First Skiing experience - 22 Dec 2007

Deb, a friend of mine says – “You can either sit back home and watch the snow or get out and enjoy in it.” During last winter, I was not very aware about the things to do during winters in US. My travelling and outgoing experiences started getting better only by the start of summers.

Sachin, one of my best buddies from college had recently moved from Wisconsin to Rhode Island. We’re now just two and a half hours away. The last time we met was almost a year ago on the weekend next to when I had just reached US. At that time, he drove down alone from Wisconsin to New Jersey to meet me. That’s the way he is, switching the borders of genius and insanity. :-)

After he got down in Rhode Island, we were obviously to meet on the next weekend available to both of us, which came out to be the long weekend of Christmas (Dec 22-25). I was coming back from Baltimore and was about to cross New York City when I got Sachin’s phone call about confirmation for the coming weekend. Not only me, he was also driving and was actually coming back after skiing. Although we had agreed upon it when we planned to meet the first time that we’ll go skiing when we meet, I refused as I was running low on finances and it was going to cost $150-200. To give up is not Sachin and since I knew it, I agreed to go after 2-3 refusals. Finally, on the Friday of 21, he called me to reconfirm the program, which I thought he had forgot, as both of us didn’t talk the whole week. My car was with the mechanic for an expensive repair, so I asked him to come down and he was fine with that. Only after he got there, I wished he would not have drove down with his 1994 Nissan Sentra that already had 200,000 miles on it. He drove it down 1000 miles from Wisconsin to Rhode Island. Anyways, he made it and we finally met after a year and 2 weeks. With the car repair, I now wanted even less to go skiing. Money does matter. :-)

I thought that events like skiing need a lot of planning and reservations, but it turned out to be just like going for a picnic, at least until you really start doing it. He was here only until Sunday evening and we decided on Friday night to go skiing on Saturday evening. First awkward thing he mentioned was to go ski in night and I tried not to give him a shocked expression. Cheaper tickets and getting away from sun’s reflection on ice in daytime were reasons good enough to explain his point. Fati also had an appointment related to her job in the morning, which also supported the idea of night skiing. We kept talking until 3-4 AM the Friday night. Sachin got up relatively early the next morning and did some research on ski areas in Connecticut. We did some cost distance analysis and finalized the Mt Southington ski area in Southington, which was less than an hour away and was costing us $58 per head including the first time free sessions for Fati and I.

For skiing, you basically pay for two things, the lift pass and the ski rentals. Lift pass is to use the lift to go up to the top of hill from where you come down skiing. Secondly, people like us pay the rent for skiing equipments. Skiing equipment consist of a pair of shoes that are heavy enough to make elephants uncomfortable and strong enough to fix a fractured leg; a pair of skis that are flat, thin and long plastic platforms to fit those shoes for people from Jupiter and are used to for speed and balance and a pair of pole sticks which are never used, especially initially.

In our package, we had free lessons for an hour and a half. Before we could find instructor, Sachin taught us basics, who is already an expert from my perspective. Wearing the skis was the easiest part and everything after that was a challenge. During little practice after lessons from Sachin, I was continuously loosing balance and falling down, which was both enjoyable and physically hurting. I once started slipping down a small slope with direction of my skis such that my legs got wide stretched and I fell down with my skis still on. It took me a while to find a way to get rid of the skis and straighten my legs. This was probably my longest and most strenuous stretching in my whole life and that was just the start.

After some confusion about the place where we were supposed to meet, we finally met the instructor 30 minutes later than the scheduled time. She took us up to a little slope where our formal lessons started. First few minutes were to explain the structure of ski (mostly flat with sharp edges) and it’s use. Fati was not even able to get herself on the skis because of the snow stuck to the bottom of her shoe and it took a lot of overall energy of our instructor Sandy to clean that off multiple times in that one hour.

Stopping and turning are the most important things that you should at least theoretically know before starting the practical. Forming a pizza slice shape using your skis with the tip of slice in front of you and forming a sitting posture by putting pressure on your thighs and hips were the easy ways we were told to remember how to stop and turn. The instructions were simple to learn and understand, but falling down was still our favorite method to stop as soon as the speed or imbalance scared us. The very important thing that we later realized out of this was to give away the fear of speed and stay balanced at whatever speed. You just have to keep saying to yourself that the speed can be controlled well using technique.

With skis on, it was hard to stand still. Ski was kind of my master and I slave. Ski would start moving me all of a sudden without my consent. The only way to stop being a slave was either to enjoy being it and keep doing what ski want you to or resist and hurt yourself by rolling in the snow. For a long time, I was just resisting, which didn’t work well and I learnt it the hard way. It took instructor a good effort and time (~30 minutes) to get us to stop without falling. Even after knowing the technique, using gravity and making close contact with snow was my favorite.

By the time we were finally able to successfully stop ourselves at lower speeds, we were only left with 5 minutes to learn the turning part. It’s anyways logically important to maintain balance and control speed, but another importance for me to learn it was to avoid collisions with others. The learning part was only for me, not for others and they would definitely not appreciate the idea of being hit by some 80 kilo rolling piece of mass. Turning was only slightly different from stopping. Instead of applying pressure on both skis, you just do it on the one depending on direction you want to turn. To turn right, you put pressure on left one and vice-versa. In crux, stopping and turning is all about putting pressure in right amount and posture.

During our sessions, Sachin was checking on us every 15 minutes. He was waiting to take us to the hilltop for the real fun of the day. The time finally came at 8:30 PM after an hour of instructor-led and half an hour of Sachin-led training. After an hour and a half, I was little confident about stopping but not turning.

Now was the time to start using the lift pass. That’s also a unique experience in itself. The lifts keep circling continuously up and down the small hill. The lift is like a trolley that can sit two people and what we generally refer in India as “Udan Khatola”. To get on a lift, you’ve to synchronize yourself with the lift movement. As soon as a lift leaves the boarding station, you start moving forward to catch the next one and this has to be done with your skis on. Next step is to bend yourself so that you can get on the next lift, which doesn’t actually stop. You just have to catch a running lift, as we do in India with trains and buses. It looks and sounds crazy but it works very well and the speeds are pretty slow to hurt anyone. Also, the lift stops in case of any problem there is always an attendant to help. This part was well explained and demonstrated by Sachin already, so I did fine. What came as a surprise, rather shock was to get down at the top of hill. I assumed that there would be somebody on the other end too, which of course was a bad assumption. You have to get down on your own with your skis on and that too on a slope. I once thought of going back down in the same lift, which I realized after getting down, was not an option. I finally thought of the worst case scenario and said to myself that if the ski try to master again, just resist and fall down. That might hurt a little bit, but was a good option at that time. All this happened in less than 10 seconds. To my surprise, I got down fine and was also able to stop myself within 20 feet. After I stood still, I saw the stop stick at the turning point of the lift from where it started going back down. If you couldn’t get down, your legs will definitely hit that stick and that stops the trolley for some time good enough for a person to get down.

Looking at our small hill from bottom to top didn’t look as scary as it seemed from top. Although I was a little confident on my braking skills now, I had not tried it on steep parts where speed would be much higher. Two things that kept my spirits high were:
This is simple and there is no way I’m going home without going from top to bottom successfully, without falling.
If so many people here could do it, there is no way I can’t

I started from almost very top of the hill, where I fell down a couple times without even getting a start. Finally, when I started my first descent, the speed got so high that I got scared and lost balance and demonstrated some out of control aerobatic stunts. That happened at least 2-3 times on the steep parts of that simplest hill in the ski-area. I finally decided to walk down halfway and then start from there, where also I kept failing and falling. I somehow finally reached the bottom after falling N number of times and walking down the hill at steep areas. That was definitely not a motivating start.

With all twists and turns that my body went through, it was definitely not at its best now, but whenever the thought of being physically unfit came to my mind, the devil inside me would say – “Yeah, that’s a nice excuse of not doing it, you loser”. Sachin did the same job too. But as I said earlier, there were two things that kept me going. Once I reached bottom of the hill, I now decided to go up walking halfway and ski from there. This also didn’t work well for sometime, but the rate of failure was getting lower as I was not doing the steep parts. After doing that a couple times successfully, I decided to start over from top again. I was getting better but not where I wanted to be. In next two attempts, I earned more pain for at the cost of controlling myself better. The cycle repeated thrice.

It was not until my fourth attempt that I was finally able to make it from top to bottom in one go. The speed was high enough to have all my hairs aligned with the wind. That very moment when I stopped at the base was triumphant and gave me a sense of achievement. It reminded me the day when I was first able to ride a bike by myself. “Yes, I did it” were my first words and those were very much visible in my physical action too. I realized in a moment that the body movement with the feeling was not a good idea. At least my skis didn’t like it and I stumbled, but somehow managed to stand still. That was at 9:35 PM and our pass was to expire at 10:00 PM. In those 25 minutes, I did it again four times and in my final attempt, I was able to control my direction as well. I stopped very near to where I wanted to. Not only was it fun, it was a new thing that I learnt, it was thrilling, adventurous and needless to say triumphant. As I’m writing the experience two days later, I still feel it in most parts of my body. :-)

The part I missed was to take pictures for which I’ll go back to some ski area some time soon. I’ll hopefully do few steeper hills this time with better control on myself.

A Trip to Nowhere

It has been in my mind since long. I don’t exactly remember when this thought made home in my mind, but I’ve been targeting a bike ride from Mumbai to Delhi (approx 1400 kms) in a day’s time (24 hours to be specific). The first time when I remember I had put this idea concretely in front of someone was to Harish on a bike ride to Daman (200 kms from Mumbai). To test ourselves, we averaged more than 75kmph on a stretch of approx 100 kms on National Highway #8. That was with a pee break of 2 minutes and change of rider seat so that we can average riding speed of both. That was a successful ride and our morals were high on hitting the target DELHI. What we were waiting for was a long weekend. I didn’t had any problem, but Harish was new at job and used to work 6 days a week and in shifts. Whenever we used to drive longer than usual, we used to speak about our planned trip. Harish got a new job and had to leave Mumbai for Mathura. Pulak came in as his replacement. As an IT professional, he has an advantage of working only five days a week, therefore, we could plan small random rides (upto 100-200 kms) here and there. With the new partner, I was still hopeful of achieving the target DELHI.
Finally came the long awaited long weekend (12-15 Aug 2006) that required one day’s leave which both of us agreed on taking. Pulak was born with an internal desire of always doing something different, rather something that people of his circle rarely do. Delhi was so common a target for him. He wanted a new highway, specifically the one that we haven’t touched before and a place where people would never think of going on motorbike. We had a list of three four places, out of which we agreed on Jabalpur (a place approx 1200 kms from Mumbai). We decided the destination a day or two before we left.
The week before we left was hectic for me; it was Pulak’s task to get the bike serviced before we start. We were to start on Saturday early morning and Pulak managed to finish all necessary things done by Friday. Working in shifts also has few advantages. :-) We had a list of things that we were to carry along. We were prepared for a night stay on roadside in worst case. We took a common rucksack for our entire luggage and a small bag for frequently used items like camera, camcorder etc. We were to start at 6 in the morning. Although the destination changed from DELHI to JABALPUR, excitement was same. For DELHI trip, it was to be a one-way ride. This time our entire round-trip journey of 2400 kms was supposed to be on bike.
We had decided not to disclose the program to anyone at home. It would have created unnecessary tension in our families. On the last night, my stomach betrayed and I disclosed the plan to Fati. Other than listening to adjectives like “CRAZY” and “PSYCHO”, I had to make a promise of giving her a phone call from each and every place we take a break, even if a pee-break. :-)
The day finally came. We were to take National Highway# 3 up to Dhule and then National Highway # 6 to JABALPUR. We had planned a night stay at NAGPUR, one of the major cities of Maharashtra state. We were already late in starting by an hour. Although we targeted to leave by 6, we could not make it by 7. Pulak started the ride and the first thing I did sitting on back seat was giving a call to Fati.:-)
Monsoon was on its peak and we had taken that into account, but it’s never a good idea to predict mother NATURE. She can be believed, not predicted. It started raining within 5 minutes of our start. We withdrew some cash from the first ATM that came on the way. As Pulak is fond of doing strange things, we were wearing exchanged jackets of each other’s rain suit. Few roadside strangers may have thought of it as the latest design, few would have simple called us jokers.:-)
To ensure safe landing at our first destination NASHIK, we fed our bike some breakfast as soon as we left the city and touched the real highway. It was not long after we took fuel that we had the first encounter with MONSOON SUFFERED part of National Highway. It took us more than an hour to complete those 10-15 kms. It was more than 2 hours since we had left and we had not taken any pee-break yet. My first request to Pulak was when we had already finished first 90+ kms. His idea was to take this break on completion of first 100 kms, so as to celebrate it by fertilizing the land. Thanks to the monsoon season that those 10 kms were as good as another 100 kms if the road was in its normal condition. Assuming water’s density, we finally lost almost 1 kg WEIGHT from our bodies. That was the first break and hence my first “SAFE EXISTENCE” phone call to Fati.J We were already late by 3 hours in reaching our first destination, NASHIK. I had already told Pulak that we would not go ahead if we get same road conditions between NASHIK and DHULE (our next destination).
We had decided to have our breakfast at NASHIK, but clock showed lunchtime. Two hungry guys from Mumbai in a new city were looking for a restaurant. On top of that, Pulak rejected many restaurants just because it didn’t “GIVE HIM THE FEEL”. I wonder what kind of feel was he looking for when my stomach was demanding JUST FOOD. Whenever we passed by a restaurant, he’ll ask my opinion about the place and I would bluntly say – “You choose the place and I will simply eat. I don’t need a FEEL, I need FOOD”. When we look back into past, those few incidents make us laugh that had irritated us once. Strange but true.
Either frequency of Pulak matched with the architect of a restaurant or he was also very hungry or he saw my poor face in back-view mirror that we finally stopped by one restaurant. I never confirmed, but whatever the reason be, I was happy that the bacteria in my stomach would not starve to death. We had had enough in quantity and variety to continue for another three four hours. After a rest of approx an hour, we started back. We changed our seats and now I was the rider till our next destination, DHULE.
Monsoon also took some rest and we finally found a dry road. When I was in my home state (Rajasthan), we desperately waited for it and now we wait for it to stop. We got a nice road for few kms, but that good dream didn’t last long. It looked so initially but I soon realized that I was not luckier than Pulak to drive on a GOOD road. Someone, who definitely wasn’t a liar, told us that a stretch of 30 kms is pathetic. By calling that road in bad condition, he was just defending his homeland. In fact there was no road at all, it was just pebbles spread on the way. This was the first time when I was sure that we were not going to achieve the target JABALPUR. At least we could not have done that in the time window that we had decided and under no circumstance I was to extend the duration. We finally reached the village named CHANDAWAR, after which we were expecting a relatively better road.
It wasn’t more than 8 kms away from the village that we saw a long queue of vehicles. First thought that clicked my mind was that that was not my day. Yes, as it seemed, traffic was not moving. I could hear people talking about dynamite. I confirmed with Policeman (who blocked the traffic) about the authenticity of the gossips going around. Few people hungry of wealth were bringing the giant rocks in the nearby mountains into pieces. A blast is enough for the conversion. I’m just talking of the problem here without knowing a good solution. No wonder, I’m also one of the culprits who are behind this. The home that shelters me is also made of some stone that come from these mountains.
One car came to that place in a good speed. Claiming he to be some politician of the area, the person sitting in the front seat ordered the policemen to remove the barrier. Policeman didn’t look that smart in first glance, but he gave a nice reply – “Only we identify politicians, dynamites doesn’t. I can’t allow you to go.”
Were we to stay there and wait until the traffic starts movement? The answer to this question was dependent on the duration for which traffic will not be allowed to move. We asked one of the two policemen and he said that they would not allow anyone for approx 2 hours. Plan JABALPUR was scrapped in that one instant. We didn’t like that but we were somewhere in our mind prepared for this outcome. It was 3 PM at that time and we had covered 200-225 kms in 8 hours, an average speed of just 30 kmph. It didn’t match my previous rides where I’ve covered this distance in less than 4 hours. It was our first day and we still had three days in hand. To plan about the coming three days, we went back to CHANDAWAR and had some refreshment. We did some video shooting of a beautiful waterfall and a temple at hilltop.
Pulak insisted on deciding a destination, so that we have a sense of achievement when we reach home. After going through maps and some discussion, we had two options. One was to continue on the same highway and go till INDORE, a place more than 600 kms from Mumbai and in the same state as JABALPUR. There was an alternate route to JABALPUR, which was through INDORE. Although it was not a good idea to do it, Pulak initially (till we were in NASHIK) insisted on taking that route. He made an earnest useless attempt to prove that the distance on both the routes is same and we’ll have the advantage of passing through the cities like INDORE and BHOPAL on the way. Other option was to move back a few kms towards NASHIK and then head towards AURANGABAD, which was on another route. While we were in this dilemma, we saw trucks coming from the opposite direction, which was not possible unless the traffic had started moving. We stopped one truck and asked the driver hoping that he’ll give us some good news. Yes, his words were the same that our ears wanted to hear. Traffic had started moving and according to him, the road condition was also good after not more than 10 kms. It was already 4 PM by the time we started for DHULE, our next destination. The decision was kept on hold till we reach DHULE, the place where routes to all the three places (JABALPUR, INDORE and AURANGABAD) separated. When we started, we had decided to take lunch at Dhule. It’s not necessary that a plan always work. J
We thought that a policeman would be the most authentic person to give us an estimate of time for which traffic will not move. We were mistaken. For what he had told us 2 hours, it didn’t even take 15 minutes. We wasted more than an hour on that account.
The truck driver was correct and we realized later that a truck driver (bonus to SIKHS) is a very reliable source of information on a Highway. We got good road till Dhule and the ride was smooth. Pulak took some video shots on the way. We were so impressed by that truck driver’s information that as soon as we reached Dhule, we were looking for a Sikh truck driver for further information on condition of roads. We found three such truck drivers and they told us that roads were in very poor condition and we should neither target for JABALPUR nor for INDORE.
If not lunch, it was not a bad idea to have an early dinner at DHULE. For the kind of food we were looking for, one local person suggested us “Fauji da Dhaba”, which was also near to the junction from where routes to the three places separated. We managed to find the hidden place and it was a surprise to find such a DHABA where we didn’t expect it. Cots made by nylon rope winded on an iron frame and water tank outside the DHABA added to the ambience. Lying on the cot with my arms and legs stretched wide, I was feeling relaxed for the first time since we left home. It took around half an hour for the waiter to serve the food and we were also in no hurry at all. After a long time, I was having dinner in such an ambience. We had already reached the stage where taste didn’t really matter and we ate like dogs. We enjoyed our dinner and discussed about what were we to do next. For sure, we were not even thinking of heading towards JABALPUR, our original destination.
If not the original destination, we could have at least touched the border of the state (MADHYA PRADESH) where our original DESTINATION is. This was not a bad idea and both of us agreed upon it. Plan was to take a power-nap and then leave for the border at around 8 PM. Believe me, heaven is nothing but a state of mind, which can be experienced by lying down on cot after the ride of almost twelve hours.J The idea of taking a power-nap before leaving was one of the socially acceptable intelligent decisions that we made during the entire visit. Half an hour in deep sleep and we were ready for the destination BORDER.
Before leaving, we had already arranged for two cots at the DHABA. Beauty of it is that you don’t have to pay anything for night stay at DHABA. It’s not even mandatory to take any meals there. Just have a cup of tea there and you can take a good sleep and even a bath before leaving. We bought few batteries, medicines and of course a ODOMOS (a popular mosquito repellant cream) for the night. We were in no mood of struggling with the mosquitoes in open air DHABA.
It was again Pulak’s turn to ride and as we had planned, we started at 8 PM. We passed through few villages and rivers. There were few patches in between where we were the only ones on the road under the black sky. I wondered why were we the only ones? I guessed if that was a dacoit prone area, but as someone has said it right – “Ignorance is bliss”. Those were the small distances where I needed silence and peace, but how can Pulak miss to come up with some random question or guess or argument. For e.g. “Why has this road broken like this?” or “Isn’t switching off the headlight on this broken road under this dark sky worth doing?“ Not only those CRAZY ideas came out of his mind, he would do those experiments as well. I was in no mood to explain him that the ambience demanded my mind to be somewhere else. We somehow managed with each other. Probably we had our own means of avoiding the pain that our asses were going through. He might have thought of me as a dumb energy-less fellow. Who knows even if I was at that time? What I knew was that I needed solitude and my ass was already under “DON’T CARE” condition. Those who have experienced a bike ride longer than an hour can understand what we were going through. Suddenly we were stopped at a Police check post where a convoy of trucks was already waiting for a Go-Ahead. Policemen there inquired us and asked whom we were and what were we doing there so late in night. We told them the whole story, which gave them the “CRAZY-GUYS” feeling. We were prepared to bribe them, which is a general phenomenon if a policeman stops you even when you didn’t break any rule. It was strange that nothing like that happened. Although ignorance was bliss and saved us time, we got to know that we really came through a dacoit prone area where I needed solitude and Pulak did some “switching the headlight off” kind of experiments. There was one more such stretch of some 4-5 kms ahead. We were asked to go with the convoy. Other side of that stretch was our destination of the day. There was a temple of some goddess exactly at the border.
The area on other side of the border was called as BIJASEN. Looking at the number of closed shops outside the temple, I thought that at least there is one good thing about temples. It creates employment and people don’t mind paying the price that is manifold the original price. Paying much in name of religion probably gives people a sense of momentary freedom from their daily false actions. Whatever it may be, few people earn and that is more important. We did some video shooting in the dark place, which is also a proof of our reaching that place. All the food INPUT to the stomach during the entire day was now trying to force open the OUTPUT valve. A dark night at the border of two states and outside a temple, what a nice place for some adventurous POTTY experience? After doing some inspection of the area, I didn’t find it suitable and could somehow control the high pressure inside my stomach. Then we decided to leave the place as soon as possible, as it was already 11:30 PM and the cot at DHABA was desperately waiting for us.
On the way back, I was the rider and since I was riding, I was participating in Pulak kind of discussions. We reached DHABA at around 2:00 AM. Milometer showed that we successfully completed 528 kms that day. At least we met the target of breaking our own records of longest drive in a day’s time. Even in the condition as good as dead, the feeling of triumph was full of life.
Before leaving, in order to be less harassed, we left our rucksack at the DHABA and also asked if they will serve us food when we return back after conquering BIJASEN. They were fine with it and we ordered too after reaching, but we were asleep before the cook even started. We were wearing rain suits of a fabric that not only stopped water, but also air to reach the body. On a normal day, it’s irritating to wear it even for ten minutes, but that night I slept with that special nightdress on me. The only activity that I did after reaching there was to get down on the cot and probably I was breathing too. Pulak put on some ODOMOS and did some pre-sleep activities. No wonder, he still had some energy. We were to leave for AURANGABAD (one of the three routes that we had) at 9 in the morning, but Pulak was only making some unsuccessful attempts to get me up till 10.
Although I’m not a good consumer of tea, I needed it that morning to open my eyes. It’s not a habit to brush my teeth on a trip and I didn’t break the rule this time also. Although not in Punjab, this DHABA was also traditional and had no toilets. Open-air experience was nothing new for me, except that there were lot of weeds around and the place was a bit marshy. Weeds generally grow by themselves, but I had a good amount of fertilizer for them in my stomach. Best part was the bath near the water tank. It was very nice and added to the list of open-air experiences. Pulak also shot my bathing beauty live. After finishing the daily tasks that we don’t do by choice, we had some heavy breakfast. There were nice omelets and potato-parathas. Finally it was time to leave for destination of the day, AURANGABAD. We had the best of our times at this DHABA during the entire trip. Owner of DHABA told us that Aurangabad is a place of historical importance and has monuments like Ellora caves, Daultabad fort and Biwi ka Maqbara.
Roads were dry this time and sky was clear. The first destination that we planned was a town CHALISGAON, at a distance of approx 60 kms from DHULE and mid way of DHULE and AURANGABAD. Since the time we left, we heard some abnormal noise coming from the bike, especially on bad roads. We finally decided to devote some time for our beloved bike. The mechanic tried to, but could not really figure out why she was in pain. We knew that the problem was not severe and there would not be any hurdles in our journey on that account. Soon after CHALISGAON, started a beautiful hilly region. Roads there were cut as if the hill was ornamented with some black metal. The zigzag path, soothing weather, hills on one side, deep valley on another and two of us on our motorbike created a beautiful view in all the three dimensions.
Religion has a great importance in lives of people and India is no exception. Anything that can’t be done otherwise, can be done easily with religious approval. Barefooted, people in large numbers were heading towards some Shiv temple, as the third Monday of Sawan (monsoon) was nearing. We could see them continuously for approx 5-6 kms. Finally we reached the place from where that crowd emerged. It was a small KUND (a pond) near a religiously important temple of Lord Shiva called Grishneshwar (one of the twelve JYOTIRLING temples in India). From what I could understand out of Indian mythology, Gods were a set of perfectionists mastering a set of quality (ies). The Epics demonstrate those qualities in detail. Few stories are creations and few are real that have traveled a lot of deterioration through ages. Only honor to those Gods would be to achieve the mark of excellence that they exemplified and not by following the methods of worship that have became traditions today. Anyways, that’s my personal opinion and I don’t think I was to talk mythology and religious beliefs here. Lets move ahead.
The milestone read – “ELLORA CAVES – 1 KM”. Ah! We were finally reaching some place, which could be called a socially acceptable destination. I had been hearing since long that Ajanta and Ellora were one of the most beautiful caves of India and it was certainly true. As soon as we entered, we saw a series of caves and a big temple like structure in the middle. The caves were spread in a span of approx 2-3 kms. Those belonged to three religions, Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. The temple like structure that I saw in center is the biggest monolithic structure in world.
By the time we reached there, it was already 3 in the afternoon. We had already decided to reach Mumbai back by Monday (14th Aug) midnight and there were still 400 kms to finish. We were in no mood of exploring the roads of ISO standard in the monsoon season. Reaching back on 14th would also save us a day’s leave. The outcome of all this processing was that we didn’t enter any of the caves and came back after walking a few steps from the parking. We also decided not to visit any other place in AURANGABAD during the trip. I returned back with a promise to myself, of coming back to AURANGABAD very soon.
Whatever we were, we surely were not the believers of SHIVLING and of no other idol for that sake, but we went back to that pond and took a bath. We enjoyed swimming in the pond and two swimming laps showed us the AGE effect. After a refreshing bath, we left for next unknown destination. On the way, we saw the fort of Daultabad, which is famous for it’s security system. Our next stop was at another DHABA in the outskirts of AHMEDNAGAR, another district of MAHARASHTRA state. We were hungry and I was insisting on taking a break anywhere, but Pulak was of the opinion that we will stop at a DHABA only. His idea was ambience (no crowd) and a cot to have some good rest. After passing a few kms, we finally found this small DHABA. This was our “no-stop” longest ride since the time we started, both distance and time wise. We traveled 110 kms without taking a single break this time. This DHABA was not as big and good as the one in DHULE, but it had two cots and that solved our purpose. We ordered tea and then some food. We took rest for approx 2 hours before leaving for Mumbai.
It was already midnight by the time we started again. Soon after leaving AHMEDNAGAR, we landed on a 4-lane highway, which seemed to be very new. What we observed in our trip is that State highways were in better health than National highways. How can one have a dry day in Maharashtra’s monsoons. As we started enjoying the smooth ride, it started raining again. We were the only two on a broad highway with a truck or two passing every few minutes. That was a nice bullock-cart ride on an expressway. “Slow and steady wins the race” – a good quote to keep your morals high. Slow speed was a compulsion and there was no one to race with.
The nearer we were getting to Mumbai, harder it rained. In IT industry, we’ve a term called “Stress and Load testing” where in an application is tested from every angle and by as many users as possible. It was happening to us as well. Each raindrop seemed to be a user testing us hard.
As it stopped raining, we were on a road, which was under construction, and we were not even sure if we were on the right route. Those were again thirty unforgettable kms. As we came out of that road, we took a wrong turn that was taking us to NASHIK. It’s good that I saw a milestone earlier and we returned back towards the right direction.
After 2-3 hours of riding, we finally stopped by a small hotel, which seemed a little crowded. The crowd gave us hope of getting something, but they weren’t serving anything other than tea. When you are drenched, anything hot that can make a way into your stomach gives a heavenly feeling and we made no exception. Believe me, a cup of tea at such moments helps!
From there, it was my turn to ride. Heavy rain, two extra eyes made of glass on my face, powerful headlights of trucks coming from opposite direction and the clock showing 3 AM made a nice mix of adventure. We passed through the famous hill stations of Lonavala and Khanadala, where road vanished; fog was the only visible thing. Just after passing through those hill stations, we achieved the mark of thousand for that trip. Yes, that was the time of celebration. We finished 1000 kms in less than 48 hours of leaving our home. We took a break at that spot and even in that condition, we had enough energy to celebrate. I don’t know where it came from, but it did come. I’m feeling very proud in writing all this, but while on the road, only thing in my mind was – “Lets reach home AS SOON AS POSSIBLE”. Finally it stopped raining as we were nearing Mumbai. I got to know later that people in Sky’s Water Works Department were busy watching us and the God of rain fell short of supply.:-) Soon, we met Mr. Sun on the way. Although we could not spend much time with him, we did greet and meet him. As you near the destination, you long more for it. Same was my feeling when we were just half an hour away from home. I was able to imagine myself sleeping on the bed at home.
The moment finally came when we finished our journey and reached back home. Surya, a very good friend of mine, welcomed us home. He took a small interview and before he was finished with his questioning I was already deep in sleep. One purpose of coming back early was to join office and both of us weren’t awake till 4 in the evening. For the coming few days, I didn’t even go near to my dear motorbike.
On next working day, my reaction to a quote written on a white board in one of the cubicles in office – “To check your progress in life, ask yourself - When was the last time you did something for the first time?” was a STOP, smile and GO.
If you could make it to the end in single read, I would call myself a storyteller better than Pulak. :-)