5th January
2012, Thursday -
A pre-flight check was
done on the bike, a Red Thunderbird Twinspark, at the HSR Service, a
Royal Enfield's exclusive service centre The big rucksack was packed
after checking each item off the mental check-list. I was ready to
rock n' roll.
6th January
2012, Friday -
I've always believed that
travelling light is the only way to fly. As I hefted (and I am using
hefted, consciously) the rucksack, I felt it was unusually heavy by
my standards. I could feel my shoulders sag and get pulled back. I
had planned at least a thousand five hundred kilometres and out of
that about 600 kilometres of ghat sections. I wondered if I could
ride through those winding roads with sharp curves and gradients with
such a heavy bag restricting the movements of my shoulders and arms.
But I am stubborn, if nothing else, so I told my byes to my dad and
my friend and started off. As I hit the road and changed gears I
thought back about the last couple of years. The whats and whys and
hows of the whole gig. I recalled the opening lines from 'The Wild
One', Johnny narrating - “It begins here for me on this road. How
the whole mess happened I don't know, but I know it couldn't happen
again in a million years. Maybe I could've stopped it early, but once
the trouble was on its way, I was just goin' with it. Mostly I
remember the girl. I can't explain it - a sad chick like that, but
somethin' changed in me. She got to me, but that's later anyway. This
is where it begins for me right on this road.”
That is where it all
began, two years ago, on January 18th 2010 when we started
on a road trip. Two of us on the bike, riding to Hampi, Badami,
Pattadkal and Aihole. I had quit my job then too, as now. My friend,
living in Dubai had come back to Bangalore, he was on a sabbatical.
We travelled a whopping one thousand six hundred kilometres in 6
days. Snapped about 1800 photos between the two of us. The last day's
ride was 500 kilometres, from Kudalasangama to Bangalore. When you
finish a ride like that, it gives an incredible high. A feeling of
invincibility which percolates into every other aspect of your life.
It affects the way you make decisions.
A little while after
that, I started getting offers for work. Eventually, at his
insistence, I joined my ex-boss at the company he had joined. We had
worked together well as a team before. A highly successful team of
two. He was the CEO and I was the Business Manager who had no
reportees. I worked with almost every department / branch / country
where the group was present to set up new lines of services and
business. When I accepted the offer, I believed we would be
successful as a team in the new company too. The described job seemed
extremely challenging. I was fairly successful considering the growth
in team size and revenues by the time I left, the respect I got from
the team, the acceptance and acknowledgement of my leadership skills
by peers and customers. Even with all of these achievements, there
was a seething rage inside me that my work was not recognised and
sufficiently rewarded by the organization itself. The feeling got
aggravated when the boss who hired me quit from the company due to
differences with the board and I had to manage more pressures
internally due to the dilemma whether to continue or quit but a sense
of responsibility for the guys I had hired when I more than tripled
the original team held me back. The burden of expectations from the team,
expectations from the top management on impractical revenue targets
and even worse, no recognition or reward for already delivered
performance. I had been considering moving out of the organization by
October 2011.
Around the same time of
October 2011, after much effort from my aunt and cousins, I got
engaged to a girl, who seemed quite nice and sweet. Apparently, her
parents were not very keen, but were being convinced by the girl's
brother-in-law. This guy had initiated the contact with me, followed
up constantly and was making decisions regarding the alliance. When
my aunt and cousins met their family, my aunt mentioned to me that
the girl's parents and sister are not talking at all nor were they
taking any initiative. Though surprised by this observation, I
shrugged it off saying – they've delegated the responsibility to
their son-in-law, he had been insisting that I talk only to him
regarding the arrangements etc. so maybe they do not want too many
cooks spoiling the broth. Over a period of a week, during our phone
conversations I realised that the girl and I are from different
universes. She did not seem close to her family, had no interests
other than going to the gym and watching TV. She had a friend count
of three, as for me, the joke goes that IF I get married, I'll have
to invite half of Bangalore and the other half will invite itself. As
I was thinking about moving out of the organization I worked with, I
communicated it to the girl and her brother-in-law saying I am
thinking about quitting and looking out. I explained that the three
months notice I have to serve is a deterrent to my job hunt. And
morally I felt that it is unfair to the current company and the
future company too (to expect them to wait for three months to know
if I would join them or no) so I would quit and then look for the
next option with a clear mind. This was the final straw for an
already uneasy alliance and it fell through.
{A flashback to when I
was a kid, my grandmother (my mom's mom) narrating a story to me –
Once upon a time, there was a good king and he had a wise minister.
The kingdom flourished because these two stuck to their tasks of
administering the kingdom. One day, the King craved for a fruit and
decided to cut one for himself instead of waiting for servants. As he
cut the fruit, a momentary lapse of concentration resulted in him
cutting off a finger. The king was howling in pain and writhing in
agony when the minister entered. The king showed the minster the
finger that had been cut off and the minister said 'that's good'. The
king, who was expecting sympathy from his dearest and most trusted
minister was furious and sacked the minister immediately. The
minister, as was his habit, said 'that's good' and left. A few days
later, the king, still lamenting the lost finger decided to distract
himself with a little hunting tour. He and entourage entered the
forest nearby and began hunting. Soon, the king in his enthusiasm
left the team behind and got lost. As he wandered and got tired, he
was captured by a few tribesmen, who kept him captive through the
night. In the morning, the king realised that he has been captured to
be sacrificed to the tribe's deity. The high priest came and examined
the king and rejected saying he was damaged good and cannot be
sacrificed because of his missing finger. The tribesmen released him
and showed him the way to get out of the forest. The relieved king
reached home and thought of the minister who had said 'that's good'.
He summoned the ex-minister and narrated his story and said - “you
were right that what happened to me was good, my life was saved
because of it. But, how did it work out for you? You lost your
position as a minister.' The minister smiled and said – 'Look at it
this way – if I was still your minister when you went for the
hunting, being loyal and taking your safety as my personal
responsibility, I would have stayed close to you at all times. We
would have been lost together and captured together. Come morning,
you would have been set free, but I would have been sacrificed as my
body is intact. So losing my job was a small price, for it saved my
life.' The king understood that whatever happens, happens for the
good and reinstated the minister's position. They continued to rule
wisely as long as they lived.}
Once the alliance fell
through, there was no need for me to hold on to the job. The
resignation was sent without delay. I was released from my position
on November 30th as there was someone readily available to
replace me. I was free again to do my own thing. The loss of a job
was a small price to pay, it saved my life!
They'll talk to ya and
talk to ya and talk to ya about individual freedom. But they see a
free individual, it's gonna scare 'em. (George Hanson, Easy Rider)
Meanwhile, the pressure
on me to look for another job and join it, another alliance and get
married was growing unbearable. The sympathy was killing me and I was
raging and seething and feeling like a mobile funeral pyre. I needed
time to think for myself without any distraction. I did not want to
be in an environment which was so filled with things that would
distract – relatives, friends, newspapers, radio, television,
books. I wanted solitary time. I wanted to ditch the mobile too, but
kept it just in case there were any emergencies I needed to be
contacted. Besides, despite my need to be alone, there were worried
people in Bangalore and elsewhere, concerned about my well being. I
had to keep them informed of my safety at however irregular
intervals. And it was impractical to carry a list of names and
numbers I had to call individually. I used Facebook to good effect
throughout the trip. A kind of reality TV without the cameras in the
bedroom and the loo.
The first couple of hours
of riding on Mysore road was all about my rage and anger, my body was
tense and I could feel the bile rise up every time someone drove
badly. What should not have been a race was turning out to be one. I
wanted to out race everyone, including cars and SUVs touted to be
powerful. I usually prefer the 'taTTe idli and vada' at Bidadi, but
that day I was famished, so I stopped for breakfast at Srinidhi Sagar
about 15 odd kilometres on Mysore Road, which had a decent fare.
After breakfast, I rode
non-stop till Chennapattana and got badly aggravated by the traffic
jam caused by the asphalting of the highway. They had blocked one
lane and diverted both way traffic to the other lane. They were
allowing some vehicles from one way and then stop and allow the other
way. It was cumbersome, the indisciplined driving of oafs not helping
the cause of police and then there was the eye in the sky bearing
down with ferocious intensity. Once I got out of the mess in
Chennapattana, I rode till Srirangapattanna and went straight to my
favourite place by the river Cauvery, Nimishamba. It being a Friday,
the place was too crowded with devotees flocking to the temple of
Nimishamba Devi. I sat on the steps of 'ghat' in the blazing sun for
about half an hour watching the water flow by. Felt relaxed enough
for a lunch and rode till Mysore's famed Vishnu Bhavan (opposite the
KSRTC Bus Stand). I had the most delicious meal and without further
delay, headed straight onto Hunsur Road, State Highway # 88 and rode
non stop till Kushalnagar, where I stopped at the Café Coffee Day
for a coffee before getting on to the winding roads, climbing up to
Madikeri. After a phone conversation with a friend to get directions
to Narahari Parvata and a tea (don't ask me – tea? At CCD? Yeah,
tea, at CCD) I started off the climb up to the Madikeri town, which
is about a kilometre above sea level. The road is a dream, I could
sleep on it if I'd felt tired midway. The banking on the curves
beautifully done, I could ride the curves at 70kmph and not feel
jittery as one would when riding the ghat section. It was awesome
riding up to the town after which it became a bit nightmarish as the
roads inside the town were dug up. Still it wasn't as bad as in
Bangalore.
I had reached Madikeri
around 4:30 PM, still a couple of hours left to Sunset. I had no
reservations in any hotel. I thought I will check out the hotel to
stay and worry about dinner after I watch the sunset, so went
straight to Raja Seat. The entry fee for Raja Seat is five rupees and
it includes a 'dancing fountain and light show' which starts at 7:00
PM everyday. The ladies who were at the counter had one rupee less
than what they had to return me, so they said they will give it
later.
After a call to a friend
who runs a travel agency to suggest places I can check out to stay,
who gave me the number of a home-stay which did not work out as it
was way off-course for my plans, I got a suggestion to stay in
Popular Residency. Conveniently, right below it was a nice vegetarian
restaurant called 'Woodlands' but in no way related to the Woodlands
chain of hotels present in Bangalore, Mysore and other cities. With
my boarding and lodging issue sorted out for the moment, I sat down
on the steps of Raja Seat to await sunset.
The sky, between twilight
and nightfall, is the most awesome spectacle anywhere in the world.
Even in a place like Bangalore. Unfortunately in the busy
metropolises, there is too much dust in the sky and the horizon is
lit up so brightly as we move towards evening that the colours become
indistinguishable. However, at the height we were and the clean fresh
air above the woods was ideal for watching and photographing (if you
were so inclined) the changing colours. The whole world – the sky,
the clouds, the woods and the hills, all change colours as we move
from sunset/twilight to nightfall. The time I spent watching the
sunset that evening was so peaceful that I felt all the rage
dissipate. It was as if the sun was a lightening rod for all my anger
and he absorbed it all away. As I watched and photographed (actually
what I photographed is only a very tiny portion of the evening, the
photography was incidental, I was selfish and wanted to enjoy the
natural show to the fullest.)
After nightfall, I
started to leave the enclosure of Raja Seat, the ladies who were
issuing the tickets but now managing the gates remembered that they
had to give me back a rupee as change. As they gave me change, they
asked me to stay back and watch the dancing fountain show. They
seemed so proud of it, that I felt obliged to humour them. I stayed
back and went again to the seating area of Raja Seat and contemplated
in silence the awesome experience I just had.
I could hear the music of
the show playing, random songs chosen – 'babuji, zara dheere
chalo', 'onde ondu saari' and ARR's 'vande mataram'. I caught a
glimpse of it and it seemed quite nice.
I went to Popular
Residency, which is after the KSRTC bus stand, got myself a room
without TV but with clean bed sheets and clean toilet, for four
hundred rupees. Dumped the sack, went and had dinner at Woodlands,
which was pretty good. Retired for the night and slept really
peacefully after a long long time.
End of Day 1.
