Durga Puja 2022 - Maha Saptami outing

Maha Saptami, Sunday 2022-10-02. 

I left my place in the vicinity of Salt Lake Stadium at 3.15 pm with daughter and wife for Puja hopping in my VW Vento. I was back home at 9.15 pm after visiting a handful of the popular Durga Puja pandals in South Kolkata. 

Visited Bhowanipore (starting with Paddapukur and onwards to Chakraberia, Northern Park, Abasar, Golmaath, etc). Then drove to Southern Avenue, easily parked my Vento on a lane besides Nav Nalanda School. Walked down to the pandals of Mudiali, Lake, Shiv Mandir, etc. Finally, drove back to Salt Lake Sector 3. Visited the HA, HB, GD Block association puja mandaps. Then, stuffed ourselves with goodies from Mio Amore at IA256. 

Bought chicken biriyani for dinner at home from my regular joint in Beliaghata. 

Roads were unbelievably empty. Parking the car was far more easy than on normal non-festive days. 

Total distance covered was exactly 30 kms. 

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* Durga Puja 2022 

* Indian Roadie Durga Puja 2022

The rats menace drive roadies mad throughout the length and breadth of India 😡 

On 2022-09-29 I had to visit my Indian RoadiePreferred Workshop in Kolkata to rejoin and tape the chewed up wiring of the left indicator lamp on the side of the front mudguard of my VW Vento 😩

Your potential customers are ready to be tapped. 

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Indian Roadie eGranth - August 2022 issue)

Indian Roadie eGranth (August 2022 issue) is here for you. 

- Drive your car with manual transmission forward (from stop position) up a hump without rolling back; 

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- What's the best motoring route for Srikakulam to Chitrkoot Waterfalls, Chandigarh to Kasol, Jabalpur to Varanasi, and also the best route to enter/ exit Kolkata; 

- Where in Nagpur is lip smacking chaat available; etc, etc, etc. 

Read all of the above and more in the August 2022 issue of #IndianRoadieEGranth (FREE monthly eBook), a treasure trove of unmissable content. This is the 5th issue after the rollout of the 1st issue in April 2022. 

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* Live To Help _ Happy To Drive

Aparnesh Mitra - vanlife setup

Aparnesh Mitra - vanlife setup

Perils of wrong side driving and guard rails

Perils of unscientifically placed guard rails/ barriers on highways. 

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There's a wrongly parked truck (at the farthest end of our screen) facing oncoming traffic thereby reducing the width of the carriageway. 

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Another truck was also being driven slowly  in the wrong direction facing oncoming traffic. It was about to cross the already wrongly parked truck which had narrowed down the width of the carriageway. The left A-pillar of the white tanker first hit the truck being driven in the wrong direction. whose hazard lights switched on after the hit. 

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After the hit the wrongly driven truck rolled back and its rear hit the rear of another brown truck whose driver was talking to someone on the road. The sudden hard push from behind made it swerve to its right. The man on the road fell on the road and came under the rear wheels of the truck whose driver he was talking to. Simultaneously the left of the white tanker brushed the right of the brown truck which had swerved right after the rear collision. 

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Worse still, there was a guard rail/ barrier in the path of the white tanker at the very spot where it brushed the last truck. 

The driver of the white tanker crashed into two vehicles for no fault of his. He escaped the scene as a natural instinct. 

Irrespective of whether one is riding/driving a Bajaj Platina or Alto or Nexon or Audi Q7 or truck or bus, the extent of risk is huge and unpredictable for all. 

Remain #HighOnCognition/ #ExpectTheUnexpected whenever you are there on the road. 

Nitin Gadkari ji, please put a stop to this nonsense of wrong side driving and haphazardly erected barriers which has snatched away too many lives and/or maimed even more innocent lives. 

Note: Location and date is unknown. 

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* Mishap And Calamity

Extremely difficult for trucks to negotiate the road barriers

The local state police across India who put up these guard rails/ barriers have no compassion towards long distance truck drivers. If only the policemen and their officers are made to sit in the driver's seat and asked to negotiate one set of these barriers they will hopefully realize how big a bully they are! 

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* Mishap And Calamity waiting to happen

Delhi - Srinagar - Ladakh - Manali - Delhi itinerary

Ladakh itinerary by a roadie for September 2022: 

10 Sep Delhi to Jammu

11 Sep Jammu to Srinagar

12 Sep Srinagar to Kargil

13 Sep Kargil to Leh

14 Sep Leh Exploration

15 Sep Leh to Nubra via Khardungla Pass 

16 Sep Nubra to Turtuk, Tyakshi and thang n back to Nubra for stay

17 Sep Nubra to Pangong via Shyok Valley

18 Sep Pangong to Hanle

19 Sep Hanle to Umlinga la (First Highest Motorable road in world) and back to Hanle for stay

20 Sep Hanle to Tsomoriri Lake

21 Sep Tsomoriri Lake 

22 Sep Tsomoriri to Jispa

23 Sep Jispa to Manali

24 Sep Manali to Delhi

Memoirs of First Day - Gautam Roy - RE350

Kolkata - Darjeeling - Kolkata road trip by Debashis Mukherjee in September 2020

Drove 430 km from Bhagalpur to New Town, Kolkata today (18 September 2020), concluding a week's self-drive holiday including 3 enjoyable days in Darjeeling. Total distance from Ghoom to New Town via Rishi Road, Siliguri, Kishanganj, Dalkhola, Purnea, Bhagalpur, Dumka, Nala and Asansol was 760 km. This was about 150 km more than the total distance of 610 km during outward journey via NH-34, Botolbari, Dhantola, Siliguri and Rohini Road. However, the total time taken during return journey (17 hours) was 2 hours less than outward journey (19 hours).

Road condition : NH-34 : 40% bad; Botolbari – Dhantola (64 km) : 40% bad, last about 20 km near Dhantola newly resurfaced and good; Dhantola – Siliguri : 10% bad.

Dhantola to Bhagalpur via Kishanganj, Dalkhola, Purnea : 95% good; Bhagalpur – Dumka : 25% bad, most bad stretches being closer to Bhagalpur; A bridge has reportedly collapsed between Hansdiha and Dumka and I had to take a 20 km detour through narrow village roads, some stretches pretty bad. This detour is being correctly shown by Google Maps. Dumka to Asansol : 90% good; the Dumka-Masalia-Kundhit-Nala stretch inside Jharkhand is superb. After entering West Bengal road becomes bad and one has to suffer for about 20 km before reaching Asansol. NH-2 condition good, lot of patch repairs undertaken.

Conclusions : (1) Bhagalpur route to Siliguri from Kolkata preferable as on date, if one does not mind the extra distance of about 135 km. (2) For the Siliguri-Darjeeling stretch Rishi Road (via Mirik) is far more scenic as compared to Rohini Road (via Kurseong) though it is about 23 km longer. Rohini Road is also much steeper and Kurseong and Sonada are prone to traffic jams. (3) Driving in the Darjeeling hills is always an exhilarating experience, regardless of the pain in getting to Siliguri. 

Courtesy: Debashis Mukherjee 

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* Kolkata to Siliguri 

* Kolkata to Darjeeling 

* Siliguri to Kolkata 

* Darjeeling to Kolkata 

Memoirs of First Day - Siddhartha Banerjee - Mahindra XUV300

On 11th August’2022 I took delivery of my new Mahindra XUV300.

Model: W8 (Opt) 

Colour: Aquamarine

It was a dream upgrade for me- after driving a Hatchback for almost 12+ years, I immediately felt the difference getting into the Compact SUV. Top notch safety feature and ample of space to comfort my family. Little overwhelmed at the beginning, to press the ignition button, it was a noiseless start to the n-number of trips this car will see. The perfect monsoon gave me the chance to relish the sun-roof feature and bring the beauty home. Unfortunately couldn’t get the puja done on the same day due to restricted temple timings but immediately on the next day early morning (7am) the first drive was to Dakshineswar temple with my wife and father for the gari pujo.

Would thank our dealer Supreme Electrotech Pvt Ltd (on NH 16 - South Charmail just beside Oasis Hotel) and Sourav Ghosh (sales representative) for being accommodative in getting the delivery at the promised timelines, seamless closing formalities and a sweet gesture (presenting a car idol and chocolates) during handover. 

Excited to start the journey called Road! 

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* Memories of First Day