Concerning Palmistry and NH-2
Concerning Palmistry and NH-2
" ... over the mountain, across the sea
who knows what is waiting for me? ..."
- Pink Floyd
It is not funny that I have such long life-line, I will probably linger around for quite a while, like Hamlet's dear dad. I just hope I have better things to tell my sons and grandsons, than mystery and murder. I hope I have things to tell ... of Adventure. Of beautiful sunsets and sunrises. Of the wonderful people I have met and will meet. Of the crazy trips across this amazing subcontinent we call our Motherland ... And of Life.
I already have quite a few stories, some of which have found their way to these posts. Some others are doing the rounds in the biking groups, some in the family ... Like the one where I broke a toll gate on Moradabad Bypass. Or the one when Imran got stung by a bee while returning from Nainital, which poisoned him so much that the next whole day he was 'out of order' ... he slept in the office, got caught and; he and I, being his immediate boss, almost got thrown out of the company.
Even the one way back about how Hari, a classmate and good friend from S P Jain, and I started off from Mumbai to be on the highway for some time ... the idea was that we wil probably go till Panvel and return ... just some casual riding, chatting and catching up ... but how we kept chatting, and kept going further and further ... and further and further ... till in the end we went to Mahabaleshwar ... even this one. What makes it interesting is that it happened to be my first time on the bike on highways !
I have a theory that from the time I have started riding, I have got so many stories to tell my grandsons that my life-line is in fact increasing over time -- a theory that must be put to test ... More the rides, more prolonged will the story-telling be and longer the line.
So today when I ride on the Delhi Agra route yet again, the mind's eye forms a Rembrant of these various stories. And the montage brings out some distinct lines on the palm. This one is for the same route I am riding on -- the oh-so common and perhaps therefore missed -- Delhi Agra route.
Delhi Agra route:
Gurgaon - Faridabad (30) - Take right [NH 2] - Ballabhgarh (12) - Palval (30) - Hodal - Kosi (30) - Mathura (40) - Agra (40) - Fatehpur Sikri (34) - Return - Total about 500km
This route has a special place on the palm, since my very first ride out of Delhi is to Agra. At that time, I have the Hero Honda Splendor 100cc. Good reliable city bike, but seat is very uncomfortable for long rides. October heat. Almost sun stroke. While returning, we find a dhaba near Hodal where all three of us can spread our sour seats wide and sleep for about half an hour. Sour butts or not, this ride paves way to an everlasting romance with the roads.
This ride is thus followed by many more rides - some again on NH2. Some on bikes, some in four-wheelers. Some to go to the Taj. Some otherwise - maybe Fatehpur Sikri, or Mathura, or Bharatpur. Some, to take a client or two along on his/her first 'India darshan'. Some more intimate and less formal. What is common among them all is the road and the McDonald some 10km after Mathura towards Agra. The road has now become much better, with less potholes and wider lanes. Pappu's dhaba at Kosi has become so popular that they now have many Pappu dhabas ... some even advertize as 'Asli Pappu Dhaba'. Dabchick (HTDC hotel), near Hodal, is getting renovated. Things have changed, ... or have they?
In the mesh of all these lines, one ride on this road is stricking. This is when 4 of us ride to Agra to meet Nick Sanders and his gang of bikers, who are on their around-the-world biking expedition. Nick, as many will know, is a living legend. He conducts these around-the world bike rides every year. Usually they start in the Americas, cover both the continents, then come to Asia by sea, resume the ride again, reach India at Chennai, and then ride all the way up to Delhi or Chandigarh or some Northern city. From there, they go air-borne, cross Pakistan and Afghanistan by air, and resume their ride again from Turkey. I think they usually finish in Europe or UK.
When we meet them in 2002, it is one of their last circuit of the India leg, which is sponsored by RE. The gang is given some brand new Electras by the company to test, and a crew and a mechanics van. They ride from Chennai to Delhi, through Coorg and the Western Ghats, and aside the Konkan coast. This is the first time we meet some real, serious bikers. These guys are huge, they are used to huge machines of their own, and so they ride Bullets like we would ride mopeds. One has hit a bull on the way, one even has some story going on with a local village person being hit ... needless to say, dogs and lambs that are sacrificed by them are numerous. We are simply in awe. We ride with them like devotees dancing along side a godhead's procession. There is media, there is press, it's all pretty crazy.
So today when I ride to Agra, mainly to get the 'running in' done for the new piston block of Saki and to introduce another friend / colleague Siddharth to the romance of the road, it is mostly the time of reflecting on the last few years of nomadic existance. It feels like taking the damp winter clothes out in the sunshine, spreading them, brushing them and removing creases. Once they are out in the sun, nicely stacked and placed in the order of imprint or time, I mull on some, try some, see some in a new light ... slowly the thoughts wander to the planning of the next ride -- Ladakh. But I will spare that for later.
We do the 200-odd kilometers in about 5 hours starting 6:30am, mainly because I cannot go over 60km/h. There is superb cloud cover all day long, and although the weather is muggy, it saves us from the expected sun-burn. Some well-made paneer parathas in the morning near Palval keep us going without much stoppage. Before Agra, there is a board saying 'Fatehpur Sikri - 28km' where I decide to take a detour. Siddharth rides on to Agra to meet relations.
It turns out of that the '28km' is actually 38km. This screws up my time calculation completely ... Immediately after leaving the highway, there is a railway crossing. The road thereon is still in its making, and so it is brilliant in some places and un-mentionable in some others. The only solace is that it is less known and therefore less busy.
I get taken aback when I see a milestone with 'Mumbai - 1200km' written on it. Now, two questions --- is this fake, and if it is true, why would anyone want to go by this way to Mumbai in the first place? ... Anyway, I cruise past such oddities, some little hutments alongside ponds, cross another railway line (which is apparently non-operational) and emerge on the Agra - Fatehpur Sikri road.
Apart from this newly found road, the rest of the trip is rather uneventful -- of course, apart from the fact that there is a little drizzle while we return. We pay the protocol visit to Mathura McDonald's swarning with firangs in hot pants, stop at Kosi for fuel and water and touch Faridabad back at 6pm. I take the route from Faridabad back to Gurgaon, which is about 35km, with the first 5km inside Faridabad capable of making you wonder why you took this turn in the first place, but becomes much better after that ...
Thus begins the off-roading practice session of the mighty ride of Ladakh -- one of the deepest lines on the palm of hand and maybe even a crease on the forehead ! ...
Watch out this space for more pre-Ladakh posts, Less than 15 days to go ...
Shreekant.
" ... over the mountain, across the sea
who knows what is waiting for me? ..."
- Pink Floyd
It is not funny that I have such long life-line, I will probably linger around for quite a while, like Hamlet's dear dad. I just hope I have better things to tell my sons and grandsons, than mystery and murder. I hope I have things to tell ... of Adventure. Of beautiful sunsets and sunrises. Of the wonderful people I have met and will meet. Of the crazy trips across this amazing subcontinent we call our Motherland ... And of Life.
I already have quite a few stories, some of which have found their way to these posts. Some others are doing the rounds in the biking groups, some in the family ... Like the one where I broke a toll gate on Moradabad Bypass. Or the one when Imran got stung by a bee while returning from Nainital, which poisoned him so much that the next whole day he was 'out of order' ... he slept in the office, got caught and; he and I, being his immediate boss, almost got thrown out of the company.
Even the one way back about how Hari, a classmate and good friend from S P Jain, and I started off from Mumbai to be on the highway for some time ... the idea was that we wil probably go till Panvel and return ... just some casual riding, chatting and catching up ... but how we kept chatting, and kept going further and further ... and further and further ... till in the end we went to Mahabaleshwar ... even this one. What makes it interesting is that it happened to be my first time on the bike on highways !
I have a theory that from the time I have started riding, I have got so many stories to tell my grandsons that my life-line is in fact increasing over time -- a theory that must be put to test ... More the rides, more prolonged will the story-telling be and longer the line.
So today when I ride on the Delhi Agra route yet again, the mind's eye forms a Rembrant of these various stories. And the montage brings out some distinct lines on the palm. This one is for the same route I am riding on -- the oh-so common and perhaps therefore missed -- Delhi Agra route.
Delhi Agra route:
Gurgaon - Faridabad (30) - Take right [NH 2] - Ballabhgarh (12) - Palval (30) - Hodal - Kosi (30) - Mathura (40) - Agra (40) - Fatehpur Sikri (34) - Return - Total about 500km
This route has a special place on the palm, since my very first ride out of Delhi is to Agra. At that time, I have the Hero Honda Splendor 100cc. Good reliable city bike, but seat is very uncomfortable for long rides. October heat. Almost sun stroke. While returning, we find a dhaba near Hodal where all three of us can spread our sour seats wide and sleep for about half an hour. Sour butts or not, this ride paves way to an everlasting romance with the roads.
This ride is thus followed by many more rides - some again on NH2. Some on bikes, some in four-wheelers. Some to go to the Taj. Some otherwise - maybe Fatehpur Sikri, or Mathura, or Bharatpur. Some, to take a client or two along on his/her first 'India darshan'. Some more intimate and less formal. What is common among them all is the road and the McDonald some 10km after Mathura towards Agra. The road has now become much better, with less potholes and wider lanes. Pappu's dhaba at Kosi has become so popular that they now have many Pappu dhabas ... some even advertize as 'Asli Pappu Dhaba'. Dabchick (HTDC hotel), near Hodal, is getting renovated. Things have changed, ... or have they?
In the mesh of all these lines, one ride on this road is stricking. This is when 4 of us ride to Agra to meet Nick Sanders and his gang of bikers, who are on their around-the-world biking expedition. Nick, as many will know, is a living legend. He conducts these around-the world bike rides every year. Usually they start in the Americas, cover both the continents, then come to Asia by sea, resume the ride again, reach India at Chennai, and then ride all the way up to Delhi or Chandigarh or some Northern city. From there, they go air-borne, cross Pakistan and Afghanistan by air, and resume their ride again from Turkey. I think they usually finish in Europe or UK.
When we meet them in 2002, it is one of their last circuit of the India leg, which is sponsored by RE. The gang is given some brand new Electras by the company to test, and a crew and a mechanics van. They ride from Chennai to Delhi, through Coorg and the Western Ghats, and aside the Konkan coast. This is the first time we meet some real, serious bikers. These guys are huge, they are used to huge machines of their own, and so they ride Bullets like we would ride mopeds. One has hit a bull on the way, one even has some story going on with a local village person being hit ... needless to say, dogs and lambs that are sacrificed by them are numerous. We are simply in awe. We ride with them like devotees dancing along side a godhead's procession. There is media, there is press, it's all pretty crazy.
So today when I ride to Agra, mainly to get the 'running in' done for the new piston block of Saki and to introduce another friend / colleague Siddharth to the romance of the road, it is mostly the time of reflecting on the last few years of nomadic existance. It feels like taking the damp winter clothes out in the sunshine, spreading them, brushing them and removing creases. Once they are out in the sun, nicely stacked and placed in the order of imprint or time, I mull on some, try some, see some in a new light ... slowly the thoughts wander to the planning of the next ride -- Ladakh. But I will spare that for later.
We do the 200-odd kilometers in about 5 hours starting 6:30am, mainly because I cannot go over 60km/h. There is superb cloud cover all day long, and although the weather is muggy, it saves us from the expected sun-burn. Some well-made paneer parathas in the morning near Palval keep us going without much stoppage. Before Agra, there is a board saying 'Fatehpur Sikri - 28km' where I decide to take a detour. Siddharth rides on to Agra to meet relations.
It turns out of that the '28km' is actually 38km. This screws up my time calculation completely ... Immediately after leaving the highway, there is a railway crossing. The road thereon is still in its making, and so it is brilliant in some places and un-mentionable in some others. The only solace is that it is less known and therefore less busy.
I get taken aback when I see a milestone with 'Mumbai - 1200km' written on it. Now, two questions --- is this fake, and if it is true, why would anyone want to go by this way to Mumbai in the first place? ... Anyway, I cruise past such oddities, some little hutments alongside ponds, cross another railway line (which is apparently non-operational) and emerge on the Agra - Fatehpur Sikri road.
Apart from this newly found road, the rest of the trip is rather uneventful -- of course, apart from the fact that there is a little drizzle while we return. We pay the protocol visit to Mathura McDonald's swarning with firangs in hot pants, stop at Kosi for fuel and water and touch Faridabad back at 6pm. I take the route from Faridabad back to Gurgaon, which is about 35km, with the first 5km inside Faridabad capable of making you wonder why you took this turn in the first place, but becomes much better after that ...
Thus begins the off-roading practice session of the mighty ride of Ladakh -- one of the deepest lines on the palm of hand and maybe even a crease on the forehead ! ...
Watch out this space for more pre-Ladakh posts, Less than 15 days to go ...
Shreekant.
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