Road Trip (part 1)

Jab main chotha bacha tha badi sharaarat karta tha.. He he he

This is a story. A Story of Two cousins let’s call them B and R. I was in second year of my college. My cousin had come over to Chandigarh to study and along came his bike: a beautiful Yamaha Rx 100 Silver. THOSE WERE THE DAYS… Are they still around? The bikes? No idea. Anyway not deviating…

Well, it so happened that this cousin later went back to Gujarat for pursuing his education, but he left his bike back. Fun time for me, I had the choice of changing my vehicle to go to college. Then came the news that the bike needs to be sent back. Another cousin of mine had come to pick it up and book it on a cargo train to be sent.

But the DEVIL MIND woke up… Noooooooooooo!! 

 Cargo? Book on a train? WHAT’S THAT? Never heard of it…

So the scheming began on how to make sure that we don’t have to book the bike but instead drive it all the way. CAN YOU IMAGINE the thrill of it?? Well the first things we did was (we were intelligent after all) got the bike checked; oil, tyres etc. We went to Chandigarh railway station (well that’s what we told my dad). While we were supposed to be at railways station, we were sitting in Hot millions II.

As we came out, my grand-dad was coming down from a showroom, he asked what we were doing. I replied “Daddy we just came to get the bike checked so it was fine when it reached.” An hour later came home to announce, “CHANDIGARH DOES NOT DO BOOKING OF CARGO. The Guy at the ticket office said it will have to be done from DELHI.”

Parents they are so nice and good. Their kids won’t lie to them. I was the good child. 🙂 So, it was decided that we will ride the bike to Delhi, book it on a train and take a train ourselves for Gujarat.

We were so bad, Parents were good. So, we left. So let’s assume its Friday afternoon. We left for Delhi Railway station to get the bike booked. Me and my cousin, with a haversack and lots of money. What a ride it was! I guess at that time you don’t mind all that pollution and rubbish that flies at you, the truckers not giving you a damn. We had a few scares on way. Stopped at Panipat had some food by a dhaba, conserve money was the idea long way to Gujarat. At Dhaula kuan, someone told us to take a right and just keep driving. Well we reached Delhi around evening.

Then for some ODD REASON, wonder what it was , we had this IDEA to go to CP to Naruala’s for a burger since we had heard a lot about it. We did not have a clue where we were, the route but I guess that’s the fun of it. We were asking every other person, “Bhai sahib? CP?” and they would just point a direction towards which we sped. Finally reached Narula’s and had our fill. Now, this is the time we were supposed to get the bike on the train and call up parents telling them what train etc. So we called.

tring tring

A loud hoarse voice said, “Hello?”

“Haanji Papa, we have reached. The Train will not accept the bike. They said they can book it day after. So, what should we do?”

My father, OH bless him, with a worried voice, “Beta, you do that. Then go to Sidhu Uncle’s house. I will ring him. Paise hain? Do you have enough money?”

“No, Papa its fine. We have met up with one of my friends. We will stay in their house, get the bike on train and then take the next one ourselves.”

“Ok son. If you need money, go to Mr. Sidhu, and take care don’t do this .. that .. and call back.” (Thinking of it now , It makes me feel so bad.. Bad US)

Well now we had till Sunday evening to do whatever we wanted (read drive). So what did we decide (and this is my cousin he is a devil too)? He comes with this brilliant idea “Brother, its night time. Less traffic let’s go now only and sleep on way somewhere.”

So we left.

WHY DID WE GO?!

It was unbelievable driving at night; trucks at high speed, half the drivers high on some intoxicant, full beams and us on our little MR YAMAHA RX100. Anyway we went on and on… Sometime during the night we got really tired so we decided to rest and picked up a roadside dhaba. The guy was so nice; he greeted us and made tea for us.

The Tea was so lovely I had to ask for another cup, what with the whole day’s worth of Tea Leaves, Cardamoms and Laungs, Saunf in it. It was yummy. Anyone reading this should try it out, the Roadside dhaba tea is always so tasty. The guy was smiling, grinning all the time, he later told us we were looking like Batman. The only difference was our face was BLACK with the white of the eyes shining.

I wish we had the fancy mobile phones then get some pictures or even a camera. Had a wash with my cousin doing the honours of pumping the Hand pump, then I did till he washed. We were shattered so we lay on those roadside beds made of jute and within seconds, I bet we were snoring. We had told the dhabawalla to wake us at 4 in morning. Early morning we woke up, got ourselves ready. Kick started the bike, Put it in gear let the clutch go (we had parked on the right hand of the road).

As we turned left… PAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN

A few choice abuses “TUHADI &%&%& and %^$£%$^%!!!” 

I guess we were still asleep because we did not see the big truck coming. Hahaha.

 Phewwwwwwwwwwww SAVED.

Gods were looking down on us. or were they ..

We had just gone 100 yards THUDDD: there was a Speed breaker. Did not see that either. The bike went flying. If you know the bike the key used to be on top along the speedometer. We thumped so bad the key flew away. God knows why we did not fall or anything. We stopped and parked to look for the key 🙂 It was still dark and could not see a thing.

IDEA!!! We started waving to passers by, and after a couple of cars gave two hoots to us, one Sikh gentleman in his Ambassador stopped.

“KI gal hai kaka?” So, we asked him if he could stop his car for a second so we could look for our key with the car’s Headlights. I tell you, Sikhs are great! Not only did he stop, he got down himself looking for the key. It was he who found it. He asked us what we were doing at that time.

We told him with pride and our chests puffed up, “Gujarat nu challe haan (going to Gujarat)”

He exclaimed, “MOTORCYLE te? Kamle hon? Ma-Pio ne kidaan jaan deta(on the bike? Are you mad? How did your Parents let you go”)?”

I so wanted to say parents don’t know he he he, but at that moment I let parents take the blame. Again BAD ME, I know. Well, we found the key and started off towards our destination. Some time later, Sun was rising. OH MAN it was AMAZING!! We were nearing Jaipur I think. India is so pristine, pity we don’t see it that way sometimes. If only administration did what it’s supposed to.

India is really beautiful (I MUST APOLOGISE TO MY READERS THAT THIS MAY BE HAPHAZARD, COURSE I HAVE FORGOTTEN A FEW DETAILS and NAMES). I remember there was this place a valley sorts, huge boulders, stone mountains a tiny road passing through and from far off you could see a truck meandering its way slowly. Sun rays falling, different colours; yellow, orange, red WOW. I don’t remember the name of the place but it was beautiful.

We reached Jaipur. One of my friends was doing hotel management there, so we  knocked at her door. I think she looked through a window and probably thought she should call the police, with two ruffians, black faces standing at her door, ringing the bell.

I had to speak “Its Bikram.” She opened the door, the usual hello hi, ages since we met, how is this/that, the usual rigmarole, I was too tired to carry on making small talk, She did not look happy as she had to make something to eat.. But friends are angel’s, I could see she hated going to the kitchen but God bless her she made some toasts , eggs I think (been a long time ) dont remember that far back) .

We ate,  went to sleep for sometime, rested a bit, washed yet again, started off again with promises made that if she talks to someone in chandigarh she better not tell we were there and that too on a bike .

My cousin was riding the bike while I held on to my dear life sitting behind him, telling him to change the gear, Slow down, break, car- truck and he would constantly say “SHUT UP! I know what I am doing.” It’s amazing how you are always a better driver then the other. How you instruct others saying they are doing wrong. It was early evening when we hit the outskirts of Ajmer. The drive was amazing, for a change there was not that much traffic. We did stop a couple of times for a cup of chai. I remember just before entering the city we got some petrol and went inside.

Ajmer is another beautiful place. I had a friend in Meo College, and I had already called him to say we were coming. So, met up with him. Talked about long lost childhood, I bet my cousin was bored to death at that time. In Ajmer we had a hearty meal, some mutton biryani along with some kebabs. We decided to stay the night there so that we could have a decent rest. We still had till Sunday evening to call parents and it was only Saturday evening/night yet, so, long time to go. It’s amazing in college days you always had so much time.

Nothing else happened (I am trying to remember what happened almost 11-12 years ago. Hence, the big holes in the story). The next morning, we set off. We asked for directions we were advised to go to Udaipur and then to GandhiNagar,  for some reason another direction came,  lets go to Mount Abu! It’s a hill resort in the desert. My cousin had heard how one his friends’ family had gone there for an outing and enjoyed it. I must say by this time we were not worried about parents finding cause there was nothing they could do now; they would do their shouting once we reached. Till then there were no worries.

… To be Continued ..