Parthajeet Das's blog: Jajabara Trips - III (Royal Rajasthan on Royal Enfield)

1900 kms | 18 cities/towns/villages | 9 forts | 3 temples - 1 dargarh | 6 n half sunsets | 5 n a quarter sunrises | 1 moon rise | 2 camel rides | 1 bike | 2 travelers

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Yahi to Hum Karne Aye Hain
(this is what we have come to do)

Going on a bike trip for several days, exploring the roads, cities, towns and people was one very special dream of my college days, one which you choose to ignore and forget as do not see the possibility of it happening. This was such a dream which I now categorized in the ‘too childish for my kind of kick’ and ‘not necessary’ category at this stage of my life. I was wrong on both accounts.

I was always fascinated by the concept of biking along long, black and beautiful roads of India witnessing even more beautiful scenic beauty around the roads. I remember standing in the front of the old Bajaj Super scooter of my father and looking eagerly at the landscape and feel the wind whizz past my hair. In my graduation days I used to head out on short trips around Bhubaneswar on a bike, but they were day trips. The way you explore the landscape of a place on a bike is unmatched. In a car, bus or train you just see and observe things. On a bike, you see, observe, feel and breathe the landscape with your proverbial body, mind and soul.

The road running at the speed of your bike beneath your feet, the wind so noisy that it drowns everything, the sky changing colours ever so slowly for you to observe, the curious look on faces of people, the smiles exchanged, the hands waved, the potholes and humps killing your back, the smell of burnt petrol and the taste of dust on your tongue.

For me travel, more so on a bike with no specific plan or route or purpose was an idea of freedom. There lay the biggest appeal of that idea, freedom and at the risk of sounding too patriotic, independence ! Iconic brands such as Harley Davidson, Royal Enfield, the stories read on internet, Books such as ‘Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance’, above all the movie ‘The Motorcycle Diaries’ were all seductions that were not tamed but subsided due to lack of opportunity (we all say that, but is the biggest lie!!), lack of a bike and so called rationality and reason.
Che was always an icon for a communist-at-heart like me, but 'The Motorcycle Diaries' added an altogether different dimension to the reverence. Che went for his famous bike trip around his continent of rich history but then troubled present as a bright youth, a student of medicine and came out as the Che Guevara and change the history of many countries including his own. The movie caption says it well 'Before he changed the world the world changed him'. I said it to someone 'never under estimate the power of travel'. Link on IMDB. Che earned my respect for letting the world that he saw on the bike trip, affect him, shake him to the core, change him and make him.

I called up TBK ( The Black Knight, name given by Ben see blog ), Sachin on Friday evening 5.30 pm on my way back home to meet for a coffee, as I had got free early. I was heading out over the weekend to attend a wedding and was exited about the thought of revisiting Lucknow. Visiting a city for the first time has its own charms, of the exploratory type, but revisiting one is more romantic, poignant and warm.
You tend to feel familiar, a kind of ‘feel at home’ at the sight of roads, turns, shopkeeper, restaurants and places you have been before. You love the things that are still the same, and you love the changes as well. TBK informed that he was on a solo bike trip across Rajasthan.

‘when are you leaving?’ I asked the customary question.

‘tomorrow morning to pushkar’ he replied.

‘where would you be on Monday?’ I checked

‘Jodhpur may be. Yeah, Jodhpur’

‘I will call you in a bit’ I hung up

I called him back after an hour and half after reaching home.

‘I would join you at Jodhpur on Monday. Will fly down from Delhi and reach around 1.30PM.’ I was still tentative and unsure though I had already booked my flight tickets and was packing up for the trip.

‘Okay. I would fix the carrier on the bike for our stuff. Pack light.’ TBK said as though he was expecting this or this is kind of normal for him.

I switched on my phone after getting out of the aircraft at Jodhpur. It rang, it was TBK.

‘I am standing outside the airport, to the right as you step out of the airport’ he instructed.

‘okay, cool, give me ten minutes’

I was sleepless for two nights and had a run and four hour dance sessions to strain my back and stamina. I had a message at the airport which helped to some extent but I was still walking with a hand on my crooked back. But, the moment we packed up our stuff and sped past the airport on TBK’s Royal Enfield Thunderbird, something took over me. I felt no pain, no strain on my back and was raring to go.

We found a hotel and met an Englishman, Ben, who followed TBK from Pushkar. This is where we would get our names. I was christened The Saffron Knight for my ‘sunflower coloured shirt’. Later, at the Mehrangarh fort, Ben remarked.

‘You don’t look like you haven’t slept for two nights and are tired’

‘I know. I am very happy that I could make to this trip. I am looking forward to it.’

‘Where are you guys headed from here?’ Ben asked.

‘I don’t know exactly. Do we have a plan TBK?’ I checked.

‘Not really. Maybe Jaisalmer’

‘No problem. We will figure out something tonight’ I said.

‘Mind if I tag along?’ Ben was almost apologetic.

‘Sure’ I said. Sachin was busy clicking one of his 7 and half sunsets that he would shoot on this trip. We all walked down the fort, Ben and me chatting, and Sachin clicking.

We had some street food and some unusual combinations. Some of them worked well (peanut and jaggery) and some did not (salt on sugarcane!!). Ben walked back to hotel while we headed out to get two essential requirements for a bike trip for two – a helmet for the pillion and sunglasses for the rider. After, enquiries to different shopkeepers, going to couple of recommended markets on extra-narrow auto-rickshaws and walking several miles up and down on busy markets we ended up buying two cricket hats and one bandana. It turned out that Sachin would not have sunglasses for the rest of the trip and I would not have a helmet till the very last day when an unsuspecting policeman forced us to buy one in Jaipur.

Sachin and I had a conversation regarding gumption during those hitherto futile walks, though the word was not mentioned.

‘Its important not to get irritated during such travels. Not to worry, if your plans do not work out quite the way you thought or a surprise comes up your way and changes your schedule’ I started the talk indirectly referring to the never ending walks and arguments with shopkeepers and rickshawallahs.

‘yeah. Its okay to take a wrong turn, miss a road, go ahead several kilometers only to realize one has reached a cul-de-sac and return from there.’ TBK was warming up as well.

‘yeah, this all a part of the journey. Its important not to feel irritated or frustrated and keep up your enthusiasm levels. Everything is okay’

‘yeah. This is what we have come to do’ actually he said it in Hindi [yahi to hum karne aye hain!]

‘yeah!’ I was grinning.

That line hit a chord and we would use that line umpteen number of times during the trip when things did not quite go the way we thought or our patience levels were depleted. We had our dinner at a rooftop restaurant which took us an hour and few hundred yards to find, after reaching almost 50 meters of the restaurant. The stars were out and the blue city was looking almost purple. The fort was in full view, rather ‘killer view’ as the restaurant ‘Cozy’ claimed. Sachin was out with his camera to shoot pictures with long exposures and I was wondering what to eat. I ordered and sat looking at the sky.

Dinner was hot and tasty; Sachin was generous with the tip (more than half a bottle of beer) and the owner was generous with a sweet dish. We were staying at his heritage hotel ‘Juna Mehal’ which was 300 years old.

Our trip was on.