So towards Mount Abu or Udaipur did not matter to me. But seeing the glee on my cousin’s face, we decided we will go that way. Let him also go to his school and boast how he went to Mount Abu on a bike, impress some girls.
So we left. I think the stone mountains and all that I mentioned earlier in the story, it was here early morning. We meandered our way through the VAST emptiness. IT was EMPTY. Believe me when I say it. Nothing was visible just vegetation, rocks, huge hills and once in a while a truck would come by. Later we were told that place was notorious for Dakus (bandits). 🙂 No idea if it was true or not. It did not matter to us because we were the kings of the Road, zooming our way.
We had stopped worrying about the bike too. It had made it till here and we were confident it will do another 700 or 800 kms more. Ah we SO we thought. It was only later we got to know it was not THAT far.
Around 11 or 12 noon, we saw a depleted Dhaba on the road side, and nothing for miles and miles. There was an old truck parked outside it. We were hungry so we stopped. We asked the guy what was on offer. Channa masala with Jawaar Roti ( I am sorry I don’t know the English equivalent to Jawaar, Chick peas curry).
The guy had smiled when we ordered the Channa masala. I came to know why when I took the first bite. IT WAS ONLY RED CHILLIES! OH MY GOD!! I was on fire!
How were the others eating it?
We had tears in our eyes. My cousin gulped the one Glass of water we had. By the time the next one came I had used the choicest Punjabi slangs. My god! No wonder the guy was smiling, he knew it all and to top it all I remember him being KIND to me and asking if I would like to have a couple of Green chilies with the salad. To which I had said YES. I bet he was rolling in laughter when he heard that. We could not finish the curry so we got some egg bhurji made WITHOUT CHILLIES to finish our lunch.
Came out of the dhabha and my cousin remarked “Hava Khat haigi pichle tyre ch (it seems there is less air in the rear tyre).” As if we could see and make out. It was desert and the tyre was a little inside the sand. Anyhow, we both agreed we have less AIR so at first available place we will get it filled.
Started with our ride and a few kms later we reached a village, where we found a guy repairing bicycles. Miraculously he had one of those mechanical air-pressure things, with which you fill air in tyres. You know what I mean. But he had no meter to read how much it’s filled. It was blind leading the blind, trying to squeeze the tyre with our hands to see if it’s enough.
Ah well, at some stage we found that the tyre was full. Till now my cousin had been driving, so we exchanged and for some reason we put the haversack on the petrol tank. Oh I remember now… We had it strapped by the side but we did not notice that the rear tyre had been scrubbing against it so the straps had torn off. I remember it was about 3-4 in evening and we were heading towards a town called PALI.
As it had been throughout the scenery, the drive was awesome. There was hardly any traffic. I have recently visited Australia and I can tell you, and those who read this can quote me on this, some of the views were as breath-taking as I saw in OZ; it was amazing, for miles nothing, far away a Green Tree, some huts and animals grazing. It was beautiful. While we were admiring all this…
BOOOMMMMMMMMMMMM
Next second I was on the road, sliding down, the haversack and me going on top of each other a couple of times. I could feel some pain in my shoulder. The bike had slid to the other side of the road. My turban had flown away. My shoe was not on my foot and It felt HOT. I got up checked myself: NOTHING HAD BROKEN although had lost pieces of my jeans at places along with the skin on my leg. There was blood on my eyebrow. I had lost one arm to my shirt.. along with lot of skin.. but it did not seem bad ..
Then PANIC set in… Where is my cousin? I saw him lying motionless middle of the road.
GODS WERE INDEED LOOKING DOWN ON US. There was no traffic, else anything could have driven over him.
I went up to him and shook him. Nothing. MORE PANIC… He is dead. Shook him again, he opened his eyes. I thanked god that he was alive. He too had some parts of his jeans missing, blood on his legs and a big gash on his arm. His turban was mysteriously intact though… I pulled him off the road. There were small mound of rubble so lay him there.
Then went on to check on the bike and Oh My God! The poor bike had taken the brunt.
1. The petrol tank had squeezed.
2. The Rear tyre RIM was not round anymore.
3. The rear type had burst.
4. Some sort of OIL was leaking.
All in all, I felt pretty sure that the ROAD TRIP had finished there. The poor bike had, had it. Now, the sun was coming down, we had no idea where we were or what to do. A couple of trucks had passed, no one stopped. My cousin lay on the rubble as if he was dead and asking for WATER. I guess the drivers probably thought he was dead hence no one stopped.
It was getting dark when finally a small truck stopped. The driver got down. I asked for water and he gave me a bottle of water. He went to check on my cousin. By this time I had made my cousin get up and SIT so at least he did not appear to be dead to motorists. He asked the same question, “Where to?” I explained to him how we had started from Chandigarh. He shook his head.
I had to tell him where Chandigarh was. He had never heard of the place before. He told me that he could take me and my cousin to the next town Pali where we could do something about the bruises etc we had got.
So we sat in the truck.. had gone a few metres when we realised the BIKE was still back there so we had to request the driver , to get the bike too, the poor guy had to reverse the truck.. the bike was BAD.. got a rope tied it and pulled it up, sort of hanging on the back.. by now the bruises had started to hurt , you know when the blood has clotted .. its swollen a bit OUCH…
Reached PALI.. we were dropped by a Dhaba again.. and introduced to Two sikh gentleman, shabbily dressed they were DRIVERS of a truck bearing Haryana Number :).. were going to Mumbai with a load.
They too had a nice little joke at our expense , but then the Punjabi Hospitality took over..
The guys Oh god bless them..
The bigger sardar of the two.. gave the other one 30 rupees to take me and my cousin to the local dispensary, for bandages… Who would do that today ? He took us to the dispensary where we got tetanus shots.. bruises had the iodine put on , That yucky dirty yellow thing , yuck… cuts cleaned and bandaged….
Back to the Dhaba.. it was nearly night-time .. We were offered Dinner.. All paid for I still remember it was one plate of Chicken tandoori, the black Daaal, with salad consisting of onions,Tomatoes,Raddish and Rotis
WOWOW we ate like Pigs.. and to top it all the Dudh Patti (milk tea) wowo… this was not all , the Two guys had put our bike on top of the truck cabin… If you see a Truck where the drivers sit there is some space above the roof.. its like an Open Trunk.. the Bike was put up there, safely tied …
Now this was a nice new truck.. there was a drivers seat.. a Passenger seat behind them were Two small Sleepers.. probably for the guys to sleep or rest while one drives. We were treated so nicely that we were given both the berths to sleep. what else would one want .. Bruises taken care of, Well Fed .. Place to sleep WOW almost a hotel accommodation…
We set off towards Ahmedabad.. the younger Guy was driving first , after some time the two of them Took out a Quarter Each .. of Home made whiskey or something .. put it in the steel glass and gulp gulp they did in one sip…Bloody hell I thought WE made it on the bike but tonight if we hit we are gone case.. God surly wont keep us the second time …. I guess I dozed off after some time…
Waking up in the morning we had reached the outskirts , we found a STD booth from where we called up my uncle telling him what had happened .. there was the customary.. “YOU reach home .. will talk then“..
ooops bloody hell we had had it.. (and my cousins dad he is 6ft and BIG really BIG bloke ,Well built , I thought he was going to beat the SH___ out of us.)
Around midday we reached Ahmedabad.. my uncle was standing at one of the CHOWKS.. the truck stopped we got down and guess what .. Uncle Ji came and HUGGED US BOTH… before the YOU IDIOTS .. WHY would you do this started…….. The bike was left at a mechanic..
All in all it was an EXCELLENT TRIP… I would do it anytime again
Me and My Random Thoughts 