Uttarakhand to Kolkata

My ipod shuffle was playing Wo Lamhe.. by Atif Aslam from the movie Zeher. It was the time when I was crossing the bridge over Ganga in Varanasi. Time was 5:30 am. Grand trunk road.. NH2 more precisely. The dawn had just broken in. The truck lights were then disappearing slowly into the day light. After the whole night drive the daylights finally were there to offer me some relief.

The river looked beautiful. Two three boys were seen jogging on the bridge footpath. Really lucky them should I call them to find a spot like that to run. I really wished to stop and take some snaps. But then the signboard showing ‘Kolkata 732 kms’ kept itching me not to skip the grip over the accelerator. The night had taken toll over me. Head was buzzing with heaviness, the eyes really wanted to stoop down for a nap. But then I wanted to reach home before 5 pm.

1800 kms in 35 hours..

Digest that you ardent blog reader.

One and only reason to do a strenous bike trip of this kind was to test my buddy Thunderbird 350. I am mad so I personally didn’t need any test to show the degrees of my madness. Just wanted to check if my bike could tackle my frenziness. The bike is a solid stuff.

Kawalkar still bluffs, like he always used to in college days. Certain things never change. He had commented that my bike would screw up definitely on a such journey and that Enfields are not reliable and much more blah blah blah. I should say the bike is good. No heating problem. 40 kmpl on such a ride with a record of 9000 kms in 5 months. Amaravati to Melghat to back to Nagpur to Jabalpur to Agra to Haridwar to Bharsar in Uttarakhand to Hisar through Delhi and back to Bharsar then to Dehradun to Bharsar to Kolkata via Lucknow Allahabad Varanasi.

I had left Bharsar on 6^th October at 6 am, exact at 6 am my bike ignition was switched on. I had woken up at 4:30 am followed by a snooze of 20 minutes. Knew  what was gonna follow would be a 36 hrs non stop ride to home. So wanted a nice nap refreshed mind. But as usual, the mind doesn’t sleep peacefully when what is gonna follow next day early morning is a firecracker. I remember I hadn’t slept properly the night before embarking the Uklana tour. Even if you fall asleep, as if the brain keep riding bike whole night, and you wake up in the middle of the night trying to tell the brain to shut up and go to sleep. That sucks.

Happiness was leaving the Bharsar campus. The horticulture university campus surely didn’t deserve a doctor. Too much superstitious practitioners and ignorant idiots. There is no such term as ‘ignorant idiot’ for sure. Better would be just simply an ‘idiot’. More precisely talking of the Bharsar trp section, educated idiots would be the best. Driving out of the gates was such a pleasure. What I knew ahead was waiting for me was 1800 kms highway. Big day it was.

I had to get my engine oil changed at Najibabad. Also got the chain oiled. I didn’t get the 4 way lanes until I crossed Moradabad. Had taken one wrong turn at Moradabad, which rectified later. That was when I realized that I needed to rely heavily on my mobile gps rather than the roadside signboards or the public opinions.

This time, Highway to dangerzone track from the movie Top Gun kept humming in my mind. Song of the trip would We All Die Young by Steel Dragon. Although I didn’t listen to this track through out the trip. Ha ha. I forgot to load it in my ipod, but since I realized later that it would serve as the track of this trip so I downloaded it on my mobile just before stepping out and through out my trip I never connected earplugs to my mobile.

After Moradabad, I ravaged my bike at 120 kmph through out the whole expressway stretch to Bareily. After Bareily, the roads became hell. That continued till Sitapur. The bad roads exhausted me like anything. Spotted a beautiful sunset over the green fields after Bareily but didn’t stop.

This thing really created itches for me this time. How you overtake the trucks and then you don’t want to take any stop because the trucks you overtook will go ahead of you again if you halt. The time lapse occurs on such long trips thats a different thing. And on the four way or six way lanes, most of our truck drivers are still ignorant on to which way to drive.

Had touched Lucknow at night 12 am I think. Two drunkards I met at tea stall on Lucknow outskirts, they were airforce employees, thats what they said. My bike attracts attention, the heavy baggage on it attracts even more, then comes the number plate “you are from Maharashtra, you drove upto here?”  Thats when I have to spell my travel diaries to them in as short as possible. Then comes the doctor sign “you are a doctor?” Then they spot my beard. Thats how the cloudburst of queries thunder on me. This time these two drunkards had even clicked one selfie with me. Unknown road, unknown city, unknown people, midnight, and a selfie. I am crazy. His name was Vargis. He even noted down my number. He called me in the evening time a day after.

Whole night I just kept calculating my chances of crossing Varanasi before the 6 am. That way if  I drove like hell after Varanasi, I would be able to reach Kolkata before 5 pm. I wanted to watch Atletico de Kolkata match which was to start at 7 pm. I touched the G T road at 3 am. Big broad expressway. Pleasure was mine. I fired like hell after that. It was then that my ipod started playing Joker and The Thief by Wolmother. I did play it repeatedly. Helped my to stay awake.

It was dark. Allahabad was flying past in that darkness, as did the rivers. The trucks would run all night. I had stopped just before Varanasi for a cup of tea. That would be my fifth cup of tea for the night. My butt was aching. Knee joints a bit. Head was still ok. I had suffered a headache in the afternoon driving with the sun on my face. The dialects had changed there. It was almost like the Maithili dialect that the old men at the tea stall were speaking.

The day broke. With lending me the views of the Ganga. The song Wo Lamhe was buzzing in my earphones. It couldn’t had got better. There were reasons why I wanted to visit the Ganga ghats of Varanasi. But really couldn’t have done it then as riots were going on in the city with curfew called up the previous day. I always loved the Ganga ghats there. The evening prayers.

After crossing Varanasi I didn’t keep a notice as to the personal map landmarks, kind of the target spots that I usually fix that I have to reach in allotted time. Dehri sone asansol etc etc. I just kept running. All I kept a watch at was my speedometer. It wasn’t supposed to go below 100kmph. And the distance travelled. I kept matching it with the signboards showing how far Kolkata was. The butt ache was intensifying then. As were my knee joints. Morning time I was swaying with my sleepy eyes for sure. I was remembering the song Sway With Me then. Ha ha.

The Dehri Sone bridge was really a long one. Nothing else was that remarkable on the way. Yeah at Topchanchi there was big lake, boats were seen over it. After that there were hills.

The coconut date palm trees had started long before West Bengal had set in. Yet the touch of West Bengal enriched the beauty of the date palms and coconuts. Durgapur followed by Burdwan. The road was fine, unlike the condition of the road before Burdwan, diversions and constructions at every few kilometers.

Burdwan marked the touch of rain clouds hovering over my head. You are in vicinity of Kolkata and you won’t get to touch rain drops thats not possible. I opened my helmet visor to feel the humid winds on my face. The smell of Kolkata as if. The smell of Bengal. A smile on my face. I was gonna make it then to home before 5 pm. I had made up a good distance since the dawn break at Varanasi. My butt and knee joints had given up.

Just before entering Kolkata, around 20 kms away, I could see the rain slashing at me on the highway ahead. I got down. That was the moment to take out my dslr for few snaps. This trip I hardly bothered for stopping for snaps. Few snaps and the rains snapped by. It was a heavy rain accompanied by a few thunderstorms. The roads had gone vacant. Any rain, worse of the worst ones, I always remember the rain I had braved on my way to Uklana. Nothing compares to that one. Again the rain coat. I had worn the rain coat on my way out of Bharsar cause it was cold then, taken it off at Najibabad, worn it again after Lucknow, took it off after Varanasi, now wore it again. I took it off at Maidan.

If you lash your bike at 120 kmph for 3-4 hrs non stop, the petrol tank is bound to go empty every now and then. That was what happenning with me. All over the trip had cost me 3000 rs. Petrol.

Just on the outskirts of Kolkata a guy was test driving his Aquilla bike, the bike was zooming at 150 plus kmph.

Entered Dakhineshwar to be greeted my traffic. People. Congested roads. People everwhere. I have entered Kolkata. They let me cross the Ganga over the narrow bridge at Dakhineshwar. I could see the temple on  my left while crosssing the bridge. After crossing I asked for directions to Sealdah Station. And then the BT road. The whole journey didn’t break me the way the Kolkata traffic did it to me. 3 hrs it took for me to reach Home after touching Dakhineshwar.

I had forgotten the S.N.Banerjee road, the way to Esplanade. People staring at me and my bike. I asked a person the way to S.N.Banerjee road and in reply he hurled me with his queries, my bike, my job, my trip etc etc. It was traffic jammed road. The person was standing with a crowd waiting to cross the street and still they had the patience to bust me with such series of questions. Another person right in front of me joined him to help him out with questions about my trip. I asked him “where are you going?” “I shall be going to Howrah but I will show you the way to Chowrasta.”

That was one good thing about people in Bengal. Helpful they are. Something just the contradictory of what you shall find in north India.

Yellow cabs. Blue buses. White dressed police men. I am in Kolkata.

The S.N.Banerjee was as usual hell jammed. It was just 4 pm, wasn’t even the office get off time. God knows what happens after 5 pm. The man who wanted to help me out with way to Chowrasta had lost me in that jam of S.N.Banerjee road. I reached Esplanade to breathe some relief, then made way to Maidan, didn’t take the Park Street fearing the jam there. On entering the Maidan area I spotted the 3D bus. This bus used to take me home from my coaching classes at Shyambazar. I wanted to follow it. My curious glances on the bus was caught by its conductor. Accidentally I lost the bus. The bus took a sharp right and I went straight with the traffic. Later understood the route, halted besides the Race Course, to pack up rain coat and clean my face. My face was as if painted with coaltar. At that instance the man who wanted to show me the way to Chowrasta came up to me “Hey I thought I have lost you.. I was looking for you only. Good that you made this far.”

‘Dude I am not a total stranger here.’ I thought to myself. These people had an impression that I had started from Maharashtra and I tour all over India and right now I am in Kolkata. So they all wanted to help me thinking that I am a new comer here. The man did one great thing that he told me wch bridge to take over Khidderpore. I got the Diamond Harbor road after Khidderpore where a bus driver had almost got me down when he wanted to drive on the right side of the road and I kept honking to overtake him. My bike fell on its right resting on the railings, when four men came running to help me. They helped me pick up my bike. First two guys came, when they found the bike was too heavy to be lifted by them,  two more joined in. I bade them thank you, drove ahead to be frisked by the same bus driver who denied me a right pass. He shouted at me asking he didn’t realize that I was caught on to the wrong foot of the road. He said sorry. I said ok, smiled and drove past that bus. Ajanta theatre, Behala thana, Tram depo, Asoka theatre, Manton, Blind school and then Chowrasta. A right turn to the Biren Roy road. I forgot to fly a glimpse at my old gym infront of Housing. A left turn from Muchipara, to Sarsuna College. The lake stood as beautiful as always. The 18 D bus stand, left, right, right, left to view my Aunt’s home, right, right, left, left, left, left. Home.

My eyes were as if I was stoned hard. I watched the football match with my heavy eyes, my brain had as if stopped functioning. Happiness of the evening was taking the shower. Warm water. It was lukewarm. For me it was great. For the past four months at Uttarakhand I would take bath once on two three days.

So that ended my journey. The motorcycle did well.

You know what happiness is... Happiness is reading some pages of a novel on highway roadside, or eating an apple, on the side of highway, where green fields surround you. Just straight roads where the drivers hardly bother what you do. You now know how cold the mountains are. Cause you have been there. You know the value of warmth. And you know whats its like to drive through 45 degrees. You know landslides, cold rains. So a warm sunshine of the October skies seems beautiful to you.