Day 5: Ahmedabad halt (29th Aug 2014)

Woke up at 6 am despite setting the alarm at 8 am as I was anxious about the phone. The first view from my room that morning was that of hope.

 It was Ganesh Chaturti that day, so I prayed hard to God to fix my phone. To let the Gods know how important the phone was to me, I offered to not eat anything till the evening. It was an emotional tactic and I agree it was a desperate one too. I only wanted all the forces to concentrate on fixing that phone. I was getting jumpy in the room, so I left to get the phone repaired by 8:30 am. I took the address of the hotel from the hotel manager so that I don’t get lost on my way back.

I decided to go to Dugar Sales at Prahladnagar and reached there at 9 am. The service centre was closed. One of the parking attendants told me that it would open only at 10 am. 

As the clock ticked by, the market slowly started opening up for the business. Dugar sales finally opened at 10:30 am. I handed over my phone and requested them to fix it at any cost. I was told to come by 6 pm to collect the phone.     

Next in the job list was to hand over Chitti (that’s what Linda calls my Royal Enfield classic 350 inspired from the movie of one of our favorite actors- RAJNIKANT !!!) for servicing. I signalled one of the Enfield riders to stop, which he did happily, and I asked him the directions to the nearest Enfield service station. Luckily the service station was only about 3 kms away. I reached Sarabhai service station at around 11:00 am. 

Pic : Sarabhai service centre

Robin, the guy who took my bike told me that I would get my bike the following day as many mechanics were on a day leave owing to Ganesh Chaturti. When I told Robin that I wanted the bike on the same day as I would be travelling early next morning, he asked me to have a word with Ravi Bhai – The guy in charge of the service station. After Ravi heard about my travelling plan, he assured me that the bike would be “express serviced” and handed over on the same day. I was told to come by 3 pm to fetch Chitti.

It was turning out to be a very hot day. As I had some 3 hours at my disposal, I walked into one of the parks and started documenting my trip so far.

 When I reached Sarabhai service station at around 3:20 pm, they had not started on Chitti. I had a quick word with Ravi Bhai and he immediately queued Chitti next. I was allowed to enter the servicing area and see how it’s done too. By now Ravi had shared my travelling plan with all the mechanics. The chief technician walked up to me and started asking about my riding experiences so far. A trip to Ladakh was his dream ride too. He was not very comfortable with the idea of me riding alone. I had to assure him that I had all the necessary spares to fix some common breakdowns. Mustafa, a young mechanic who was working on Chitti was also explaining to me all the details in case of a breakdown. If only I had paid so much attention in my physics classes, I would probably have been working in NASA today.

Revived and a clean Chitti was handed over to me at 6 pm. Next, nervously I called Dugar Sales to check if my phone was fixed. God must have been busy that day. The phone was not repaired. I was told that the motherboard had to be replaced and it would cost me 12k for the replacement. I was ready to pay that price if they could give me the phone in the same evening, but they said that they had to order the motherboard and it would take them 4 days to receive it. I could not wait for 4 days so I collected the phone, determined to fix it once I reach my home.

I got lost on my way back to the hotel as the address was not very precise. I asked many people for the directions towards my hotel, but no one seemed to have any clue. Then comes in this gentleman, an auto driver by profession. The look on his face was a clear indication that I was way off the mark. He said , “Aap meray peechay peechay aana” (Follow me)

After about half an hour of following him, he stopped, signalled me to come up front, pointed towards one building and said, “ Aap ka hotel wo raha” (There is your hotel).

As he was getting ready to leave, I gave him some money for his deed. God sure has a sense of humor.

 (Do read the other days chronicle listed in the same page)

#Royalenfield  #trip #leh #bikeride #adventure #ladakh #travel