Developing India - Inclusive Growth

(co-authored with Ashish and valuable inputs given by dad)

India has witnessed a significant increase in its GDP at an average rate of 6% from 1991 to 2008 since the economic reforms. But India is still ranked at 134 among 182 nations in the Human Development Index and its Gini coefficient is 32.5 showing that the top 10% owned 33% of all the wealth in the nation. This large discrepancy between growth and social development indicators reinforces the point that India's growth did not improve the lives of marginalised sections instead it widened the chasm between the rich and the poor.

India's social sector spending at 6.72% of GDP is the lowest among the BRIC nations and way below the developed nations. Social sector spending has an inverse relationship with inequality. Indian government should increase its budgeted social sector spending but should be cautious about fiscal deficit. Excessive fiscal deficit leads to high inflation which impacts the lower income group. The government can achieve the additional budget by reducing its spending on subsidies. Subsidies have been criticized by the World Bank as responsible for economic inefficiency. The government should redirect funds from unproductive subsides towards social sector spending.

NREGA was implemented with an objective to provide wage employment in rural areas, create durable assets and ensure food security. NREGA has been instrumental in providing employment opportunities and setting higher minimum wages. The panchayat raj plays a major role by registering applicants and providing employment opportunities. But, panchayats have no financial strength of their own to meet the functional mandates. The central government and state government meet the costs of wages and unemployment allowances. This incomplete devolution of funds is perhaps the biggest challenge to the effective functioning of panchayats. The central government should provide the necessary funds to the panchayats and hold them accountable. Panchayats can then become the principal authority for planning and implementation at grassroots levels.

Even after 62 years of independence majority of the population still depends on agriculture. For achieving inclusive growth and to give much needed encouragement to agriculture, steps have to be taken. Support prices for agricultural produce should be fixed by following the costing method used in industry. Factors like cost of capital (land value), labour costs (labour put in by the farmer and his family members), cost of inputs (seeds, fertilizers, pesticides etc), risk premium and profit margin should be given due weightage. This step will put more income in the hands of farmers. They will be able to adopt capital intensive production methods, reduce dependence on money lenders and will not require subsidies. If additional incomes from allied agriculture and cottage/agri based industries are also generated more capital will be created in villages. Automatically infrastructure facilities and quality of life will improve in rural areas and migration from rural to urban will get reversed.

When the support prices of agriculture produce are fixed by proper costing methods it might lead to a rise in food inflation. To protect vulnerable sections like landless labour, daily wage earners, marginal farmers, unorganized sector employees and unemployed proper social security measures are required. Targeted subsidies aimed at these sections will help alleviate the impact on these sections and also contribute towards keeping the subsidy burden within acceptable limits. The government should revamp the delivery mechanism for subsidized food grains, minimum wages, health insurance and unemployment doles. The “unique identification number” project will prove to be immensely useful in this context and help in delivering targeted subsidies.

Microcredit is the extension of very small loans to those in poverty designed to spur entrepreneurship. Microcredit emphasizes building capacity of a micro entrepreneur, employment generation and help to micro-entrepreneur during difficult times. Microcredit firms have helped build women entrepreneurs in India. Indian urban markets have a wafer thin profit margin for fast-moving consumer goods and are near saturation. These women entrepreneurs, with the help of loans from microcredit firms, market FMCG goods in the villages for the multinational companies. Microcredit organizations will be in forefront for building countless self sustaining businesses in the coming years.

In recent past, Brazilian government has been making strides in the sphere of social development. Programs such as Bolsa Família, Fome Zero etc have made a decisive contribution to the unprecedented reduction in poverty and inequality that has occurred in recent years. These examples show that by targeting the sections which have been bypassed by the last wave of growth, India too can uplift millions of people still trapped in poverty and make them the engines of growth for the future.




References

1. http://www.indiadevelopmentblog.com/2009/10/hdi-towards-more-representative-index.html
2. http://www.indiadevelopmentblog.com/2009/02/inclusive-growth.html
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_disparities_in_India
4. http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Chidambaram-argues-for-faster-reforms-inclusive-growth/525767/
5. http://business.mapsofindia.com/india-gdp/growth-rate.html
6. http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Asia-and-Oceania/India-ECONOMY.html
7. http://www.indiainfoline.com/Markets/News/News.aspx?NewsId=6541
8. http://gulzar05.blogspot.com/2009/05/social-sector-spending-and-inequality.html
9. http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/business/indias-social-sector-spending-lowest-among-bric-nations_10063021.html
10. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/On-social-sector-spending-India-still-way-behind-developed-world/articleshow/4846172.cms
11. http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/world-bank-asks-india-to-cut-%60unproductive%60-farm-subsidy/279646/
12. www.solutionexchange-un.net.in/decn/cr/res11120606.pdf
13. http://www.authorstream.com/presentation/Sigismondo-50022-Weather-Insurance-new-frontier-India-Opening-frontiers-Recapitulation-Rural-Non-Life-Importance-Ag-insuran-Education-ppt-powerpoint/
14. http://web.worldbank.org/

Celebrity Endorsements - The Dilemma

The previous blog on ‘Nano marketing by Tata Motors’ deals with the advertisements in the automobile industry. In this blog I would like to debate on Celebrity branding in any industry. What is celebrity branding? Is it really required? How to make it work?

Q . What is celebrity branding?

Advertising promotes a product, service or event to its target audience. A target audience is the portion of the general public that products, services or events were created for to fill a desire or need in the marketplace.¹

Commercial advertisers often seek to generate increased consumption of their products or services through branding, which involves the repetition of an image or product name in an effort to associate related qualities with the brand in the minds of consumers.

Celebrity branding is a type of branding, or advertising, in which a celebrity uses his or her status in society to promote a product, service or charity ².

Q . Is Celebrity Branding really required? Does it work?

Yes. I would like to quote Sriram Vadlamani’s statement in his blog : ‘Otherwise companies will not spend that much amount on the stars day in and day out. ³’

If companies are spending so much why do we even question about the worth of celebrity branding. The following are the vintage ads that I liked the most.

1. Doodh Doodh (Psr featured in facebook) – This ad actually got me to drink milk over soft drinks.

2. Hutch You and I – This ad created waves and hutch came into the Indian market with a bang.

3. Zoozoo – The best ads of 2008.

4. Nescafe (Psr featured in facebook) – I have atleast a glass of coffee a day

5. 7 up ads by fido dido – I liked the creativity in these ads.

An ad need not get you to buy the product for you may not even fall in their target market segment. But, given a choice you will recommend these brands over others. These are the ads that I would remember forever. None of my selected vintage ads have any celebrties in them. On other hand, there are many issues in getting the brand promoted by celebrities like celebrity brand mismatch, rumours, multiple endorsements and hefty pay checks.

Celebrity Brand Mismatch:

Tiger woods and Buick - The brand personalities of Buick and Tiger go together like oil and water. Buick is an older person’s car (Tiger is less than half the age of the average buyer.) Tiger is very young, very cool and at the top of his game. You imagine him driving a Bentley, a Mercedes or a Lexus ⁴.

Rumours:

Type ‘Shah Rukh Khan has Tata Sky’ in Google. Many sites show up saying Shah Rukh uses Tata Sky promoted by Aamir Khan rather than Dish TV. This might be a rumour but it shows that celebrities don’t even use the brands they endorse. An issue like the above one can spread in hours through viral marketing and news media and hurt the brand.

Multiple Endorsements:

Celebrities nowadays are endorsing too many brands. Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan endorse around 20 brands. Amitabh Bachchan endorses - Cadbury's chocolate ( Cadbury's Diary Milk), Dabur hajomola candies and dabur Chyavanaprash ( medicine), Reid & Taylor ( suitings), Emami boroplus ( cream), ICICI bank, Pepsi Cola, Doordarshan ( Television network), Nerolac Paints, Polio drops ( govt. ad),Maruti versa ( car), Parker pens. We find it difficult to what personality or what character does brand portray? Other than Reid & Taylor, Cadbury's and Parker pens- which show style and brand being vintage - other brands - a lot of them, its difficult to know what they associate. Even for an MBA student like me it becomes difficult to recollect all the brands endorsed by a celebrity.

Celebrities Hefty Prices:

Rs 6 crore for Saif and Kareena (Saifeena like Brangalina) for Airtel Hello tunes ⁵. Rs 25 crore for Abhishek and Aishwarya for soap commercial ⁶. The zoozoo ads on the other hand costs Rs 3 crore ⁷. The entire marketing for Nano costed Rs 2 crore.

The above issues and the hefty pay checks raise the question about the requirement of celebrities. Imagine you are a new entrant into a market and want people to become conscious about your brand or you are a player in an undifferentiated product. How will you make people aware of your brand in the quickest time possible? The two ways that I can think of are celebrity branding or innovative advertising (Viral marketing comes into play once consumers test your product and is less effective in undifferentiated products). Innovative advertising is much more risky than celebrity branding and it is not easy to be innovative. Celebrity mismatch has a less powerful effect than matched celebrity brand endorsement ⁸. So how do you ensure that the celebrity and brands match with eachother.

Q. How to match celebrity brand endorsement?

Celebrity brand endorsements works if:

1. The brand can be readily associated with the celebrity’s personality. For e.g. Sports players endorse Nike and Adidas. Sachin Tendulkar’s ‘Boost is the secret of my energy’ ad was one ad will actually let people in India to try out Boost.

2. Exclusivity of the celebrity. E.g. Rehman does only selected ads but the impact is huge. His presence and music direction for Airtel had much more worth than Shah Rukh Khan.

3. Longevity of the Celebrity. The longer the celebrity associates with the brand, the more credible is the belief that the celebrity too uses the brand. E.g. Sachin and MRF tyres.

4. Celebrity using the endorsed brand. This probably has the highest weightage. If the celebrity uses the brand he endorses it shows that he believes in what he had said in the advertisements.

I believe celebrity endorsements are required but should be properly matched with the brand. There should be exclusivity and the celebrities interest in the brand should be genuine and not just for the hefty pay checks. A celebrity promotes a brand and the brand inturn promotes the celebrity.

Bibliography

1. http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-advertising.htm

2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celebrity_branding

3. http://trak.in/tags/business/2009/05/03/do-celebrities-really-help-a-brand/

4. http://ries.typepad.com/ries_blog/2007/07/celebrity-endor.html

5. http://www.livemint.com/2009/02/05230309/8216Saifeena8217-the-Rs.html

6. http://movies.indiatimes.com/News-Gossip/News/Aishwarya-Abhishek-paid-25-crores/articleshow/5076092.cms

7. business.rediff.com/.../slide-show-1-welcome-to-the-world-of-zoozoos.htm

Other links.

8. http://elab.vanderbilt.edu/research/papers/Connecting%20with%20Celebrities%20-%20Celebrity%20Endorsement,%20Brand%20Meaning,%20and%20Self-Brand%20Connections%20%5BEscalas,%20Bettman%5D.pdf

9. http://ezinearticles.com/?Do-We-Need-Another-Celebrity-Fragrance?&id=2208581

10. http://www.scribd.com/doc/19233410/Celebrity-Endorsements

11. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/opinion/edit-page/Do-celebrity-endorsements-help-sell-products/articleshow/1507840.cms

12. http://www.merinews.com/article/famous-brands-benefit-from-celebrity-endorsement/183.shtml

13. http://advertising.about.com/

14. http://www.indianmba.com/Faculty_Column/FC706/fc706.html

Nano Marketing by Tata Motors

The Head of Car Product Group (Tata Motors), Mr. Nitin Seth spoke about the marketing strategies followed at Tata Motors for Nano during his presentation at SJMSOM, IIT Bombay. According to Nitin Seth, Tata Motors unlike other players never advertises using celebrities and it relies on trust of the people and quality of the product. Tata Nano, the most awaited product in the Indian market was endorsed with a meager budget of Rs 2 Crores. The profit margin for Nano is so less that marketing had to be done within strict budget lines. Yet, the campaign as we know proved to be highly successful. As, I could understand from the talk, the following are the strategies followed by Tata Motors marketing team:

1. Viral Marketing – The use of social networks for marketing a product has become a powerful tool. Among the social networking sites. Twitter is predominant. Tata Motors used the power of social networking to the maximum extent.
2. Retail Outlets – Tata is a conglomerate of 98 separate companies. The marketing team of Tata Motors had the Nano cars displayed at the West Side and Croma outlets leading to more vigilance and less cost.
3. Selling through SBI – Mr. Nitin Seth selected SBI over malls and other banks for the selling his Tata Nano. The reasoning behind this is malls are still seen as an upper middle class segment and Nano had a different target segment. Similar is the case with ICICI.
4. Front Page Ticker and RK Laxman – Tata Motors got the ‘News Digest’ to be renamed as ‘Nano Digest’ on the front page of Times and also got a ticker running on the front page for 10 days with a few lakhs cost. Even RK Laxman pictured Nano in his cartoons. This is a much cheaper means when compared to the Rs 50 Lakhs for a full front page ad in Times of India.
5. Nano Break – Radio stations readily agreed to the requests from Tata Motors and called their breaks Nano breaks.

The above strategies followed by Mr. Nitin Seth are indeed innovative. They created a lot of recognition for the brand. But, I believe beyond the five strategies the following has had a larger impact:

1. Cost of the car – Though Nano was never advertised as cheap car, it has been known as the Rs 1 Lakh car. The pricing of the car has played a major role in marketing the product.
2. Ratan Tata – People in India rely on Ratan Tata. The Tata’s are a part of the Indian history and share a unique bond with the people of India. Hence Ratan Tata’s word on no-compromise (quality shall be on par) car has had a huge impact.
3. Media Coverage – The relatively cheap price of Nano has attracted a large media affair. The singur incident only lead to increased vigilance for Nano. Added to this, the skepticism of lots of critics that Nano can never be launched at Rs 1 Lakh.

Mr. Nitin Seth criticized other players for using celebrities in their ads which according to him never works out. I partly agree with Mr. Nitin Seth that cars are luxurious products where impact is more on testing the product than the advertisements. We never buy a car because Shah Rukh Khan drove it. But, Shah Rukh Khan might drive half a million people to test the product. Celebrities are required to provide the initial push to the consumers. Secondly, viral networking and the internet are important tools but they hardly penetrate the Indian rural market which accounts for a greater proportion of the population. Tata Motors having the rich Indian history it has never really requires huge marketing budgets. Mr. Nitin Seth’s approach proved successful for Nano but his criticism for other automobile players is tactless. If I want to launch a car like Reva, I need brand ambassadors to take my message of the electric car through. Only then people will even consider testing the car. Indian consumer is becoming more knowledgeable and conscious with the products he purchases but I believe Celebrities (like Amitabh, Shah Rukh Khan, and Sachin) still play a role in dragging him towards the product.

Nano achieved in Rs 2 Crores what most other car players cannot achieve with a budget of Rs 10 Crores or more. But, it was not marketing that should take the entire credit. It is a combination of Tata as a historical brand, trust on Ratan Tata and Marketing.

The Goa Chronicles - 'Day 2'

(by Pavan)

This was the scariest day of my life. I am sure it was pretty significant for the others too, but personally for me, it has never happened before that I remember every detail of an entire day a week later. I also find it appropriate that I segment this write up into different sections as the day was filled with a few major incidents, each of which is pretty significant in its own right. The day that started out as exciting and filled with anticipation turned into a completely unplanned, action packed, horror filled, spine chilling, exhausting experience. So, let me begin with the first part, titled "The Bikes".

The Bikes

I kind of lied when i said I was going to write about Day 2. This part actually began on Day 1 when we had asked the receptionist to arrange two bikes for us for two days. We wanted to do it in style, so we had asked for Bullets. Unfortunately, they were out of Bullets but we could get Avengers instead. We acknowledged that everything will never go according to plan and were willing to compromise, so we told the guy to arrange two Avengers. Now, as we were having dinner, we get another call from the receptionist saying that they didn't have Avengers either and had asked us if we would like Pulsars instead. Understandably, we were pissed off. Everyone knows that tourists don't drive Pulsars, they drive Bullets or Avengers and we wanted to look as "touristy" as possible. So we called up the taxi wala who's number we had earlier taken and asked him if he could arrange bikes for us and gave him our preferences. He said he could get us one Avenger and one Karizma. Now, Satish got quite excited at the prospect of driving the Karizma as he had never done that before and he readily agreed to drive it all by himself. Satya and Gautham would take turns driving the Avenger. I, shamelessly confess, that I cannot drive a bike. So, I'll be the pillion rider throught the trip. Happy that we managed to arrange bikes for tomorrow, we slept in peace.

I feel like 'God'

The morning of Day 2, I woke up to the awesome engine sound of Avenger. The guys woke up much earlier than me to test drive the bikes and found them in good shape. The weather was perfect. We had some breakfast, packed our bags, went downstairs and set out on the journey. I sat behind Satish on the Karizma and Satya sat behind Gautham on the Avenger with Outlook's Goa Guide in his hands.

Along the River and over the Ghats

The outlook guide did not prove to be of much help in figuring out the correct route, so we ended up asking the locals for directions. The drive through Old Goa was amazing. The road was right on the edge of the river on the other side of which were the ghats. I had to constantly remind Satish to look ahead while driving and not sideways. As we drove on, the scenery kept getting better. There were a couple of pitstops where we got ourselves some refreshments and swapped bikes. Gautham got behind Satish on the Karizma and I sat behind Satya on the Avenger.

Drive to Old Goa - 'Satti look ahead'

The final destination was Dudhsagar Waterfalls. Since there were no clear directions in the guide, we stopped where ever possible to ask the locals. None of us had any idea about the route and there were no road signs to point us in the right direction. Also, since we were on the national highway, we didn't meet may locals for a long time. So, we kept heading east as LC told us over the phone. We reached Mollem and we knew it had to be nearby. We could have asked the locals there, but stupidity overcame us and we kept heading east. Then we saw "DudhSagar Resort". It was not the destination, but just a holiday resort. This meant we were certainly getting nearer so we kept going without asking for directions as we expected to see a board that said "Take right here". A couple of kilometers later, we hit a checkpoint that also was the entrance to the ghats. We were a bit unsure, but we kept going anyway. We assumed that we would get down the ghats in no time and there would be a route that will take us back into Goa where the falls are situated. That was not going to happen. We kept climbing and climbing and after about 10km on the ghats, we stopped for a while, took some pictures of the spectacular scenery of hills and valleys and started again.

At the Ghats

Another 10km later, we found a resting spot for trucks. We stopped there and asked from two different guys and they pointed in the opposite directions, but the guy who told us to go back was very convincing and gave us precise directions, so we decided to go back to Mollem

The Fall

After cursing ourselves for having gone 20m in rainy conditions on a ghat road that we never should have been on, we headed back. Although it had just rained on the hills, we were not scared of the descent. We made it this far without any issues with the bikes or the roads and it seemed like a normal drive down the ghats, but that was about to change in a very scary way.

Satish raced ahead in the Karizma leaving me and Satya behind, but we were in no hurry. I had just taken out the handycam and narrated how we had missed a turn at Mollem and drove unnecessarily for 20km, and put the camera back in Satya's backpack. Just as I did that, Satya realised that we were going too fast and he slowly hit the brakes. The bike skidded a little bit at that instant, but it was minor and he regained control. I remarked "Oops! We just skidded. Hehe". Now the bike was going slow enough to make a turn, or so we thought, but we didn't notice the cracks right at the turn that were filled with wet slippery mud. It was a left turn with the hill on the left side and a vertical drop into the deep valley on the right. Just as the rear tire went over the cracks, the traction didn't prove to be sufficient and the bike just gave away without any warning. Both of us got thrown off the bike to the left and the bike itself skidded to the right. As we were unprepared for the fall, it was sloppy. Satya landed on his left shoulder and knee, and skidded for a couple of meters before he started rolling over the pebbles and mud by the side of the road. I too fell on my left side and landed on my left forearm and leg and I immediately got back on my feet, but the momentum made me fall again. The only way to regain my balance was to keep running and slow myself down, but Satya was rolling right in front of me and I would have stepped on him. So I tried taking small steps but couldn't stop myself and eventually fell flat on poor Satya, who was already in great pain, and rolled over him. Both of us finally came to a stop by the side of the road and watched the bike as it kept skidding for a good 6 meters and came to rest right at the middle of the road.

A few reason why this could have gone terribly wrong:

• There was a deep valley on the right side of the road but we were lucky to fall towards the left.
• A big truck was coming in the opposite direction. Had we crashed 2 seconds later, the bike bike would have gone under the truck.
• The bike could also have fallen down into the valley, but thankfully it did not.
• Both of us were carrying backpacks stuffed with clothes and they cushioned the fall, without which the injuries could have been much worse.

We got up, dragged the bike to the side of the road, checked if the cameras weren't damaged and washed dirt off the wounds. Satya skinned his left knee and shoulder, and had bruises on the left wrist and arm. I had bruises on my left hand and forearm but my legs were unhurt, thanks to my favorite pair of jeans. The only casualty of this crash was Satya's wrist watch.

Bruises on Satya's hand

Both of us were in shock as the whole thing happened in seconds. Satya seemed quite shaken to be able to drive any further. So, I pulled out my phone to call Gautham asd ask him if he could come back and drive the bike, but there was no signal over there.

Me: Arey Satya, can u drive?
Satya: Well, you don't know how to. So we don't really have an option here.

We had 12km further to go and since no one was gonna come back, we started going down, but much slower and more carefully. The bike took some damage too. The back wheel became noticeably wobblier, there was a nice dent in the fuel tank and the chain was slipping a little bit at low speeds. But most frustratingly, the handle bar got bent and it was no longer aligned with the front wheel. Gautham called us once we almost got to the bottom of the ghats but Satya felt he could drive the rest of the way too, so we kept going and told Gautham that we would meet him at Dudhsagar Resort in Mollem. After we reached back, the people at the resort looked at our wounds and were kind enough to provide us with some Savlon and cotton so that we could wash the wounds and they also made us lunch although it was after lunch time. The food was good and we explained to Satish and Gautham the entire incident and proudly showed them the bruises and also a video of the crash site that I had shot.

This was the first road crash for both me and Satya and it was quite the life experience. We were still in good shape so we decided to head on to the Falls. But we had no idea that more was in store for us. This time Satya rode with Satish on the Karizma and Gautham took over the Avenger. Satya never sat on the Avenger again.

Along the Tracks and Into the Wild

It didn't take us much time to reach the final village on the route to the falls. Gautham initially struggled a little with the twisted handlebar but he adapted quickly. The locals over there offered to drive us to the falls on their lighter bikes. They advised us that our heavier bikes will be hard to handle on the rest of the route so we could park the bikes in the village and get on theirs. We were a bit skeptical and after a little discussion among ourselves, we reached the conclusion that the locals were just bluffing to make some money. They were kind enough to give us the directions and mentioned that we had to go on a narrow path along the railway tracks. We simply assumed it to be another of their bluffs. The first part of the route was to ride between a pair of unused tracks. There were markers along the tracks for every 100mts. We started at 50.000km and we were told to take a right turn into the jungle at 49.000km. So we went in between the tracks with considerable ease till we hit 49.500km. At this point the tracks merged with the main tracks and we had to get off them onto a narrow path right beside the tracks. The local were right after all. This is the second part. This part seemed a bit dangerous because there was a steep 5 mts drop into the jungle on the right side and we had to go extremely slow. Gautham was having a hard time as he had to use both of his legs to keep the bike upright. The twisted handlebar just made it harder for him. Suddenly, the rear tire slipped over a rather large stone and the bike fell on Gautham's leg, pinning him down. I was extra cautious after the previous crash, so I managed to jump off before it fell. It took considerable effort to push raise the bike and free Gautham. Had the bike fallen to the right into the jungle, it would have taken more than 4 of us to push it back up. This was Gautham's first fall of the day and my second.

We reached the 49.000km marker, but couldn't find any way or path into the jungle. That was when Satya clarified that we had to go till 46.000 and that we misheard before. A guy coming in the opposite direction on a bicycle confirmed it and also added that the path through the jungle would be very easy and wide. That meant 3km further on this ridiculously difficult path. Satish had no problem (he was cruising on 4th gear). Gautham thought for a while and decided to keep going as turning back at this point meant a whole day wasted. After enormous struggle and a few scary moments, Gautham got us both to the 46.000km mark. At one point, he almost busted his left leg. Its hard to explain in writing, but lets just say that if he were not wearing those solid Woodland shoes, he would have probably had a broken ankle, definitely busted up toes and an ugly, bloody, messy scene.

Driving along the Track

Anyway, we found the path into the jungle, went under the tracks through a tunnel to the other side and found ourselves on a rather wide easy looking mud road that went through the jungle. So, the locals were right again. The path indeed seemed easy to drive on. We were all nature freaks to some extent, so the thick jungle on either sides infused us with new enthusiasm and got us all pumped up. This was the third and final part of the route to the Falls. Our asses hurt from sitting constantly for long hours and a break was desperately needed. So, we took one before we headed off to the Falls.

The falls were approximately 7km further inside the jungle. As we went on, the path got progressively worse. It started out as a plain mud road, but then we started running into puddles of water, slushy mud and big uneven rocks strewn all over. Satish displayed his bike driving skills and was out of sight in no time much to the frustration of Gautham who was stuck with the crappy bike and was going in the 2nd gear with caution. but even that wasn't enough as the rear tire slipped once again in the slushy mud and we got thrown off the bike yet again. This was Gautham's second fall today and he had no clue why the bike fell and started cursing it. It was my third and I was understandably frustrated. We pushed on nonetheless. Along the way, the path became more uneven and steep, we encountered larger puddles of water and mud, had to cross a small stream and struggled more. Finally we made it. A rather large banner over a gateway greeted us. We parked our bikes as an information board said that the falls were 100mts away on foot.

Crossing the Puddles

Now there is another reason, apart from pure stupidity, as to why we came all this way instead of turning back when we became aware of the difficulty of the route. When we had asked for directions, a local guy informed us that there is in fact another route to the falls and this was a well laid one. So, we thought we could take that route on our way back from the falls. But the moment we reached the falls, we realized that the only route back was the one we came through.I was terrified. The other route was the main reason why we came this far and now that there isn't one, we had two options. either go back on the same route, which I felt was physically impossible at this stage, or camp here for the night. I was seriously considering the second option even though we didn't have the equipment or food for camping out. I was probably too exhausted to think straight.

We proceeded to the falls on foot and had to cross a couple of small streams before we finally got there. The Dudhsagar falls were not nearly as impressive as I thought they would be. They certainly were quite tall but I had expected a lot more water falling down from the edge. I can see why it got its name though. It does look like milk flowing off the cliff. The base of the falls was inaccessible, so we had to view it from a distance. Satya got very excited and was jumping all over the rocks, snapping pictures. Gautham and Satish were exhausted and sat beside the stream. I was busy looking for any kind of shelter to spend the night but I guess I was the only one who lost his mind. Satish and Gautham had no intentions of staying back and decided to head back. I was pretty tired but I thought "Heck. All I have to do is sit behind Gautham and pray thaat the bike wont fall again". So we went back to the bikes and headed back.

The Ghost Riders

Out of the Jungle and Back on Tracks

The time was 6:45 PM and it was still bright outside, but inside the jungle, it was getting dark very quickly. Without any further incidents, we made it through the jungle earlier than I had anticipated and reached the train tracks (For some reason, all of my estimations were going wrong today). This was the tough part, but it was just 7:10 PM and there was still plenty of ambient light, so we were confident that we could make it to the highway before nightfall. I don't remember who, but it was either Satish or Satya who proposed the following idea. Since the next 4km would be hard to drive on, the suggestion was that Satish and Gautham would drive the bikes while I and Satya would follow them on foot. It seemed like a pretty sensible idea at that point as we assumed that the two bikes would be going slow enough that we could simply walk behind them and, if needed, pulll Gautham from under the bike. We were also quite grateful to both Satish and Gautham for the enormous effort they had put in to drive all day long. So, to make life easier for them, I and Satya offered to carry a backpack each and started following them.

It was becoming hard to keep up with them so we started running but within 5 minutes, they were out of sight. We stopped running, looked at each other and realized how grossly we underestimated the speed of the bikes, particularly Gautham's. He probably got used to driving that heavy bike in tight spaces and he raced ahead. But, it was not a worrisome situation as we just had to walk 4km and it wasn't dark yet so we could make it if we went at a steady pace.

As we were walking, I felt something sting above my left ankle. I pulled up my pants and saw something that looked like a small bug stuck to a red patch of skin. I tried to flick it away but it wouldn't let go. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a leech. It must have bitten me while I was crossing the stream. I had read about leeches before and I know that they were not dangerous. The release an anesthetic before they bite, so you wouldn't know immediately. I still have the bite marks though.

We walked and walked for what seemed like 15min when we reached a marker that read 46.200. We had started at 46.000. That was impossible. How could it take 15min for just 200mts? My theory was that the earlier events of the day coupled with exhaustion had screwed up my sense of time. I didn't share my theory with Satya as he seemed quite scared of the surroundings and so was I because the tracks actually pass through the jungle and it was beginning to get dark fast. Soon, it got so dark that we were not able to see the markers anymore. I was getting paranoid that a bear or some other wild animal would jump out from the sides and grab us back into the jungle for dinner, or that we may get kidnapped by hostile tribals or dacoits who live in the forest. All this made us both extremely sensitive to any noise and we found ourselves constantly looking over our shoulders just to make sure that we were not being followed. Unable to stay cool anymore, we got onto the tracks and started running between them. Suddenly Satya stopped and became still. He saw something on the tracks and pointed me towards it. It had the outline of a big dog and it sent a chill down my spine, but we immediately realized that it was just a marker with some shrubs growing around it giving it the appearance of something resembling a dog. We checked the marker under the light of the cell phone and figured out that we had 2km more to cover. We kept running with the bleak hope that one of them would come back looking for us as it has been almost an hour since we started. I was completely exhausted, dehydrated, my shirt drenched in my sweat, my feet aching from running over loose stones and my back was in great pain from carrying that backpack. We kept hearing strange sounds all the while but were scared to look in any direction but straight ahead. It was terrifying enough that I started imagining elaborate movie plots of us getting taken hostage by a gang of dacoits, and how we would escape and get lost in the jungle, survive in the wild and so on and so forth. After running for what seemed like eternity, we heard the voices of Satish and Gautham in the dark and a huge wave of relief swept over us. We could finally stop running and take a break. We were safe from the dacoits and wild animals.

Now there was just half a kilometer to go between those unused train tracks before we got on safe and proper roads, but Gautham probably felt I did not have enough scares for the day. He climbed onto the tracks in such a wrong way that the rear end of the bike swung wildly out of control for a moment and I braced myself for yet another fall, but it magically became straight and we were spared. Had we fallen on the tracks at that speed, the injuries would have been quite bad. The ground was solid and covered with dirt in between two iron rails with sharp stones on either side. gautham was smiling but I almost crapped in my pants. I was not capable of handling such scary stuff anymore and pleaded with Gautham to drive slowly and carefully.

The rest of the journey was still scary but we reached safely without any other "incidents". The time now was 11:00 PM. Just a couple of km away from Panjim, it started to rain heavily. We parked the bikes by the side of the road so that the rain would wash off the dirt from the bikes and we took shelter under some trees on the divider hoping that the cameras would stay dry. Once we reached the hotel, we cleaned ourselves up, wore fresh clothes, cleaned the wounds, had an awesome dinner, gulped down some strong beer, switched off the lights and closed our eyes. That was when the nightmares began, All I could think of were the events of the day, the fall on the ghat road, the crazy drive through the jungle, the long terrifying run along the railway tracks and the scary drive back to hotel on the wet highway where the only thought I had was how badly i'd get bruised if the bike slipped and fell. Five min later, Gautham got up and started pacing up and down the room. The same things were going on in his head too and kept him from falling asleep. Even the beer didn't help. We probably should have ordered fenny instead. It would have been cheaper and much more effective. It was too late to order fenny anyway so we set the AC to "turbo cool", pulled over the blankets and fell asleep eventually with the hope that tomorrow would be a lot less crazy and that we could cover all the places that we hoped to according to schedule.

Just to finish it off, this was the original schedule for day 2

• Reach the Falls by 2:30 PM
• visit a fort situated in another corner of Goa by 6:00 PM
• make it back to the hotel by 9:00 PM
  

Added by Gautham

...It was actually Satish who got the idea to let Pavan and Satya walk back near the tracks. After parking our bikes, Satish and I discussed on the Avenger's skidding capabilities as we waited for Satya and Pavan to join us. We eventually found out that the front tyre that was way thinner than the back tyre couldn't stop on applying brakes. After that fruitful realisation they were no more mishaps except a close call when i drove the bike onto the metal track.

...At the hotel, as Pavan and I had our beers, I thanked God for two things inspite of being an atheist. First, it was an avenger and not an enfield. An enfield's seating position is significantly higher than avenger and my legs will hardly reach the ground. Secondly, there was no rain when we were dragging the bikes in the jungle.

...Finally, I just want to confess that I never drove a five gear bike except once at DAIICT where I drove an Unicorn for a few metres. One more confession, I never applied a back brake in my life till that realisation. Pavan is indeed a lucky pillion rider to survive.