The closest I had gotten to North
India during the first 17 years of my life was to Tirupathi, a mere 150 km
north of Chennai. My first trip to North India, rather East India was my trip
to Calcutta for obvious reasons, close to my 17th birthday.
Travelling is fun I thought. Exploring new places was exhilarating.
Experimenting with unknown places was adventurous. Then came the biggest twist
in my life – The Motorcycle Diaries. Being an Indian, it gives you the
birthright to copy the onscreen actions in real life. Actions like tapping a
cigarette from your palm and holding it with your lips or humming, “Tujhe dekha
to yeh jaana saname”, with outstretched arms or “Arey saala” depicting the
angry young man. But, my choice was different. I wanted to travel on a bike.
Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara inspired me to explore places.
The movie got over. I came out of
my room enthusiastic and told me best friend next door that I wanted to ride a
bike to explore places. The best advice that was offered was to participate in
Roadies. Arrghh! Someone understand me. I want to travel the world on my bike.
Nothing against Roadies, but it was just a misnomer for a soap serial with
biking as a small part, since the then Hero Honda wanted to promote their
Karizma. Days passed, with that the years too.
Then happened Royal Enfield in my
life. Perceptions changed, life turned on its head. Every weekend (mine used to
be a Thursday), I explored a new place. With a bettering technology, Maps were
reduced from big sheets to apps. Rising up early (it used to be the day
continuing the night shift) had a new meaning. The dawn breaks, and you are
already on the road with a cold breeze finding its way through the gaps in the
helmet to caress your ears to give Goosebumps. Speed was never a deterrent and
the roadside tea shops became your adda. Early in the morning, when you see the
shy sun combating its way through the milky white clouds, you look into the
horizon and the mind goes blank. You may be driving at 90kmph, but everything around
you moves so slowly. The road ahead leads to oblivion and you don’t think about
the past or the future, when the present is so pleasurable. It’s a new high and
you are brought back to your senses by the potholes and the loud trucks.
During the journey things may not
go your way and it calls for adjustments. Adjustments that you would hate to
do, but have to do inorder to survive. The journey is long that you may either
choose to give up or push yourself to get past the hurdle so that you get enjoy
what lays ahead. Biking is no easy, but in the words of Mr. Venki Padmanabhan,
CEO of Royal Enfield, “The Odyssey transforms a child into a boy, a boy into a
man, a man into a sage and a sage into a child.” It teaches the essentials of
life like endurance, sportsmanship and ownership.
You learn to endure tough
situations like driving through barren land and surviving without water on a
hot summer day. When the first drop of water touches the lips, you will value
life. Tough situations like beating the bitter cold – when the hot chai enters
your esophagus, you can trace it to your stomach. You bike with likeminded
people with a zeal of sportsmanship. You may be competitors on speed to assess
who reaches the next checkpoint first, but the sportsmanship of helping out a
fellow biker takes priority over everything. Ownership of your bike, the most
prized possession and also your life gives you a sense of belonging. At the end
of it, it’s not the thrill, but the humaneness in you is rekindled when you bike
to travel and explore places. You appreciate nature which is at its best
behavior always.
Biking gave me a new identity.
Although I am not even close to what I set to achieve, I appreciate the journey.
Whenever I say that I am going to travel on a holiday, the first question is
stumble upon is, “On your bike is it?” As a biker, it leaves you an everlasting
good feeling about yourself, because at the end of everything, at the top, you
will be that lonely biker wading your way through to achieve what you set out
to.
“The first commandment for every good explorer is: An expedition has
two points, the point of departure and the point of arrival. If your intention
is to make the second theoretical point coincide with the actual point of
arrival, don’t think about the means – because the journey is a virtual space
that finishes when it finishes, and there are so many means as there are
different ways of “finishing”. That is to say, the means are endless.” –
Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara in The Motorcycle Diaries
