He is just another ordinary guy who has an extraordinary passion for bikes. His first days on a motorcycle was when he was 11, when he started riding his dads underpowered moped. And by the time he was 14 he got his very first bike, the same trusted YBX that he uses till date. There's something about 2 wheels and a motor that has always intrigued Ashish. Due to the minimum legal riding age and his law abiding dad, his first long ride was after he turned 18, two days after he got his drivers license. But the touring didn't stop here, 2 years after he started riding legally he already has about 10,000km of touring experience, with rides to a lot of places in south India and one memorable ride to the Himalayas .

Ashish did his two years of high school in Ooty and that is where he found his love for the out-door activities like trekking, sailing and backpacking. After finishing high school he took a gap to travel & work for a while.

His friends call him ‘nomad' because he always packs his bags and leaves home with the smallest and stupidest reason to travel. After working for a fiberglass factory in Nashik for a few months Ashish now spends his time off-roading all over Hyderabad and tours on two wheels when he scrapes together enough petrol money. One of his major pastimes this year was test-driving, it turned into an obsession for him when he wanted to ride/drive every bike, car and SUV available. Now, after causing unnecessary losses to several automobile dealers he takes pride in saying that he test-drove every vehicle in the market.

Ashish also has a passion for building things, be it a mountain bike, go-cart or a bike with a junked Fiat engine. And after taking technology as a subject for A-levels he vowed never to work on a desk job. He is right now in Australia.

He was perhaps the most defiant guy in the GIR. Aling with this I might mention that I enjoyed reading his blogs the most, they have got a strange goodness and humour about them. We also often used him to scare away strange looking people on the way, so he doubled up as a bodyguard. Many a times I would see a guy on a motorcycle approach him from behind hoping to see beautiful girl on Blaze or Comet, but alas, we have been lucky no one got a heart attack when he discovered the girl.

By Sundeep Gajjar

Selected blogs on the GIR by Gasoline:

• The Lake
• May the force be with us!
• The ATV in the Hills
• The clash of two Superpowers
• J-U-G-A-D : The Indian Village's Aston Martin
• Battle of the Indian Super Yachts – Kashmiri Houseboat VS Kerala Houseboat
• Crash & Burn
• Tirunelveli to Rameshwaram from inside a cage
• Society expects lots from you. Break free!!
• Speed kills, so does Boredom

To read all the blogs by Gasoline see the GIR Blogs.