Customer technical training at Royal Enfield.

During my lifetime, I had been a customer of many thingy, be it a Mobike, Bicycle, Television, Music Player, Refrigerator, Mobile Phone, DigiCam, etc., etc., But, so far I had never come across a programme where the seller gives  training to the customer for efficient usage of the product. At the most a manual / pamphlet accompany the product which would be advising on the Do’s and Don’ts while using the product. In rare cases, there come online tutorials.

But, the legend called Royal Enfield stands out of the crowd.

You need to just own a Royal Enfield bullet and that qualifies you for a training programme at their official Training Centre in Chennai. It was a one day program which is given for free, that too with a lunch.

More than attending the training, the feeling of associated with the courteousness, the team at Royal Enfield provides, does stand in my memory of customer service experience.

Now comes my experience of the day long itinerary.

The programme was scheduled to start sharply at 9.00 a.m. I set my morning alarm for 3.15 a.m.

Why?

I live at Cuddalore which is 200 kms away from Chennai and a bus journey of 4.5 hours adds up into my itinerary, if I have to whiz for any program at our namma Chennai. 

Got up at 3.30 a.m. and was able to set off from home at 4.30. 

What else will be pleasant, apart from walking for 15 minutes to the bus stand. At this early in the morning, there were none on this busiest of the roads in my town Cuddalore. Only a few bikes were whizzing past me, while I set my foot forward, to catch the ECR Chennai bus. Bit lucky, that there was no autowallah on the way. He might have seduced me to travel in the autorickshaw and could have plundered away my awesome experience of lonely walk early in the morning.

After 15 minutes of walk, an ECR bus to Chennai was coming out of the bus stand. There was no waste of time then. Reached Tiruvanmiyur at 8.30 a.m. Morning was less of traffic on the ECR and I am bit lucky to be on time as planned. The 30 minute gap was just sufficient time to reach the RE training centre but not to add a breakfast for my hungry stomach. I planned to skip breakfast and head straight into the Tiruvanmiyur Metro Bus depot to catch the bus. To my luck, there was a lady selling hot idlies near the bus depot. Pushed off 4 idlis within three minutes and went inside the depot. In a few minutes got to the bus.

Reached the bus stop on the OMR nearer to the training centre after a 20 minute journey. I am new to this place and alighted at this bus stop as instructed by the training coordinator of RE the previous day. At the bus stop, a man there, directed me to walk towards Mahabs. After a 10 minute walk on the busy but wide road, I realized that I was on the wrong direction. Now, it was too tiring on my mind to walk back the distance and then head-on to the correct spot. I then approached an auto, got into it to pay Rs.25 for a less than two kms ride back in the direction. 

Any way reached the spot and walked my way into the narrow roads to the RE training centre.

Got to meet one Pondicherry guy, a owner of ThunderBird. Realized that it would take another half hour for the training to start.

Got to peep into the showroom there, the Royal Enfield Stand Storm pulled me to come nearer and have a look. A Classic Bullet was also there making its commanding presence. There were few other guys awaiting for the training programme.

It was around 10.00 a.m. and totally there were some 12+ guys getting into the training hall for the interesting session throughout the day. First we were shown a video on the history of RE. Realized that the coming of the business and running of such a huge staple, is not that kinda a simple thing in the history of Royal Enfield. At one juncture, the swarming of 100CC Japanese bikes have left a dent in the staples of this legend.

Though initially bullets were coming from Redith in UK to India, now its different. Royal Enfield Bullets are only made in India and exported to many countries in the world.

Got to know that Royal Enfield is the first 4 Stroke two wheeler introduced in India. Initial period saw it being used by the military.

Then we were shown the simpler things that can be done in daily maintenance of the bullet. To my dismay, I have a right gear shift bullet and the tutorial were fully on the new UCE models which has left gear shift. Of the people attending, 4 of us were possessing Right Shifts.

Though RE has stopped right shifts owing to the stricter emission norms, die hard fans of RE, do vouch for the right shifts. Many of the tutorials had general maintenance procedures for the bullets and it can be applied for the right shifts too.But, a similar training for the old type of right shift geared vehicles would be of more help.

What came next was lunch. We had a tasty lunch at the second floor and then came back to the show room. In the afternoon, there got to click the photogenic bullets. 

After clicking the powerful road chicks, the session in the training hall continued.

 Engines of different models adore the sides of the training hall.  

The post lunch session called upon the real touch. We were exposed to the skeleton of the bullet. The parts of the bullet were assembled on a board and we were explained of the functions of each of them.

Then we were shown the engines of the old type bullet as well as new types. 

 The cut section of the bullet engines raised the curiosity in us.

One  of the participants was asked to meddle with the engine. Got to know the different vital parts inside this 350 CC engines.

This was a wonderful opportunity to learn more about the vehicles we own. Thanks to the great efforts on the part of Royal Enfield to give enough of thought to give us such a needed awesome experience as a possessor of Royal Enfield.

Don't miss the whole bunch of the interesting pictures here.

TiECON CHENNAI 2011

An opportunity to hear from the eminent business leaders on what really is the success and  what is the real pain they underwent in making the achievements in their business. Alas they are making the Indian Economy moving up on the right path. Thats whatz TiECON Chennai in a nutshell for me.

TiECON Chennai is a premier event happening in namma Chennai at the Chennai Convention Centre on 24 Nov 2011. That's tomo. 

Yours truly is proud to be part of this mega event. I am part of the Social Media Journalists covering this event. 

Last year it had been an interesting moments at the TiECON Chennai 2010 event with clicking some interesting photographs. 

Click below for my prev. yr event

Write up is here  

My photography at the event

The journey to the tomo's event starts today. Catching up the train to Chennai. Leaving Cuddalore by this afternoon, reaching my Chennai home at Nanganallur by dusk. If you are coming to TiECON tomo, please buzz me at 9944945559, Let's catch up.

If you are willing to bikepool or carpool me.. Let catch up tomo!

Stay tuned for the photographs.

Tweetup - Royal Enfield Factory tour

I had the opportunity to go for a factory tour of the Royal Enfield factory situated at Tiruvottiyur in Chennai. 

This tour is called Tweetup which is specifically for the twitter fans of Royal Enfield. If you are there on Twitter, you may also become a fan of Royal Enfield and get the interactive Twitter updates of the Royal Enfield.

The tweetup was schedule at 2.30 p.m. on 11th June 2011, a Saturday.

My colleague Mohan Babu an avid bullet enthusiastic, joined with me for this tweet-up. For us, from Cuddalore, this 2 hour tweet-up would mean a total of 16 hour endeavor.  The day started for me at 4.00 a.m. with catching the Villupuram bus at 5.00 a.m. at the Cuddalore bus stand.

Reached my Father In Law’s house early and took some time there. Wife and children were there, so spent some time disturbing my wife out of her sleep while my kids are still in slumber. Remember, if she is in her parent’s house she usually gets off from her sleep much delayed. Quite usual for our ladies whenever they are with their mum and dad!!.

Spent some time there with taking a short nap myself and then having breakfast and left from there at 8.15 a.m. to the Villupuram railway station. Mohan Babu left Cuddalore by 7.30 a.m. and we planned to join together at Villupuram for the 9.15 a.m. Pallavan Superfast train.

9.00 a.m. : Reached the Villupuram Rail Station, bought the tickets for two of us, went to the platform where Mohan Babu joined me. Noel sir was also there and he is also going to Chennai by the same train but in the AC coach. So caught up with him chatting for quite some time on the platform.

Noel Sir is one of the senior most person; he has reckoned more than 3 decades of service in our organization MRF and he is now a consultant trainer. He is an inspiration for us in terms of punctuality. He has reached the railway station by 8.15 itself and waiting for the train. 

The Pallavan Superfast train arrived little late at about 9.25, and Noel Sir went to the AC coach and we went to the unreserved coach. Though we were optimistic of getting a seat to sit during this 3 hour journey till Egmore Rail Station, we were drawn aback by the fully packed Un-Reserved coaches of the Pallavan Superfast Train. After some hard efforts, we two managed to squeeze  into the coach. We managed to travel standing in the train for the first 2 hours of the journey. Luckily we got to sit after the train reached Chengalpet. 

Finally we arrived Egmore Rail Station at 12.30 p.m. We got to see off Noel Sir; bid him adieu and went to the Vasantha Bhavan hotel opposite to the railway station. Had lunch and then came back to the Egmore Rail Station to get the local EMU train to the Chennai Beach Rail Station. We were anew to this locality and was treading this route as advised by one of my friends with a vague mind. We were seeking to know of the bus routes and the distance ahead for us from the passerby. The experience was nice recalling myself of past memories of going on long tours without knowing the local knowledge. Finally we caught the right MTC bus and reached the Tiruvottiyur bus terminus. Then after a short walk of 5 minutes we got to the legendry Royal Enfield factory.

The first sight that invited us was this board. There was a gate on the left side and we went into it. What caught our eyes were a line up of Royal Enfield bullets in Battle Green colour which were ready for dispatch. We were then told by the security personnel of another gate meant for visitors and we then walked past right side of this board. Finally reached the factory.

As planned, we two were nearly half hour ahead of the schedule. We were asked to wait at the reception area. 

Thats Mohan Babu my colleague and Shri Nidhi an avid travel blogger of Tata Nano Superdrive fame awaiting at the reception area.

At the reception area we got to grasp this nice book and flipped through the interesting stories around the legend called the Enfield Bullet which has an history of more than half century. The book costs Rs.1,500.

The antique V-Twin bullet. Clicked from insides of the book.

It was about 3.00 p.m. and we got invited by Mr.Praveen who gave us an interesting talk at the Conf. room in the second floor of the building.

Got to know from him that the Adventure Bike of the Royal Enfield which is now being conceptualized will be out into the market in another couple of years. The great thing about this adventure bike is that, you need not worry of the fuel price hikes; you need not worry about non-availability of fuel at demanding locations. If you get petrol, fill your bullet with it, if not? get diesel, if not? get kerosene. If not? get gasoline. If not? get vegetable oil. ...

This bike can be run in 6 different kinda fuel which suits your pocket and which is available easily for you. I direly need this bike!!

There were now 7 people in our tweetup and two more needed to join. So, Mr.Praveen was awaiting for the other two gentlemen. We then got two magazines one is a regular magazine "The Beat" which gives out catchy updates and stories behind the happenings around the enigma called Royal Enfield. The other one is the Trip Calendar for the year 2011. Royal Enfield conducts trips around interesting places with duration ranging from 1 day to 15 days. The God of all these trips is the Himalayan Odyssey which occurs every July.  I dream of getting into the next one as a photographer. Let all things work out for my good.

The much awaited factory came the next. We were advised on the Dos and Don’ts while visiting the factory shop floor. 

Generally speaking, its rarest of the rare cases where people outside of the business are permitted to visit a manufacturing facility.  But, Royal Enfield is a forerunner in throwing the red carpet to we the twitter freaks to glimpse the magnificent beasts while they are getting into shape right from the bolts and nuts to be flying, be it the dirtiest track to the world's highest roads.

These are the accessories which are to come out of the staples of RE. A well designed Tool Box, Rain Wear for the bullet riders formed part of them. RE is opening up for its riders to buy. The products are well designed and catchy.

Then we got to be clicked of a group photograph.

The march into the factory premises starts now...

We were then lead into the engine assembly area. Photography of the high tech machinery is forbidden. He got to enrich us about the steps taken in making of the engines. There is a production line in which the workers assemble the parts. As the engine travels in the assembly line, different parts are fixed into the engine. As a mistake proofing, only one type of engine is produced at a time. 

The engine which is fully built is taken off in a trolley and it is tuned. For this its fixed on a skeletal bullet and started. If the engine confirms to their spec, its okay ed and sent out. 

Then we were enthusiastic to click these curvy bullets on the shop floor.

But we got driven down of our pomp, when we heard from Mr.Praveen that these were the bullets that have failed in the quality tests and are awaiting for the re-exam.

Though many of us got to see so many videos of the handcrafting process of striping of the Bullet Tanks on the internet; I got to see this process in person there. It was awesomeness at its peak for me. Got much elated with the precision in which the person stroked the paint on the tank of the bullet. 

This is the paint shop 

This is an export model of bullet “Standard 500” the aesthetic design really ROCKS. It was hard time to leave off from this spot, since the chicky Std 500 make its pull. 

Another group photo with the Standard 500 Bullet rocking in the middle.

Then we were glimpsed of the process called chromium coating.

We were forbidden to click the assembly line from nearer distance. Got to click this at the border from where photography is permitted.

The finished bikes comes out of the assembly line.

 

What you see is the real test of the bullet at top speeds. Got to watch a bullet being ridden at an excess of 110 kmph.

After the bullets pass the dyno tes, they are then ridden on a test track.

The tweetup ended at 4.30 p.m. and we bid adieu to Mr.Praveen who took his effort and time in giving us a memorable life time experience of the legend called Royal Enfield.

The whole set of photographs are available at my FaceBook here.

The Hand Crafting at Royal Enfield

As one come across any Ad by Royal Enfield, it says "Handcrafted in Chennai".

Yesterday, I got to go for a guided tour of the Royal Enfield factory situated at Tiruvottiyur in Chennai. This meetup is called tweetup, which is for the twitter fans of RoyalEnfield.

Got the luck to see the real handcrafting of petrol tanks of the bullet.

Had a short chat with Mr.Jai Kumar who is doing this real awesome job of handcrafting for the past more than one & a half decade.

The Trek Polama experience

I have been a member of CTC for quite more than a year. But the hardest fact is that, I have not participated even in any single trek so far. Being a member of the online group of CTC, I get the email updates of the treks posted by people who have finished their forest trips. This has made me contended of empowerment of knowledge of the forests and the eco system existing in South India. Myself being farther from Chennai (Cuddalore is 200kms  away) its a challenge to join in the treks organized by the Chennai Trekking Club given my 6 day work week.

But, I am sure to make to one of the treks in the near future.

The symposium "Trek Polama" happened on Sunday, the 27^th of March'11 at the IIT –Madras campus. Being a Sunday, I am lucky to make to the event.

After my office on Saturday, caught the bus from Pondy to Chennai. Got to reach my Chennai home in the night, have dinner and then go check the internet and update my travel plans for the next day.

The bird walk is the first gala opener in this event and it was scheduled at 5.30 a.m. Spoke on mobile with Kartik Kannan who is living at Madipakkam to know on how to go about the next day. He is coming by Nanganallur and myself wanted to join him & bike pooled to IIT campus.

As planned, in the morning, we were to catch up at the Roja Medicals at Nanganallur. Alas Kartik missed the path and came to the spot after some hard efforts. Thanks Kartik for all the help at that odd hour.

Then we went to Kartik’s house and his wife Janani joined us for Trek Polama. From Madikpakkam we three got in two bikes and went into the IIT Campus through the Velachery side entrance. Man!! it was very near. I earlier thought that Nanganallur was en-route for Kartik and he will be going to GST road and then reach IIT-M.

If not for Kartik, I would have travelled to IIT-M through the GST road and might have travelled double the distance at that odd hour. He took arduous task of coming down from Madipakkam to Nanganallur, getting confused with the roads, driving some extra kilometers and finally catching me at the Roja medicals and then conveying me back to his house and we finally reached IIT through Velachery.

The Bird Walk is at 5.30 a.m. and we were amply on time.

Deepak my friend and the coordinator (an ornithologist) of this bird walk were there. Got to the see Deepak after so long a time.

And that's Janani and Kartik...

There were some 40 people ready for the walk and it exactly started at 5.30 a.m. with Deepak segregating the people into two groups and giving directions for us to go ahead. We joined with the first  group and Ponniah was the knowledge person who explained about the different names of the birds. Whooa, these many birds!!

That's Ponniah, explaining about the birds... 

I never imagined of so such large forest area inside the IIT-M campus. I was pretty dumb struck with the vastness of the woods and the existence of large ponds and greenery inside the IIT campus.

There was one bird which Ponniah told of the rarity kinda. I happened to click this pic on my cam. But, since it was too far away, it was not too clear. I am sure you are able to see that bird in the above pic. Just then the bird flew away. Ponniah asked if anybody have clicked it and he direly need the picture of this rare bird. Though it was too blurred picture, it was just a memorable click. The name of the bird is orange brested green pigeon.

It was observed that few of the bird walkers were clicking their cameras with “FLASH ON”. This resulted in the birds flying off due to frightening. I realized this after half way  into the event and prompted them  to swith off their flashes. My kind advise to newbie photographers is not to use the flash while you click in the wild. The forest or the woods is for the birds and the animals and we are actually guests there. So keep in mind not to disturb them. Also, your effort to capture them in your camera is defeated if your flash is ON.

Then the time ticked past 7.00 a.m. and it was a time to cling on to “Basic Photography” session scheduled at the CLT auditorium which is around 1 km away from these woods. So we bid adieu to the bird walkers. Kartik, his wife Janani and myself walked past to the audi.

It was nearing 7.30 and Kartik and his wife went for breakfast. I skipped breakfast and went on to catch the Photography session at the audi. Lucky me, Bhagat of Makka Sudios who is giving this session is yet to come and start. 

When I got into the audi, Rajnikanth, the coordinator for the session was introducing the participants.

Finally Bhagat arrived and started the session. He continued with telling about the intrinsic details involved in photography. He started the introduction session with querying the participants on how they started into photography. It was an interesting session. It would have been a more interesting one, if he shared his works with us and explained on how to get a better photograph.

It was around 9.30 a.m. when the event kick started with Peter and a senior  professor from IIT-M giving the intro talk. 

Then Peter gave the session on Maps, GPS and Navigation session. Surprised to know of the vast of information available for anyone to learn. The way the trails are discovered using different kinda maps are mesmerizing. It was an awesome session with Peter throwing us knowledge on the various maps available.

The treasure hunt is in progress. Seems someone has succeeded hunting the treasure.

Then there was a session by Mr.Rass's on the restoration of Adyar poonga. The spot which once was a place full of mounds of filth have been turned into a nice eco park in about 5 years. Half a decade back the same spot was with rubbish which were shown through photos and the tireless effort by him did bear fruit with now the park in Chennai inviting people to enjoy, as well as the species which work in balancing the eco system of the estuary to live. He showed the photos of Auroville taken during the 1968 and the present scenario. Awestruck to know that Auroville was once a barren place and now the vegetation has developed a green canopy with continuous efforts of the people. Ross has played a vital role in that too. He himself pats down that these works are only a drop in a bucket of water; there are still mountains of work that need to be done in the current scenario to restore our environment.

Then came Sujai’s talk on mountaineering. This guy has completed mountaineering course and have successfully done mountaineering upto 17,000 feet. Whoooaaah. He gave a presentation which had the pics of the mountaineering tools that were needed if you wanna trek the higher altitudes. Such a crisp and clear details and a simple and powerful presentation made the audience decide to go for a mountaineering. 4 institutes run by the government are there in our country which makes the people get trained to climb the mountains. The fact is that, the fees for a full month course is Rs.4,000 and it comprises of food, accommodation and the training. The actual expense towards this mountaineering course is 5 fold which is taken care by the government of India.

Had a tasty lunch...

Post lunch session was a talk on “The Snakes of India” by Sujan Bernard. We were spell bound on seeing the nice photographs of those magnificent species. He gave a demo on how to handle a snake bite. He gave some of the interesting facts about the snakes. If an agriculture field has many snakes, it means that the field is fertile. Ohhhh! So far, I only thought that snakes in the fields are bad for the human visitors. Got to know of the actual fact behind the existence of the snakes.

Then there was a session by noted noted wild life activist Mr.Shekar Dattatri . He elucidated on the efforts against mining taken by him to restore the eco system on Kudremukh. He pepped us on how we the nature conscious trekkers can do their bit in safeguarding the wild, as well as create awareness through the internet. 

Then came the talk on how to build your own cost effective houses by yourself. The trend to build yourself an house will definitely cut costs. This system of using the unburnt bricks and the non dependence of the cement goes a long way in making an environment friendly method. She is to start constructing houses made of bamboo and wet bricks in different places around Chennai. I am interested to make a visit to the bamboo house while it being built. Let’s see.

Then came the session “Photography paadhi, post processing paadhi” by Ashok Saravanan. We were given an astonishing act. A portrait photograph which had a dark face and a bright background was processed and the face was brightened. But I understand that this could be done by people who own a DSLR and not me as I have only a P&S camera.

Its now past dusk. A panel discussion on eco conservation called “TrekX” came up. 

Eminent people were present in the discussion. Noted environmentalist Mr.Sekar Dattatri made for a thought provoking discussion. The things that I minuted out of this discussion were... 
1.)The forest is home for the wild animals, we the trekkers are actually the guests. Keep in mind that you are peeping into the privacy of the wild. Be a responsible trekker. Do not disturb them.
2.) Its not a tour that you go into the forests. It is actually a home to a variety of species. Even if you are sure that you are not disturbing the forest eco system, your foot steps are actually killing a small number of speicies that are living on the soil. Mind it.
3.)Do not make unnecessary noise while in the forests. You are actually disturbing the animals there. Actually you are a guest, obey accordingly.
4.) Make sure that your attire is not of alluring colour. Animals are not comfortable.
5.) Keep your group size to the minimum.

Actually the one day Trek Polama event had given me a lot of knowledge on the forests and the wild life. Had I been not there, I would be poorer of the empowerment of the knowledge on the forest eco system, birds, photography, eco conservation, cost-effective housing, mapping, snakes, mountains, mountaineering, etc, etc..,

I bet that, it’s a very rare kinda to get empowered of a vast and diverse knowledge in a single day. My kudos to Chennai Trekking Club.

Come on Chennai, Come on CTC. May the treks go on for ever. May the people like me learn more on forests.

More of the photos are available at my FaceBook. Don't miss them

Last but not the least; My big thanks to the team which has missed their sleep for days & nights together; put in their effort to make this a successful event.