift to preventive health care.
IMA Pheta-giri
Pune Hyderabad Day 3
We managed to start at 06:45 hours. Morning weather was excellent. 15 km from Indapur, we crossed the bridge over Bhima river downstream of the Ujjani dam. You can see the dam from the bridge.
Crossing the Bheema – Pune’s Mula and Mutha rivers join the Bheema – which in turn joins the Krishna
The Ujjani Dam
Found a decent bird population close by. The first pitstop was for nariyal Paani. Tender coconut is a complete breakfast in itself. Mentally, I am comfortable with prices south of rupees 50. We found a 75 year young vendor who was retailing it at Rs. 40 and the coconut had the goldilocks amount of tenderness. We had a selfie taken with our young vendor and tipped him Rs 20 to encourage his work at such a ‘tender’ age.
Eicher Electric Buses – easier to truck them
Nandu’s cousin, Jaipal Kothari, was our breakfast host at Tembhurni, about 25 km from Indapur. We were to meet him at Hotel Jagdamba, and there was some confusion because there were three hotels by the same name. Turned out that it was the one at the end of the bypass. Jaipal is a progressive farmer. He specialises in banana and sugarcane.Banana, one gets two crops in one seedling. About 10 to 15 dozen bananas per plant. 8 litres of water per day. Drip irrigation. Less water required compared to sugarcane.
Where there is sugarcane, there are tractor trains
Is agriculture remunerative? It’s difficult to make supernormal profits, in what is a quintessentially a commodity market. The sales price is fixed by global markets. The only thing you can manage is the cost price. The big input costs are: labour, fertiliser and water. My utopian solution is to buy barren land, do rainwater harvesting, plant trees and grow mixed crops like Patanjali Jha. It’s not remunerative, but it’s self-sustaining. The main cost is the capex of buying land.
Loved the kaizen – warning post being pulled by the water tanker
Lunch was at Mohol. Google maps was asked for suggestions. It came up with Hotel Anjani, pure veg. Turned out that the hotel was 1.5 km after Mohol. Was newly opened. Good hospitality. A half an hour break after lunch is a must. We had a 1445 hrs departure. Was quite warm even then. The first 15 km required dehydrating. We took two breaks enroute to Solapur.
Post Lunch Break – reminds me of the story of the Donkey’s shadow
We found a local motorcyclist who escorted us to our Solapur host rendezvous point. The local chapter of the dermatologist association was our host for the evening. We were treated to a lavish dinner at a ghazal night at Balaji Sarovar palace, a local five star hotel. Took an auto to return back at 22:30 hours. PS: managed to do some vegetable shopping in the evening.
Pune Hyderabad Day 4
A lot of hotels have tariff plans that include complimentary breakfast. That’s not a good idea for cycling. By the time breakfast gets served and consumed, the big fire ball is on its upward journey and that means more cycling in warmer climates. Nandu ji had found a good work-around for this at Solapur. He requested that the complimentary breakfast be packed. This meant that we could start at a reasonable 07:15 hours.
It happened to be Shiv jayanti, so we had a photo-op at the Shivaji statue in Solapur. From there we joined the bypass. I was happy to see a green belt on our left. The road continues till the APMC complex and then you take a left to join the Hyderabad road. There is a small industrial area on the road and 10 km further down is the proposed site of the Solapur airport.
Breakfast halt was a tin shed canteen around 20 km from our starting point. Narendra negotiated for permission to eat our packed breakfast with tea coming in from the canteen. One thing that troubled me was the huge quantity of plastic waste that packed breakfasts entail. Next time, we should just negotiate for discounts in the tariff instead of free breakfasts.
Being Shiv jayanti Nandu suggested a target of arriving at Omerga by 1600 hours. There was some discussion on cycles being put on the truck if the group couldn’t manage the speed. This was stimulus enough for Anil and yours truly to increase pace and set a target of reaching Omerga by lunch.
A Tyred Truck
The next big town was Naldurg, which is a fort located next to a beautiful stream. Next time I need to spend more time exploring the fort. There were a few inclines when we passed the fort.
The road also became two lane for some time. We stopped at a Tata Ace mobile kitchen, only to find that our friend serves no chai. Had an idli to justify our water bottle refilld. His stall works only till 1100 hours. In the second shift our friend does motor rewinding.
After Naldurg, we started losing altitude. There were 5 km stretches where you felt like superman, reaching 25 km per hour in the glare of the afternoon sun. Thanks to miracles like these, we reached the Omerga hotel around 1400 hours. We checked into the hotel and went across to Hotel Ambai next door for lunch. The bhakri thali was super value for money at Rupees 70. Postprandial siesta happened and then the rest of the gang landed up. They had all managed to brave the heat and continued pedalling. Like Anil, almost all skipped lunch to get to Omerga by 1600 hours.
The only tourist attraction in Omega is the Mahadev temple. It’s about 500 years old. I was dismayed to find the top portion of the temple cemented and painted. How I wish such temples be managed by the Archaeological Society of India! The temple is built of black stone. The roof is supported by wedge stones. A lot of local women were present. It being a Monday, when Shiva is more amenable to prayers from his devotees.
Chatted up with a veterinary shop owner in the temple lane. There was a portable crane which was available on hire. It is used for assisting cows that face difficult pregnancies. A fast selling item is rubber mats for cows. These last 4 to 5 years. And then there are nutritional supplements, minerals and vitamins. About 50 grams per day per cow can help increase milk production by as much as 20%.
Next on our tourism itinerary was the municipal garden, next to the river. The garden was home to a bat colony. It was late evening and the batmen and batwomen were just waking up. It was fun to watch them walk across to say hi to their batfriends. Plan was to spend the remaining part of the evening on this project. But 15 minutes into my batwatch, the phone rang. My schoolmate, Rajiv Agarwal, had landed up from Hyderabad with his new Trek cycle in tow. I went over to receive him. We arranged for his stay in our room as the hotel was fully packed.
Bat House
Around 1930 hours we walked down to meet Dr More at his hospital. Dr More’s hospital had been the Omerga hostel during Narendra’s first Pune Hyderabad cycle rally 25 years ago. There were no hotels at Omerga in those days. What is interesting about Omega was that it seems to be the medical hub for the district Dhara Shiv. They have 3 DMS practising in this 50,000 population town! Dr More had called in a few IMA members and also some local cyclists. We met a super cyclist who did Omega to Tirupati in 3 days, averaging 300 km a day. He had also done Omerga Kanyakumari at a slower pace of 200 km a day! Dr More’s son is doing his MD pathology and I have invited him to spend a week at Pinki’s lab. After some lively chats we went over for dinner, again to hotel Ambai.
Pune Hyderabad Day 5
Dr More landed up at our hotel at 0630 hours. His daughter in law had made some lovely tea for all of us. To top that, some of the local cyclists were there to join us for a short ride.
Karnataka’s Hawa Mahal
A lot of sign boards in Omega are in Kannada; the Karnataka border is just 30 km away. A decision was made to have tea in Maharashtra, breakfast in Karnataka and lunch in Telangana. We did exactly that, but had to compromise on food quality as a result. It was a high spend day for our Eicher support truck. Every time you cross borders, the state government coffers are richer by Rupees 5000. Our support vehicle cost for that day increased by Rs. 10,000. Incidentally for heavy vehicles, the costs are not just diesel, you also have toll, tyres and lubricants.
Rajeev with Jugal ji
Rajiv’s average speed was better than mine in the pre breakfast session. But he slowed down after that. I kept up with him from then on. By 1330 hrs, Rajiv’s Strava app reported that he had done 68.47 km – more than double his previous long distance record of 30 km. He celebrated – by calling it a day at lunch time.
Calling it a day
My bike developed a small leak in the front tire. This is the danger of cycling close to the road shoulder. All the broken glass gets powdered up and swept to the side, only to be lapped up by the cycle tyre. My cycle’s front tyre developed a small leak – I had to top up tyre pressure every morning, but was too lazy to repair it. Eventually, I got the puncture repaired only in Pune.
Lunch was at the first dhaba after we crossed the Telangana border. The food was mediocre, but the company was great. Chatted up with Col Gogate, who had recently retired from the Indian army. He is an NDA alumnus and had also been an instructor there. He was a founding member of the faculty of computer science at NDA. Even after retirement, he continues to teach at a local engineering college in Hyderabad. The family has purchased a retirement home in Athashri, Hinjewadi. They were returning to Hyderabad from Pune.
We reached Zaheerabad early in the evening. Passed a huge factory on the way. This unit was initially an Andhra Pradesh public sector unit called Allwyn, which used to make Lambretta cloned scooters. The company diversified into truck making by tieng up with Nissan. Before that they had a short-lived joint venture with Vespa to make a scooter, the Vespa PL 170. It was a cute dinky toy scooter, and btw the engine was not 170 cc. It was a 100 cc gaddi. The 170 PLhad to be interpreted as 170 kg payload. Then the Andhra Pradesh Government sold off the unit to Mahindra and Mahindra and the Allwyn Nissan truck was baptised the Mahindra loadking. It’s USP is that it is a 4 tonner with 4 tyres on the rear axle. The main product at the Mahindra Zaheerabad factory today is tractors.
In the evening the three of us went out for a city dekko. Wanted to sample the local cuisine, but ended up having Rajasthani street food, followed by a Punjabi dinner. Had an interesting chat with Rajiv about the relationship between religion, community and business. Is it right to support your community with your shopping wallet? This is a gold mine for politicians but a minefield for the common man. Rajiv begs to differ. We agreed to disagree.
Mobile Sugar Cane Juicer – Note the belt drive used for locomotion
Braking jugaad
Pune Hyderabad Day 6
We started from Zaheerabad at 06:45 hours again. Could cajole Rajiv Agarwal into joining us for the morning ride. Gave company to Rajiv to keep his morale high. After the 0830 breakfast, Rajiv decided to conserve energy for the ride back home in the evening. Breakfast was again packed idli and vada.
We crossed the halfway mark at Sangareddy and had a nariyal pani break near the IIT Hyderabad campus. After an hour of cycling, at 1200 hrs, Google maps indicated that our hotel was just 22 km away. Note that the car route was 36 km as Google preferred the outer ring road. There is no cycling option on the Indian version of Google maps, so the next best solution is to look at the walking option. We decided to cycle down directly to the hotel and not stop for lunch. A good strategy and should be followed in future rides. Get all the cycling done and spend the evening exploring the local topology.
Got a call from Bhushan at 12:30 hours. Prakash Kulkarni, a first time rider who is only 66, had a fall from his bike. Narendra and Rajiv put him into a cab and took him to hospital. We reached the hotel at 13:30 hours. After a quick shower and shared thali lunch with Anil, I left for the hospital on Rajiv’s bike, which had come along with the truck.
Prakash had a small crack on his femur and a surgery would be required to get the alignment back. Prakash took a call to get the surgery done at Joshi hospital in Pune, where he had been treated earlier for another fracture. Narendra talk to the hospital folks at KIMS, Kondapur and arranged for an ambulance with a paramedic for the drive to Pune. The ambulance came first to the hotel, about 1.5 km from the hospital, around 17:30 hours to collect Prakash’s luggage, and reached Joshi hospital the next day.
Prakash’s Chariot
Narendra had invited us to join a special session of Dermacon, the annual get together of Indian dermatologists. The venue was Novotel at Hitex City. It was a nice 3 km walk from our hotel. The Dermacon folks had invited Gampa Nageshwar Rao, a motivational speaker, to address the audience. Found a few nuggets in his 20 min talk:
- We give a lot of importance to small things. Don’t hold on to small things for too long. Even holding up a Biseri cap for 3 hours can cause a lot of pain to happen. Forgive and forget is real love.
- Smile not just for photographs. Only exceptions are when you are in the company of people who are in the midst of serious problems.
- Goodwill is lifetime possession..After your life leave a legacy, jaana par kuch deke jaana
The high point of the dinner was bhindi without gravy. I messed things up by hogging on a non vegan chocolate mousse. Met with the IADVL past president, who happens to be from Nashik. Also has an interesting chat with the president elect, who is from Aligarh, and has his own practice there. I was very delighted to hear from the president-elect that he also does not use soap during bathing. Time now for spreading this message to all the dermatology patients!!
Jugal ji joined us for a walk back to our hotel. We had an interesting chat on handling conflicts. My contention was that long term relationships cannot be formed with people whose behaviour transcries one score values. Jugal Ji, on the other hand, felt that one needs to appreciate diversity in thought and behaviour. He narrated an anecdote of his guru, Goenka ji, of Vipassana fame. One day a famous sadhu came to the Igatpuri ashram and lambasted Goenka ji about how Vipassana is a fraudulent form of meditation. Goenka ji listened to his arguments, smiled and said nothing. When Jugal Ji asked him why he did not react, Goenka ji’s answer was – if you do not accept a gift from someone, the gift remains with that person.
