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1. phenyle on May 10, 2007 2:58 am

   Welcome back

2. Sitara on May 15, 2007 9:38 am

   Nice to see your site back. I was one of the people who noticed that it was not existing. Welcome back and hope you have not lost any of your valuable posts.

3. Brian on June 7, 2007 7:24 am

   Hi Venky,

   I’ve always been guided by the words of Thoreau: “Beware any enterprise which requires you to buy new clothes.”

4. leena on July 4, 2007 8:18 am

   Are we looking at innovations within us, that can improve things around us? If your answer is Yes. Then pushing your limits is the only way

5. venky :) on July 5, 2007 8:46 pm

   Improving things around us is a far stretch. I mean to say, that it’s next in the line. It will happen as a natural course. For example, we cannot talk about sustainability today if we don’t blink an eye when allowing the bloke at local supermarket put what we but in a polythene (plastic) bag. We cannot talk about air pollution and hygiene at hotels if we aren’t taking care of our daily diet and exercise in the first place. Trying to fix the world first would be unsustainable. Fixing our lives is not an easy job, to begin with.

   I guess we can start by measuring our individual carbon footprint. We can start by refusing to buy vegetables that are genetically modified and not native. We can consume organically produced food. We can practice Yoga or exercise regularly. I don’t know, I see far too many things to take care of within our lives before we seek to look out.

6. Harsha on July 12, 2007 3:54 am

   Awesome stuff!!..

7. Harsha on July 12, 2007 3:55 am

   I guess.. the bike riders in india are even more dangerous than car , its not about the vehicle but the people who dirve ..

8. venky :) on July 12, 2007 6:10 am

   Totally with you there Harsha. Going by numbers, bikers tend to survive with injured heads and broken limbs in rare instances. Most of the times, they die.

   A car driver messes up a lot of things around him/her. The difference as I see is ‘Collateral Damage’.

9. Harsha on July 14, 2007 10:51 pm

   yep .. thats true!

10. Rajitha on July 31, 2007 10:27 pm

    hey this is so true whether desi or not!!
    Rajitha

11. Kaliblane on November 25, 2007 4:43 am

    Nice pick, though I would enjoy an offroader better on Indian terrain. Depends on what one wants to do, I guess.
    Check out http://www.bumsonthesaddle.com. These guys supposedly offer some advice/consultancy on how to pick a bike based on height, body/bike structure, riding preferences etc when you buy from them. Don’t know how effective they are though. Sad Firefox/Trek does’nt yet have the infrastructure in place to cater to the small (but growing?) bunch of ‘cerebral’ bicycle enthusiasts. It’s just going to take that much longer to grow that market. Happy riding!

12. venky :) on November 25, 2007 7:04 am

    I looked up the Bumsonsaddle site, but I live in Hyderabad, so could not go over. I just went to the store here and realised that there was no help coming my way. I just asked to use their Internet connection, a measurement tape and explained (to them) how calculations are done:

    Some handy sites for reading on this are:
    http://www.cyclemetrics.com/Pages/FitLinks/bike_fit_links.htm
    http://www.competitivecyclist.com/za/CCY?PAGE=FIT_CALCULATOR_INTRO
    http://www.totalbike.com/service/frame_size.php (a simpler one, it only asks for your inseam length)

    So, all in all, I managed to get what I wanted. I prefer a road bike as I wish to cover more miles with least effort, and I don’t think I’ll go off-road.

    My contention is the choice. On ‘off road’ they stock only the 4 and 3 series (beginners) bikes, and an equally dismal range in the road bike category. Ideal for Indian conditions, I would have loved to to pick up a ‘Sport Urban’ or an ‘Xo’. What is worse, the models they roll-out here are being falsely dubbed as high-end bikes. To me, that’s objectivity thrown out of the window, with an implicit assumption that ‘Indians’ can be sold older generation basic models with a tag of ‘high-end’. It’s the same mentality that’s prevalent with cars, where VolksWagen brand-spins Slovakian ‘Skoda’ as a premium car (that should be good enough for their poor brown friends). Funny thing is, we are quite a brand-unaware lot that we gobble such spins and pay surreal premiums for B-grade products.

    Also, I am not sure if the market is ‘really’ growing. For, if it is, then, we should be seeing other brands with cross-country and hybrid bikes. With Trek, and it’s few models, it feels like pre-Narasimha Rao India, where you only had an Ambassador or a Premier Padmini to chose from

    Then again, maybe you’re right! It will take a while. Or maybe it will never happen as we don’t have any bicycle friendly spaces. And maybe the only demographics that use bicycles on a daily basis are those who’d chose between a Hero, Atlas and BSA, who in my opinion are companies run by ‘complacent’ old people with a pre-liberalisation psyche, with no agenda or inclination to build a better bicycle, as long as they can make money with their existing factories. Proof is in the calf injuries of rickshaw pullers and knee/back problems of regular cycle riders in our country.

13. harsha on December 6, 2007 10:32 am

    Hey,
    Nice bike

14. harsha on February 16, 2008 1:42 am

    hey venky,
    how are you fnding the bike, i am planning to get one, do you have suggestions

15. ROhan Kini on March 31, 2008 7:41 pm

    Hey Venky,
    I hope you are enjoying the bike !
    the Trek 1200 is a pretty nice bike.

    Feel free to ping us if you need any assistance.

16. Shoan on May 3, 2008 6:18 pm

    Get your credit card company to charge back. I feel e-commerce in India has huge potential when done right.

17. Venky on May 13, 2008 2:23 pm

    It was a pay-on-delivery service.

18. Nagaraj on September 20, 2008 6:16 pm

    You true mama. Same experience with me 2.

19. leena on January 9, 2009 6:04 pm

    That’s a nice piece

20. harsha on January 22, 2009 11:49 pm

    so winning Oscar or golden globe means its a good movie.

21. Venky on January 23, 2009 3:47 pm

    Naw, the movie had rave reviews even before it was nominated for any award. Bollywood movies tend to be fantasies. SM balances fantasy in a very realistic backdrop!

22. Krishna on January 28, 2009 12:25 am

    Whats on your mind about the recent Mangalore Pub incident… Why dont write a blog!!!

23. pooja sharma on February 24, 2009 6:18 am

    neither small format nor large format retailing is for india As we Indians atleast never plan for shopping.we ownself don’t know from where we will buy.One more thing Indian market need some thing different.

24. krish on February 28, 2009 6:11 pm

    Simply tells that they did not bother to rethink business model according to Indian market.

25. cmreddy on April 23, 2009 4:30 am

    As far as i know, Oscars are meant for the English language movies. Most of the Indian gems are made in local languages. May be thats the reason, they werent getting oscars. And I personally feel, Rahman is one of the great music directors with or without oscars. As a matter of fact, i dont remember Amitab getting an oscar..

    I have seen this movie, and except for the sounds and music, I havent found anything extra ordinary..

    To sum it up, its nothing funny..

26. Rakesh on September 4, 2009 4:48 pm

    Big Format will work for india, because we have habit of adopting and adjusting. Especially when it is combined with show-off attitude, we love that. Big companies will make us to like this big format……..