ठाणे पासपोर्ट कार्यालयाबद्दल काही ...

गेल्या आठवडयात माझा पासपोर्ट संपत आला होता. आता सरकारी वास्तूत जावं लागणार आणि मनस्ताप अटळ. माझा जीव इथेच खालीवर होऊ लागला.
माहिती गोळा करताना कळलं की आता online अर्ज भरून appointment घ्यावी लागते. मी पण अर्ज भरला. त्यात सूचना होत्या की ठरलेल्या वेळेत न पोहोचल्यास परत नवीन appointment घ्यावी लागेल ईती. क्षणभर वाटलं की व्वाह! पण पुढे सगळा भ्रमनिरास झाला. तुमचा देखील होऊ नये म्हणून हा प्रपंच...

• Appointment वगैरे घाला चूलीत. तुम्ही कधीही फॉर्म भरून जाउ शकता. तुम्हाला दिलेल्या appointment चं कोणालाही काहीही सोयरसुतक नाही तिकडे
• प्रत्येक पुराव्याच्या दोन नकला काढा. मूळ प्रती सोबत ठेवा. आणि प्रत्येक नकलेवर तुमची सही करा. पासपोर्टवर VISA असल्यास त्या पानांची पण नक्कल जोडा. Online checklist मध्ये हे सगळं वाचल्याचं मला आठवत नाही.
• गेल्यावर तुम्हाला token घेण्याच्या रांगेत उभं रहावं लागेल. आदल्या दिवशी सुट्टी असल्यास रांग मोठी असेल.
• सरकारी कामासाठी लागलेली रांग. दलालांसाठी वेगळी दुपारची वेळ आहे. तरी रांगेत शिरणार्‍यांसाटी, त्यावरील भांडणांसाठी तयार रहा. एक आजीबाई अगदी अजिजीने सांगू लागली की ती रांगेत होती पण धक्का लागून दुसर्‍या रांगेत गेली. मग ती token घेउन सरळ "त्या" दुसर्‍या रांगेत गेली व हेच बोलू लागली!! इतर काही बायका जवळील मुलांना घेऊन सिग्नल वरील भिकार्‍यांप्रमाणे हावभाव करुन रांगेत घुसू देण्यासाठी विनवण्या करत होत्या. (सिग्नल वरील भिकार्‍यांप्रमाणेच त्या यशस्वी पण होत होत्या :)
• token देणारा तुमचा अर्ज पाहील. महत्वाच्या प्रश्नांची उत्तरे आहेत की नाही एवढं चाळेल आणि तुम्हाला एक शिक्का आणि त्यावर क्रमांक लिहून देईल. हेच ते token.
• आता तुम्हाला दुसरी रांग लावावी लागेल. ही रांग आहे "फाइल बनानेकी". इथे तुमच्या अर्जाला एका कागदी कव्हरमध्ये लावले जाईल आणि धाग्याची गाठ मारली जाईल. (सरकारी दस्तऎवज बांधून ठेवण्यासाठी काही अभिनव पद्धती वापरल्या जातात. त्यापैकी ही एक)
• आत्ता तुम्ही आतल्या खिडकीवर जायला मोकळे. Token ची वाट पहा आणि सांगितलेल्या खिडकीवर जा. तुमचा अर्ज परिपूर्ण असल्यास तुम्हाला पैसे भरण्याची सूचना करण्यात येईल. नसल्यास तुम्हाला आल्यापावली परत पाठवण्यात येईल.
• VISA असल्यास पासपोर्टवर तो रद्द केल्याचा शिक्का मारुन तुम्हाला परत करण्यात येईल. हे न विसरता करा. तसेच तुमच्या अर्जावर VISA असल्याचा एक शिक्का मारण्यात येईल.
•  तुमच्या online अर्जाचा खरा उपयोग इथे होतो. ती माहीती इथला कारकून retrieve करेल आणि काही दुरुस्ती असल्यास करेल. नोंदी झाल्याकी पैसे घेउन पावती देण्यात येईल.

पावती हातात पडली की मोहीम फत्ते समजा (आजपुरतीतरी)!

GPS Test Ride

It was not so early morning on Saturday, but the craving to ride out got me out of bed.

For sometime, I wanted to ride on NH-3 (Thane-Nashik). Had good review of that stretch and Kasara ghat was calling. Add to that, a new GPS enabled phone and Co-Pilot external GPS. Combine that with a free weekend morning and there you go!

Got up, dressed up and came down. It was time to setup the stuff for first time. The GPS mount is still in transit so I had to find a way to get the stuff mounted. Results? Desi Jugaad!!


The wrist strap tied to GPS unit was put into tank lid and lid was closed. Scotch tape was used to keep it fixed. Equipment was setup, I set destination, Igatpuri on Nokia's Maps Navigation and started.

First roadlock? bluetooth headset was not charged and it quickly died. No more turn by turn navigation :(

The road was nice, smooth tar throughout the ride. Perhaps the contractor was honest! Construction is going on so there are alternate one side patches. Road cleared up as I approached Kasara and I was really wishing to twist throttle and hit 100 kmph mark. Second service is due soon so the urge was controlled with lots of efforts.

New section in
Kasara ghat is now operation and ghat was pleasure to ride. But it ended quickly and I found myself at Igatpuri. There was a moment during the ride when I was feeling like returning cause the ghat was not coming, the straight road at low speed was getting little boring. The ghat was little abrupt :(

It was 8am and 100km on tripmeter. There was no good dhaba in sight so I decided to return. New ghat section on return journey was good too and it ended again quickly.


Finally I stopped after Kasara ghat and had a misal-paav. The owner must own oil drills in Gulf. It was evident in the misal.

Return ride was quick and soon I was home. I hit the 100kmph mark for few secs, first time on Raptor! But otherwise stayed between 80-90.

For return journey I used Nokia's Sportstracker. Maps application used earlier does not give you connectivity to Google earth or trip log. Sportstracker does but it does not give you turn by turn navigation. Sportstracker also gives you an account on its own portal where you can see your ride on map and statistics. I guess you can track your ride online but I am yet to try it out.

Riding is fun, and riding with GPS is added fun!

how to copy contacts from Nokia N70 to 5800 for free

Well, this is easy if both the phones are working fine. You can use built-in Phone Switch utility to sync contacts between the two. But when things are not fine, you need the alternative ways :)

I tried taking a backup of phone memory into memory card. This creates a backup.arc file on memory card. There is one utility - Noki - that can extract data from it. and its not free!

Other way is to use Nokia PC suite to create a backup of old phone and get a NBU file. You can use another tool - NBUExplorer to extract data from it. But this needed data cable or properly working bluetooth. My old phone had erratic bluetooth hardware so even the Nokia Phone switch failed halfway.

Now use following simple method which saved me. This has worked between Nokia N70 and 5800 but your mileage may vary!

- On old phone, go to Contacts.
- From the Options menu, "Mark all" contacts so that they are selected and a tick is shown against each
- Again from Options menu, select "Copy ->  to memory card"
- Take out the memory card and connect it to PC using a card reader. In the "Other" folder, there will be a subfolder with all contacts nicely saved as .vcf files
- Copy these .vcf files into new phone's memory card in same location (\other\contacts)
- Put new phone's memory card into new phone.
- Go into contacts and from the options menu, select "Copy Business Card -> From Phone Memory". On some phone, this option might be "Copy -> From Phone Memory"

Thats it! All your contacts will be imported into new phone in a jiffy!!!

MH-04-CR-3649

My first steed left me today!

Almost exactly 4 years ago, I had bought this Pulsar 180cc Fear The Black edition by paying INR65000 upfront. It was an exciting time, it was completely unexpected phase of life.

I used to ride my brother's HH Passion. It used to pant when needle hit 90kmph. Once I rode my cousin's P150 on Cadbury flyover and I was excited to see a P150 needle touching 100 mark effortlesslessly. If I will buy anything, it would be Pulsar, this was the verdict. The dream had come true finally in March 2006 when I booked my Pulsar 180.

Last 4 years have seen many changes in life, new places, new people, opportunities and what not. It had hardly done 2 months with me and we met with first accident - two guys on speeding yamaha hit directly on the front wheel. They left me with misaligned fork and leaking disk brake. But managed to get it sorted out with insurance, before I headed to Pune for HSBC job. Nothing major after that.

Mods? I tried many. Trying to get a HID was last but half attempt. But had successfully upgraded its coil to avenger's, added a temperature guage (taken from Layland truck), enflied ammeter and the unique one was the turn indicators. I had got Zen's side indicators and drilled them into fairing. With this I never had to worry about stock indicators getting broken. Perhaps I am the only one to do it so far :)

I did its run-in quiet religiously for first 1000kms. First full throttle was done on Diva-Airoli bridge and EE highway. The first growl was maddening! But the Dandeli ride did magic to it. That hard rip really opened the engine well and touching 120kmph became routine. I am really glad to do that ride.

I surprisingly didnt ride much in first two years. Most rides were occassional Mumbai-Pune trips on long weekends. Commuting in pune was also less - hardly 10kms a day! But it was fun always.
After coming back to Mumbai, I munched miles like a hog. Daily commute to work added 70kms. In last two years at work in Mumbai, I have never ever went without it, except first two days!

All major rides came in last two years - Dandeli, Dudhani, Udwada, Mahabaleshwar, Hedvi, almost every ride was memorable and satisfying. Longest trip was Dandeli trip. Thane to Dandeli was kindda 650kms in 15 hours and return journey in 11 hours!

Here is a bit about stickering on it. I had got VT-KIRAN done on its swing arm. It was its name and it is similar to callsigns used by Indian aeroplanes. On the read mudguard, I had a big "K". Just below it was "-.-" which is equivalent to K in morse. And finally there was a circle with LV inside it. It is LV board used in trains, signalling last vehicle in the rake formation :)
It was thrill on curves, Kashedi is my favourite, though it has seen Bhor ghat more than all others. Ride in Pratapgad ghat was great. It felt heaven to scrape pegs and shoes on it. It was more fun on curves but never disappointed on drags either (before the newer engines came in).

No breakdown on any trip except puncture. I really loved that one thing about it, it never stranded me on a desserted road and feel helpless. Punctures always happened within 100mts of a puncture shop and petrol tank always emptied near petrol bunk. I rode it on loose coil for 3 days, including one rainy night at khopoli to collect BN tshirt. It did all Kashedi and Parshuram curves on full bald rear. It ran without front axle spacer from Pune to mahabaleshwar and back, without any injury. But never betrayed me en route. That was amazing.

Talking about punctures, my first one came almost after 1.5 years! and recently it was like one every few weeks. This made me change its rear one to wider tubeless, and voilla! it started with front one :) There were many replacements including crank, clutch plates and shockers but I made it a point to keep it stock and keep it running like it should be. I never got mileage above 35kmpl. More cause I rode above 90 all the time, absoulutely no complaints. Least was I think 20kmpl when I ripped it hard on Kolhapur-Belgaum stretch.

Anyway, it was always a fun to cut through traffic, drag at signals and watch others becoming small spots in the mirror. That adrenaline rush was a kick everytime. 51000kms on odo would be cherished always. One of the best miles of life I can say.

Love you dear. Hope you live happily ever after. Will miss you!

पुणेरी आय पी एल पाट्या!

सामने रात्री असतात म्हणून की काय, आय पी एल मध्ये पुण्याचा संघ येतोय (एकदिवसीय आणि कसोटी सामन्यात पुणेकर पुढे नाहीत याचं कारण पुणेकरांची दुपारी १-४ ची झोप हे माझं वैयक्तीक मत आहे!).

आता ऎतिहासिक पुणेरी बाण्याचा समावेश क्रिकेटमध्ये कसा होणार याकडे लक्ष लागून राहील. पुणेकरांचे पाट्याप्रेम जगप्रसिद्ध आहेच. पाट्या क्रिकेटला काही नवीन नाहीत. तर आता हा खेळ पुण्यात आल्यावर मैदानात कोणत्या नवीन पाट्या लागतील?

- खेळ चालू असल्याशिवाय बसू नये
- उगाच दुस~या टीम ला प्रोत्साहन देऊ नये
- हे क्रिकेटचे मैदान आहे, टिव्ही नाही. चीअर लिडर्स कडे डोळे फाडून बघू नये
- (खेळाडूंनी) पंचांबरोबर हुज्जत घालू नये.
- स्कोअर काय झाला याची चौकशी इकडे तिकडे करु नये. मोठ्या स्कोअरबोर्डचा वापर करावा
- तिकीट घेऊन सामना बघावा. घेण्याचे पैसे नसल्यास घरी बसून टिव्ही पहावा. उगाच झाडावर गर्दी करु नये.
- पाण्याच्या बाटल्या मैदानावर फ़ेकू नये, खेळाडूंना आम्ही पैसे देउन पेप्सी पुरवतो.
- पाउस पडल्यास पैसे परत मिळणार नाहीत.

टिप: नियमांचे उल्लंघन करु नये. तुमच्यावर लक्ष आहे याची नोंद घ्यावी. सापडल्यास किमान शब्दात कमाल अपमान होईल वा मार खाण्याची पाळी येईल.

- हुकुमावरून

(तुमच्या जवळील मैदानात अजून पाट्या सापडल्यास कळवणे, इथे नोंद करण्यात येईल!) :)

Mayawati - true representative of Indian Democracy

Why should we object maya's maya?

She represents number of people who voted her. It would be a joke to assume they did not know her.If there are more number of people against her, they have their right of voting which they did not use properly. If they did not have single good choice, its their failure to create one. Apart from them, she also represents the money thirsty politicians and their attitude of "sab chalata hai as long as you have money!"

She truly represents Indian democracy!

Choice by Elimination v/s Choice by Selection!

As it happens with every generation, every year, I am tired of waiting for a big machine to come. Something that would look just the perfect buy, value and power for money.

Choice by Selection
My current steed is Bajaj Pulsar 180 DTS-i, Fear the Black edition. Pulsar series had caught my eyes instantly when its full page ad appeared in print media, followed by tv commercials. It had everything to challenge the market of that time - masculine design, power, speed, style! It seemed like "the one" that can match with my riding needs and blend with my inner character!
This brand has been complimented by excellent marketing, will never forget the aggression pitched by its commercial where they use their own model to pave way for new one. A competition with self and no word about competitors, just a subtle hint and pure arrogance of stunts (never seen before on Indian horizon, correct me if wrong!)


However, I had to wait for a few years before I could set my hands on a real one. In the meantime, it evolved well.
Now I was working, single and had money. Next pulsar upgrade came out, unfortunately with the stupidest pulsar tv commercial. But it rung the riding bell inside and my Pulsar arrived in March 2006!
There was no choice to be made, I knew I wanted it and it was one of the best around.
Its soon to complete four years and the four years had been worthy. Every drag won at the traffic signal, every uneventful ride was worth every penny spent.

Choice by Elimination
When the odo turned over 40,000 I had started thinking of buying something better by the time it reaches 50,000. As usual there were lots of rumours floating around about "the killer bike to be launched by XYZ manufacturer". After 4 years, I managed to munch on 50,000KMs alone, max out its RPM and speedometer. But "the one" did not arrive yet.
Indian biking scene has changed, but not phenomenally. Manufacturer's are still playing under 150cc, even small upgrades (and downgrades) of 10-20cc qualifies for a new model! Government keeps no room for competition with 100% import duty. Choices are many if you want to be a frog in the well. I really feel sad for the Indian bikers. Bullet and Karizma are still the cruzer cult-gods and Indians can wage war if anyone says anything against it. Here are my picks at each

• Karizma - established tourer but I was never fascinated by it. Lack of real upgrades and the way it provided cosmetic upgrade with extravaganza never tuned into me. It may be the best tourer, but its not for me.
• Bullet - Bullet thump is nice but considering my daily commute of 60-70km, it fails to attract me. Its not my character anyway.
• R15 - Its not suited for a 6 footer. Period.
• Avenger 200 - Had tried it during my Goa trip, It was good but still makes you feel that you need something more, maybe on the power front or maybe cause its not a street bike.

I had set my eyes on Ninjette (250R), it turned out to be expensive. R1 or MT-01 was way out of budget. And even if I could buy one, the fact that we are charged 100% duty, turns me off completely. With my current parking areas, such buy would turn out to be a blood pressure pill anyway!

I went on eliminating each available option one by one and only one remained....

Pulsar 220? correct!!!

After lots of thinking, budgeting, dreaming and consideration, realized that at the moment, its just the P220 that can keep me happy. So went out and booked one finally!!!