Mornings in forests are beautiful. And I am saying this after a sum total of 1 early morning in a jungle. Its an absolute delight. The freshness. The dew. The cold stinging air. The smoke from logs burnt to warm hands. And the smell of fresh tea being boiled.
Leave a CommentMonth: November 2008
I left Raigarh with a heavy heart and heavy eyes having seen the news through the night following what was on at home minute by minute. But then I had to move on.
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The night was peaceful. The morning was blissful. I rode hard for about 70 kilometers before I reached a small bridge with a couple of tea stalls around it before rising into the hills. I was sipping my tea when everyone else was huddled into a TV running news in Oriya. I didn’t quite understand what was going on when I finally started catching words and phrases. Something was on in Mumbai. I then heard R R Patil, then the Commissioner then someone else saying the NSG, Marcos and the Army had been deployed. I missed a heartbeat. Something was wrong. Horribly.
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The problem with college boys is that they are too eager to do too many things and expect everyone around them to be the same. Unfortunately, once you leave college and join a job, all that energy vanishes somewhere. That’s especially the case when you are as lazy as I am and have as sedate a job as investment banking. So when these guys (including a close family friend of mine in the final year of college) asked me to ride with them on an after-exam night ride to Puri, I hesitated. And was promptly asked to shut my mouth and come along. So I spent the night watching random movies with random stories waiting for time to arrive. It did. At 3.30 in the morning.
Leave a CommentHope everyone around here is safe. Those bastards must pay.
Leave a CommentFirst things first. The bike seemed out of tune. Am not taking any chances with that. Off to the RE dealer who happened to be next door. The carburettor tuning was off completely hitting the mileage. The electric start bearings had stopped working (happened ages ago) and were now affecting the magnet’s movement leading to problems in the starting. Also got the front brakes checked. Took me all day but all problems are now gone and it should be a smooth, fast, painless ride.
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I was woken up by the banging on the door. Thankfully it wasnt’t the bald man from Hitman 2 (more ruthless than the one in the first Hitman) but Gols’ mother. I got up, realized I had no toothpaste and was too lazy to ask for it, lied to her about brushing and hogged on massive amounts of payasam and corn flakes with fruits after showing appropriate amount of reluctance. I was set when her mom dropped the laughing bomb. The car was in the driveway and I needed to back it out, take out the bike and drive it back in. Its a laughing bomb because 1. I was laughing because I was getting to drive a car (I don’t know how to drive. Yes. Me. Don’t know how to drive a car). 2. Gols would be under imaginary rubble if he heard I was going to do that to his car and laugh with the helplessness of a mule with a huge load on his back.
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So staying back in Kolkata has had double benefits to me.
One, thanks to Gols and his enterprising mother, I have a bag full of clean undies. As Pal said very rightly, I wouldn’t want to show my crack all over India, would I?
And two, I got to attend Sailor’s wedding. And meet a bunch of friends from B-School days. Best days of life.
Leave a CommentWhen I left Siliguri, there was but one thought in my head. I have to ride on those godforsaken screwed up potholed roads all over again. I had thought of doing an ironbutt ride all the way into Orissa but the thought of riding fast on those roads sent shudders down my spine and I settled for two days to Kolkata routine.
Leave a CommentThousands of miles away from home, your butt sore with riding pain, your eyes full of dreams and scenes you have seen but not believed, the last thing you expect is someone walking up to you and being so nice you can’t believe it. Well so it happened. Here in Siliguri. The last place I had thought it could ever happen.
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