Day 7: Ajmer to Delhi (31st Aug 2014)

The Chinese alarm failed me and I woke up at 8 am. Quickly changed and by the time I started my ride, it was already 9 am. Rain clouds were nowhere to be seen, but I had a hunch that it was just another monsoon trick.

Just when I had mounted on Chitti, (that’s what Linda calls my Royal Enfield classic 350 inspired from the movie of one of our favorite actors - RAJNIKANT !!!) one teenage guy asked me, “Are you going to Leh?”.

I replied in affirmative.

“I knew it when I saw you” said he and then followed an avalanche of questions. “When did u start?”, “Which route?”, “How long?”, “Why alone?”, “What if the bike breaks down?”, “How many liters of petrol so far?”. I was getting late for my ride but I answered all of his queries to his satisfaction because he genuinely wanted to know. He listened to me attentively and at the end he finally said, “I also want to go to Leh on a bike, but not alone. I want to go with my friends. It’s my dream to ride to Leh”. He was not looking at me when he was saying this. He was engrossed in observing Chitti, the luggage crank, and my riding gears. I could sense the passion that he had amassed for all these years. I knew it would erupt soon.

“You should definitely make one trip to Leh, but do it with your friends and ride safe”, said I smiling at him. He returned my smile with an even brighter one. I wished him well and started my trip.

Now that I didn't have a Google map to help me out with the route, I had to make some changes in my planned route. My original route was to reach Ladakh via Jammu & Kashmir (read home page) as many had advised me to avoid the Manali route, which is a much shorter but a little dangerous one for a solo bike rider. Luckily, Madhu – one of my business partners in Bangalore, had shared with me a detailed itinerary of the Chandigarh - Manali - Leh ride which he had done recently. Praise the Lord for I was carrying one copy of that itinerary. The itinerary was so well defined that it was a very good substitute for a Google map. So, I decided to take the same route.  However, I had to reach Chandigarh for that, and I had little clue about the route. I needed a navigator like the ones you see in a cross-country car rallies, so I called Linda. She checked the route on the net and told me that the shortest route from Ajmer to Chandigarh was via Rothak. She also gave a list of major targets to help me navigate from Ajmer to Rothak. Her message read;

Ajmer - Jaipur - Manpura - Shahpura - Shahjahanpur - Rewari - Rohtak. 

I knew she was taking her newfound role very seriously when people could easily identify my immediate next target destination and direct me accordingly whenever I was confused. The list saved a lot of my time which otherwise I would have lost by taking wrong diversions.        

The ride from Ajmer to Jaipur was a very good one. After a brief stop at Satkar dhaba for some delicious parathas, I reached Jaipur at 1:30 pm.

I wanted to pick up a Rajasthani souvenir to take back home. My gifting sense and a monkey’s flower sense are of the same kind. I was thinking really hard on the souvenir when a truck came to my rescue. I was riding behind this truck and like all Indian trucks, this one too had a line on its rear end. It read, “Rajasthani Gudiya”. Problem solved. Rajasthani gudiya would make a perfect souvenir. I don’t know how true Einstein’s “Bee theory” is, but I can vouch that if the Indian trucks stop those liners on the back, mankind will have much less than four years to live.

I rode into the heart of the pink city and headed straight towards the famous Hawa Mahal. I picked up the Rajasthani gudiya right in front of the Hawa Mahal but realized that I didn't have space in my saddle bag even to fit in a peanut. I had to hang those puppets beside my tripod.  I was not sure if the puppets would reach Darjeeling in that state.

By the time I left Jaipur, it was almost 2:30. One hour of riding and then, I saw it. Black lump waiting for me in the horizon.                       

I could read the monsoon’s next move, so I changed into my rain jacket. I did not put on my rain cover pants as the gumboots and the protective knee pads made it a very cumbersome process. I thought I would do so only when it rains, by taking shelter somewhere on the way. Few minutes into the riding and the monsoon pounced on me, yet again, and caught me off guard too, yet again. The attack was so strategic that I could not find a square meter of shelter amidst the open fields.

By the time I reached one dhaba, I was drenched from my hip downwards. There were few truck drivers in that dhaba sipping a hot cup of tea. I had something on my mind, so I asked them the difference in kms from Rothak to Chandigarh and Delhi to Chandigarh. They said that though the Rothak route was shorter as compared to the Delhi route, however, the difference was hardly about 70-80 Kms. As I was now used to riding about 450+ kms in a day, a difference of 70-80 kms didn’t bother me much. Now I had a good reason to visit Delhi. Lochan, one of my friends, well he is more of a family, lived in Delhi. I also knew that he was heading back home to Darjeeling for Dashera vacation on the last week of September – Our annual get together time. Since there was about three weeks' time before he left for Darjeeling, I wanted him to give my phone for repair in one of the authorized service centres in Delhi so that I could use it as soon as he reached Darjeeling. Besides that, I also wanted to shed some of my excess luggage including the Ralasthani gudiya which Lochan could bring with him. With that thought, I headed towards Delhi.

As I was nearing the Delhi city limits, the traffic started piling up and moved slowly. I felt a nudge from behind. I turned back to see one man speaking on his phone and driving. He knew that he had touched Chitti so he didn’t make eye contact with me. I continued riding and had hardly covered about one km after that incident, one Audi dangerously zooms past me without honking. Those were the warnings that I had to be extra careful while riding in Delhi. I finally reached loch’s place by 7 pm.

No visit to Delhi is complete without visiting the Rajinder dhaba. Since my MBA days, I have been religiously going to this legendary place to satiate my non-veg appetite. Few pegs of brandy to warm my body, plenty of Rajinder dhaba specials for my soul, and then the bonding of two friends started.

I feel it’s important to give a brief introduction of Loch here. This guy takes the meaning of the word 'friend' to a whole new level, a divine level. If I started narrating the stories of Loch as a friend, it will take me a really long time. There are so many, so many occasions where this guy was the only one to rescue me from the neck-deep shit that I was in. He knows it, and I can never forget it. To cut it short, this bugger always has some 'friendship trick' up his sleeves, and his friendship tricks are of such sorts that you can never match it. Sometimes his tricks scare me. When he learned about my phone, he threw in one of such friendship tricks. He offered me his phone and in return, he wanted to use my Chinese phone meanwhile. Now if he was in my place and I was in his, I don’t think I would have made such an offer to him. I am only human. I had hardly gathered my senses from this trick of his when he gifted me a mini swiss military torchlight for my trip. His tricks are such that sometimes it makes me think, 'Is he testing me?'. The even more shocking part is his consistency.  Not only with me, but Loch is also the same with all of his friends. He has been cheated many times because of this nature. I too have advised him many times, but I know he will not learn because the friendship trick is in his blood. The 'guff session' (slang for chatting) lasted till 3:30 am.       

Loch, the master magician of a different kind

At the end of the 7^th day, I had covered 428 kms

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

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