Pune's journey back to being - City of Bicycles

Everything has its own cost, so did Pune paid, for its growth. From pensioners paradise to paradise lost; from city of bicycle to city of motorcycle, Pune kept changing its identity with industrial & IT development.

Back in the late nineties, a health & environment friendly group of visionary Puneties formed a group “Pune Cycle Prathisthan” to promote cycling and regain its lost identity. Started with 15 - 20 people; this group has now over 3000 members. On 5^th June 2010, Pune’s Pedal Power had organised a cycle ride to celebrate world environment day and over 1200 people turned up for it. It’s a strong evident of growing passion among Puneites for cycling. Especially in the last few months (After opening of Life Cycle, India’s largest cycle mall) cycling has become a movement in Pune.

This inside story is an attempt to salute the passionate cyclists, who are pursuing rides which are in real sense healthy, adventurous as well as environment friendly. Our pre-investigation finds that Mr. Nachiket Joshi (of Life cycle and Zen of cycling, a cyclists group) is one of the main contributors who are helping achieve Pune its lost identity of ‘City of Bicycles’; and for this reason we contacted him for more inside scoop on the same. This inside story is based on the conversation of D2I-Mag team with him.

Young, energetic and dynamic entrepreneur Nachiket is a passionate cyclist. This passion is in his blood, his father Mr. Ulhas joshi (he is founder of Life cycle) is a big time cyclist and has organised & participated in numerous cycling ride in India and abroad and go to Himalaya on cycle ride almost every year. Nachiket’s interest in cycling goes back to his childhood, but like many other youngsters his first love too was motor-bike. In 2007, he was in a group of four riders who went to Goa from Pune on Bike (for biking adventure) and unfortunately they met with an accident. With no major physical damage, it was a close shave for him. His father Ulhas said – “If you really want to enjoy riding adventure, try a ride with us”. Ulhas along with Dr. Dilip Dhawan had formed “Cycle Premi Group” in 2006 which Nachiket join. Started with 2 members, the group has now grown to over 1400 members and is known as Zen of cycling (to know more about it, visit www.zenofcycling.com). In 2010 only over 700 people joined it.

Turning Point

In Early 2008, cycle Premi group had organised a Konkan cycle ride, and around 60 people participated, most of them were first timers and coming from the IT sector. This event got huge mouth to mouth publicity over the mail, social networking sites and blogs. Nachiket realised the power of IT; with this media he can effectively promote the message of cycling and its event to the masses. And from then onwards Zen of cycling is organising frequent cycle rides and with effective promotion of events more and more people are joining.

Frequent rides

Zen of cycle organises cycle ride almost every week. On first Sunday of every month a cycle ride from Deccan gymkhana to city area, aims to convey the message to the PMC that cyclist exist and they need a dedicated road for them. A special ride on third Sunday of every month is normally a long distance (40 – 60 KM) ride around Pune. It also organises many similar rides and practice rides for Himalaya or tough expeditions. Breakfast, support vehicle and thing for all the safety measures are provided by members only. If you have never been to any such ride, then one must attend one, it is highly recommended by Doors2India.

Many Groups one destination

Ride 2026, Pedal Power, NIBM Cycle Group, Zen of cycling, etc; when we asked why so many cycle groups. Nachiket explains (with a gentle smile, which he always posses) actually there is only one group “Pune cycle Prathisthan (PCP)” and all these group are part of it. We can say sub group of main organisation to promote and organise cycling ride in a particular region. Like NIBM cycle group is active in Kondarwa, Hadapsar area, Zen of cycling is active in Peth, Swardate, Kothrud, Katraj area, Ride 2026 in Aundh area and so on. There are many more groups of 4-5 people, who enjoy their cycling in their group but all are under PCP, and actively participated in PCP events. It’s like there may be many religions, with their own set of rules, but all are in union with God. Here too there are many cycling group and all are part of the PCP only.

Life cycle

On 26^th January 2010, Life cycle (India’s largest cycle mall) opened its first mall at Tilak road, Pune. With over 6000 sq. foot of area, it sells imported cycle and cycling gears of all major brands. It has cycles of ranges start from INR 6,500 to 5.5 lakhs. From common man, to politicians to Bollywood stars; cycling lover from all sector are its client. Life cycle does numerous things to promote cycling along with many social activities. Keep following inside story segment of Doors2India, we are very soon going to Publish a dedicated inside story of Life Cycle.

Cycling movement after life cycle

Life cycle sells around 150 cycles a month which in turn is actually addition of 150 more cycling enthusiasts. He promotes the upcoming events among them, and most of them turn up for the ride; after all cycling is probably only ride which is healthy, adventurous and environmental friendly too. Since Life Cycle’s inception, it has become the main catalyst for increase in the cycling activity in and around Pune. With frequent events, region wise small group, availability of world class cycle & required gears/equipment, along with workshops and free consultation; the whole cycling movement in Pune is break free now. And once again Pune may soon be known as City of Bicycles.

“This blog was originally published in blog.d2i.in as inside story of Zen of Cycling; republishing here with permission from D2i team”

Ice Cream made of spices !!!

Who doesn’t like to add a bit of spice to one’s life ? The spice loving Indians & videshis are going to love the unqiue concept of spicing up their ice creams too !!

An unconventional & unconvincing idea, calculated risk and wonderful execution are the ingredients that make `Spice Cream’ a reality ! Did any of us think that the famed Indian spices could be blended with ice creams and relished by people ?

Indian food has been traditionally known to have the heady flavor of spices, then why should ice creams be left out ? says co-founder and man behind this idea, Siddharth Shirole.

Our D2I Team tasted these innovative ice creams and were found to be yearning for more !

What an idea, Guruji !

It was in Oct’09, when Siddartha with his family were in Indore to meet their spiritual Guruji. Guruji threw an idea in the form of a question – did anyone of you ever try blending Indian spices with ice cream ? Gentle laugh, was the first reaction by everyone ! For some, it was like a joke, while for others it was a thought-provoking point. But for Siddartha, this was the inception of a concept which was soon going to create its own identity.

The Evolution !

After the Indore trip, the idea given by his Guruji was churning in Siddartha’s mind & heart. He shared this idea and discussed the feasibility with almost all ice cream vendors known to him, but the Idea enthralled none. The initial disappointment did not stop him from exploring further and one fine day he convinced his maternal aunt to experiment. She made normal homemade ice cream with Milkmaid and added cloves to it ! It tasted good & different and thus the first ever `spice cream’ was born !!

This encouraged Siddartha and convinced him to conduct multiple trials to evolve new spice flavors. With a vision to realize its potential, now Siddartha started hunting for a place to put the concept into action. He zeroed on the Sabree restaurant (which is one of most popular Maharashtrian restaurants in Pune & owned by Siddartha’s family) and soon enough, he started to experiment on spice creams along with the Master Chef there.

The next 2 months (Nov-Dec 2009) were spent in serving various spice creams to Sabree customers on complimentary basis and taking their feedback. The idea was to analyse each feedback carefully, work on the suggestions & complaints and serve the improved spice creams again. This went on for the next two months and helped to evolve many flavors.

The Launch

Fully convinced with this idea, Siddhartha’s friend Jay Joshi joined this venture and whole process accelerated further. Finally in January 2010, they set up their manufacturing plant at Gokhle Nagar, Pune. And now the spice cream was all set for the commercial sales from the Sabree and Sharvaree restaurants !

For next 2¹/₂ months, they continued taking feedback and using it to modify the flavors. They added spices with fruits, spices with traditional ice cream flavors and gradually they had 20 flavors well accepted by customers from all age groups.

This gave them the confidence to go main stream and launch the brand. On 16^th March’10, the Zayka Spice Cream opened its first outlet at __________ on F.C. Road and followed this with the second outlet at __________, Kothrud on 16^th May’10.

Truely Indian

The theme of both the outlets is distinctly Indian - the interiors, Lantern shaped lights & hut shaped cash counter, traditional wooden serving bowls & spoon, which all help blend the spice creams with the traditional Indian aura.

The Spice Merchants

The biggest challenge for the Zayka Spice Creams now is to make the idea acceptable & palatable to a larger population of Pune. The Puneites who have tasted these spice creams have found the concept interesting. The very fact that the Pune citizens are quite urbane across the age groups, is what keeps the motivated. They are convinced that the mouth-to-mouth publicity will also help them.

Apart from these 2 outlets, the spice cream is now served at 4 different restaurants in Pune, including Nawab and Daalchini.

Siddhartha says ”the best part is that the spice creams are not just liked by Indians but the foreigners too are relishing the taste and that’s why the demand from Koregoan park area remains the highest”.

Taste Control

Apart from the spice cream catering that has picked up, spice cream is now aiming to set 4 more outlets by the summer of 2011. In Pune, all spice creams are produced at their Ghokhle Nagar plant, but to ensure the flavor & taste remain the same at all outlets outside Pune also, they have completely standardized the manufacturing process and even applied for the intellectual property rights too. The next step is to set up a franchisee outlet in New Delhi.

The Spice Dream

Spice cream hopes to establish a pan India presence and Siddhartha strongly believes that spice cream can create ice cream revolution in Europe and USA. You got it there ! His dream is to launch the spice creams in the European and American markets.

Give it a try, buddy !

The yummy Spice Creams are priced at just ` 35 a scoop. Needless to say, D2I strongly recommends everyone to try the spice creams, with the “honey-clove-daalchini” flavor being the D2I pick !

“This blog was originally published in blog.d2i.in under inside story of Jayka Spice Cream; republishing here with permission from D2i team”

why D2i (Doors2India)

Why d2i ?

“You love to do the things, which add purpose to your passion”

Why d2i? This was definitely not the first question when we planned to create d2i. It got its purpose with time.

Initially it was fuelled by our passion in the fields of EAT, DO (hobby ideas) & VISIT. d2i just provided purpose to our passion, and that’s why we love it !

And as the significance in the name “Doors to India” suggests, we wanted our users to enter and explore the many facets of India in terms of EAT, DO (hobby ideas) & VISIT.

There are many web portals, which offer information on eateries; in fact whenever I try to search or Google for eateries in Pune or Delhi, the search results upto the 3^rd page end up displaying results and reference to another portal.

It implies that there were at least 30 portals offering infotainment services and the results definitely surprised me. But there were two things which surprised (read disappointed) me even more; first, the fact that almost all of them had more or less same & very limited info; and second, all or most of them had info either of only eateries or of everything in the world, from real estate to insurance product. It’s like over 30 portals which are mere classified or yellow pages but claiming themselves to be infotainment.

You could blame it on our (my fellow founders/thinkers & I) disappointment with ‘this too little info in too diversified a sector’, that compelled us to visualise a true infotainment portal. We didn’t want to try to be

next Google local or plain Just Dial of the world.

So that’s how the concept of a dedicated portal limiting to EAT, DO and VISIT segment in a city was born, with a vision to offer detailed information of the `places to EAT’, `things to DO’ and `places to VISIT’ in a city, without the malaise of the info being stale &/or unverified, as was our experience with the existing portals.

We conceptualised a portal which could provide verified & interesting info on all sorts of ethical entertainment in a city. And Yes, the data was to be supported with images and more importantly, reviewed by experts ! This, along with interesting facts in form of articles & inside stories; events and offering of the places or venue, was to add value to the users.

When this idea germinated way back in 2008, we started to build a structure, classifying the category for EAT, DO & VISIT and portal’s offering, etc. The biggest challenge was, of course, Data collection.

Our experience was that most data/info on the net was either limited or stale and also skipped most small but interesting joints. So we evolved a multi-pronged strategy for data assimilation – from trawling through the net as well as out-sourcing the data collection to a competitive agency, to ground surveys & visiting the venues, and ultimately managing the whole activity by our own.

It surely took a few hit and trials before we gradually developed a process of fast & efficient collection & verification of data.

Going by the spirit of high speed parallel computing, we simultaneously burnt a lot of midnight oil (more likely to be many precious units of electricity !) to work on the design of our infotainment portal and it was only after 7^th version that we actually got convinced to start coding.

There were multiple rounds of discussion, debate and also pressure from other stake holders of d2i, but end product didn’t satisfy us and thus, we put off the launch.

In fact, we developed the whole portal and scrapped it totally not once, but three times and finally it was 10^th internal version which was launched released on 1^st April ’10 ! Now, who would select such a date for the launch ?! Passion driven Entrepreneurs are fools, so we choose 1^st April or `Fools Day’ to launch `Doors to India’ the portal with Pune.

And being proud & patriotic Indians, we added Delhi/NCR to an improved version of d2i on 15^th August’10, India’s Independence Day.

Our next target is to add the happening cities of Mumbai, Goa, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, & Bangalore by March’11.

But once again we are not jumping the gun and not rushing to create quantity. Our prime focus is to achieve a high level of satisfaction in d2i and its content. We need to first to establish d2i as a truely infotainment portal, which was what we had set out to create !

The feedback that we are getting from our users, not just those who are clicking & exploring d2i but also from those who have actually visited the joints & places listed in our pages, is what keeps us motivated !!

We see no point in getting into a race to max the number of cities on our portal. We are sure that with time, our passion -coupled with the unique Indian spirit of our users in exploring new ideas , will help to answer why d2i ?

“This blog was originally published in blog.d2i.in in mid 2010; republishing here with permission from D2i team”

तुम्हे हो यकीं या न यकीं - Ghazal

ये तो पहली नज़र का प्यार है

तुम्हे हो यकीं या न यकीं |

मेरे दिल की तारीफ तुमसे है

तुम्हे हो यकीं या न यकीं |

मेरी छाया नहीं तुम हो मेरी

है ख्याब या ये है यकीं |

ये तो पहली नज़र का प्यार है

तुम्हे हो यकीं या न यकीं |

हो फूल या कली खिली

न सवाल अब, तो है यकीं |

ये तो पहली नज़र का प्यार है

तुम्हे हो यकीं या न यकीं |

Pimple Saudagar: One step forward and two steps backward

I am lucky, that I booked my flat in mid-2007 @2075/- per sq foot. Today rate is skyrocketing at 4000-4200. People who purchased here, way back in 2005-06 (then rate was around 1000-1500) are making killing. All thanks to its location (close to Hinjewadi, Aundh and Pimpri) and continuity of IT boom. As per an independent survey and estimation, in last 4 years around 60,000 people have chosen Pimple Saudagar as their dwelling/investment destination.

This big migration of people brings prosperity and life style. Four year back the whole area wise one of the fertile agricultural land; now gradually becoming one of the posh residential areas of Pune. High rise societies, modern restaurant, lounge, all big brand shop and services (all essential daily needs) is available at the door step; big malls and multiplexes are on the card.

Only trader, builder and early investor are not making money out of this prosperity; it’s PCMC, the biggest beneficiary of all. Property and other taxes, making it further richer (It’s already one of richest Municipal Corporation in India). Good thing is that PCMC too is playing its part, trying to provide all necessary infrastructures. A six lane main road is under construction, which will connect Nasik phata to Dange chowk, BRTC is planned, event the roads in side lanes and very wide and well planned, in a year or two the road infrastructure will be remarkable with planned footpath, all sort of underground cables, street light, etc. PCMC environment friendly norms compel builder to make their society green enough, which will make the area even more beautiful.

It was the one side of coin, which say we are moving one step forward (towards prosperity and healthy lifestyle), let’s asses other side –

Things were going good till the PCMC came up with the idea of open Nullah (rain water drainage). Rain water drainage is necessary as rain water will flow with wide web of roads all across the Pimple. It’s planned that all rain water will be diverted to Pawna River. As per Nullah plan, it was passing through some of residential societies. The builders of such societies proactively built underground pipeline for rain water drainage, and most of them got the completion certificate from PCMC on this ground.

Now, PCMC suddenly decided to go for Open nullah (instead of pipeline, as per earlier plan), and dig most of existing pipeline and making it open to sky. The world is moving toward better living with the enhancement of technology, but the PCMC is taking two steps backward with open nullah; one step back by making it opens to sky, and second step back by removing the existing pipeline.

Pipelines were not only easy to maintain, it was also offering enough real estate, where builders can build, garden or parking space. Open nullah is tend to get dirty with time; and since most of them are 10-14 feet deep, and builder of nearby society is further creating 8-10 feet high wall around it, so effective depth of nullah will be 18-24 feet, it will be extremely difficult to clean it (rather impossible). It looks bad too.

Residents are puzzled and yet to understand the logic behind open to sky nullah. To decode this puzzle, they went to area’s corporator. Like all other politician, he too assured that it will be taken care of, and ask resident to pressurize their builders to meet him, but all builders said no to this. The corporator wants to meet builder and builders are reluctant to meet, both are doing so to safeguard their own vested interest. If both party could meet, and come up with some compromising (and not so compromising) formula, then things may take a good shape.

Meanwhile, open nullah has already been excavated all around the Pimple Saudagar. The big blot on the future prosperity and beautification of the area is taking two steps backward, and we the residents, are enjoying this “tamasha”. After all such things are common to “common man”.

Thought Plan Action

Light (a small pause), camera (another small pause), Action........ probably the most common sentence used by movie directors; what implies here that there must be something before any action. This something can be anything - preparation, planning, impulsion or compulsion; I am not sure about it. All I am sure, is fact that Thought is mother of all action (please do not confuse with reaction). First come thought then come action.... then reaction, result, interference etc. etc., whatever.

Newton says ‘there is equal and opposite reaction of every action’, if Newton says it must be true. (Actually its true for physical actions, but in the IT era, people are more interest in beyond physical activity like virtual act, strategy, decision making etc) Every action leads to something whether opposite or in same direction is surely true. And if we place PLAN in between thought and action, the reaction will definitely be in same direction. And that’s why THOUGHT.... PLAN....ACTION is as essential (phrase) for leaders as light-camera-action for movie directors.

I am interested in this phrase, as this is name of my blog. And now it’s time for big confession - this title is not my brain child, rather this is a copy. Sunny (one of my best friend) told me about his maternal uncle Mr. Aviral Singh (A very humble and brilliant person), that name of his blog is though-plan-action. I liked the name right away. And later searched in blog spot and over the net to read his blogs, but could not find it since he changed his blog name

http://viewsfromawindow.wordpress.com/ Without spending a minute I registered for thoughtplanaction.blogspot.com

Thanks Sunny.

"This post was originally written and published for my blog ThoughtPlanAction.blogspot.com; later I merged I my blogs"

Train is running late by 6 hours

It’s 3:30 am and I am sitting in the AC-class waiting room of Allahabad railway station; waiting for my train to Daltonganj (my home town) which was scheduled at 11:08 pm. Train is running late by 6 hours and now expected to come at 5:08 am morning. I and my wife (Deep) are on the way from Pune to Daltonganj (by train) for last 32 hours and journey is expected to take another 9 hours. Am enjoying it; with sleepy eyes, shaken body and heapache (pain in buttock) due to sitting on single heap for last 6 hours in this overcrowded waiting hall. Deep is sleeping on the bench. All the faces around me is tired looking and in semi sleeping state. I already finished a book and then a movie on my laptop, thanks to railway department for providing the sufficient number of power plugs to charge everyone’s mobile phones and laptops. But somehow I am enjoying it; after all journeys is real destination.

Till 10:20 pm there was no announcement of delay, we reached Allahabad exactly on time at 9 pm and settled down in waiting room at platform no. 1. Finished our dinner and were preparing to leave for platform no. 4. Then the recorded voice attracted our attention when it called our train number – “2878 is running late by 4 hours”, after a while it announced for 4 and a half hours and finally 6 hours announcement came. I am not the unluckiest one, a gentleman sitting next to me waiting for his train since morning 11; 12 hours prior to me. Probably tomorrow I will be able to know the reason why almost all the trains are running late, specially the one coming from Delhi, may be fog. But here in Allahabad it is not that cold.

When I was planning my tickets I had multiple options or rather did not have any convenience option to choose from. First there is no direct train from Pune to Daltonganj, for that matter to any place nearby. Second minimum journey time is around 40 hours and may go up to 48 hours depending on route and trains, so the selection of route is very important, also most of trains run once or twice a week, so we have to plan the trip every time. With two days of brain storming along with elder brother Binay, finally I decided to go via Jabalpur; as it was the only route where I had to change the train only once, In all other possible route. Only problem here is there is a gap of 10 hours in the arrival time of our train to Jabalpur (from Pune) and the train to Daltonganj. Train starts at 8:55 pm and reaches Jabalpur by 1:50 pm next day (in 17 hours) and then at 11:40 pm in night we have train to Daltonganj. Still somehow I thought this is the best way. One can imagine if the route which has a gap to 10 hours is the best route then how horrible the other possible options are. Albeit while booking the ticket (on internet) I realise that if I don’t leave the train in Jabalpur and continue to Allahabad, I will reach there by 9 pm and at 11:10 (after 2 hours) we have super fast train to Daltonganj, which will take another 6 hours. I calculated the time again and confirm myself that yes only 32 hours; Eureka. Some where my sixth sense was not allowing me to choose it and instructing me to stick to original plan, as it was familiar to me. But I thought, why not try something new. After all change is the second most beautiful thing in the life (most beautiful thing of life is life itself, no doubt about it). So I decided for eureka.

Believe it or not but in last 48 hours I got multiple hints that I should alter my ticket and should happily stick back to the original plan. But none can change the destiny. And I am here, writing this piece of blog and watching my wife ‘Deep’ in her deep sleep. Girls really look even more beautiful while sleeping, even in discomfort position like one on the bench of waiting hall. But bottom line is I am enjoying it and thanks to God, train is still only 6 hour delayed.