Archive for February, 2014

Female Bikers in India.

Female Bikers in India.

The image of a girl on a bike is that of her riding pillion. Biking is a male preserve where boys use their bikes to assert their masculinity. They have their peculiar mannerisms, their boy talk and adventures that one man can share only with another man.

But entering this cozy boy’s club are few females who are not content on sitting behind the boys to make them look pretty. They have their own bikes just as big and heavy. They go on long cross- country tours just like the boys and make all the heads turn at the traffic signal in the cities.


The Lions of Gir, Gujarat.

The Lions of Gir, Gujarat.

If it was not for the lions’ overall good it would be touching to see the locals stand up for their felines.
But the pride for Gir’s lions extends well beyond Gujarat’s borders. The Asiatic lions (Panthera leo persica) are the pride not only of India but Asia. These lions once roamed all across the Indian sub-continent and the Mediterranean in the West. They were then known as the Persian Lions. It was them and not their African cousins that fought the gory gladiatorial fights in decadent Rome.


Ngorongoro Crater: Africa’s Natural Zoo.

Ngorongoro Crater: Africa's Natural Zoo.

One of the lessons from my African safari was – choose your safari jeep well. If the vehicle breaks down, it can put paid to all your plans and joy can quickly turn to irritation. I was now sharing the rundown Landcruiser with an aggressive Brazilian man, a shouting Italian girl , a cursing American guy and one cranky girlfriend.

And we almost never made it to Ngorongoro. They tried to push -start the jeep on the sloping crater road but to no avail. They shoved us down into the crater alright but the jeep was dead.


Bikes, Brawns, Babes: Testosterones Tales from India Bike Week, Goa.

Bikes, Brawns, Babes: Testosterones Tales from India Bike Week, Goa.

They called the biking rendezvous; the Woodstock of Biking and touted it as the biggest and meanest of its kind in India. The first one, which took place in 2013, attracted biking aficionados of all hues, over 6000 of them. This year it was more flamboyant drawing all comers to the sweltering cauldron at Vagator, despite the hefty entry fee.
True, the India Bike Week at Goa , only a year old, is Woodstockian in scope. But it’s more a monument to testosterone.