Evening at Seomenlina by mohashi.mov

Western expedition : Vignettes from my motor cycle diary ..

Red road , green field , and blue sky

He looked around 75 , but still enthusiastic, was playing guitar and singing REM .Though singing wasn't pleasant , he was playing guitar unbelievably awesome. His name was Jimmy , a Russian , from Leningrad . He had been here in Gokarna since last one month , comes to Gokarna every year. He was one of the many in the world who were addicted to Gokarna Just like every one of them were to Marijuana.

We reached Gokharna around Nine PM . After a long ride , long ride means 600 kms of ride . We started from Bangalore at early morning . The sun was just setting up , I was enjoying the sun playing hide and seek in my rear view mirror through the ghosts of recession affected concrete forest.

The only hindrance to my ride was cows and buffalos all over the road , but we had the deal , they just go in their speed , I envisages their trajectory and just ride accordingly .But some country buffaloes always braked the rule , they would stop in middle of the road and there goes my plan . One time I could almost touch the tail of one mad buffalo. From Bangalore to Tumkur , Tumkur to Shimoga , Shimoga to Jogfalls . In between shimoga and jog falls , the road turns red suddenly covered with red soil . Both sides covered with green fields , blue sky touching the green field at the far end of the road . Red road , green field and blue sky , and the sound of my machine. No words to explain the feeling.

We reached the jog falls before the sun diving to horizon . The two sides of the road were cliff , jog falls was dissappointing , they say jog falls is the longest water fall in india , I would say , it is the longest artificial waterfall in india , because in week ends they open the dam when tourists comes for watching , but in week days they wont open the dam and you could see two three narrow falls . I imagined it would have been a fantastic view if fall was in her epitome ,which happens during the monsoon , when they have to open dam .

Initial plan was to stay near to Jog falls , as we had already covered close to 400 kilomeres . But we changed the plan to ride to Honnawar which is on the costal karnataka . We were already in great western gatts , ofcourse the rodes were with lot of curves and hair pins , just like Vayanadu . Thick forest both sides , simply it was risky Journey .One time I lost the countrol of the bike after rising from a hidden pothole , flew a little , landed back . I had to land on my right leg on ground , that’s it , two seconds …, after that I was not able to feel my legs . I pushed the button for a long horn to inform varkey. I don’t know why , but suddenly my mind was flashed with videos of football players suddenly breaking the legs in to two ,I thought same thing happened to me ! . I Had to rest some time to understand that I still have a single piece leg , thanks god.

We had to get rid of the spiraling roads before the sun sets .But we were still maintaining seventy km/hour. On the way so many hippy gangs of ten to twenty bikes had been overtaking us like real bullets all the times from Jog falls to Honnawar. I knew what to expect in Gokarna .

The moment you pass the western gatts , the first thing that strikes you will be the similarity between Kerala .The places you saw till gatts suddenly changes, the people suddenly changes , the landscape changes , everything changes .Karnataka , state of Mysore , till 1973 ,twice the size of Portugal is a world itself. As I move , I experienced how everything changes on the ruler of distance. Western gatt was a fort in Kerala ,against so many invasions , not only the military invasion , but also the cultural invasion , which is the real precious thing it has done , I think.

People always gave a second look , some with some awe , some with curiosity , some with condemnation , whatever it was ,it felt good. A feeling of well being. The machines were intimidating the people all the way. The more we traveled towards the costal region , the more peoples appear to be energetic.

Cows , dogs and ohm beach

We reached the Gokarna around nine pm .Went to beach directly to ohm beach which is 16 kms from the national highway. Asked for rooms , the guard of rest house told us no rooms were available, but we could park our bikes there , but have to walk through beach for rooms . Engine was overloaded for the day already , after cruising six hundred kilomeres . Unloaded the bags and started walking through beach ,some couples sitting here and there exploiting the twilight for romanticizing. We got one hut for two hundred rupees . Took bath and already exhausted after riding the horse for 600 kms we ordered the dinner . And that’s where we saw Jimmy , he was sitting next to our table . And like all other westerners he also wanted to go to Varanasi , which is where they always sees "the real india" as per the western movies. Ohm beach also had everything to quench a westerner's Indian dream. There was a trance mood , name was ohm , there were stray dogs and ofcourse a lot of cows ! , and not much people .

We walked along the beach after having a sumptuous dinner .Midnight blue sky with Orion consolation pointing towards the north as explained by varkey .Big groups of hippies , all were having children and babies , were sitting around fire , singing and playing guitar. What a life! , no worry about future , no worry about jobs, no worry about making money , social status - nothing to worry, nothing to gain , nothing to loose.

French men , French lady and us

Morning , one fine morning after a long time , a morning when I don’t have to worry about any of those failing weblogic servers , woke up to have a great tea , watching the tides of ocean, inhaling the pure air from the dazzling breeze, that’s when he came out from his shack , Dazziu ,a French , 42 old , looked around and smiled -hmm not much people , good to see that .
I smiled at him , he wished me.

After having breakfast from the beachside restaurant , we took our baggage’s and walked towards bike , there he was with his other gang members .They were four , three men and one woman .Dazziue asked me if we could carry two of them to Gokarna town , we agreed . We followed dazziu's bike .He was driving crazy , with his Enfield . He was doing the impossible through the narrow spiraling roads to Gokarna town. When we reached there he asked to have
a tea with them . He started his story ,he had been traveling since he was his own legs , now he almost covered half of earth riding.

He and his girl fried kept on telling us the exciting and frightening experiences they had during their trip, differences between people , between places . He had been in hundreds of accidents across the world , major and minor ones , so many people lost life !

He was the one who asked me to go to Nepal where I went one month after he told. They showed curiosity d in our journey . We shared the experiences I had in Europe and experiences he had in India .Both india and Europe are similar , instead of states in india , they have different countries . Both Indian states and eu countries have different people with different language , with different food , with different dressing , each ones simultaneously loving and hating each other .

Karwar SI , Swedish couple and most beautiful morning in my life

We started from Gokarna town around ten morning , road was not good .After two hours of driving , I stopped for tying my bag which was almost fallen from the bike . Varkey was behind me . I finished , he still not passed , a bell rang inside my head , something happened ?
I called his mobile, but no response. I ride back until I last saw him .The roads were the most dangerous I have ever seen , with hundreds of truck passing ,and with terrific curves like any GATT roads . Trucks were from nearby port , who are allowed to be out during this time alone. So they were flooding the roads.

I had no choice , but to move on. I asked two three road side shops if they saw some Kerala registration bikes passing , but without any help. I reached Karwar around 1 PM , and had no other choice but to check for the police station .I explained the situation to a police man in English , he asked me
"Hindi atha he? "
I told "han"
Ap hindi mei batha ho ..
I started to explain , if I was a tenth standard student , I would have done it thousand times
better . He seeing me struggling with Hindi , guided me towards the SI , Mr ahmed nawaz muthahari. I explained him the situation , he called all nearby police stations and asked if some accidents happened on highway and asked them to check the cliffs(!!!) .And then there was a chaos , wireless messages receiving and sending , DYSP calling and SI explaining , and suddenly I got a call from a local number . It was him , already reached in palolem beach in goa !! :-) ,and discussing the architectural styles in india and England with an English man. I took two minutes and explained the SI the situation , though he was irritated , he didn’t show it up , I asked him the way to palolem beach after starting the GPS in my phone .He seeing the exact location marked in mobile map where I was standing , he became childish to know a new toy. I had to explain the entire technology to him , as a punishment for all chaos. Still our police don’t know what GPS is !!

From Karwar , two more hours of riding ,reached palolem and took a beautiful beachside shack with a balcony.Thats the best bed room I have ever been to. Took bath in sea watching the sun set for two hours .No hones , no one to disturb ,calm and spiritual . I recalled when I bought a vespa during my first year in college , I used to take her to kovalam twice a week just to have swim in the last minutes of sun falling below the horizon.

Came back to room and took an ayurvedic massage by a messaging boy , Prasanth , from aluva , for back pain . After having dinner I was sitting in my balcony looking to sea . Our next shack was incubated by a couple, I knew they are Scandinavians , in first look. He was enjoying the mesmeric view of Goa.

I asked him "Not like Baltic sea , huh ?"
He smiled me , he told me -good guess , that I understood he is from Scandinavia . Now it is really scrappy weather in Scandinavia as told my Finnish clients. They are kind of people who prefers minus twenty over plus twenty five , and they hate the range of -2 to +2 , which is
exactly now the winter temperature now in Scandinavia , which is a hell for them . When I was returning from Finland , the flight was full of Scandinavians other than some ten india software engineers. So back to my shack , the Swedish couple were having their first time in india , enjoying so much , were planning for backwaters of Kerala next day.

One morning you suddenly woke up and you don’t know where you are and look outside from bed and see a beautiful blue see ...!! that was the best morning in my life.

A nice town , a plateau and a city of masked girls

We directed horses to Pune , but Had to stop in Belgaum. Beautiful city ,it was. Nice roads , good people , clean air and good food. Belgaum is like Mullaperiyar of Karnataka and Maharashtra. Officially part of Karnataka , but a major number of people living are Maratis. Belgaum is an Air force station , so lot of defense guys. My brother lived there six months for his training in Air force. He told me where to go to have best food .We stayed there and spent our time with couple of natives.

From Belgaum to pune , On the way we went to Mahabaleswar , which is actually a vast plateau bordered by valleys all the sides between Pune and Mumbai. Looked like Munar without tea plantations! . It was the summer capital of Bombay province during British raj.

Theetoi was waiting in Pune for us. It was good that we have somebody to welcome us in each place. He prepared food for us , washed our cloths ! what a descent man !

Next day , it was Friday. And I went to mosque for prayer . I never get spiritual when I pray in a crowded mosque. I always loves to go mosque whenever I am back home , where mosques are simple , people are elegant and it is more of a gathering place. Life is calm and beautiful when a person doesn't have to leave his village. When greed takes a person out , he becomes disturbed . A life confined to a village and around temple was the culture of Kerala before gulf boom began in seventies and it was beautiful and now an irreversible one.

We took a round in city . Pune is a very much air polluted city , where you could go out with a white face mask , and come back with a brown. Most of people didn't care , but most of girls I saw were wearing face mask.

Sun of roads , theory of desperation , and minimum city

We started from Pune after noon . And we had to race against sun set , as from pune we travel west to reach mumbai. If you thought sun is most beautiful
in beaches , you are wrong .I was seeing most beautiful sun then ,she will glow more for you , because she thinks you were running towards her. Time was already running , provided riding at night was the last thing we wanted . we were riding faster than before.

Have you ever been in a situation like when you wanted something very desperately , and you look around and you get it .Now have you ever thought that other way , like what is making you that desperate in that particular place and time. After one hour of riding from Pune , Varkey turned towards the fuel pump and there it starts . He skidded and back tire is puncture , and we looks around , and there was a puncture shop!! We thanked god . He was a Malayalam(come on!) ,from kollam ,who was an employee there for last two years. We lost half an hour there and started and after half an hour we stopped for a tea and was discussing
the puncture luck . There was another puncture shop and we suddenly noticed couple of nails put near to shop.Suddenly it clicked in my mind , so it was a work from those puncture walas. They just need to put two three nails on the road and at least two three biles a day will be punctured. So me , Hashir created the theory of desperation there , "If you are desperate about something at a particular time and place , it is only because there is a third party who is trying to to make you desperate".

We reached in lonawala around 5.30 . Lonawala is like Ooty for the Mumbaikars. But we didn’t stop as it was already late. And after that we lost our way . We entered to a road where only trucks are there , it was horrible . We reached to the other end of Maharashtra , lost the way for 50 kilometers, and again it was late already. And macha and spar was in thane and they were waiting for us. We reached thane around nine o clock , and on the way
I lost my Lawrence and Mayo riders glass , it was just the starting !.

They were ready with drinks there for varkey, It is a little funny that wherever we go , the guys were ready with "Energy" for Varkey. So morning , bad luck follows , varkey had to change the battery and we lost 3 hour fixing my brake . And we started towards kurla to visit kubaib , on the way one traffic police fined us 1500.It was valentine’s day. So we didn’t get entrance to the college. We met in restaurant , he was living in the same way he lived in
college .

After that we entered south mumbai , and I never wanted to come to mumbai again. In mumbai the traffic is crazy , the people are crazy. All the people were chewing reddish pan and whenever we stop the bike for asking something they will spit this and will look to us like some bollywood villains , and will point to a direction , fuckers , the road will be full without a space for one more bike , but still every one will be moving in at least sixty kilometer/hour .I also had to move in the same speed. If somebody touches somewhere they will give us a most hatred look and will pass. I somehow wanted to get rid off the city , I was suffocating , I didn’t want to go back to thane , even though it was late , even though it was dark , even though it was the most scariest ride of life with so much of traffic all traveling at a minimum of seventy , I just wanted to get rid of that place.......

family bars , hell of a ride and City of joy

We were riding like never before , stopped at one or two places for cooling our engines, wanted to reach somehow Daman . At around nine , we reached Damen,
before that we already had traveled a little across Gujarat. The moment I passed the entrance to Damen , first think I noticed was the hoardings saying "family bar" . I didn’t get the logic of that in Indian context. Family bar? . Daman and diu is a union territory , which was liberated from Portuguese in 61 war against Portuguese to liberate along with Goa. Daman is the biggest city there. And supposed to have beaches.

Daman is like Mahi in Kerala , where tax is less for liquors. Also Gujarat being a dry state , meaning liquor not sold in public. So all the affluent gujarathise and natives
comes to Daman beach side "family bars" and watch some bollywood videos have some liquor with family , husband and wife sipping alcohol while their child plays . People looked like having some foreign connection as their dressing were not Indian casuals. We had a good dinner and already having enough stress , fell into bed and slept. Morning we had a look around in Damen and rushed towards Ahmadabad.

They had six lane roads , starting from Damen , until Baroda , But can u believe it , I couldn’t see a single tree , in a full stretch of 280 kms of road to stop my machine and take some rest. Some times I wanted to hit the bridge wall and jump into the flowing river to get some coolness. I don’t know , these people doesn’t know the meaning of environment. I smelled all the chemicals I had smelled in the old school labs . Their air was so much polluted all over the places. I knew Gujarat is a dry state meaning liquor less , but Gujarat was dry literally. When we were in south , my riding jacket became brown when I reached Pune , and I had to wash it. But within one day of ride in Gujarat , the Jacket had become black because of the chemicals. And I have never though Ashok Leyland had manufactured this much trucks before this ride.


I was getting fed up with slowness of varkey and he was getting fed up with me being fast. I would have passed thousands of truck within a 300 kms ride. But still can you believe ? I couldn’t see a single tree in that stretch!!

And here it comes , we entered Baroda , it looked like an old city ..the more we entered into the city , the more colorful it became. After hours of most boring ride of world , there we got oasis. City had lot of entrances for the roads.



Beautiful females are looking down to roads through balconies. They were wearing the most colorful dresses in the world. The city was a typical Indian city , it had a lot of poor people , some rich people, beggars (a lot of them) , street vendors (a lot of them) , street side eateries (a lot of them) , narrow roads , dirty lakes , but city had energy ,city had vibrancy.

I loved Baroda. People were singing , dancing ,smiling , romancing , quarrelling , I have never seen a city like that. The moment we entered the city , we passed a Guajarati marriage procession , with a lot of music and dance , ladies with ofcourse with most color full dresses , with the best sound mixed bollywood dances, that gave us the lost energy back. I wanted to join that , one of the band guy who understood I am enjoying , gave me some special steps. One old guy came to me and asked about me and when he knew I am from Kerala and in a bike trip , he shocked and insisted me to join and I had to take two steps , it was horrible , I guess ,as he didn’t insist me more.

The Baroda city has two sides, an old city and a modern city , separated by a river. People were mixed , both Muslims and Hindus .I always loved a culture where man and woman are allowed to dance publicly. That was there. Pure veg boards all over the city. I could see at least three marriage processions with the best dancing guys , I could see some students playing guitar sitting near to a slum .people were not caring what happens around , they appeared just enjoying ,Baroda is my city of joy

Land of prosperity , , and worst thing could happen in a trip

I remember in Chennai , a newspaper full page ad in which Modi was wishing entire Tamils a happy Pongal from the land of prosperity. Believe me , if I have traveled across Gujarat , I didn’t see any prosperity in Gujarat. I didn’t see affluence in Gujarat. Just like any other place in india , I could see hell lot of poor people and some rich people over there. Ahmadabad was a cultureless city. The most disgusting thing was , ofcourse the city had good roads , but suddenly the roads , even national highways become dirty with potholes and all , and you can see a hell lot of people from Muslim community living each side of that.


The so called development never reached those who was not supposed to have it. First we went to Sabarmati ashram in Ahmadabad. It is really disappointing that this kind of partiality exist in a place where Gandhi , who died for the peace of humanity , was born.

I always tried to investigate the real cause of rivalry between Islam and Hinduism in North India. I won't agree this existed in South , what we see now in south is just spill over from North India. The conflicts between religions would have originated from some unhealed wounds passed through generations , happened during centuries of Muslim rulers , which started from 7th century , intensified from 12th century and ended in 17th century. And when the wounds got exploited by vested leaders for political gains , it became a debacle for everybody. Demolition of Babri masjid and advent of Islamist terrorism to India. Life was becoming more hell to every one. Country witnessed an eventual shift of a nationalism to majoritarianism to a form of a fascism which ultimately resulted in Godra and Kandhmal , whatever be the action -reaction theory in both cases. And lame mullah appeasement policies , resulted more anger among marginal majority community. Also one personal thing which I believe is the inability of Minority community representatives to raise voice against , like nude portrayal of Saraswathi by mf Hussain . No justification can be given to MF Hussain's painting of naked Saraswathy devi , even in the name of artistic freedom , while he was living a sensual and sensitive country like India.

Sabarmati was a calm and peaceful place , the only place where you can get some peace in Ahmadabad. Gandhi is a comic character for a majority of youth . I think at least I am not matured enough to know the value of that human being. There were so many foreigners in ashram who came all the way from their countries just to visit the ashram. The charka he used was there , his house , his room , I could see the images which were on walls getting life and slowly time going back where all those people where lived.

We took a round in city , the same old story , a typical Indian city . Some parts looks like some African countries . I think in Gujarat schools they are not teaching the lesson environment. There were no greenery at all in the city and nobody cared about that. City was dusty and no tree in the city , that’s hell. You can see shopping malls here and there. I don't know if a Guajarati think having some roads and some malls means everything , means prosperity . Again at least for me , the life is not about malls and roads.

A Bengali , a remote village and a kolkatan malayalee


And we rushed towards Udaipur, the city of Lakes . On the way Varkey's bike started showing some disobedience and had to stop in Utanpur , which was close to 50 kms from Rajasthan border. And had to fix the battery and dynamo. The town was a very small village , luckily one work shop was there. And we checked one guy who didn’t want to speak us as he knew only Gujarati but Hindi . He started checking step be step and asked us to charge the battery. And we went to battery shop and there was a Malayalee , Suresh , settled now in that village with Guajarati wife , came long back , almost 5 years since last went to 1kollam , where he hails from , came here and somehow became like this , he told !!!

I had seen people in Finland , who were shop men , bar attendant , who were saving money just to visit Kerala. I was very much anxious if they will get what they deserved . I will cry if those people got humiliated in my land . So back to Suresh , I still don’t know why he never tried back in home , and I wanted to ask , and then I understood the fact that he doesn’t want that to be asked. The mechanic was a Guajarati who doesn’t know Hindi , who wasn’t talking to us , might be because of complex he had that he doesn’t know the Hindi , but didn’t know we also don’t know Hindi.

And there we goes again , rushing towards to Udaipur , and there it happens again. Varkey’s machine is down. At midnight in no man’s land , desert on both sides , some where near to Rajasthan , we two sounthies , with all the gadgets. We had no option but some how move forward. We saw some light at the end of some where through the dark. We moved there. It was a left out old temple. I suggested to leave his bike there and looks for some nice stay. He was not positive. So we decided to stay there till morning . The place had an alarming and disturbing silence to a level at one time we both suddenly rose and told lets move.

We needed some rope to tie my bike to his. He looked towards my mufler , I told “no no no“. It was my dearest accessory , I wore almost all day when I was in Finland and through out trip for which I paid 30 euros. But no help. The next moment there we goes, my bike in front and his in back and connected by , no I don’t want to tell.

Almost one mile , in that way . We reached near to a building which looked more like a bar which has some rooms also , than a motel where liquor is also available. The owner was looking at least 120 kilograms , and had a dog which looked same weight as his boss. I had never seen a dog in that size. I don’t know what type of dog was that , as I never had exposure to all those pet dogs .Living in Malappuram , where appearance of some stray dogs will create a big chaos in whole village , which is a good thing actually as malappuram is the only place where I haven’t seen any stray dogs or cows in India.

So we were taken to room by a wicked looking man . We could here giggles which were originated from female emotions while we walking through the corridor. That was not at all a place for us , but had no choice but finish the lunch sleep and never woke up till morning.


Morning , I woke up early and moved to Bichwada , which is a nearby town to check if I could get some mechanic for Varkey’s motor cycle. Bichwada was a small and sleepy town , where I was sure I should get some mechanic. I saw one small spares parts shop , where I met Mr kalpesh . A typical North Indian small town boy , with lot of fascination to mobiles , bikes , and muscles. He asked me if I go to gym and if I eat non vegetarian. When I told him I don’t eat vegetarian food . He was shocked and told me a big secret he probably hadn’t told anyone in his life that , he had chicken when he had gone to Udaipur once for purchasing parts. Having non -vegetarian food among most of middle class in most of northern India is like having liquor in Kerala. Everybody knows you might be taking , but you are supposed to create a feeling that you are concerned about others knowing it.

So with Kalpesh’s help I could get a mechanic and took him to our stay and fixed the electrical issue. But nightmare wasn’t over. We were happily moving , smiling towards the road , we two happy riders . May be not , this time it was my machine. I never thought he will cheat me. Bad things comes together. We totally lost . One passed cycle man informed us there is a small village in two hundred meters . We pushed towards the village. A very typical Rajasthani village. Small shops which still sell two rupees Britannia biscuit pack. It was lunch time in some nearby school , and all those running nose kids with a particular oil on their hair were there to welcome us. The whole village came to us. I could here comments like ‘bahut purani gadi hei “ , “bahut lambi gadi hai”.

So I had to wait with my new friends - kids , one shop lady , and some brats till , now its varkey who gets some Mechanic. So I was relaxing there with my cool friends. And one of the brat , who introduced himself to me asked where I am coming from . I told Kerala. Then he told me in Hindi there is one guy from Kerala in that village ! “Come on , fucking mallues. What the heck is that guy doing here“. I was told he is a local physician there , means some fake doctor. So he could be from kerala , I thought. So he asked me to follow. So that brat in front , me in back with all baggages just behind him and all those kids , around twenty of them , who thought of seeing some emotional scenes behind me. We reached a small house . The brat knocked the door.
He would have never though of seeing this kind of scene in his life . In first look I understood he is not from the land made by Mr Parashuraman , but from some other land.
Our leader told ‘aree bayya , ye bantha apka desh se atha hei’
His face illuminated. “Sach batha rahe? Kolkatha se? “
So the chapter is over.

I waited half an hour more , and Varkey came back with most hilarious scene. The guy who went looking for mechanic Came back in a open truck with his bike on trunk. I didn’t ask much . With help of all those “still” my friends , I loaded my machine also to the truck and moved to Udaipur.

The driver , Durga , a Rajasthani , as any low wage job guys in there, having pan all time , was real fun all the way to Udaipur. He told us he knew only two kind of keralites , one is all those battery shop walas and then injection ladies , nurses .




The city of lakes , Naked Aravally and solitude

Udaipur kept the promise , the city of lakes was a true jewel of Rajasthan. The entire city lives on tourism. As the auto driver Irfan Khan told me , when asked about communal relationship , there is no time for a jagada , so much of tourists are coming ,and we need to take care of them. Rajasthan was a livable state , not like Gujarat , which doest have clean air , good water , pure hearted human , some non-veg food and liquor but has a lot safronization. In Rajasthan you get all the above. I could see people there whom I could relate to somebody whom I already knew. I could see my neighbor there , I could see my uncle there , my friends there .I was feeling home in Rajasthan.

Udaipur was a lucky child to a rich father , a city blessed with a rich history ,
and so some marvelous palaces ,which are still owned by the remains of dynasty. Rajasthan had the best climate after I started my journey. Morning it was chilling cold , and after noon when we were traveling to Ajmer , through the beautiful aravally mountains, even though the sun was trying its best to burn eve thing under him , the breeze from the aravally was cool. The beauty of aravally is , she doesn’t have any greenery on her, she was naked , not like the western gatts which put on green skirt.

When you travel through the road , occasionally some trucks , and village life on both sides . People are living here , the people just like us , with no difference , I could have been one of them . The veiled woman , turbaned men with long sticks , tourist cars from which some white pale faces enjoying the poor india...you can forget everything , you can forgive everything in such a journey.

Business of spirituality , two terrorists and redemption

From Udaipur we started after noon , directed towards Ajmer which is 275 kms away from Udaipur , means 5 hours of riding . Already having enough with
bike mechanical issues with bikes , we were cautious in the ride not to compel the machine to deliver extra. We were riding at a speed of 70.

Ajmer , the sacred city for all , durga for Muslims , Pushkar for Hindus and "foreigners" . I already had an idea on what can be expected in Ajmer , but Varkey who was riding for a "pleasure" had no idea. In each north Indian city , he was getting more nervous , was crying to shut the door and sleep with mosquitoes in Cochin. Some times he was getting more nervous , to an extend , some times suddenly waking up from deep sleep , dreaming he pushing the bike in the remote deserts of Rajasthan , where he already had to do the same for four kilometers , and most funniest part was when he woke up , I was also dreaming and laughing loudly in my dream , later I told him , seeing the same dream.

He was not showing much interest to "see" the city anymore , especially after Ahmadabad. Back to Ajmer, it was a city for the business of spirituality , for all.

Morning we asked the hotel receptionist , on how to go to durga . We both having
long beard , and having all looks and likes of a "strangers" who well can be two terrorist came and bombed the city. He was a hesitant and cautious in giving answers . One bomb in city , there goes all the business. Whatever be the battle , whether ideological , military , terrorist , it always affect some people who just want to "live". This guy was one of those. So this guy was also asking questions like why do you want to go to Durga ,and all. Somehow pacifying him we called an auto and directed towards durga. On the way to Durga we could have seen some Malayalam boards showing clear indication of where the people are coming from. There were so many flower shops outside , kerchief shops etc. And inside dua and visit to kabar of muhyiddeen shiek , whatever you touch , you had to give money. Varkey was a little hesitant to enter the durga , thinking this could be only for Muslims, but was asked to come inside by those guys ,
he didn’t know there is no religion for business. Durga was a best example how some people can live on faith of some other people.

Pushkar was the Hindu counter part. Pushkar was the mount Everest of ohm business . Everything a western adventure would like to see in india , cows , sadhus,
strange processions , a mysterious smell all the places and lot of kanchavu. We were riding through the crowded narrow streets of Pushkar , crowded with all those westerners thirsty for the spirituality . And exploiting this to the maximum , there were frequent religious procession across the streets by Sadhus with holy cows.

One time we stopped just to have look around , one boy who looked around 17 year , came to us and asked if we would like to take a round , and lead us to the Pushkar lake. Pushkar is the place where most important of Brahma’s temple exist , which is very rare in India. Brahma is regarded as the creator but not necessarily as God. Rather, He is regarded as a creation of god or Brahman. There so many myths why Brahma is not devoted in India. The boy showed us the lake , where he told us if we immerse will get redemption to sins. As both myself and especially varkey hadn’t done even a single sin in our whole life , we refused the offer. And his business was that we had to give 10 rupees for the thali which has all those stuffs conducive to redemption.

We spent there till evening and moved to Pink city.

Old city , new city and pink city

Three cities in one city , that is Jaipur. There is one old city , a new city and a pink city. Whatever , a typical Indian city. Same old story , I thought , might be because I was exhausted . I visited all those places , only if I ever have to speak with a Jaipuri , to avoid an over excited emotion like “oh I cant believe you didn’t go to hawa mahal in Jaipur.”

Bikes were not at all in good condition. When I started the trip from Chennai , and when Varkey started the trip from cochin , both of us had no idea where we were doing. People used to take bullet trips to himalaya , or some spiral routes in wester ghats. But I don’t know if some people thought same as us. When we joined in Banlgore , I asked him , what is the plan. He repeated the question to me. Fine enough. Every morning , after we started our bullets , we looked each other and asked , “engotta?”. We didn’t speak much , we didn’t complain each other. I was most lucky to had him to partner my trip. Once we finished the Jaipur trip, he told me one thing , ‘Hashir , lets stop this here” . ok , lets stop this here. We went directly to Jaipur railway station and mailed our Bikes to Chennai. And took bus to Delhi where arjun , brinku and all others were waiting for us to receive as they told with flags .

One day in Delhi to have a look on all those Mughal remnants with all frinds . That was the second time I was in Delhi . And I had evening flight to Chennai and Varkey had it to cochin. Approved vacation in company was over. Time to worry again about failing weblogic servers. While I was on air , I thought , two more rides remaining , one solitary ride to north east of india and one romantic ride for a rendezvous with Himalaya .