Atul Goyal

Blog

  • Gurgaon Faridabad highway – make do bike trip

    I was supposed to be traveling to Chakrata, Rohru and Chanshal pass this weekend. Supposed to be. Until weather ruined my weekend plan.

    I woke up at 4 in the morning so as to leave by 5am for Chakrata. All was good. Bike was ready. Camera was ready. Backpack was ready. Riding gear was ready. I was ready! As soon as I looked out from the balcony to check the mood of weather, my excitement turned into disappointment. Thunderstorms and Rain. Apparently, Rain Gods listened to my Mom’s wishes. Disappointed, I went back to bed. Checked the weather after half an hour, and again after another half an hour. It didn’t improve. Nothing I could do about the “bad” weather and I was in no mood to ride 500+ kms in rain. I slept.

    I was at my Gurgaon PG on this Saturday morning from where the plan was to leave for Chakrata directly without going via my home at Shahdara. After a couple of hours, the weather cleared a bit but I had lost the precious early morning hours and the weather report wasn’t looking good either.

    With the plan ruined, it was time to instead go home. But I couldn’t just sit home all day. And so, planned a make-do trip via Gurgaon-Faridabad highway tracing the Gurgaon – Faridabad – Shahdara semi circle around Delhi instead of my usual route, that is, tracing the diameter via center of Delhi.

    Gurgaon Faridabad highway is a good road for early morning rides!

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    Chanshal pass still remains in my to-do list.

  • Incredible Spiti – photo blog

    Last week, went to a road trip to Spiti valley. Spiti – meaning “the middle land” between India and the Tibet – is much like Laddakh in so many ways yet different in so many other ways. Will find some time to write a detailed post some other day. For now, let me show some photos. 🙂

    The map of the journey

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  • Photoblog – Laddakh trip

    Recently I went on a 10 days Road trip to Laddakh and below are some of my attempts to capture the natural beauty with a (borrowed point & shoot) Sony HX100V. (except the last one which is from Sony RX100 taken by my friend.) If you like the photos, please drop a line in comments below to encourage me learning photography.

    Patnitop
    Patnitop

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  • How I did my first bike trip and how you can do it too!

    Since  long, I’ve been wanting to go to some hill station by bike and spend  some time with nature. The freedom that comes going on a bike (as opposed to public transport), and the ease with which a bike makes  places accessible is amazing. Not to mention that riding bike on a  national highway, as fast as you can, with wind sweeping across you like you’re flying, is an experience of its own kind!
    Luckily  having some of the bikers (who have gone to places like Laddakh!)  around to inspire you helps (thank you Amit and Javed!). So, now it was only about where to go. I threw the question on Quora and got a  suggestion to go to Kasauli which made great sense for us.

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  • Why the recent changes on Google Play are great for user acquisition

    Some time back, Google Play started recommending apps which are +1d by your friends (inferred from G+ circles).

    Now, with the latest update to Play Store Android app (version 4.5.10, that was rolled out to Nexus devices with the 4.2.2 update), things have become even better, for app publishers as well as for end users.

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  • Please drive carefully!

    Today morning, while going to office on my bike, I met a small accident and it was my fault. Me, and my friend who was sitting behind, were lucky on so many levels, that I am hoping I would be able to walk properly by tomorrow and the friend was able to continue to office today itself after some nursing help. The way we fell far apart from each other and from the bike, I don’t want to imagine what could have been the other outcomes.

    Just requesting everyone around to drive more carefully and responsibly. “More” because until something happens, everyone assumes that he drives carefully. Drive carefully, if not for yourself then atleast for those who care about you, who love you.

  • My favorite inspirational movie quotes

    Every once in a while, you come across a movie which inspire you a lot or forces you, do some self-introspection. I have collected here some such quotes which have deep meaning, and which I like a lot. Even though, the quotes have no information about the context, but if you’ve seen the movie I’m sure you’ll get the context. Do post some other good inspirational movie quote off the top of your head, in comments below. I’ll keep adding more as and when I watch a new movie or re-watch an old one and come across a dialogue worth it.

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  • Milestone 1.0 reached – a quick diary entry

    Wow, looking at the date of my last blog post, I realize it really has been long time for me posting anything at all. So, much happened during this time – completion of B.Tech, startup explorations in the following weeks, joining a startup (yep!), convocation at the new campus of my college institute, Mussorie trip with startup friends, those fun Sundays with cousins, and the list goes on…

    Anyways the purpose of this blog entry is just making a note of today’s small achievement which I have been waiting desperately for sometime! I promise I will keep it short 🙂

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  • from the pen of a travel freak.

     

    Though ever since my childhood, I’ve always loved nature but call it circumstances or my destiny wanting me to wait till this time, have been unable to spend quality time in nature for last several years.

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  • An attempt to build a Cloud based Mobile Data Backup System

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    Wishing a very Happy New Year to everyone, and to all you pirates out there, may this new year bring new adventures in your life and prove to be a great one for you, your team and your venture(s)! 🙂

    In this post, I wanted to share something which I have been working on as part of my BTP (B.Tech Project) at IIIT-D. Basically it’s a mobile data backup system, to make the process of backup and restoration of mobile data, extremely easy.

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