KuKu Cube

I was feeling quite bored at office and pinged Saloni Sinha, my colleague at Pramati Technologies.

It was then she pinged me a link for KuKu Cube. I took a liking for it instantaneously and decided it deserves an iPhone app.

The boring day got converted to a hackathon and within a couple of hours I had the very initial version of the game up and running.

Kuku Cube starts off very easy and quickly becomes difficult leaving you searching for the odd square.

The App playfully categorises the player's colour perception capabilities. Try out the app and find out your category :-)

Some interesting facts about vision - 

Monochromacy, although it is a handicapped state in human beings, it is normal in owls and monkeys.

The cones in human eye are not sensitive to one particular color channel causing Dichromacy.

Trichromacy, is normal human vision with the ability to perceive red, green and blue colours in the spectrum.

Tetrachromacy, some animals like Goldfish and Zebrafish have an advanced colour vision that they can even perceive ultra violet light.

The Company

It was the first time I was talking to him since we passed out of college 3 years back. He was very excited. He said he had a business opportunity which offers unprecedented returns. I was skeptical. I asked him for details. He said its very confidential and details would be revealed only to business partners. To become a business partner one needs to invest around ten lakhs. All I could do was wish him all the best.

Three months later, I got a call again. He said another slot opened for a business partner. I would have to pass 3 rounds to be able to invest 10 lakhs to become a business partner. Fortunately, there was no entrance fee to attend the interview. I agreed to attend. The only compromise I had to make was wear some suffocating formals.

The interviews were a strange affair. The first round was telephonic. My friend put us in a conference call. It went on something like this -

"We are a conglomerate... buzz bzzzz.... ssssttaaatic... prefer partners to employees because employees work for salary... bzzzz buzz...." call disconnects.

Again I get a call from my friend putting us in a conference call. Why can't he call directly? Is it a ruse to maintain secrecy? I was growing more and more suspicious.

Apart from nonsense information dissipation, the only question he asked me was

"Do you trust your friend so much that if he asks you to jump in a well, will you jump?"

By the end of the interview, I was none the wiser. The Company remains anonymous, the nature of work unknown.

Shortly, my friend called me to say I was selected and a face to face round has been scheduled the following day at 1:45pm and location details will be given at 1:30pm, the general area being Banjara Hills. More secrecy, alarm bells were going off. I had just two things in my mind, find out what is going on and save my friend if this is some fraud.

At 1:37pm the next day, I got a call from a lady asking me to come to a coffee shop!

I reached there by 1:50pm and was met by a rather thin lady. She gave me the impression that she was interviewing a sales boy. As I started talking to her, this impression only strengthened.

Ten minutes of general talk and then she started talking about the guy who would be interviewing me.

"Ateet Sir" was how she addressed him. These were a few phrases she used.

"He got a BMW in one year in this business"

"I cannot believe I am working with a millionire"

"Such high position and so humble"

"I love him, he is like a brother to me, I share everything with him"

I was completely annoyed. She would deflect any question about The Company she was representing. I would have left if not for my resolution to find out what the hell was going on.

Enter Ateet Sir, a North Indian in his early thirties, perhaps from Delhi.

"Tell me about yourself", he says.

"Tell me about your company", I wanted to ask but then decided to play along. I wanted to appear dumb and eager to mint money.

The interview was a total farce. Some of the nonsense philosophy uttered by the lady was repeated by him word for word. The only information I could get was he is into e-commerce. He believes the real estate boom would now reflect in e-commerce and that should be the field everyone should be investing.

He threw in numbers like math was at his finger tips.

"Hyderabad population 2-3 crore, target 10%, 20-30 lakh people spending Rs10 a month"

"40 crore per month, you get 10 percent, so 40 lakh per month"

"Flipkart is still at loss, how are you making a profit?", I asked

"We have a different strategy and we have some exclusive products", he replies.

So I asked him for a website where I could go ahead and shop for some stuff.

"All details would be revealed in the next round", he says.

"I want to shop as a customer and not as a business partner", I repeated.

"There is a process for everything. All details will be revealed in the next round"

For the next round to happen, I would need to have proofs of bank accounts showing a minimum balance of 6 lakhs. He warned me it would happen at a very short notice and not necessarily in Hyderabad.

Clearly, it was a fraud. So how does it work?

There is no dearth of innocent people around. So assuming 10 people invest 10 lakhs per month, that would be 1 Crore and considering 30% profit and negligible operational costs, each person would be getting back 7 lakhs of their money for some dummy work at home. I confirmed this with my friend, he got back 2 lakhs in first 20 days but would not reveal what happened after that. Oh yes, he even went on a field trip to Dubai.

So do they keep raising hopes the so called business partners, ask them to invest more and more until they are broke? Do they keep some people happy by paying them and dumping others saying their work is not good and they lost their investment?

My friend put his complete trust on them, "Ateet sir is God. I would be privileged to spend 5 mins with him", he says.

Can this racket be busted? Or can they survive as long as there are innocent people out there?

The only information I have about The Company is this person Ateet Saraf. Googling I found this seemingly false linkedIn profile
https://www.linkedin.com/pub/ateet-saraf/59/509/346

The photo has very slight resemblance to what he looks like now. Maybe it is at least 10 years old.

EDIT: (on 23rd October, 2014)

The linkedIn profile above is deleted. Here is the photo which was in the profile

Weekend 2048 Blaze Contest

Hello Everyone,

Welcome to the first 2048 Blaze contest on the weekend of 22nd - 24th August, 2014. Here is your chance to have fun and win exciting prizes. Before anything else, the interesting part

1st Prize,  Rs1000 gift voucher from flipkart

2nd Prize,  Rs500 gift voucher from flipkart

3rd to 8th, will win surprise exciting gifts! 

 What is this about?

2048 Blaze is a flavour of the world famous 2048 with more excitement because there is a competition for each tile.

What is the contest?

Top the 'Fastest 1024' leaderboard. The first position is currently held by Kiran D with a record of 2 mins 49 secs and 96 milliseconds. Top eight players who have registered stand to win exciting prizes!

How to participate? (Important)

1. Download 2048 Blaze. (See below)
2. Login to Google Play(Android) or Game Center(iOS)
3. To register, post your platform and nickname in the comments here http://goo.gl/dJ2tPC 
4. E.g,
• iOS, maddy 
• Android, Jayanth Reddy

How to download?

Android Users:

Scan the QR code

 or follow the link http://goo.gl/hDcEuN
or search on Play Store for Jayanth Gurijala



iOS Users:

or follow the link: http://goo.gl/j7B5Lg
or search on Play Store for Jayanth Gurijala

Who can participate?

Anyone with an Android or iOS smartphone. Sorry windows :(.

When does the competition start and when does it end?

It starts as soon as you get your app and ends just before midnight of 24th August 2014 (Indian Standard Time). Results will be announced ASAP.

So what are you waiting for? Get the app and get started!!!

If you have any questions, contact me at gjayanth8[at]gmail.com

Image Store

My Little Battle with Apple

Apple claims that each and every app that goes into the app store undergoes an extensive review process. The time for a new app or an update to go live on app store is anywhere between a week to ten days. This puts an enormous pressure on developers especially individual developers because a bug identified in production might  take the developer a few minutes to fix but atleast a week for it to make its way to the app store.

Considering the sheer volume of new apps, I assumed it would be some tool checking them. But, I realised I was wrong when my apps were rejected with the following feedback:

Hello Jayanth,

Your app Disarrange has been reviewed, but we are unable to post this version. For details, or to directly contact the App Review team, visit the Resolution Center in iTunes Connect. Do not reply to this email.

Regards,

App Review

I visited the resolution centre and found this dreaded message waiting for me

We found that your app offers In-App Purchase/s that can be restored but it does not include a "Restore" feature to allow users to restore the previously purchased In-App Purchase/s.

To restore previously purchased In-App Purchase products, it would be appropriate to provide a "Restore" button and initiate the restore process when the "Restore" button is tapped.

In simple terms, it means that if a user has purchased some levels or magazines or anything that an app has to offer and then moves on to a new device, there should be a restore button to transfer  those purchases to the new device. It seemed very reasonable but NOT for my app because all it offers is a purchase to remove ads. The user can as well press the same damn button to restore his purchase! And Two buttons for one purchase? No way! Moreover, it would not go well with my UI.

So I appealed 

I understand the need for such a feature but my app offers only one in-app purchase. Providing TWO button for ONE purchase is extravagant and will confuse the user. I am NOT going to implement this. Please suggest an alternative.

I remember reading somewhere that when Steve Jobs was customising his Gulfstream V airplane, he wanted one button to open and close the door instead of turning a lever up and down. Somehow I sensed a similarity in both these situations and optimistically waited for a reply. But unfortunately, the guy who reviewed my appeal didn’t know the titbit about Jobs and his plane, he simply copy pasted the previous reply.

I was aghast, there was no way I was going to put in two buttons. Meanwhile, two of my other apps, 2048 Blaze and 2048 Pinnacle were rejected with the same reason. Those were the critical, so I removed in-app purchases and resubmitted them. I was determined to get to the bottom of this with the not-so-critical UnstrewMe aka Disarrange aka 15 Puzzle. It was just a reincarnation of my 10th class DOS game, 8 Puzzle. I wrote it mainly to test the flexibility of my new board game library.

Finally I came up with this approach. It seemed pretty neat. 

A week later, while I was working on a very critical fix, I got a mail saying ‘UnStrewMe Metadata Rejected’. In an impulsive moment, I was almost about to smash the TV with an iPhone but on closer inspection I realised it was my fault. Under app description I put in the following text -

://TODO: fill in description later

The metadata was incomplete. This time I silently thanked apple for being so meticulous and cursed myself for being so careless.

I hastily filled in the app description and clicked on resolved hoping it would not take long now. But this simple mistake costed me a whole week, UnStrewMe rejoined from the end of the to-be-reviewed apps queue. Finally, after a week it got approved and is now live on App Store. I was really happy that my little trick worked, Apple got its restore button and I got my single button :-).

My apps on app store:

2048 Blaze

2048 Pinnacle

UnStrewMe

2048 Drop Drop aka 2048 Tetris

2048 Drop Drop is the 2048 version of the famous a very famous classical game. 

Learn the twists and tricks as you play and make your way up to the 2048 tile and beyond. I promise you its just pure fun! 

The smoothness of the game and the simple ui will delight you but with the gradually increasing difficulty, you need to be on the alert if your target is high. 

When the board is almost full, clever merging can clear it out, earn achievements and get you back in the game and also give you a high tile. 

To infinity and beyond!

2048 Pinnacle

2048 Pinnacle

Download on App Store

Why the name Pinnacle?

I was having Piña colada and playing 2048 when the sliver of this idea struck me. When it was time for christening this app, i recalled that moment and decided to dedicate it to the Piña colada. But mind you, if it were to be named after my favourite drink it would have been 2048 Beer.

What is this all about?

2048 is no doubt an awesome game, but a little on the slower side. Strategies have evolved around this game and now I find that reaching at least 1024 is just a matter of time. So I began to think what else could be done and I came up with two new twists which made the game more interesting.

 Maps

• I have introduced two useless hindering tiles, those that stand still and don’t move and those that move but do nothing much. Putting these tiles in different configurations gave rise to different maps. To conquer each map, you have to come up with a different strategy and it is not always possible to get 2048. In the map named Claustrophobia, I could achieve only 64.

Next Tile

• This is the more interesting part. When the board is littered, you have very less place to manoeuvre. Knowing the next tile can sometime lead you from being at the brink of GameOver to getting back in the game. The next tile also lets you plan a few moves ahead, like Chess and Tetris. 

Map which resembles the reel of an old video tape reel. Remember the good old days!

Map which resembles carom board with a hole at each corner.

This is an interesting map for a very tiny game. Use the next tile judiciously!

The all time favourite classic map. Can you score more because now you know whats coming next?

It took me around a month to implement these two enhancements and a few more weeks to make the app production ready fully armed with the following features:

• Ultra refined gameplay. You will feel the tiles obey your mind rather that your fingers. I have spent hours tweaking to achieve near perfection. 
• Simple and neat UI.
• Game Center with leaderboards to compete for high score and highest tile in all maps.
• Night mode to avoid straining your eyes while playing at night.
• Fully compatible with iOS 6.

choose a map or enable night mode from the Menu

Leaderboards!

Finally, it was time to get the icon. I asked Saloni Sinha, my colleague in Pramati Technologies, to design a nice icon real fast. She gave me two options, a nice icon or a fast icon. I repeated that I wanted a nice icon real fast but she remained stubborn, that the choices are mutually exclusive. I gave in and choose to have a nice icon. She took her time but the job was done well. Thanks Saloni for the wonderful icon :-).

Presently, the app is available only for iOS. Android users, stay tuned, I started learning Android development. It should take a couple of years ;).

2048 Blaze

Why yet another 2048?

I played the most popular 2048 on App Store and the iPhone game by Gabriele Cirulli, they share two common traits I didn't like - rough gameplay and minimal leader boards. I was sure I could do better. 

Most of you must have read and hopefully played my other 2048 based game, 2048 Pinnacle, it was actually supposed to go after Blaze but because of numerous problems, the release of Blaze was delayed by a couple of months.

It all started as a fun activity, I wanted to see if I can improve the gameplay and also tweak the algorithm to give higher tiles. 

To my surprise, with almost no effort, I could achieve a far smoother gameplay. But giving random tiles higher than 4 was not very interesting. So I reverted to the classic algorithm but retained my superb user interaction.  

I sat for a day and carefully tweaked the swipe algorithm and finally it was smooth as butter. The difference was drastic. After playing my game for a few hours, i just could not tolerate the existing 2048s. It was like using a Mac and then trying to go back to windows.

Next was the leaderboards. With the existing apps, I could compete only on score. How about highest tile? Not everyone can get a 4096 and far few can go much beyond that. I would certainly love to flaunt that I got an 8192 or even 16384.

I added highest tile into the leaderboards but something was missing. Going from 2048 to 4096 is a quantum leap and I could see a bell curve with most players achieving 1024 and 2048. I began thinking if there is any other interesting stat to compete. Should I design a game with shorter leaps? But that would be come a whole different game.

And then it hit me - the sands of time! The improved gameplay provides a perfect platform to introduce time. Fastest 256, Fastest 512, Fastest 1024, Fastest 2048 crept into the leaderboards.

With my app showing signs of being production ready and a potential to compete with its peers, I started putting more hours into it. With the main features finalised, I started making it App Store ready. I was testing the app just before going to sleep and the bright background was straining my eyes so I added in a night mode dimming all the colors. You can use this mode to save battery as well. 

I was ready to push the app into the App Store but something else was missing. I had no way of knowing if I had beaten my previous time record of getting a tile and it was irritating to tap on stats to find out. So I made a switchable Heads-Up display which flashes interesting events :-)

It says 'You achieved Hasty 32 earlier but now late by 9s'

It says 'You are late by 0.8s to beat your personal record and 9.28s late to get the achievement'

I spent a week on minor tweaks, intense testing and refining the UI, adding sounds, integrating Facebook, Twitter, iAds and admob. The ads are displayed at the perfect place. iAds in fact add beauty to the app.

Share screen shot on FB twitter, see more games by me, toggle sound :-)

Happy with my handicraft, I asked Vamshi for an icon and he gave me one in a couple of minutes. Thanks Vamshi for giving the cool icon at blazing speed! :-)

With everything in proper place, I pushed the app to the App Appstore. These days Apple has been averaging 8-12 days for an App Review so instead of biting my fingers waiting for it, I have decided to continue making more games. Stay tuned!

Bike ride from Hyderabad to Thar Desert, 4,200 kms.

And finally I reached the desert. There were huge sand dunes on one side of the road and a carnival on the other. Several hawkers tried to stop me, trying to tempt me with camel and jeep safari, dinner and dance and a night's sleep in a tent. But they didn't know that I was no ordinary tourist, I was a backpacker and a biker. I travelled 2000km over six days to reach the periphery of the Thar desert from Hyderabad. I saw and experienced things which I never would have had otherwise.

A night's stay in the humble hut of a watchman, sleeping in my tent outside a lonely Dhaba on a ghat road on the way to Panchmarhi, listening to woes of the driver who managed to flip over his overloaded truck, watching wild camels drink water from an oasis, left stranded due to bike problem twice, finding fellow campers in middle of a desert, caught by police patrols often times for venturing into expressways and many other small but memorable incidents made this a truly memorable trip.

Jayanth, camels and the desert!

Carnival in the desert!

Sands of Time

Reminds me of some episode in Ducktales!

I had driven from Hyderabad through Nagpur, Panchmadi, Indore, Udaipur, Jodhpur and Jaisalmer to reach the Sam dunes. The ride from Udaipur to Jodhpur was something which I will never forget. I travelled through all kinds of roads from four-lane national highways to one of the scariest ghat roads, the village kacha roads, isolated roads connecting villages, national highway under construction infested with monstrous trucks spraying construction dust all over me, at night, blinding me and stuffing me with dust.

Though I invested a lot in getting myself a Cramster riding gear with full protection, looking back, it was a highly dangerous ride and I did a remarkable job coming back alive.

My R15 is a living thing. It whines like a happy puppy when I caress it and knows when not to breakdown. It had loose wiring, thanks to careless Yamaha service, but it didn't let me down in the scary isolated stretches of road where bandits or animals could get me. It stopped just twice,  once in front of a Dhaba and again as I just entered Pokhran. The trip meter was then reading 1,934kms. It was the distance of Pokhran from Hyderabad via Nagpur, Panchmarhi, Indore, Udaipur and Jodhpur. I stopped at each place for a day, for sightseeing and resting.

In Panchmarhi, I had been to Dhupgarh and Bee falls, in Indore I had been to PatalPani where I hiked on the railway tracks, in Udaipur to Fateh Sagar Lake and Lake Pichola, in Jodhpur to Mehrangarh fort and Umaid Bhavan Palace. Maharaja Umaid Singh has won my heart.

'Sir Umaid Singh reformed and reorganised the Jodhpur State Forces and the judicial department, introduced a scheme for extending primary education, revised the land revenue settlement and established state pensions and a Provident Fund for state employees. Enjoying a distinguished military career, he died at his estate on Mount Abu on 9 June 1947 after a reign of 29 years, aged but 43.'

Duphgarh, Panchmarhi

On the way to Indore, stopped to answer nature's call!

Not sure where this was, but awesome road!

Fateh Sagar Lake, Udaipur

Lake Pichola, Udaipur

   

Local roads I had to conquer at night!

         

Dal 'n' Roti outside Udaipur before hitting off for Jodhpur

Village kaccha roads!

Camels near an Oasis

Amazing ghat road!

I was forced to visit Pokhran too, a small town, which closes by 7pm in winter. Pokhran Fort and The Nuclear test site are the only places to visit but the test site needs security clearance. I had no intention of stopping in Pokhran but I lost my way from Jodhpur to Jaisalmer and then my bike died a couple of kilometers from Pokhran. I stopped to put on my gloves and the bike refused to start. I had to get my toolkit out, open the front panel and twiddle with some wires to coax it to start. But it roared to life in about ten minutes. I was way behind schedule.

The winter of Rajasthan was piercing through the layers of clothing threatening to freeze my bones. I was debating whether or not to stop in Pokhran but my bike had taken the decision for me, it stopped again right in front of the biggest hotel in town and adamantly refused to start.

So there I was in Pokhran, taking a room in the biggest Hotel in town for Rs1500 a day. After Jodhpur where I had to stay in a pigsty because of the Holiday season, I decided it was fair enough to pamper myself, my limbs needed some stretching anyway. The room in Jodhpur was so dirty that I had to abandon the bed and use my sleeping bag.

After a goodnight's sleep in Pokhran, I got ready early morning and got out to see the Pokhran fort. I put the key in the ignition and turned it 'ON' hoping a night's rest was all my bike wanted. My heart sank. There was no familiar buzz, no indicators indicating the usual self check. I turned it 'OFF' and back 'ON'. Still quite as a grave. I knew I had to get to the bottom of this now lest the bike should trouble me in the dead of the night in the middle of nowhere. I opened up the panel and the cowling. I could see an assortment of wires running along the body. Two wires were jutting out from the ignition and common sense told me that turning the key would just short-circuit the wires. I shorted them by hand but still nothing. Now desperate, I decided to get my service guy on the phone. Looking up the phone number in the manual, I called up the service station and asked to speak to a mechanic. After hearing me out

'Sir, get it to the service centre or tell me where you are I will send someone there'.

'I am in Pokhran, near Pakisthan'.

The reply came back after a few seconds,

'Sir, Please don't go that far'.

I decided to ignore the fatherly advice and  started describing the wiring. He asked me to short the two wires. I told him that I just did that. Knowing that he could not be of any more use to me, I decided to debug the problem myself and cut the call, I was on roaming. I traced the suspected wires and opened up a few more panels and there I saw it, The BIG Hack. Two wires were crudely inserted into a resin joint because of some problem with the joint. I randomly moved those wires and the bike roared to life. The crowd which gathered applauded. I couldn't help smiling. Yet, cursing the mechanic responsible for the hack, I cut everything up and used a cello tape instead, a better and more permanent solution.

I was happy, also because I knew where to look for if the problem resurfaces. All this delayed me and I had a bit of a problem during checkout because I was two hours late. The guy behind the reception asked me to pay three hundred bucks extra but after a quick hourly calculation I claimed I owe the hotel only forty rupees. Unable to refute my claim, he quietly made the bill with no extra charges.

Refuelling, checking tyre pressure took a little more time and by 1pm I was out of Pokhran and on my way to Jaisalmer 100kms away. I reached the outskirts without incident but was then mugged by Jaisalmer tourism. Most of the Hotels in Jaisalmer have complete packages for the desert and employ hundlooms who ride numberless bikes and stop tourists before they enter the city and force them into buying a package which is typically ten thousand per couple. I managed to outmanoeuvre most but a pair of them riding an R15 V2.0 managed to corner me. They asked me come with them to buy the package, I said NO. Then they told me they would help me find a room. I said NO. They asked me why I am even going to Jaisalmer. I told them its none of their business. They let their guard off for a couple of seconds which was enough for me to start my bike and zoom away. Listlessly, they started pursuing but gave up as I entered the city.

The Golden city is beautiful. The divider on the road, street lights everything felt archaic. But it was like any other city, there was no desert! After a few enquiries I found out that Sam dunes were a further 40kms from the city. I began to doubt if I would ever catch the elusive desert.

Finally I was there just as the sun was setting. It was beautiful. Camels in the desert have a different charm. I stopped by a Dhaba to have a drink and to decide the next plan of action. I was planning to setup the tent I was carrying in the desert but wanted to ask around if it was safe.  A group of drivers in the Dhaba recognised me as the biker who overtook them on the way to Jaisalmer and were commenting on how fast I was riding. I felt proud. It was the Dhaba owner who changed the whole experience of my trip overnight. Madanlal, came out and started admiring my bike and gave me an advise which I should never have taken!

'Remove half the air in the tyres and try riding in the desert. We do it all the time'. 

I was tempted but knew the risks.

But soon with the help of his half smoked bedi, we partially emptied the tyres. He said he would help me fill air later by borrowing a pump from a truck. I happily rode off into the desert hoping to race some camels.

It was fun until I tried to climb a dune. I was stuck and for the first time I rev'ed up the engine to touch 12000rpm hoping to turn the bike around. Sand flew and the air was filled with smell of burnt rubber. I immediately left the engine to idle while the radiator started whirring and whining to cool down the engine. It took Madanlal, his helper and me ten minutes to get the bike back on road. I had enough and wanted to fill the tyres and get back to normalcy. The 2000km ride back home was looming ahead and I wanted to be in Bangalore or Mumbai for New Year which was just a couple of days away.

Stuck in the desert!!!

I wanted a photo first before getting 'unstuck'

Evil MadanLal

The pump was did not work. How much ever we tried, tire pressure would not increase! On close inspection, I noticed a gap between the tubeless tyre and the rim. My hands started sweating. I had no idea what to do. I decided to call the service centre again. It was already 6pm and the mechanics would be leaving. Luckily I could get him on the phone. With a tch tch he told me I need to find a place where they can realign the tyre to the rim. In middle of a desert? After I cut the call, Madanlal meekly told me that there is a puncture shop in a village 6kms away. I conceded, left with no other choice. He arranged a trolley who charged me ₹400 for the 6km ride. But it was worth because the high pressure pump fitted the tire back to the rim with a big bang and the pressure slowly started climbing. Relieved, I started my journey back to the Dhaba having decided to setup my tent beside it.

As I approached the Dhaba, I saw a Mahindra XUV and then three guys setting up a Quechua T3 tent in exactly the same place I decided to camp. It was really a pleasant surprise! It was how I met Mayank,  Neelesh and Amol, three businessmen with a magical XUV. They solved all my problems in aninstant-food, security, company and my bike tyre. I introduced myself and we soon became good friends. These guys were carrying marinated chicken tikka, malai chicken and salami which only needed to be roasted. They had tandoor and organic coals, and a foldable table for four, vegetables for salad, bread and provisions to make lemon chicken and finally alcohol! It was the best unexpected dinner I ever had. Mayank was a biker and when I told him my recent misadventure he laughed and told me their XUV was also stuck in the desert the previous day and a jeep which came to help them  also got stuck. Finally a tractor got them all out. As a precaution, I requested Mayank to examine my bike. To my dismay, the rear tyre was flat again! Mayank told me not to worry and that they had a 12V pump with them. He promised to help me the next morning. However, I was worried and had a very disturbed sleep. The harsh cold of the desert did not help and even my sleeping bag could not keep the cold away.

Table for four, they were three and I was the fourth! Divine intervention!

The magical XUV!

I woke up at 6am and stepped out of the tent. It was still freezing! By 9am, the sun was out and it was getting warmer by the minute. Desert indeed cools down fast and heats up fast too! Mayank and me set out to tackle my bike while Amol and Neelesh got busy with a DSLR and a tripod.

After 10 minutes we gave up. The 12V pump, lazily pumping in air, was no better than a hand pump. I was running out of options when suddenly I had a brilliant idea. Why not put a tube in the tubeless tyre? I conferred with Mayank and we decided its the best option. I hired the trolley again and headed back to the village hoping they could pull off the trick. Somehow the puncture shop guy was familiar with this trick and immediately agreed to do it. He had a bit of a trouble taking out the rear tyre and a lot of trouble putting it back and just missed breaking a sprocket. By the time he was done, the sprockets were totally out of calibration and the chain was making a harsh grating sound. But at least the rear tyre was inflated. I cautiously went back to the camping place and was itching to go back to Jaisalmer to find a Yamaha service centre and give the bike in for servicing. But the rest of the gang were busy with a photo session. Photo session was followed by breakfast of scrambled egg and toasted bread which Mayank prepared in the Dhaba with ingredients from the magical XUV and then we started back. I was still very cautious with the bike and never exceeded 80kmph. We were back in Jaisalmer after a little more than half an hour. I bid farewell to the gang who were heading back to Delhi and took a room having view of the fort, Hotel Mangalam. Hotels in Jaisalmer are expensive and this one costed me two thousand rupees but with the bike in a delicate state I didn't want any more hassles.

Unfortunately, it was a Sunday and the service center was closed. I decided to explore the tourist attractions. Jaisalmer fort was magnificent. One can sit in one of the many roof top restaurants, enjoying the splendid view of The Golden City while devouring momos. I just loved it. Sunset point and Gadsisar lake were mediocre except for the flock of pigeons, sub-flocks of which periodically take off and scour the lake for food. I missed going to the Tanot Mata temple, which was very close to the Pakisthan border and manned by the Indian army, because of time constraints. I heard artillery shells can be found scattered in the desert.

Truly a golden city!

On top of Jaisalmer fort. I love this place because there are neither guards nor restrictions!

A tourist enjoying the view, and moms.

Rooftop restaurent

Walking tall and strong, Jayanth in Jaisalmer fort

Through the arch, Gadsisar Lake, Jaisalmer

After sightseeing and a good night's rest, with my bike chain still making a harsh sound, I went to the service centre the next day. It was an extremely small shop manned by a single guy. But he was an expert. Not only did he solve my current problem but he solved other problems which the Hyderabad guys couldn't. He also assured me that riding with the tube is just fine. At 11am, I checkout and started for Mumbai.

It was 30th December and I had a little more than a day to make it to Mumbai in time for New Year. Jaisalmer to Mumbai via Ahmedabad and Vadodara was 1500kms. I rode like a maniac, all day and all night, without rest and without sleep. After 24hours of food, fuel and go, I was 300kms from Mumbai and very sleepy. After having narrowly missed hitting a van the second time I dozed off while riding, I took a dilapidated room for five hours and slept.

It was good catching up with Nishit and his wife Madhura for new year, and Rahul and his wife Shruti the next day. We met for the first time after college after 6 years! A treat in Mad Over Donuts and three boxes packed for the journey was the cherry on the pie.

The ride back was quite eventful - caught twice by the Mumbai police for inadvertently venturing onto the Mumbai expressway and having to cough up Rs200 and Rs800 (why don't they have proper signs?) and much later, stopped by the police patrol only to be told that a green car was tailing me with the intension of robbing me (fabricated to extract some cash out of me for the good advise), and some really bad roads around Bidar, I was finally home.

This 4,200km trip had several after effects on my bike and me. Soon after returning, the headlights, side indicators and the horn stopped working. As for me, for a couple of weeks after the trip, I was hallucinating blurred images of lights zooming past me-when sitting, eating, coding and more when trying to sleep. But it sure was one hell of a trip!