Baja diaries
I was late writing on this but decided to make it on my blog before it is too late...
It was mid January when we all started to work seriously for Baja 2011, the annual event conducted by SAE India for college students... Just visit www.bajasaeindia.org for more details...
For some of us baja was familiar being there already, but for some it was a new experience!
The day we knew we will be there for BAJA we had a sigh of relief that finally our GET period which was becoming very boring, finally had something exciting!
We were pulled into the organizing team just sometime back and were all given few responsibilities. I was never interested in doing all the organizing work and much to my joy I was given responsibilities where I had not much work to do :-) .
So I was just waiting for the final days so that I can finally start working for something.
Being on the other side I found you can never substitute being a participant at baja! Being a participant is the most wonderful experience at Baja . To do all that hard work to build your own car and race with it is just awesome! That is what I realized at least!
But being at baja and seeing at the other side of things I realized that things on the other side are very difficult! To mobilize resources and people to an event of such magnitude where you have different individuals and a lot of sponsors who are just there to drive their own ambitions takes a lot of toll on the people organizing it.
There were only few people in the scene you could well probably see there for the passion towards racing and trying to to help the student fraternity. I could see a lot of them just there to loiter around and show off! But all that sinks in the passion that the participants show in the event, it is just awesome, I remembered the day we cleared the break test! last year, we were in a lot of tension as the breaks of our car were not locking! Somehow we cleared it and we all had a party that night! It is such a joy.
But coming to better part of my experience this year, it started of a week before the event when we went to the site on 19 Jan for meeting all the volunteers and gave them training about the event! though the day started of bad! it became better as it approached evening. I had some of my friends who came directly from our plant to the site! till then I was like feeling dumb and deserted in that place! so we went off and decided to take some pics of the site! from the hill! We were forced to stop midway on the hill, thanks to the new barbed fence put up by the committee to control the village crowd! Disappointed I was, but happy enough to take a look at the site from there and it was just awesome to see the track from there, with the sun setting down! So as we came back we decided to meet few important people before we left, one was Harshit Merchant, a true auto geek under whose guidance and vision the whole event has turned out into the shape that it is today! You meet him and you will become a fan of him and I am One, And other one was Hari Singh, a rally champion. Dint find time to meet both of them. So as it was getting late we decided to move and meanwhile I was asked come to my plant to join the second shift (how pathetic it was) so started to make a move until we were stopped by a splendidly rising full moon on the sky just behind the Bijason hill ( the hill which just is on one side of the Baja track) , the moon just lit up the entire sky as it was moving up! so we decided to take some pics! It reminded of the moon we had seen last year at the same place during baja! That time it was even more brighter and you could see all the participants awe struck by the brilliance of it, it was like a huge lamp that was being carried away by a helium balloon behind the hill!
So as we started off we were following Harshit and Hari who were on the atvs, it was a treat to watch them move! and to follow on their trail seeing the dust raise and through the dust seeing the full moon in the sky rising under a purple patch in the sky, that is a scene I can never get off my head for years to come by and I wish I had a camera in my hand but I still remember it and it and it feels awesome.
So on the way back home we were asked to accompany harshit to airport for his flight, so we all already amazed by his presence wanted to know about him! one of us was already mad about him (she) decided to ask a intro from him, he without hesitating told what he does and about his interests and then went on telling how Baja was organized last year and what he expected form us ! As I said before u can't stop liking him he is just awesome! the way he talks and his style!
I had get down midway and then went to the plant, still reeling in the experience I had in the day I went and Googled about Harshit, got to know what he does! he has his own firm which organizes driving weekends for people who are interested in exploring India and at the sametime have passion for driving, GOOGLE Exoterra for more details. So finally we had the one of the wonderful experiences BAJA had in store for us!
On the 25 th of Jan, just two days for the event to begin we were all asked to assemble at a common place! Seriously we did not have much work to do! Some of my friends found something else interesting so were busy with that work! god knows why! so we just went, started chit chatting and suddenly I was told to pick up two racers from Jk tyre racing, and guide them to the Baja site, I was told that I will be accompanied by someone from natrip! But no one turned up I had to accompany them on my own! as always I don't interact well with strangers so it was difficult in the beginning but after I reached the site, all that started as being boring turned out to be fun as I asked Rayo, one of the racer whether he can take me on a ride! on the Atv, but he insisted Rohitas the other racer is better, much more to his advice the ride started of to be a awesome experience! Though riding the Atv yourself is much better , but sitting at the back of a pro is also a lot of fun! we went around the entire track and saw it completely! Rohitas was a excellent and fearless driver, sitting back I just was thinking that I am having a very good time. he gave advice on how to lean on the vehicle in the corner for better cornering, the ride on the hill climb track was the most awesome part,the track was bit too steep almost 40 degree slope and very narrow and dangerous,climbing the hill with the atv as awesome and exciting, but during the event I found that it was not as hard as assumed to be, Maneuverability test track wad the most awesome track of all ! It had boulders, sand , logs and was much narrower than last year track. But the sad part is more than 60 percent of the teams didn't have time to take part in this event!
So as both the Racers started to give advice to the event organizers to change and correct the track. I could just be a spectator and listen to their advice and try to add something to the discussion :-)! So at the end of the day I was more than just happy though I missed my lunch and didn't get anything to eat till seven in the evening!
I was just lost in the awesome experience I had!
I was late writing on this but decided to make it on my blog before it is too late...
It was mid January when we all started to work seriously for Baja 2011, the annual event conducted by SAE India for college students... Just visit www.bajasaeindia.org for more details...
For some of us baja was familiar being there already, but for some it was a new experience!
The day we knew we will be there for BAJA we had a sigh of relief that finally our GET period which was becoming very boring, finally had something exciting!
We were pulled into the organizing team just sometime back and were all given few responsibilities. I was never interested in doing all the organizing work and much to my joy I was given responsibilities where I had not much work to do :-) .
So I was just waiting for the final days so that I can finally start working for something.
Being on the other side I found you can never substitute being a participant at baja! Being a participant is the most wonderful experience at Baja . To do all that hard work to build your own car and race with it is just awesome! That is what I realized at least!
But being at baja and seeing at the other side of things I realized that things on the other side are very difficult! To mobilize resources and people to an event of such magnitude where you have different individuals and a lot of sponsors who are just there to drive their own ambitions takes a lot of toll on the people organizing it.
There were only few people in the scene you could well probably see there for the passion towards racing and trying to to help the student fraternity. I could see a lot of them just there to loiter around and show off! But all that sinks in the passion that the participants show in the event, it is just awesome, I remembered the day we cleared the break test! last year, we were in a lot of tension as the breaks of our car were not locking! Somehow we cleared it and we all had a party that night! It is such a joy.
But coming to better part of my experience this year, it started of a week before the event when we went to the site on 19 Jan for meeting all the volunteers and gave them training about the event! though the day started of bad! it became better as it approached evening. I had some of my friends who came directly from our plant to the site! till then I was like feeling dumb and deserted in that place! so we went off and decided to take some pics of the site! from the hill! We were forced to stop midway on the hill, thanks to the new barbed fence put up by the committee to control the village crowd! Disappointed I was, but happy enough to take a look at the site from there and it was just awesome to see the track from there, with the sun setting down! So as we came back we decided to meet few important people before we left, one was Harshit Merchant, a true auto geek under whose guidance and vision the whole event has turned out into the shape that it is today! You meet him and you will become a fan of him and I am One, And other one was Hari Singh, a rally champion. Dint find time to meet both of them. So as it was getting late we decided to move and meanwhile I was asked come to my plant to join the second shift (how pathetic it was) so started to make a move until we were stopped by a splendidly rising full moon on the sky just behind the Bijason hill ( the hill which just is on one side of the Baja track) , the moon just lit up the entire sky as it was moving up! so we decided to take some pics! It reminded of the moon we had seen last year at the same place during baja! That time it was even more brighter and you could see all the participants awe struck by the brilliance of it, it was like a huge lamp that was being carried away by a helium balloon behind the hill!
So as we started off we were following Harshit and Hari who were on the atvs, it was a treat to watch them move! and to follow on their trail seeing the dust raise and through the dust seeing the full moon in the sky rising under a purple patch in the sky, that is a scene I can never get off my head for years to come by and I wish I had a camera in my hand but I still remember it and it and it feels awesome.
So on the way back home we were asked to accompany harshit to airport for his flight, so we all already amazed by his presence wanted to know about him! one of us was already mad about him (she) decided to ask a intro from him, he without hesitating told what he does and about his interests and then went on telling how Baja was organized last year and what he expected form us ! As I said before u can't stop liking him he is just awesome! the way he talks and his style!
I had get down midway and then went to the plant, still reeling in the experience I had in the day I went and Googled about Harshit, got to know what he does! he has his own firm which organizes driving weekends for people who are interested in exploring India and at the sametime have passion for driving, GOOGLE Exoterra for more details. So finally we had the one of the wonderful experiences BAJA had in store for us!
On the 25 th of Jan, just two days for the event to begin we were all asked to assemble at a common place! Seriously we did not have much work to do! Some of my friends found something else interesting so were busy with that work! god knows why! so we just went, started chit chatting and suddenly I was told to pick up two racers from Jk tyre racing, and guide them to the Baja site, I was told that I will be accompanied by someone from natrip! But no one turned up I had to accompany them on my own! as always I don't interact well with strangers so it was difficult in the beginning but after I reached the site, all that started as being boring turned out to be fun as I asked Rayo, one of the racer whether he can take me on a ride! on the Atv, but he insisted Rohitas the other racer is better, much more to his advice the ride started of to be a awesome experience! Though riding the Atv yourself is much better , but sitting at the back of a pro is also a lot of fun! we went around the entire track and saw it completely! Rohitas was a excellent and fearless driver, sitting back I just was thinking that I am having a very good time. he gave advice on how to lean on the vehicle in the corner for better cornering, the ride on the hill climb track was the most awesome part,the track was bit too steep almost 40 degree slope and very narrow and dangerous,climbing the hill with the atv as awesome and exciting, but during the event I found that it was not as hard as assumed to be, Maneuverability test track wad the most awesome track of all ! It had boulders, sand , logs and was much narrower than last year track. But the sad part is more than 60 percent of the teams didn't have time to take part in this event!
So as both the Racers started to give advice to the event organizers to change and correct the track. I could just be a spectator and listen to their advice and try to add something to the discussion :-)! So at the end of the day I was more than just happy though I missed my lunch and didn't get anything to eat till seven in the evening!
I was just lost in the awesome experience I had!
