My host and friend Rohan Yeggina commented, “There is absolutely nothing to see and do in AP” and I had little choice but to believe him. The Eicher road atlas which I am referring to in this ride puts out places of interest in yellow highlight. There were none south of Hyderabad. So I took the best option. Get out of the state as soon as possible. I couldn’t go to Bangalore. That was on the way back. Next best thing – Chennai.
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There wasn’t much to do in Nagpur and there was 500 kilometers to be covered till Hyderabad. So I left early in the morning without settling the bill of the hotel and headed on to NH7. Now here’s the thing. The road map proudly shows NH7 as an “Expressway” all along the length of the country. The reality, as you would understand, is very different.
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I sort of started liking this city. It was small enough to feel comfortable and large enough to have places to go to. People were nice and it was cleaner than usual. So it was rather hard to say bye to this place. Maybe I will come back here when I retire or something.
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There is a tiny little village stuck in the dusty roads off NH7 going out of Jabalpur called Kymore. Its cause to fame is a large cement plant by one of the larger companies in India. For me however, it meant one more thing. My sister works there. She tries to get the people at the plant to use alternate fuels made out of waste from other industries as fuel in their own plant. Not as easy job as it seems. And helps the environment.
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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.
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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 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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