The Great Driving Challenge | User Application

Roopa Sreedhar & GIRIDHAR B G

Total Vote(s) : 37 | Total Testimonial(s) : 6

Hi, We are Roopa & Giridhar from Bangalore. I run an adventure club in Bangalore. My husband Giri, works as a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt with GE. It is our common interests & passions that has brought us together. Giri & I are extremely passionate about reading, history, traveling, long drives & road trips and adventure sports like trekking, mountaineering, watersports, scuba diving. Giri is an awesome painter & an excellent photographer. He has won many photography awards including International Photography Award from USA in 2004. His water colors adorn the walls in our home. His articles have also won many awards and have appeared in news papers. He plays Corporate cricket & Golf & is a national level swimming champ. He also teaches English to government school children. I have been traveling all across India & since I took up trekking as a hobby about ten years ago. I used to work in IT as a Senior Business Analyst. But it was travel & Adventure which were my true calling. With immense encouragement from Giri, I took a break from my IT job after marriage & started TAG India, The Adventure Group, to fulfill both our dream of traveling around the world. Giri & I have organized & participated in outdoor adventure events including Skiing in Solang, Para sailing in Goa & Bangalore, Scuba diving in Netrani & Mauritius, Trekking in dense forests of Karnataka & Kerala, Road trips in South India, Jammu, Kashmir & Ladakh, for TAG India, our google group, which presently has 400 member. We enjoy each others company & have take up many personal journeys together & individually. We are both avid bloggers and have developed our website www.tagindia.net together. We actively work towards inculcating the habit of spending time with nature among city dwellers who more or less have lost complete connection with nature.

We are the best candidates because...

This is undoubtedly one of the best opportunities to get as close to nature as possible. We love nature & adventure. This is exactly what we have been doing & want to do. We have the right skill sets, experience, knowledge, passion and enthusiasm to make this event a big success! While Giri is the Photographer, mechanic, blogger, I am the organizer, chef, route picker, equipment expert navigator, and adventurer. We are both experts at driving & together we can communicate in 9 languages including English, Hindi, Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, Marathi, Punjabi, Gujrati & French, making it extremely easy to travel anywhere in India. This qualifies us as the best candidates to take on this adventure trip.

Our Travel Plan

If wishes were horses & we could ride them too, we would love to drive in Ladakh Region. But as the contest rule stipulates only 3000 kms to & fro Mumbai, we would love to drive in a circle towards Kerala along side the coast line of Goa, Murudeshwara, Karwar, Thonse, Kemmanu, maravanthe, upto Bekal fort Beach and come up into the Western Ghats into the forests of Wayanad, Coorg, and Sahyadris of Pune to reach Mumbai. This way we get to see the best beaches & drive through the rich greenery of the dense Western Ghat section too.

Our Travelogue

Our travel experiences are as many as they are adventurous. By God's grace & our fortunes, our adventures have not turned into misadventures till date. The memory of one of the most beautiful drives in India, 10 days from Manali to Leh landscapes & sandscapes thrills me even today. It has got us so hooked, that we are doing a 16 driving trip from Leh to Srinagar covering Zanskar & Suru Valley this September. Giri's 5 day road trip in UTAH with two of his best friends is extra special coz one of his pics got him an International Award. On our skiing trip in March 2007, we got stuck in snow storms & almost burned the roof of our dormitory while warding off the extreme cold, witness an avalanche and trekked in snow to day's end many times. But this was one of the best trips of my life. Moonlight beach walk on the shores of Om Beach to Gokarna was as exciting! Different type of Watersports that took us to the bottom of the sea to explore the astonishingly beautiful coral reef & marine life in Mauritius is one of the most pleasing memories we delight in. Our recent monsoon trek to Kumara Parvatha in Pushpagiri Ranges of Coorg, gave a new meaning to Rain. We were bone drenched. rains. rains rains that whiplashed us furiously with the strong winds. We trekked for two days & lived in tents on mist covered hilltop, visibility was only 10 ft. The warmest place on the hill was inside our tent. Awesome experience indeed! A 5 day Road trip in Wayanad took us to every nook and corner of the small green district of Kerala. Kabini was exciting as it was dangerous, we were chased by a wild elephant, witnessed a pack of 20 wild dogs shred a deer into pieces in less than 2 minutes, had to endure leapord crouching a branch about our jeep hoping we would not become its prey. Camping on the shores of brimming-to-the-hilt Cauvery at Muttatthi and getting marooned was another challenging affair. Driving through the coffee estates Chickmagalur & then trekking on Mullianagiri, Bababudangiri & Kemmanugundi was lovely. Traveling to Uttarkhand where most hill roads had succumbed to land slides was an experience of a different kind. Journey through all these terrains was as thrilling as the activities themselves.

9th July 2009

Kumar Krishnaswamy

9th July 2009

Testimonials

Rahul Sawarkar

I have known Roopa and Giridhar since a few years now. Both of them share a passion for the outdoors and a life filled with adventure. They love to recreate and re-live the same excitement that we experience during our childhood explorations. I was both bemused and happy to see them pair with each other for life partners - they are so well matched! I hope they make it and wish them the opportunity to enjoy all the thrills and excitement this contest has in store for them. Regards

Nalin

Giri and Roopa are one couple ive loved to have known. Their enthusiasm and energy is so infectious...and i m one of its victims :) nd id love it to be that way.... I wish em all the best for all their endeavors.. God Bless !! :)

RAM

HEY ROOPA AND GIRIDHAR HAVE BEEN RUNNING TAG INDIA, AN ADVENTURE COMPANY AND HAVE BEEN GREAT IN ORGANIZING ALL THE EVENTS SUCH AS TREKS SCUBA DIVING, TREASSURE HUNTS N MANY MORE VERY SUCCESSFULLY. ITS FUN TO TEAM UP WITH THEM..THEY ARE THE BEST COUPLE

Bhaskar

As far as this challenge goes it needs someone with a passion to travel,smart and adventurous,someone who is a go-getter and has the skill to tackle anything come what may.U believe in 'Life is either a great adventure or nothing'.And as far as this contest goes I wish u are the most appropriate contestant and there is no question - why you should not win..%u201Cu travel not to go anywhere, but to go.u travel for travel's sake,The great affair is to move.%u201D.Come home from adventures, and perils, and discoveries every day with new experience and character.

Bhaskar

Ullas Bhat

Roopa and Giri are made for adventure. Great friends, superb human beings, fun couple and nature lovers - they are winners in life, even before the finalists of this contest are selected!