In an effort to make our content more accessible, we have tied up with Mjoy on short code 56569! Our wallpapers are now available on mobile phones across operators around the country!
To see the wallpapers available currently, click here....
Follow the short code download instructions on the page that opens up and enjoy our images right on your cell phone. Standard download rates apply as per operator!
Enjoy, er Mjoy!
Check out Mac here without a helmet! Quite a pretty picture it makes right? Considering that the clean roads and the blue skies and that awesome cruiser have to put up with an eyesore without a lid!
But if you were to go deep into psychology, there would be an explanation. If you refer to James W. Kalat's Introduction to Psychology (its a great volume), you will find that life is full of gambles. Your selection of college is a gamble, your personal relationships are gambles and your investments are gambles. Heck, even riding a bike without a lid is a gamble and when you see a rider without one, it means he has a reckless mind that is always looking at covering losses.
Notice a gambler on the card table as he puts in more and more money when losing to cover his losses at one go rather than focussing on winning. Quite a revelation there mates! If you want to gamble, we say go buy yourself a lottery ticket or something. But wear a lid always!
More from the realms of psychology soon!
Imagine the surprise, when, after crossing the messiest of roads and the dirtiest of slums in rural West Bengal, you come across a river front where all the architecture is French!
Yes, you heard that right. Chandennagore is that place. As you hit the road which is called 'The Stand', you have beautiful French architecture to sample on the right side, a lovely pavement on the left with park benches that are shaded with lush green trees. Beyond the pavement is the river Hoogly, so untouched and virgin in its form. Nobody washing clothes or bathing. Just clean water stroking the embankment.
We saw this beautiful Sacred Heart Church too... Another substantial example, that the road has promises! The image can be downloaded to make a neat wallpaper for your desktop!
1. Auto rickshaws aka Samosas! Yeah thats we call them at Monoshock. These guys are not made in the same assembly line as normal human beings. You can be trained hard enough to become Rossi but you have to be born an auto driver.
Keep a look out for these very sharply. They can swerve to extents unimaginable and land up right in your path and cause immense damage. Most of these guys have unions which could get you into trouble if you hit one, so its a double jeopardy situation. Solution: Slow down while overtaking one, and honk!
2. Bazaars. These are treacherous grounds. While crossing a town or a small village along a highway, you will come across these. Lazy fruit, vegetable and meat sellers will look at you from both sides of the highway.
People who just finished buying their veggies will cross the road and buy meat, and never assume that they know its a road. For them, its part of their market place and you are an intruder. Children can be seen crossing the road too and fro at insane rates, candies, fries or cheap ice creams in hand. Solution: At all costs, just crawl. Enjoy the colours of this country. You will emerge a happier man. Dont curse them, it will not get you anything. Notice the zonked policeman in the picture above!
3. Cattle. We have a simple rule for this one. Size. Judge these bovine buggers by size. The smaller and younger it is, the bigger the threat. As these four legged dudes get older, they get lazier and do not move much unless provoked. Younger ones are jumpy and will come right in your path for nothing and from nowhere.
Solution: Never assume anything. Slow down to a crawl if you see too many of them. If you judge their next move by human standards, you will be taking the bull by the er, horn!
4. 
Cyclists. The Monoshock travel India dictionary says 'a cyclist in India is a human being riding a bike with no motor of any kind, yet carrying the attitude to beat out a Busa, whether in traffic, straight lines or corners!'
Let them be in their blissful states of mind please. There are millions of them and each one has a different CPU!! Solution: Honk like crazy when you are overtaking one. If there are more, stop, have some water, light a smoke and let them get out of the darn way!
5. 
Level Crossings. Indian railways have laid a crazy amount of track. However, they have not manned all their crossings! Amazing! Whenever you see one of these coming up, STOP! No matter what you feel/ think/ assume. Even if you see a lazy cyclist pedal across, stop and verify the proximity of a train.
If you just ride across one that is unmanned and there is a diesel loco coming down hauling 3000 tonnes of steel behind it, you will be squashed like a bug! Curtains. Not worth it we say! Notice the two jerks with cycles sniffin the train's body!
6. Narrow Bridges. 
While you are going down this two way strip, enjoying the scenery, you will suddenly come across a small bridge/ culvert that will be half the width of the road. Now thats not such a bad thing you tell yourself. You are darn lucky they made one there in the middle of nowhere. Yes.
All that is fine unless there is a Sumo coming the other way. Trust us, it will not slow down for you. Just slam your brakes, let the pads feast on the rotor and let him cross in peace. If you are caught midway on the bridge, you are erased! Notice the old lady making way. Awesome!
7. 
Trucks and Buses. Be very careful while overtaking as well as letting them pass as oncoming traffic. In this case, trucks are easier to trust. They will let you pass at the first chance they get. Buses have some serious ego issues and will immediately get into the 'lets race' mood. Avoid overtaking them from the left. You might get squeezed! If you see a bus trying to overtake another, coming on to you from front on a two way street, just get the hell out of the way! Just get the hell out of the way! Yes, double emphasis on that one.
Be careful while you are riding. Stop when tired, there is nothing you are proving to anyone. Enjoy yourself and remember, there are people waiting at home, to hug you when you get back. Just think of that when you are getting edgy! Happy riding!
Yes, absolutely. We could not agree more. Sample this. While going out for a photoshoot today, we decided to take the longest route to the chosen destination. Now that involved a thirty five km stretch on the 6 laned NHAI maintained toll road.
We do not need to go far and wide to see amazing things. I have seen people take pictures in their backyards that look out of this universe.
So, when Nitin and I were riding to Chandennagore (a 45 kays ride from Kolkata on some blissful tarmac) we found this amazing scenery at dusk! You can click the image and save it as a wallpaper too.
Photo data: 24mm 2.8 lens used. Aperture set at 2.8, spot metering taken off the blue top end of the frame, exposure locked, re framed and shot! No filters or software tools used!
For all of you who have a free Sunday morning in Delhi, take an auto/ your car/ bike and head to A 16, Connaught Place and get into Wenger's! It is essentially a pastry shop that serves some of the best tuna/ chicken/ ham sandwiches in town. Add to that amazing pastries, tarts and desserts.
For the more discerning ones, try the Shammi Kebab there! Its something made in God's own kitchen we say! No place to sit in there though. Get your grub packed, head out and use the metal pipes or the tougher to find park benches around the place and soak in the breeze while your tongue savours the goodies. Must do. 10/10 from our end.
We were very pleasantly surprised by the new Bajaj Discover 135!
The feel, the handling and the engine note were really top of the line for a 135 cc machine. We are sure that some serious numbers are going to be racked up Bajaj here..
Here is an image for all who own/ aspire to own/ love the Disco 135. Its a 1024 x 768 image. Just click it and save to a desired location!
Full road test of the Disco 135 in the August issue of the Monoshock emag!
Hello Folks,
The Independence Mega Issue of the Monoshock E Mag is now online for your viewing.
In our fattest issue till date, we have:
- The Apache RTR 160
- The Discover 135
- Honda Dio and Hero Honda Pleasure
- Biking into the Indian Cake
- Synndicated Programming
- Rearset
- Bodh Gaya and much much more!
Log on to Monoshock now and get your share of biking action in a format never seen before!
For those who are lazy as hell, right click this link and select 'save target as' to download the entire mag on your hard drive!
Comments and feedback welcome on this post about the August Issue!
