Winter ride 2016- cycling diaries

Driving away the Monday blues

Mondays are full of madness! Mondays for most people brings out the colour blue (Monday Blues). But like so many things, is it just a figment of our imagination? So if we change our attitute, is it possible to change Manic Monday into Magic Monday? What if we feed it into our system that Monday will be a grand day? It will be a day when our energy levels will be the higest because we will be refreshed after a break and that we will start a new week with zest and high spirits! What if we tell ourselves at the start of the week that this week we will be unstoppable, be a powerhouse and race ahead,  could it change things? I believe it could :)

And believing is the first step towards changing things for good !! :)

This is my new  post in the Magical Monday series of inspirational stories aimed at motivating us to bring out our best on the first day of the week! 

Today the story is of a brave officer of the Indian army, Colonel M N Rai, who died fighting militants in  Jammu and Kashmir, a militancy-hit region of India 

Rai, a commanding officer of 42 Rashtriya Rifles,  was killed during an encounter in Tral in Pulawama district last month while fighting militants. He was just 39.

 Colonel M N Rai

Rai along with being a brave soldier was a good leader and a motivator. He had taken a number of initiatives for the positive engagement of youth  (like organising cricket and football tournaments) in Tral, the distubed area where he was posted. He organized these matches to keep the youth positively and proactively engaged ensuring that the youth do not stray into the ranks of militancy.

Under his leadership, the narrative in Tral was changing. He earned the admiration of all the administration for his meticulous planning

Unfortunately Rai died a day after he was conferred a bravery award, the Yudh Seva medal, for outstanding contribution in planning and conduct of operations including a gun battle with militants in south Kashmir last year.

Even though he was at the rank of a commanding officer, very senior rank, he chose to fight from the front with their men at all times.

His status on a social media site stated his mindset clearly: "Play your role in life with such passion, that even after the curtains come down, the applause doesn't stop."

Wipe away those Monday Blues with something inspirational

Mondays are full of madness! Mondays for most people brings out the colour blue (Monday Blues). But like so many things, is it just a figment of our imagination? So if we change our attitute, is it possible to change Manic Monday into Magic Monday? What if we feed it into our system that Monday will be a grand day? It will be a day when our energy levels will be the higest because we will be refreshed after a break and that we will start a new week with zest and high spirits! What if we tell ourselves at the start of the week that this week we will be unstoppable, be a powerhouse and race ahead,  could it change things? I believe it could :)

And believing is the first step towards changing things for good !! :)

This is a new post in the Magical Monday series of inspirational stories aimed at motivating us to bring out our best on the first day of the week! The story today is of a lady with a heart of gold, a pure spirit who by many was considered nothing less then a reincarnation of God in human form. 

Mother Teresa (1910-1997) was a Roman Catholic nun who was born in Macedonia but worked most of her life for the underprivileged and needy in India.

Right in her early years she was fascinated by stories of the lives of missionaries and by age 12 had become convinced that she should commit herself to a religious life. She left her family at the age of 18 to join the Sisters of Loreto and never saw her family again.

She moved to India in 1929 and spent nearly 20 years teaching in a school in Calcutta, India. She was deeply moved by the poverty in the country and began her missionary work with the poor in 1948 where she worked for the destitute and starving. She also received basic medical training in the Holy Family Hospital. Her initial efforts were fraught with difficulties and self doubt as at the time she had no income and had to resort to begging for food and supplies.

Although through her initial years as a missionary she did contemplate giving up these efforts and return to her comfortable life as a teacher in the convent but she kept on working towards her goal putting aside these doubts and founded the Missionaries of Charity. It began as a small congregation with 13 members in 1950 and today it consists of over 4500 sisters active in 133 countries where they run hospices and homes for people with HIV/AIDS, leprosy and tuberculosis; soup kitchens; dispensaries and mobile clinics; children's and family counselling programmes; orphanages; and schools. 

In 1952, Mother Teresa opened the first Home for the Dying in space made available by the city of Calcutta , a hindu temple, where she gave medical attention to people who were brought in and gave them a right to die with dignity. 

By 1996, Mother Teresa was operating 517 missions in more than 100 countries. Over the years, Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity grew from twelve to thousands serving the "poorest of the poor" in 450 centres around the world.

Mother Teresa was the recipient of numerous honours including the 1979 Noble Peace Prize. 

This lady with the purest of purest soul was an angel to many and served people selflessly, tending to them with her love and care.

Kasauli

Kasauli is a beautiful hill station just an hour and half away from Chandigarh. This small little town was once a cantonment established in 1842 during British  colonisation. Remnants of that era can still be seen in this hill station.



Kasauli has a small little market Street which is called the mall road. Tibetan clothes , street good and garam garam jalebis are some of the things to look forward to.

Right on the mall road is the ancient church (Christ church) built by the British.

Another place worth visiting is the Mankey point. It is located  at a hill top and has a great view and a hanuman temple. There is a long flight of stairs that have to be stepped on to get there but all worth the effort.

According to the local myth, when Lord Hanuman was returning from the Himalayas after acquiring the "Sanjivany Booty", one of his feet touched the hill; that's why the top of the hill is in the shape of a foot.



Situated at a height of 1,927 metres (6,322 ft), this hill station has a good highway connecting it with chandigarh and can be accessed by drivers who are not experts in hill driving.

Another hill station located  about 65 kilometers away from Shimla is Kasauli. 

Mamagotos, Sector 29 Gurgaon

After seeing much success on opening their outlet in Khan Market , Mamagotos has come to Gurgaon. This cozy Chinese restaurant offers a range of Oriental food and beverages. It is located in the spare next to the main square therefore parking is never a problem.

I especially liked the comfortable black cushy sofas which are the main seating options.

A large Budha mural adorns one of the walls while right next to the mural, a rack full of similar golden cat statues gives thd place it's own unique touch. The ambience gives a very oriental feel, music is soft and food is good.

Great place for a hot scrumptious dinner. Try their grilled fish, chestnut spring roles, schezwan chicken, soups! All good.

ADDAMS HOUSE, Gurgaon

This quirky new restraunt which will be opening shortly in Gurgaon is something to look forward to. The decor inside is quite different from the usual restaurant and bars in Gurgaon. It is a theme based restraunt focused on  fictional Aadams family ( The  Addamses are a close knit extended family  with decidedly macabre interests and supernatural abilities from the American soap and comic book hit series) and presenting a spooky ambiance. 

Located in sector 29, gurgaon , I was happy to see the small details that they had looked into to get the theme correct. They had various statues of these characters from the aadams house series, dim lighting , a lot of red lighting along the staircase, cobweb designed back rest for chairs, chandeliers etc. Also various unique cocktails and mock tails to go with the theme of the restraunt. The food was really good and so was the music.

They definitely got the spook on!

A Run for Kids!

This Sunday was just very special. It all began with a idea which was circulated by one of our riders during a casual bike ride. The idea was that we encourage kids staying at nearby villages to run by organising a race for them. Little by little we put together the logistics and requirements for the race and finally today was the D day.

These kids belonged to economically weaker backgrounds and took to preparing for the race like it was an olympic to be run and prepared hard for it.

It was joy to see them come for the race in good numbers and run so enthusiastically!

We had organized 2 runs! One for 12 years and below age group and one for 13 years and above age group. Distance to be covered was 2 kilometers for the younger ones and 3 kilometers for the elder ones.

Here are some of the clicks.

The whole bunch of adorable kids who ran the race!

Getting ready to race..taking positions

And they run enthusiastically

Kids gathering for some refreshments

And a session on introductions and their likes and dislikes

Winners of the Race for older kids

Award ceremony

Award ceremony..The smile on this kids face on getting the football was just adorable!

Rehydration themselves with some fruit juice and biscuits



Thoughts unplugged

Heaven is not a place,  it's a state of mind!
A state of mind where you are content and happy.
It can be achieved hereon earth.

A beautiful place , where life is comfortable and all fun and games is a myth...heaven is a myth. Cause humans tend to get bored of monotony!heaven is a state of mind!

The Rustic Ride

The alarms were set for 6 am yesterday night in order to start early for the Sunday ride. It had been raining cats and dogs the whole night and I was not sure the if the weather would be conducive for riding the next morning but surprisingly the rain Gods relented and it was all clear in the morning.

The target was another 50 kilometer ride to be completed in 2 hours. We started on time and maintained a speed of about 25 kilometers /hr.

On completing half of the distance, just before we were ready to make a pit stop for breakfast and tea, we met with a massive road block. Not a vehicular roadblock but a sheep herd road block! The sheep had been herded all the way from Jodhpur,  Rajasthan to Gurgaon. Here are some of the clicks.

The road block by herd of sheep.

We reached the camp site where the shepherds were camping with these herds. On interacting with them we realised that they had herded the sheep over 500 kms by road from their desert land to the fertile lands of haryana so that the sheep could feed on the freshly cut mustard plants thrown off by farmers here.



With a baby goat..as I held it close to me I admired it's soft shiny coat. The shepherd was ready to sell it to me for a 1000 bucks. I didn't have the heart to seperate it from its mother St such a tender age!

 The shepherd with his visibly loud coloured turban! Admire his traditional attire of pristine white dhoti (pants) and Kurta (shirt) and the bright red turban.

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With the whole shepherd family. This was really the high point of the ride today! Meeting the shepherd family, listening to their sob stories on life struggles and poor money, offering them money for a few clicks, admiring their attire and petting their sheep! Fun!!

The Rain ride!

The Thunder God was exceptionally generous on Gurgaon today! It's been raining cats and dogs since last night. My biking buddies were not sure whether we will be doing a ride in the morning today cause of the treacherous weather but the Rain God was smarter. It was all clear when we started out at 6.15 in the morning but a few kilometers into the ride , when it was too late for us to turn back,  it started to rain heavily.

Clear skies when we started out

On the way

The rain Gods sending their army in

Pit stop for chai at a local pawn shop. The locals warming themselves up by lighting a fire as the rain comes in and it gets a bit chilli.

Drenched in the rain

Scary Sky

Rode for 25 kilometers during which half of the time it rained. But that didn't deter us. We continued forward as the rain pelted down on us. Horrible as it may sound but the truth was that it was an amazing experience. I had mud all over me by the time we got to our mid way destinition but riding in the rain was pure pleasure.

Stopped at a resort for some hot tea and breakfast.

By the time we reached midway and stopped for breakfast , the sun was up and smiling at us again. We sat out in the gardens , soaked in the sun and leg those drenched clothes dry up. 

The ride back was eventless and smooth . A new buddy had joined us and we had to stop a couple of times to make sure her could catch up. But kudos to him, he did not give up.