The Riders

Mounting such an excercise needs a lot of back-up, which costs a lot of money. Bikes are easy to get, but getting so many good, capable, multiple, young riders (without paying them anything) at one time and co-ordinating them is quite a job. But then, I have an advantage. Being a prof. In Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies as well as the Indian Institute of Modern Management (run by the legendary Prof. Col. A. Balasubramaniam), I have access to such capable young riders. Besides, Prof. Bala, as he is affectionately known, being an ex-army man, believes in such confidence building, roughing out activities. I am hoping, one day soon Prof. Bala will include such shoot-outs and my other outdoor activities in the MBA curriculum!

Now I needed six riders. I got quite a varied lot. First was Sam Godbole, who is doing his MBA at the Indian Institute of Modern Management, Pune, after chukking his Citicorp job. Second was Dr. Vistasp Sethna, MBBS, a practicing doctor who is also into medical software. Third was Amol Phansalkar, MBA dropout from Symbiosis now running his own computer firm in Pune (please note Bill gates is also an MBA dropout from Harvard who created Microsoft, and Sabir Bhatia who created @hotmail.com is a BITS Pilani dropout). Fourth was Ravneet Sharma (Ravi), who just finished his MBA from Sinhgad Institute of Management, Pune. Fifth was Milind Raut, also an MBA from Sinhgad Instt. All these five are in their mid twenties. Heights varying from six foot plus as in Sam Godbole to five foot six as in Milind Jain.The sixth rider was Sai Raoji Ohal, forty plus, who is my favourite bike mechanic and is the one nearest to my house. All six have at least six years of motorcycling experience each. Sai of course has much more.

Read the full story ( Scooterette Wars ) -
Background | The Bikes | The Riders | The Journey | The Performance | The Economics