Recommended Read: Ghosts of K2

Here’s an honest admission: I’m not much of a climber. When holidaying in Nainital, I often take a cab to go from the Mall Road up to whatever hotel I happen to be staying in, usually not more than 2-3km away. Forget about mountains, I even take the elevator when going up to my apartment, which is on the 2nd floor of the building I currently live in. And yet, I do have this strange fascination for reading about adventures in climbing, of great exploits in extreme mountaineering. Real accounts of people risking life and limb to get to the top of some piece of rock. I mean, getting to the top of something like Mount Everest or K2 entails suffering extreme physical hardship, tolerating intense cold and freezing winds, facing difficulties in breathing due to lack of adequate oxygen and coming to terms with extreme dangers that include the risk of losing toes and fingers to frostbite. And, of course, there's the ever-present risk of death. More than scaring the hell out of me, which it certainly does, extreme mountaineering leaves me confused. It’s simply incomprehensible to me. Why do it at all?!? But I guess that is what separates a couch potato like me from mountaineering heroes, the people who have astonishing courage, the sheer indomitable will to achieve something that is impossible for 99.99% of the rest of us.

In the context of the above, I just finished reading ‘Ghosts of K2,’ a terrific book by author Mick Conefrey, who has laid out the saga of how people started trying to climb K2 in the early 20th century and how an Italian team became the first to summit the great, savage mountain in the 1950s. Many tried, most failed, some died. Even for those who succeeded, controversies dogged them for the rest of their lives. But the story of the sheer effort – the planning, the massive resources, the logistics, the manpower, the technology – required to go up a mountain like K2, and actually getting to the summit, is simply brilliant. It’s a story that unfolds over many decades and Conefrey has done a very good job of telling that story. If you are at all interested in mountaineering – or even stories of extreme adventures of any kind - I’d suggest you get a copy of this book. The paperback is available on Amazon, for a mere Rs 375.

From Affordable to the Ludicrous: The Watches I Currently Want

I’ve written earlier about my fascination with watches and my penchant for trawling various ecommerce websites as well as watch manufacturers’ websites to keep tabs on the latest that’s happening in the world of watches. There are some YouTube channels that I also follow for this, and they serve up some truly great content that keeps me happy. The watches that are on my list of want-to-buy keep changing but I thought I’d share my current list with you. These are the watches I currently want to buy and while some are within the realm of reality, which I might actually buy someday, some others on this list are mere fantasy, watches that I might never actually be able to buy in this lifetime. That’s okay, I guess; it’s okay to dream a little, right? So here we go.

Book Review: Secondhand - Travels in the New Global Garage Sale

Humanity is drowning in a sea of… stuff. You know, stuff, things we can’t stop buying. Shoes, clothes, furniture, electrical home appliances, kitchenware, digital devices, automobiles. We buy stuff to use, to show to others, to keep up with the neighbours, to give as gifts, to store so it can be used ‘someday.’ We buy stuff for the pleasure that its ownership gives to us, we buy stuff so we can pass it on to our children someday, we buy because we fall for the marketing that makes us believe we need to ‘upgrade,’ and we buy stuff because, well, because we can. But how many of us ever stop to think, even for a minute, what happens to all our stuff once we are done with it, when we no longer have any use for it and when we don’t want to keep it any longer? Where does it go, what happens to it, where it ends up? Adam Minter’s book, Secondhand: Travels in the New Global Garage Sale is a thought-provoking read that encourages us to pause and think about the afterlife of the things we buy, once we sell, donate or discard those things. It’s an unexpectedly interesting story that takes you all over the world, exploring the world of ‘secondhand,’ which in some ways almost functions like a parallel universe, a shadow economy that barely accounted for.

Motoring: Days of Thunder

I pull a wheelie as part of my 'work' at Motoring, as Shumi, who was then head of two-wheeler content at the magazine, looks on. The pic was clicked by the indefatigable Param

In an earlier post, I wrote about moving on from TechTree to join Motoring, an automotive monthly magazine which was, at that time, published by the Business Standard group. The story continues here.

On my very first day at work with Motoring, the team was heading out for a photoshoot of the Mitsubishi Pajero, an old-school SUV powered by a 2.8-litre diesel engine. The hulking vehicle was parked outside the Motoring office, which is on PB Marg in Lower Parel. Editor Bijoy handed over the keys to me and asked me to drive. There were other cars parked one inch ahead and one inch behind the Pajero and I slowly, carefully, manoeuvred it out of the parking slot, silently cursing the morons who had parked their cars so close to the Pajero, leaving almost no space for the massive SUV to move either forward or back. Thankfully, after a lot of twirling of the steering wheel and inching the vehicle forward and back, I was finally able to get it out of its parking slot. The team trooped in and off we went to the photoshoot location. My first drive/shoot for Motoring went off without any incident and we were back in office by afternoon. After a quick lunch of sambhar and masala dosa at a nearby joint, I spent the rest of the day just sitting around and talking to the team, trying to understand how Motoring functioned and how things worked in the office.

The Mind-Boggling Complexity of Buying a Phone in 2024

Last week, my phone died. It had served me well for a long time, so no complaints there. The only problem is, I hadn’t realised just how complicated it is, in 2024, to choose a phone if you’re buying a new one. Well, I guess it probably isn’t that complicated for the very rich. In that case, you either buy an iPhone 16 Pro Max that currently retails for Rs 1.45 lakh (if you’re an Apple fanboy) or a Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra (if you’re an Android loyalist) that’s currently priced at Rs 1.22 lakh. And that’s it, you’re done, you get the best of everything at a price that’s completely unaffordable for the rest of us.

Bicycle No More

From left: Me, riding my Avon Buke from school to home, in Lucknow, sometime in the mid-1980s. And my son, outside the Decathlon showroom in Greater Noida, with his new Btwin ST100 RockRider sometime in late-2021

When I was younger – in school, during my early teenage days in Lucknow – I had a bicycle, an Avon Buke, and I used it to get around everywhere. It wasn’t a fancy bicycle – it was a basic, single-speed bike, like the kind most kids used back then. It did not have a zillion gears, which seems de rigueur these days, but that did not make it any less usable – when you hit a steep incline, you just pedalled harder. No suspension, but you could always pedal around ruts and potholes instead of going through them. And no disc brakes either, but the regular brakes – essentially bits of rubber that would rub against the wheel rims when you squeezed the brake levers – were adequate for the rather modest speeds that my bicycle could do.

Marking Time: My Fascination with Watches

Buying one is well beyond my means, but I do love mechanical Swiss watches. Thankfully, companies like Timex, Seiko and Citizen are also making some excellent automatic watches these days that are vastly more affordable than those high-end Swiss watches, and are so much better value for money

I currently don’t own a watch and haven’t actually worn one for quite some time now. And yet, one of my favourite pastimes is looking at watches on the Internet; watch manufacturers’ websites, used watches websites, Amazon and Flipkart. In fact, I especially enjoy looking at watches on Amazon and Flipkart and my ‘process’ for this is always the same. I first search for ‘men’s watches’ or ‘watches for men,’ and then use the filters provided to fine-tune the results. The filters are everything, they help you separate the wheat from chaff. You can choose which brands you want to see. Band material and colour. Case size and shape, dial colour, display type, movement type. Price range. The permutations and combinations are practically endless.

Book Review: Flying Blind - The 737 Max Tragedy and the Fall of Boeing

One assumes airplanes are safe. As in, totally, completely safe. In recent decades, air travel has become so commonplace, so mundane, we never ever think we might be at any sort of risk when flying. Given the number of accidents that happen every single day on roads – involving cars, motorcycles, trucks and buses – flying seems to be so much safer. And for the most part, it is. Things don’t go wrong too often, but when they do – when planes crash – those who are in those planes don’t usually walk away. Almost inevitably, lives are lost. Sometimes, these accidents in aviation do happen by chance, a freak occurrence, something that nobody could have predicted or prevented in any way. But some do happen because of sheer negligence and/or shoddy engineering. Peter Robinson’s book, Flying Blind: The 737 Max Tragedy and the Fall of Boeing, is the shocking story of how things went wrong at Boeing, an American icon and one of the most respected, trusted aircraft manufacturers in the world.

40 Years of the Ferrari GTO

The mid-1980s Ferrari 288 GTO is a proper, old-school Italian supercar. Looks magnificent!

The Ferrari 288 GTO was unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show in March 1984 and only 272 units of the car were produced till 1987, when Ferrari stopped making this car. The Pininfarina-designed 288 GTO was powered by a 2.8-litre twin-turbo V8 that produced 395 horsepower and 496Nm of torque, with power going to the rear wheels via a 5-speed manual gearbox. The 288 GTO could accelerate from zero to 100kph in less than five seconds and was capable of hitting a top speed of 305kph.

Driving a Ferrari 308 GTSi in Lonavala

Mr Fali Dhondy's Ferrari 308 GTSi, which I drove in Lonavala back in 2003

I had dreamt of driving a Ferrari ever since I was a schoolkid and my first shot at piloting a car produced in Maranello came sometime in 2003, when I was working with Motoring magazine, which was at that time published by Business Standard. Srini, the classic cars specialist at BSM was going to Khandala for one of his drives/photoshoots and I offered to tag along. Little did I know then, what was in store for me that day.

The Best Car Shows on YouTube

Here's a list of my favourite car shows/channels on YouTube, which put you in the driver's seat

Back in the early-2000s, car enthusiasts who wanted to watch screaming Ferraris, tyre-shredding Lamborghinis and drifting-sideways Porsches on television did not have too many shows to choose from. In terms of top-quality content, two British shows led the way; there was Top Gear on the BBC and Fifth Gear on Channel 5, in the UK. Accessibility in India was a grey area – the BBC was officially available on cable but Channel 5 wasn’t. However, rips of both shows were available on various torrents sites online, for those who were prepared to take their chances with the law. There were also one or two car shows on Indian television back then, but those were quite dull and poorly made. 

Back then, twenty years ago, television was still king and the Internet was for exchanging emails and downloading MP3s. The video-sharing website YouTube came along in 2005, but given the low bandwidth and slow internet speeds in those days, and the lack of professional video content creators for the internet, nobody could have imagined that it would someday become the best platform for special-interest content on the Web.

Things change. Today, Top Gear is no longer being produced and The Grand Tour has ceased to exist. Fifth Gear is still chugging along (Jason Plato and Vicki Butler-Henderson are still there, Tiff Needell isn’t) but was never quite in the league of those other two shows to begin with. In any case, it’s YouTube that’s taken centre stage these days with its plethora of car shows – many different kinds of car shows tailored for different audiences worldwide.

Here's a quick list of the car show I watch on YouTube, which you might also like if you’re a car/motorcycle enthusiast.

Countach Once More

That's the new, limited edition Countach, which Lamborghini unveiled in 2021

If ever there’s been anything that is the very embodiment of the term ‘Italian supercar,’ it’s the original Lamborghini Countach. Designed by the great Marcello Gandini, the Countach set the template for dramatic, wedge-shaped supercars, many of which have followed in its footsteps over the last few decades. The first Countach prototype was unveiled at the 1971 Geneva Motor Show and the car went into production in 1974, with Lamborghini going to on to produce close to 2,000 units of this car until 1990, when the Countach was replaced by the Diablo.

T.50: Gordon Murray Rides Again

Back in 2020, Gordon Murray Automotive (GMA) unveiled their new supercar, the T.50, which features a host of ground-breaking technologies and which looks set to annihilate anything currently being produced by other car manufacturers. Here’s a quick look at what makes it so deeply impressive

Back in the early-1990s, British automotive engineer and designer extraordinaire, Gordon Murray rewrote the supercar rulebook with the McLaren F1. Powered by a 6.1-litre, 620-horsepower naturally aspirated BMW V12, the McLaren F1 offered intense acceleration (zero to 200kph in less than 10 seconds!) and a scarcely-believable top speed of 386kph. Between 1992 and 1998, only 106 units of the F1 were built with each costing more than $800,000 back then. These days, on the rare occasions when one comes up for sale at an auction, the price can go up to as much as $25 million.

A Dream That Came True: Riding the Kawasaki ZX-12R Ninja

You can have it. Only, you have to want it bad enough, they say. And that, apparently, is exactly how it is

‘Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly,’ said poet Langston Hughes. And while I don’t think he had motorcycles in mind when he wrote this, it certainly does apply to bikes as well – dreams of riding insanely fast bikes that are, on the face of it, well beyond your means. Let me explain.

Pet Shop Boys: Still Rocking after 40 Years

Everybody will Dance was released in August this year. It's the 1980s all over again

I first listened to the Pet Shop Boys sometime in the late-1980s when their second album, Actually, was released. The album cover – whimsy and eccentric – was what attracted me in first place and I guess I must have paid something like Rs 35-40 for the cassette, which I must have then played on repeat dozens of times over the next few months. I especially loved the songs It's a Sin, What Have I Done to Deserve This? and Rent – all of which I still listen to, to this day, 35 years after I first heard them. The Pet Shop Boys, Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe, sure did have one hell of a talent for creating electronica-disco. And the best part is, the duo are still at it, still rocking, still creating music that has the power to move fans of 1980s-style disco. Just listen to Everybody will Dance, which was released in August this year as part of a five-track digital bundle.

Everything about music itself and the ways in which people buy (or not) and listen to music has changed in the last 3-4 decades and the 1980s seems like a faraway place in a distant time, on a distant planet, at least in the context of music. And yet there’s Pet Shop Boys, still making music their way, still weaving their old magic, still making people dance. Making everybodydance. More power to them – may their music never stop.

Jargon Buster: Know your Watch

Once you know what all those fancy terms mean (as explained below), you'll understand what watch 'complications' mean and what they do. It is, after all, just a matter of time...

Ready to splurge on your first expensive watch but intimidated by the barrel of complications thrown in your face? If you don’t know a Tonneau from a Tourbillon, have no fear; this jargon-buster, where I explain 50 terms that are commonly used in the world of high-end watches, will help you go hammer and gongs against the next snooty watch salesman you come across!  

Analog
A watch that displays the time via physical hour and minute hands, which are powered by an automatic or quartz movement. So, unless your watch’s primary display is a digital LCD, it’s an analog watch.  

Automatic
A mechanical watch that does not require its crown to be wound up manually. Instead, the movement of the wearer’s wrist moves a counterweight (also referred to as a rotor), which then powers the mainspring, which in turn moves the gears that power the watch’s hands. Unlike quartz watches, there’s no battery here.

Aviator Watch
An aviator watch, also called a pilot watch, was originally designed for aviators and featured a large, easy-to-read black dial, triangle marker at 12 o’clock and a ratcheted, extra-large crown. While the Cartier Santos, one of the earliest aviator watches, was square shaped, post-WW1 military specs have demanded that aviator watches must only be round.

A Quick Chat with Kevin Schwantz

No. 34, Kevin Schwantz, the most spectacular rider on the track in the 1980s

In 2006, when I was working for BIKE India magazine in Pune, I had an opportunity to do a (very brief) interview with Kevin Schwantz, winner of the 500cc motorcycle grand prix road racing world championship in 1993. While some other riders have won more world championships and have more race wins to their name, Schwantz’s flamboyant riding style and his all-or-nothing approach to motorcycle racing stand out to this day – something that legions of his fans will attest to. I have been a huge Schwantz fan ever since the late-1980s, when I first started watching motorcycle racing on television (and sometimes on video cassettes, whenever I could get my hands on those) and often found myself rooting for the Suzuki rider.

This particular interview with Schwantz, which I did in 2006 on behalf of BIKE India, is super-short but I still wanted to preserve it, hence posting it here, hoping it’ll remain here forever.  

Audi Sportscar Experience @ Buddh International Circuit

Powerful, fast and reassuringly composed, the Audi R8 V10 was great fun to drive at BIC

Back in 2012, I had a chance to participate in the ‘Audi Sportscar Experience,’ hosted by Audi India at the Buddh International Circuit. This was basically an hour spent hooning around India’s only F1 circuit – what more could one possibly ask for! Here is the article I wrote back then, for Man’s World magazine.
 
‘Car number 3, you’ve turned in too early again. Don’t look down, look through the corner,’ the radio cackled, as the Audi instructor’s voice made it clear he wasn’t too happy with my driving. ‘Use all the circuit, don’t shortchange yourself while coming out corners. Anyone can press the throttle and go fast – this is not just about speed, it’s about control, it’s about finding the right lines,’ he thundered again, even as I struggled to match his pace around the 5.14km long Buddh International Circuit.

No, I hadn’t suddenly decided that I wanted to be a racing driver. I was at BIC at Audi’s invitation to be a part of their new Sportscar Experience (ASE), a programme designed for driving enthusiasts that lets them experience the sheer adrenaline rush of driving a high-performance supercar – the 525-horsepower Audi R8 V10 – around the spectacularly fast and challenging BIC. Of course, like the Audi instructor kept reminding me, the programme is not just about jumping into a car and flooring the throttle. It’s about learning from Audi’s expert instructors, understanding the intricacies of handling, steering, braking and cornering and ultimately becoming a better, faster, more skilled driver.