When I first met Sundeep Gajjar, it was at a photo shoot where we were shooting one French girl on a Comet and another Indian girl on a Karizma. Sundeep himself was on the once fastest production bike the Honda Blackbird. That was exactly a year ago, in late August 2005. Little did I know then that under that curly hair of his was brewing a plot, a great story was taking shape, a story that today has started to materialize and has taken shape in the form of The Great Indian Roadtrip.
Three years ago Sundeep Gajjar aka Sunny formed xBhp.com which was a virtual place where like-minded and differing bikers could meet. Over three years this virtual site has organized more real life get-togethers amongst people, have brought people of spread out cultures together, inspired people into writing, photography and sharing experiences through this virtual space of xBhp.com with 23000 members today.
In the last year, Sunny has planned out the Great Indian Roadtrip and today it has taken shape through meticulous work, good choice of people around him who have helped only for a passion, the passion of biking. There is nothing else involved in it. Through a national selection, he has brought together a team of core riders, four of them who will be involved in the Leg 1 of the two-Leg saga of the Great Indian Roadtrip. The four core members of the GIR riding team; Ashish, aka, Gasoline Junkie, extensive tourer and a roaring off-roader, coming all the way from Hyderabad; Gurpreet, aka Skyscraper, the stunt master and wheelie king from Geeta Colony, New Delhi; Sundeep Gajjar, aka Sunny, biker and computer graphics designer by passion and CEO xBhp.com by accident, and yours truly, Krishnendu aka Ken Cool, experienced rider across continents and superbike test rider, have finally got together. They are now putting the final pieces together to what is going to be once in a lifetime experience for all of them; the xBhp.com’s The Great Indian Roadtrip.
These are extraordinary men in the fact that they have taken out 4 months out of their lives and careers to do something that no one has done before. In what way is the GIR different from countless Roadtrips that people have done over the years? There are various reasons.
First and foremost, these guys will move across the huge subcontinent of 3.287 million square kilometers, meeting people, talking to them, inspiring them to get up from their couches and go and discover the world that we live in, rediscover the joy of freedom, get out of their daily mundane existences and break free.
They are doing that on different vehicles, on two wheelers, bikes, big ones and small ones, so exotic that they have rarely or never seen by Indians; the Kinetic Blaze a moto-scooter and the Kinetic Jupiter a maxi-scooter, both fast and comfortable touring vehicles, the Hyosung Comet in association with Kinetic, the first performance V-twin bike made available to the enthusiast in India, and of course the famed beast, the CBR 1000 RR Fireblade, a 170 Bhp of a monster easily capable of crossing the 300 barrier. These are branded vehicles by mega corporate sponsors with whom Sunny had long drawn conversations to convince the viability of his dreams.
These guys will be accompanied by back-up vehicles which will be a mobile communications center with internet connectivity on the move, blogging, writing texts, uploading pictures and videos, having screenings in get-togethers in all towns and cities where they stop, interact with the people that they meet, and inspire them to discover the meaning of freedom.
All this is finally taking shape. Today the 15th of August, 2006, the 59th year after independence, the official meeting and take off took place between xbhp members and the GIR core riding team. These four men are going out to meet the rest of the country, bring them together and reach out to tell them, that there is more to life than 9 to 5.
